Darkness in the Neon Lights (H2OVanoss)

Chapter 28

Standing in front of the club, I look up and see the bright neon sign. "Big, Bad Panda Club"... Two years ago, that sign was shining so brightly that it shown through the darkness surrounding it. However, something has changed... No. Nothing has changed. I can just see it now.

I can see that the darkness isn't surrounded it... It's coming from it. The neon lights are hiding it. Everyone inside... They all were trying to hide it. But you can only hide it for so long.

***

"Will he be okay," I ask Tyler when he walks out of Brock's apartment. Myself, Mini, Lui, and Tyler were all worried about Brock, so while Tyler drove him back to the apartments, we had followed close behind them and walked with them to his apartment. Tyler was the only one to walk in through, mainly because Brock didn't want all of us to crowd around him while Tyler was trying to help him.

"I think he will be. Fuck," he starts as he starts over to a bench in the courtyard and he sits down on top of the table. "These past few months have been fucking insane. Bryce dying, Lui fainting and falling off the stage, Brock almost dying, Smitty dying, and now Marcel. Fuck."

"Alright; who fucked over a leprechaun," Lui asks in his sqeaker voice.

"This is serious, Lui!" The tone of Tyler's voice makes both Lui and I flinch, but I quickly recover and give him a little hug.

"Are you kidding me, Tyler," Mini yells. "We get that this is serious, but that doesn't mean you have to be a dick! All of us are going through a lot right now, and maybe some of us need a god damn laugh! Or would you rather have us all crying and silent like Brock! Would you rather have us lock ourselves away like how Evan did was when we lost Bryce and Ohm?!"

Tyler's expression changed and he got off of the table. "No, I didn't mean-"

"All of us are worried," Mini says, glaring at Tyler. "All of us are scared. A lot of shit has been happening, and the only thing we can look at and say that it's good is the fact that we haven't seen that many people stalking us! That's it! We've lost a lot of good friends and almost lost a lot more. But I'm sick of worrying about that! I'm sick of worrying about who will die next, who will get fired or quit, or who will go into the hospital!
Right now, we have a choice! We can either keep worrying over all of this shit, or we can pick up our short shorts and move on! And I don't know about you, but I'm not going to sit around and wait for whatever comes next."

He then looks back to Lui and I. "I don't plan to stick around forever. Hell, I only have two years left of university and then I graduate. But I'll be damned, if I let this fear keep a hold of me during the rest of my time with this job. And if you guys plan on staying, I can't imagine coming to work everyday, scared that something might happen. If you guys plan on leaving too though, then you're definitely better off looking forward to the day you get the hell out of here over worrying about what could or could not happen that day."

I stares at Mini, both shocked and inspired by his words.

"That's all nice and all, Min," Tyler sighs before he leans back up against the table. "But all of that is easier said than done. It's easy to say, let's stay positive until we all get the fuck out of this place, but the act of being or thinking positively is the hard part. Especially when, the things that we are all afraid of, is everywhere around us.
We're afraid for ourselves, we're afraid for each other. We look at the vanities backstage, that's where Bryce died. We look at the stage, that's where Brock overdosed and you fell off the stage from being over worked. We look at the bar, and it feels wrong. It feels wrong looks over and not seeing Smitty doing stupid tricks. It feels wrong not hearing someone yelling yeet every six minutes. And it feels wrong standing in the same place where Marcel fought off a killer and got shot."