Mixtape

Ghost- Mystery Skulls

Disappear

Karen Davis, AKA Spooky, as her friends called her, was feeling grumpy. She was usually grumpy, so much to the extent of being bitchy, but this time it wasn't as bad. Maybe grumpy wasn't the right word- maybe she was more irked, or perturbed. Either way, she really did not want to be sitting in this freaking purple-flame spray-painted creeper van on this freaking country road with all of her freaking friends.

Okay, the friends part wasn't so bad, but Spooky still secretly hated these freaking assholes in a way. She knew deep down that she loved each and every one of these twits with a sisterly passion, but on the outside she was just irritated by them. Right now, Cretin and Skully, otherwise nicknamed 'the Brothers Grimm' despite Skully being a girl, were having a Flamin' Hot Cheetos eating contest while Spiff smoked something questionable and gazed out the window. Her sort-of girlfriend but not-quite girlfriend, Ghost, was behind the wheel, and Centipede was snoring away in the shot-gun seat. Spooky was in the very back of the van with the camping gear and scratched up guitars, feeling like a piece of equipment herself.

Hours later, as night fell and the camp was set up, Spooky was lying on the grass away from the others, staring at the open sky. Cretin had won the contest and had drunk half of their water in the process, so Ghost was more than a little pissed. Spooky listened to her scold the stupid oaf and slipped into her own thoughts.

She wondered, briefly, why she was in such a bad mood. This was the seventh road trip they'd been on that month, which was a new record that deserved to be celebrated. Road trips were the favored summer activity because each and every one of them hated being at home. They lived in a cruddy little town with cruddy little people that didn't interest them. All summer for three years they'd been escaping into the woods and the countryside just to have some relief.

For some reason, Spooky had been feeling a little alienated from the group as of late. Maybe it was her awkward, uncomfortable attempt at a relationship with Ghost, which had led to Ghost realizing she maybe didn't even like girls and for her ex-boyfriend to get all up in Spooky's face and in the end a bad time was had by all. Or maybe it was that one fight she'd had with Skully over Spooky backing up into Skully's motorcycle with her Honda, or it could've been that time she'd gotten so mad at Spiff for not listening when she spoke that she dumped all his cigarettes into his toilet and laughed as he had a freak attack and threatened to knock her head off before bursting into embarrassing little baby-tears. All of these things could've easily made her the 'odd one out' in this group of odd ones.

Other than that, Spooky had been having some scary thoughts about this road trip. All around them were tall trees and tall cliffs and waterfalls, and the night before they started on the road and she was sleeping on Centipede's couch she found herself briefly thinking about falling. Not really jumping, but just falling. Falling from those cliffs, falling into those waterfalls. Her mind kept asking her what would her friends even do about that? How would they react? What would change afterwards? It'd be really easy, wouldn't it be? Couldn't she really just go ahead and disappear like that? Just offer to race Skully and Spiff up one of the tall redwoods, get to the top first, and just let go. It wouldn't be so bad, she thought. It'd be kinda peaceful. Her fingers releasing and her body moving backwards and then suddenly-

"HEEEEEYA biotch!" Centipede bellowed in her ear, thumping down beside her on the grass forcefully. She was instantly snapped out of her trance and was very, very irritated at that shit-eating grin of his. Her best friend since 1st grade, when he had struck her in the forehead with a swing then cried and played victim when the teacher scolded him for it, Centipede was extremely short, extremely loud, and to-the-extreme weird. She knew things about him that the victims of his scams and sweet-talking wouldn't be able to guess, and even more things that their group of friends didn't know, either. Spooky thought, and was satisfied by this thought, that she was the only one that Centipede truly feared.