Crossroad Blues

Chapter One

'Carry on my wayward son

There'll be peace when you are done

Lay your weary heart to rest

Don't you cry no more'

My head bobbed up and down as I hummed with the music playing from my iPod. I absent-mindedly smudged my paintbrush on the blank canvas.

My speakers vibrated slightly as it echoed the song, 'Carry On Wayward Son' inside my one bedroom apartment. I was pretty sure my neighbors had been cursing me silently for having the loudest music playing in the middle of the night.

I stopped brushing and took my time to observe my work. I narrowed my eyes as I critiqued every detail and every color combination.

The atmosphere of the unfinished painting was peaceful. The different shades of blue intensified the ambience it was trying to portray. It showed a distant figure of a woman soundly sleeping in the middle of the night. The mild light escaping from the yet undrawn window hummed the woman's fair skin as well as the pale nightgown she was wearing.

Seeming pleased at my work, I continued painting on the canvas and nodded with the bass of the song. Seconds later, I was already dramatically strumming an invisible electrical guitar and was singing my heart out with gibberish lyrics. I never memorized the darned lyrics of the song though it was one of my favorites.

So sue me.

My phone vibrated from my jeans' pocket and I choked on my own spit, startled. I almost thought it was the town's police until I saw the screen showing who the caller was. I coughed a few times and answered the call. "Yes?" I said with an easy grin plastered on my face.

"Aiden." A woman huffed from the other side of the phone. "There's-There's someone here with me." She whispered with a shaky voice. I could almost hear the horror brimming in her voice, almost.

"Oh yeah? Tell me about it." I said lightly, rolling the paintbrush between my fingers.

"This is serious, I-"

I blinked, glanced at my phone, and realized that the call had been cut off. Weirded out but not enough to worry, I sighed and shrugged it off knowing that Alexis often did those stupid prank calls.

I returned my concentration back on my painting. I picked up the smaller brush, dipped it onto the black paint, and continued on to the woman's facial details.

Few strokes later, the lights flickered and my iPod became static. I groaned irritably as I looked up, watching my fluorescent lamp threateningly flickered on and off. "You've gotta be kidding me." I murmured to myself.

Couldn't I just work peacefully? What's wrong with the electricity now?

I stood up to turn off my iPod, but the static sound still went on. I raised my eyebrow suspiciously, "... okay?" I lazily dragged myself towards the speakers and turned the volume down to off. But instead for it to stop, the annoying static sound grew louder until it was nothing but loud, screeching sound deafening my ears.

"Fuck!" I cursed loudly as the ringing echoed in my head in the most excruciating way. It was unbearably painful that I didn't notice that I fell on my knees. My skull felt as though it was splitting into two pieces. I gripped it tightly as if to hold them together, helplessly hoping the pain would just stop.

Not so long after, I was already lying on the cold marble floor but I didn't realized it right away. I was crouching like a fetus; my feet were together, my head was between my hands, and my elbow and knees were touching. My whole body was burning and all I could see was nothing but red.

Red, flowing on my hands.

A sharp pain surfed through my insides and I roared loudly from agony. My whole body thrashed around. I could feel my heartbeat speeding up so fast that I was scared it would explode inside my rib cage.

No, they weren't my hands... It was a woman's.

The tormenting ringing went on as flashes of images flowed through my brain. The pain was too intense I almost couldn't make something out of it.

Images of a figure of a woman screaming her lungs out flooded my brain. She had a familiar chestnut wavy hair, fair skin drenched with sweat, and pale blue eyes painted with fear. Slowly, realization dawned on me and the beating of my heart became louder until finally-it stopped.

Alexis.

I abruptly opened my eyes and the throbbing of my head instantly subsided. I was literally gasping for my breath. Scanning the room, I realized I had knocked down all the stuff around me.

I hastily stood up as I grabbed my phone on the floor and dialed Alexis' number. I waited but all I got was endless ringing. I tried a few more times but still no progress.

"Dammit Lexi, answer your Goddamn phone." I muttered impatiently, my breaths still coming out as short gasps.

I wasn't exactly sure why but my gut was telling me something wrong had happened with Alexis, something wrong had happened to my sister.

I scrolled down my contact list and swiped the screen for a call. After a few rings that felt like forever, a woman answered. "Hello?" She yelled under the loud noise of a party music.

"Rebecca, where-" I started but got cut off.

"Hey, whoever you are..." she paused, probably looking at the caller ID displayed on her screen, "Aiden, I can't hear you. Call me later? Bye!" Then the call ended.

Annoyed, I dialed her number once again and this time I yelled at her before she could even say anything. "I don't care what you're doing right now, I want to talk to Alexis."

She didn't answer right away but I barely heard her say 'crap' in the background. "Is she with you?" I inquired angrily, getting more an more impatient with every passing second.

"Wait a damn minute, asshole." She ended the call and I started pacing on my room.

Minutes later, my phone vibrated and I answered it in a millisecond. "Hey." She said in a neutral tone then I noticed there was no music in the background anymore.

"Where the fuck are you?"

"Well because of you, now I'm outside a club." She said as a matter of fact.

"In a club?" I repeated incredulously, "Why is Lexi not answering my calls? Let me talk to her." I demanded.

She paused for a while before she answered. "She's not with me."

My blood boiled from too much frustration, that weird flashes of blood images unnerved me. I could almost feel myself blowing smoke through my nose. "The fuck? You're supposed to be with her."

"I'm her best friend not her babysitter Aiden, and she's not a child anymore. You know how she feels when you treat her like that." She sighed unenthusiastically.

"I'm not asking for your stupid sermons." I snapped. "Go home and let me talk to her."

"I'm sorry for living my life Aiden. If you want to talk to your sister, why don't you go to our house and see her yourself, you ass?" She snapped back and I could almost see her bitch face through the phone.

"Rebecca-"

"This conversation is over, Aiden." She said and then ended the call.

"Shit!" I exploded, my eyebrows furrowed in frustration as my heart drummed relentlessly inside my chest.

I started pacing around the small living room, cold sweats beading on my back. I tried hard to reason that I must be drunk or something and that fucking weird yet horrifying images weren't real. People do get those kinds of visions once in a while right?

Her screams were so real though. Her face was so vivid.

With a pounding heart, I took my keys and shrugged on my jacket. I was about to go out of my door when I caught sight of my canvass.

What I saw turned my blood cold.

The woman I was painting earlier was drenched with red paint, her blank eyes wide open.

Alexis.