Disappear (Michael Clifford)

Ch. 4

I sat there, staring at Michael in complete shock, as if he had jost told me he was about to jump in front of a truck. I had never stolen before, not even from the grocery store downtown, nor escaped from a cel in prison. I swallowed harshly.

"How would you want to do that?" I asked. My voice sounded a little too high and probably gave away my nervosity. Michael got up from the bed and slowly walked over to the weird-shaped weapon, which was stood across the room. His fingers curled around its neck and he carefully picked it up. I crawled further onto the bed and held my hands in front of my face to protect myself as he walked closer. Just when I thought he was about to strike, he bursted out into a laughingfit.

"Michael, put the weapon down!" I demanded, hoping he would back away, but he didn't: He just stood there, letting out series of giggles. I frowned, but soon relaxed as I noticed how funny he thought this whole situation was.

"This," He said, pointing at the object in his hand whilest still chuckling,"is a guitar" He said, emphasizing the word 'guitar'. I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you trying to tell me this isn't dangerous?" I asked, still not sure if he was joking or only laughing because he was some sort of psychopath who was about to knock me out.

"This is an instrument, you dork. Wow, you really are a Nobody" Michael said. I felt anger fill me up when he mentioned my descent, but decided to ignore the dork. Instead, I started wondering what he meant with 'instrument'.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked when he noticed I didn't know what to say.

"What's an instrument?" I asked a little unsure. He started laughing again, but suddenly stopped as he spotted my confused facial expression.

"You really don't know, do you?" He questioned, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand as he realized I couldn't help my lack of knowledge. He coughed and I saw a light blush rising to his cheeks.

"People use instruments to make music, Skylinn. They sing along to it and create songs, which other people can listen to" He tried his best to explain, and eventhough I didn't understand most of the words he had just used in his explanation, I kind of seemed to get the headlines of the concept.

"I've never really been used to music, you know. Music's forbidden where I'm from, so I have no idea what music is all about" I said, ending my sentence in a mumble.

"That's good and all, but we have to go over the plan real quick" He said in rushed tone. I nodded, signaling him to explain me how this would all work.

"We play a song, then hope someone walks by and notices us making noise. We wait for them to open up the door and then run and split up to search for your necklace" He explained. It was a lot to take in, but I got where he wanted to go with this. I nodded, then looked down at my feet. I saw him do a tiny nod in the corner of my eye, aswell, then felt the bed sink in next to me. I glanced over to my left, where Michael was now seated with the guitar placed in his lap, fingers grabbing onto the neck, other hand used to stroke the strings all together or pick them one by one. Sound filled the room, and I had to admit it was beautiful. I immediately relaxed and started humming along.

"You suck at this, use your voice goddamn it" He whispered, trying to focus on his guitar whilest talking to me. I was a bit taken aback, didn't dare to make any sound at all.

"Who're you waiting for? Jezus?" He asked, sounding a little annoyed, causing me to laugh. He looked over at me and cocked an eyebrow.

"Can you just start and let me join in? I don't know which words to use" I almost pleaded. He sighed, but then cleared his throat and started singing:

"Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere

And we know we took our time to get there

Hiding out in a dream, catching fire like Kerosine

And you know I'd never let you down

'Til the sun comes up, we could own this town

Something like make-believes, living in a moviescene" I had to admit, I never expected for such a bastard to have such an angelic voice. I decided to give it a try aswell.

"We know this is the way it's supposed to be" I sang, still insecure about the way the sound came out of my mouth. When Michael sang, the words seemed to roll off of his lips as if it was nothing. My words, on the other hand, got stuck in my throat, I almost had to fight with myself to get them out. Michael soon joined in again and we started a new part of the song.

"So we're taking the long way home

I don't want to be wasting my time alone

I want to get lost and drive forever with you

Talking 'bout nothing, yeah, whatever, baby

So we're taking the Long Way Home, tonight."

I was glad when I heard footsteps outside. Whoever it was stopped in front of our door and peeked trough the bars. Once Michael noticed we had caught someone's attention, he started singing louder, nudging me with his elbow so that I would do so too.

"Hitting every red light,

Kissing at the stopsigns, darling

Greenday's on the radio"

"Hey, you two" The Dwarf at the door slurred out. I was a 100 percent certain: The little man was drunk, not to mention wasted. Michael and I ignored him, causing him to do exactly what we hoped to do: His trembling fingers searched for something in the backpocket of his trousers, and he soon fished out a key. He walked over to the lock and somehow managed to get the door to open in his drunk state.

"Cut the crap and be silent" He hissed, almost falling to the floor. Michael then jumped up and hit the Dwarf with his guitar, making him black out in no time. I stood there in shock, wondering if he was even still alive.

"Skylinn, hurry!" Michael exclaimed. He had already made his way towards the door and looked around the hall, making sure no one would see us. I jolted away from my spot and jumped over the Dwarf's tiny body before running towards the door, aswell.

"See, I told you it was a weapon!" I yelled as Michael's fingers curled around my wrist, then pulled me out of the room. I could see the adrenaline in his eyes as he smiled.

"Look, that doesn't matter. I'll go right, you go left" He said before scurrying off, leaving me behind clueless. I shrugged and took a torch out of its handle on the wall to light up the path I was about to follow.

"Here goes nothing" I sighed, before picking up speed and starting to run around the corridors.