The Downward Spiral Book 1

Chapter 3. The Bell Tolls for Me

On our way to Lily's house, we were forced to an immediate halt for almost 45 minutes on the toll bridge that led into her hometown. A police officer standing in front of my vehicle was making circles with his hands and pointing us back the direction we came from.

A bunch of crew members in bright yellow reflective vests were blocking the entire area behind him and the entire bridge was lit up with so many bright white lights that it was hard to see his face. I rolled the window down when he approached my side.

"Sorry folks, you can't come this way."

Lily appeared from the back seat and hovered over my lap.

"Why is the road blocked?" She asked him.

He tilted his hat politely at her. "Sorry ma'am, but we are not letting anyone else into the city tonight."

"Again, I'm asking why not? I live that way!" Lily hissed back.

He took an insulted step back. "Look I'm sorry but we are just following the mayor's orders. The hospital has been flooded all day with nonstop patients. The city's been overpopulated and to be frank with you darlin it's been a long night in general. Give us a break already."

Lily's evil glare was beginning to intimidate him and he let out a huge sigh. "Look hun, I'm sure everything will be fine by the morning. You can come back then. So please, let us do our job. There's still tons of people behind you that we have to give the bad news to."

We all exchanged glances and Lily let out an irritated huff before falling back into her seat.

"Thank you. Y'all have a nice night."

I turned back around and headed towards my apartment. We drove in silence until Ray cleared his throat.

"Sorry...uh..Lily. If you want, I'm sure Sasha won't mind if you spend the night with us, right sis?"

"Uh, yeah of course." I added, nodding my head.

She sniffled and I saw a tear run down her face in the rear view mirror. I never knew how to comfort people. In fact, it made me feel awkward seeing people cry. I wanted to say something to her, but nothing was coming to mind. I rubbed the back of my neck and kept my mouth shut.

"Thanks Raymond." She said finally.

I ran my fingers through my bloody blonde hair nervously. Damn, this was turning out to be a shit night for all of us.

The Next Morning

"Are Krispy Krackers chips safe to eat? I'm Linda Vargas with the channel 9 morning news."

As I walked into the living room with a bowl of cereal, I found my brother channel surfing.

"What's going on?" I asked while plopping down on the couch next to him.

"I don't know but this damn news story is on everything." He said restless. "Look."

He hit the button on the remote a bunch of times until the screen was a blur of pictures. Noticeably though, each channel was nothing but a news report or someone reporting live from different locations this was happening at. Hell, I even spotted one of them in front of the place we just performed at last night.

"And-"

"It's-"

"Maintain-"

"Destructive-"

"See, it's on every single channel. Even all the movie channels." Ray huffed, still frequently pressing on the button. "I hate watching the news."

Well that's something we have in common." I thought while shoveling a spoonful of cereal in my mouth. "What are they saying about it?"