Not Alone

"Yes, ma'm!" he said saluting as he helped her shift the big bass amp into the deceptively space cabin front living room. "Oh my days! It's Bess!" he said excitedly, spying the old teddy. "God damn! She's looking good for her age!" he said making a finger gun and wink motion towards the ancient teddy bear. "Well then, it's time for a beer and then we'll get down to it!" he said, removing his hands of imaginary dirt.
 
She pushed her massive amp out of the way, "You touch my teddy and he'll look better than you when I'm finished" she threatened. Alexis headed over to browse the selection of alcohol on the table. "The hell is this?" her tone changed in disappointment, "There's only one bottle of scotch and at least two of everything else." Alexis shuffled away from the table pouting at Erik as she passed him. "Let's see what we've got in the fridge" she said walking in the direction she thought the kitchen would be. "And no kitchen jokes, you make your own fucking sandwiches."
 
"Oh please?" he teased her as he opened a fresh bottle of bourbon and breathed in the smell. He re-capped the bottle and followed Alexis to the kitchen, swiping a beer out of the fridge, popping the cap and ficking it into the bin. He took a sip as he walked back out of the kitchen and started hooking up the gear. Within minutes, everything was set up and ready to go. He stood back, proud of his work and took another sip.
 
"Big man, aren't ya Erik" she taunted. She walked back out into the living room and flicked on her amp, the hum of the speakers resounded throughout the house until she plugged the jack into her bass making a sort of popping and clicking at the same time. Alexis slid the strap over her shoulder and let it take the weight of the maple body. She slapped the low B string with her thumb nearly deafening the both of them because she forgot to turn the bastard amp down before loading into the van. "HOLY SHIT!" she cried turning it down.
 
"God damn!" Erik shouted, his ears still ringing. "You almost fucking well brown-noted me!" he said bursting into laughter. He set up the camera and recording mics and plugged his guitar. He pressed the recording buttons on each of the devices and got ready. "Ok, I wanna throw something out there." he said, striking up a fast chop with a few pinch harmonics. He smiled as he finished the chop and sat down on the nearby couch.
 
"Harden up" Alexis spat jokingly. She cranked her amp back up --not as loud as last time-- and gave the guitarist a smug grin, "My turn." Alexis started up a bass solo using the intro of 'Carrion' by 'Parkway Drive' to start her up, and then slapping that bass like a funky priest, playing some bass fills she'd learned since the last time they'd all played together. Afterwords he took a deep breath and relaxed, "Sorry about that, I got excited." She put her beloved instrument down and headed for the kitchen, emerging soon with a beer. "Let's get this shit going" Alexis said popping the cap off and taking a sip, "Play something and I'll join in a sec."
 
Erik did so. They continued the idea process for a few hours as it got dark. The end of the jam session was signalled by the abrupt interuption of a string, breaking, maing a loud popping sound through the amplifyer from Erik's guitar. "Damnit. Better give it a bit of a rest, I guess..." he said, laying down his trusty axe. He knocked down his eighth beer and went around turning off the recording devices. He sat back down on the couch. "I think we deserve a break." he said, sifting through all of the hand-written lyrics and tab on scraps of blank printer paper and napkins. "I think we should get around to... erm... r-reviewing the, uh... footage... in the morning..." he said drunkenly.
 
Alexis coughed at the smell of Eriks breath after he'd gone through nearly one and a half six packs, "Slow it down dude, you smell like a damn pub" she said trying not to breath in his foul air. Alexis was tipsy herself but no where near how pissed Erik had gotten himself, "The hangover you get in the morning is gonna serve you right." She put her bass down on it's stand and walked over to sit next to the drunkard picking her teddy up off the floor as she went. Plonking herself down a safe distance from Eriks breath she brushed the dust of the old bear and sighed. "That was a pretty wicked jam session but tomorrow I'm hiding the beer" she said giving him a look, "Even if you think you do write better when you're drinking. Aint that right Bess?" she asked her teddy. "Now piss off to bed!"
 
"Y-yes'm!" he said saluting again, stumbling off to the cabin's bedroom. He threw back the sheets on his bed and climbed straight in. He tossed and turned for a while, drunkedly trying to find a comfortable position and finally decided on lying on his belly. Soon after, he was out like a light.
 
Alexis searched the cabin for a second bedroom but there wasn't one so she took a blanket from the cupboard in Eriks room and made herself comfortable on the lounge. The small LEDs on the on the recording equipment gave her come comfort, partially lighting the room. Alexis rolled again and again for some time and didn't fall asleep until the first flicks of dull light flicked off the horizon. "For fuck sake" she muttered before passing out at around 3am.
 
The morning light streamed through the window, slapping Erik in the face. Hard. He had downed a few too many beers combined with a few too many burbons. He got up, groaning. He walked to the bathroom, casually threw up in the toilet, flushed, brushed and sprayed. He walked out into the loungeroom, sitting down on the armchair next to the lounge.
 
Alexis shifted under her blanket knocking bess onto the floor and then waking up to the thud of Erik dropping himself in the chair beside her. "Got a headache yet?" she asked, her eyes still closed. She groaned as she sat up looking over her shoulder at the hungover mess that was Erik. "You better find a way to get your dumb ass sobered up quick so we can review that jam session" she said getting up off the lounge. Coffee time she though stumbling to the kitchen.
 
"I feel a lot better after puking..." he said with a grating, groaning tone. He got himself comfortable, switching on the television, turning it to the cartoons. The hum of sound and cartoon dialogue was enough to satisfy him. He grabbed the camera and and mics and sat them on the table, ready for a quick run over the tapes with Alexis. He sat back in the meantime and watched the television, deafening his brain with the bright and colourful cartoons.
 
Alexis ran cold water from the kitchen sink and splashed her face in an attempt to wake herself up after a lousy nights sleep. She brewed two coffees and trudged back to the lounge room being greeted by the obnoxious sound and bright colors of the morning cartoons. "Aren't you a little old for this?" she asked pushing one of the hot cups into Eriks hands, "For crying out loud" she cried slamming her mug down on a nearby table after only a few sips being rudely interrupted by her bladder, "I gotta piss again, you better not have left a fucking mess in the bathroom for me." The two musicians were definitely not morning people.
 
"I did the scrub, don't worry." he said accepting the coffee, feeling a dull burning sensation. He placed it on the coffee table after taking a sip. His mouth felt like it was carpeted on the inside. 'Beer before liquor, never been sicker...' he thought to himself. He slumped down in the chair, getting cosy as the inside of the house became more like the chilly outside. The studio had set this cabin up quite a while ago and they never thought that the band would ever use it until now, so the heating wasn't great and there was no sound desk, so the manager would have to take the tracks from them in a few days time or at least check up on thier progress. There was no internet either, except for the access they had on thier phones, so they were fairly isolated. Erik checked his phone. No messages. Meh. Good. No distractons from work...
 
Alexis flushed and re-emerged from the bathroom feeling slightly less grumpy that before. The floor made her feet cold as she walked over and sat on one of the armrests of Eriks seat, "Feeling any better now that these cartoons have made you about half a percent dumber?" she asked cheekily. She reached over and grabbed the mug off the table and skulled the hot beverage in a few seconds burning her throat but waking her up with the sudden rush of caffeine. "Let's do this shit before I feel tired again" she said after her sudden energy kick.
 
"Right you are..." said Erik carefully nursing his headache. He grabbed the camera and hooked it up to the television display input. He sat back as it played, the scenes slowly becoming more familiar as he watched. He fast forwarded through a few sections of the recording. He stopped at a section that seemed distorted. "God damn..." he said disappointedly. He rewound a few frames by accident. There was figure, just for a frame or two, in the corner. It was no more than a shadowey blur, but it was humanoid. That much was certain. "What the fuck is that?!" he exclaimed, quickly withdrawing for a moment due to his headache.
 
"The fuck indeed" Alexis muttered. She looked over to where the shadow had appeared on the recording, there was nothing there of coarse but there wasn't even a hint of something being there. It couldn't have been someone peaking through a window, they hadn't heard anyone there and there were no close windows for them to look through. She scanned the room looking for a reason for the figure to be there but there were no light sources close enough for something to cast a shadow that clearly. "The fuck is going on?" Alexis muttered again, there was no reason for this damn thing to be on the recording. "Screw this, you deal with it I need a shower" Erik was obviously going to be stressing over the shadow for quite some time so she decided to do something else instead of being mind fucked by the camera with the guitarist.
 
"This is not fucking normal." he said to himself not realising that Alexis had left the room. He slotted slowly throught the frames as he saw the figure fade and blurr. He decided to take note. As much as it chilled him to the bone just thinking about the slender, faded figure, he had to write some kind of lyrical content. He scratched down a few notes in some kind of illegable chicken scratch readable only to himself and turned the camera off. He picked up another beer and then decided against it, instead getting the bottle of orange juice out instead and went back to sitting on the couch, cradling it in his lap.
 
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