SOUL BOUND

   “Marcel! I’m serious; you got to be home before six… no at least by five pm, otherwise you should stay in.”

   “Not this again. Mom I already told you, the band is playing tonight, I won’t be home until ten… besides I’m twenty-one not eight. When are you going to stop trying to scare me with your stilly superstitions?”

    “Young lady, this isn’t just some old wise tale; observing the rules of Peter Pak has always been very important to this family.”

    “Yeah, whatever, can I go now?” The girl rolled her chestnut brown eyes, impatiently waiting for the conversation to end.

     “Fine…” Sighing loudly, Ruby stared helplessly at her daughter’s petite figure quickly disappearing out the doors, wondering how it was possible that she could change this much in such a short period of time. Well it was almost two months now since her brother had died and her father driven to insanity from his sudden departure, but still… to go from being shy and reserved to rebellious and free spirited in a matter of weeks, was this her way of grieving?

     In the past, Marcel and her twin brother would eagerly sit snuggling up in their mother’s arms listening to stories of their grandparents honoring the dead and wishing them an eternity of peace.

     Those days she would have marveled at the thought of following the sacred rituals of her ancestors, viewing death as a sweet parting… family and friends are laid to rest, their spirit released from the hardship of being cursed to pain and bitter trials… but now when the sad reality came and it was her turn to offer up sacrificial blessings on her brother’s behalf, her innocent little heart no longer believed in the tales of the past.

    “M, are you sure it’s okay for you to be out tonight? I thought you and your mom would be preparing for…”

    “Nate, don’t you dare start with that nonsense too. I told you already, I don’t care about those ridiculous traditions.” Marcel responded irritably as she hopped into the copilot seat of her best friend’s car, anxious to get as far away as possible from her home.

   “Hey, I’ve known you since you were like four, so don’t try and act all brave and mature. Tell me the truth, you’re afraid aren’t you?”

    “Humph! What’s there to be scared of?...”

    “That Mike’s ghost might come back to haunt you.” The boy interrupted, carelessly blurting out his analysis, adding… “I just don’t get it; everyone else knows his death wasn’t your fault…”

     “I know it wasn’t!”

     “Then why won’t you pray for his safe journey into the afterlife? What if his soul is damn to roam the earth, wreaking havoc among the living or even disrupting the balance between the two worlds?”

     “Ahh! Don’t be so childish. There is no such thing as the afterlife; parents just use these pathetic excuses to trick their children into believing that our loved ones are better off. If that was the case, why don’t we all join them… oh yeah, that’s right, we can’t commit suicide otherwise we’ll go straight to hell. Grow up Nate! The spirit dies with the body.”

     “Alright, alright! I’m sorry, don’t waste too much of your energy on me, we still have to perform at the club tonight, Jesse said we might have some tough competition, so we got to bring our ‘A’ game.” Sensing the girl’s anger quickly rising, he skillful shifted the direction of their discussion, finally stepping on the accelerator and driving off into the distance.

     A few minutes later, the duo had arrived at the entrance of a popular hot spot downtown, but without the rest of the crew the bouncer spared no efforts in giving them a hard time.

     “I said beat it punk! This isn’t some high school musical.”

      “Oh, no you didn’t just…” Marcel truly felt insulted by his judgmental reproach or perhaps she was already fuming with annoyance and confliction, waiting for an opportunity to vent.

      Thankfully, before she had a chance to foolishly hit the oversized, strongly built security guard twice her height, Nate hopelessly grabbed her arms, dragging her aside pleadingly.

     “Let’s just wait for Erick and Blaze to get here, the idiot probably doesn’t recognize us without our make-up.” He tried convincing her in a low whispering tone to avoid openly offending the grumpy man that stood there like a brick wall with folded arms scanning party goers from head to toe as they walked pass him.

      “That’s unfair! How come they can go in but we’re stuck out here in this dump.” She continued to protest despite her friend’s weary actions of trying to keep her calm as a handful of other male vocalists entered, taunting the two along the way.

    “This is bullshit! Where the hell are those guys?” Marcel once more huffed in anger seeing that an hour had already went by and yet the rest of the members were nowhere in sight. Time was running out, now they would only have about fifteen minutes to get dressed and make sure their equipments were adjusted to suit their preference.

    However, at the very last minute Blaze suddenly called. All that could be heard was Nate’s voice going from shock, to complaining and rage and finally a silent pitiful expression was plastered across his handsome face.

     “Let me guess, they’re scared of a little competition… oh no wait, there’re still sobering up from partying too much last night, aren’t they?” Marcel instantly questioned without waiting for an explanation.

     Pausing briefly, Nate awkwardly cleared his throat giving a dry laugh, lying through his teeth. “Haha! How did you know? Sorry you can’t play tonight, but hey, look at the bright side, that way you’ll make it home in time to honor Mike.”

    “No! I mean… we can still go in and check out the lame ass crew that got lucky they weren’t going up against us. I swear, when I see those two morons that cost us that sweet twenty grand… I’ll make them both pay.” Marcel hastily compromised, mumbling words of frustration, ready to sneak pass the big guy at the front doors.

    Realizing it was useless trying to sugarcoat the situation, when the clueless girl would eventually find out, Nate dejectedly confessed, “M! I lied, okay! The guys are already in there….”

     “You idiot! Then why are you wasting time out here? We need to be in there right now….”

      “Marcel! Would you just stop and listen to me for a second. Blaze and Erick went in there two hours ago, they said the judges are difficult to deal with… they… they don’t want to risk losing the prize money.”

     “What’s that suppose to mean? And why does it sound like there’re kicking me off the team because I’m a girl?” Though she was asking the answer was quite evident.

     “I’m sorry M, but they really do need the money and the judges are stupid bias shitholes!” He cursed out defensively acting as if angered by the entire ordeal.

  “Yeah! What a bunch of….”

   “Shoo! Keep your voice down, I might still have a chance.” The boy quickly hushed her loud protesting tone seeing a few curious observers staring in their direction.

   “What the heck dude! Don’t tell me you’re still planning on joining them! You better not be thinking about it!” Marcel warned, ragingly pointing her long slender fingers inches away from his face.

   “Come on, this cash is my ticket to getting a new guitar. If I’m not in there then some lucky bastard is going to steal my barrowed strings and! afford to buy a new masterpiece.”

   “So, there’re replacing us too? This is just…. cruel.” Marcel disappointedly mumbled. After all the hard work she had put into practicing and begging Jesse to talk to the club owner just so they could finally get that one ‘big’ brake in life as a struggling rock band, this was how they repaid her?

    “Ahem! They’re replacing you… not me.” Nate corrected under his breath.

    “And you! Some best friend you are! Is the money that much more important than I am? You should have rejected them for tossing me out like some used-up garbage!” She instantly resumed unreasonably arguing with the speechless boy, yet huffing at him while walking away from the scene of the nightclub.

    “I love you too. Thanks M!”  Nate shouted from behind, feeling both amused and sorry that things turned out the way it did.

    But who knows, on a day like this maybe her soul will finally be able to let go of the dead and look forward to creating lasting bonds with the living.

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