The Last Song (Short Story)

-->

Ben impatiently tapped his fingers against his duct tape amp. “Lenny’s late,” he grunted. Kevin gave out an acknowledged sigh from behind his drum set, not entirely focusing on anything in the real world.

“It’s been only fifteen minutes. It’s still early for Lenny.”

“He knows how important today is! I’ve only been harassing you guys about it all week on Facebook. We gotta have a new song out for next week’s show!”

“Chill out man. He’ll be here.”

Ben paced back and forth across the faded green carpet of Kevin’s cluttered basement. His eyes always on the doorway at the top of the stairs. Every now and again he would tug on his tie or button up. He had suggested a few days prior that the best way of getting things done was to lock themselves in the basement and not come out until they had a song. Neither of his band mates opposed the idea, so he didn’t understand why they weren’t taking it seriously. Kevin sat back in his corner with his feet placed up on the bass drum taking a short nap.

Just before Ben was about to blow his lid, the door opened and Lenny came stumbling down the stairs holding his wrist like it was broken. Ben jumped him before he made it all the way down.

“Where the hell were you?! We were supposed to start up twenty minutes ago!”

“Fuck you,” Lenny snapped and shoved passed Ben.

“We made a commitment to be here! You need to take this more seriously.”

“Whatever.” He made his way over to the other end of the room. He fumbled pulling his case up out from behind the amp trying to do the task with one hand. Kevin had wakened from the commotion.

“Rough day at work?” he asked

“Yeah, a drunk guy was giving us problems.”

“What’s wrong with your hand?”

“It doesn’t matter! We’ve wasted enough time already.” Ben stomped.

“It’s not broken, is it?”

“No…”

“Good, then shut up and set up.”

Lenny grumbled something to himself and got out his purple Fender bass guitar; taking his time untangling the cord.

“Come on, hurry up. The rest of us are ready to go!”

“I’m going as fast as I can.”

Lenny finally got his bass on over his shoulder and as slowly as he could tuned up.  Ben barely held on to the urge to kick him in the face.

“You could have started without me, you know. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“No. This is our band and we all have to pull our share.”

Lenny stared at him dumbstruck.

“What?”

“It’s never been our band before.”

“So…” Kevin interjected trying to change the subject. “Do we have anything to start with? I’m guessing you do Ben since you’re so hyper.”

“I got some lyrics I’ve been messing with at work.”

“What about?” Lenny asked, still tuning.

“A girl…”

Lenny and Kevin let out a collective moan. “Another one? Fuck. We’re going to start sounding like some whinny teen pop group.”

“I miss the days you wrote about robots and shit.”

“Well, where’s your material then? I’d love to see that. Humm. No? Nothing? Are we going to write a song about your work problems? I don’t think so.” Ben jabbed.

“Actually that sounds more interesting.”

“Shut up Kevin. We’re doing what I’ve got and if anybody has a problem with it, you can leave.”

Lenny started to take off his bass.

“Put that back on,” Ben hissed.

Lenny did as he was told, but Ben caught a glimpse of him giving the finger as he turned to grab his Gibson Les Paul.

“Alright, here we go…”

An hour in, and the most the guys got done was Ben reading his lyrics rhythmically several times and Kevin getting down a simple beat. He kept getting irritated of Kevin not understanding what he wanted. He kept going too slow or too fast. Lenny hadn’t done much else besides laying on the floor staring at the ceiling and the dim lights. He moaned and groaned after each reading. “This sucks…”

Ben could admit it wasn’t his best work. It was rather cheesy. But it was the best he could come up with in a short amount of time. It wasn’t really so much about having new material for the show, but to impress the cute red headed light girl at the venue.  He really hoped she didn’t mind cheesy.

Once Kevin got the beat right, Ben started up a guitar riff. Lenny would pluck a string in every now and again. Ben could tell he was already getting sick of the song. He wasn’t sure if it was the lighting or what but he noticed he was starting to look a little pale and his eyes getting a bit dark.

“I’m not feeling too great. Can we postpone this till tomorrow?” Lenny asked.

“No.” Ben said not stopping from his simple upbeat playing he took a liking to. “Nobody is leaving this basement until we finish this song.” He could almost see her loving it already.

A few more guitar tests and Ben found one that “captured the soul of his meaning”, or something like that. Lenny still hadn’t done much still and Ben wished he had let him go if he was going to be a useless brick all day. At least he finally made it up on his feet, yet he rocked back and forth like he was having a difficult time staying up. “I’m feeling dizzy.”

“Have you eaten anything?” Kevin asked

“No. I am starving though. Let’s stop for lunch.”

“Why didn’t you eat at work?”

“Because of that drunk guy at my work, remember. He just ran in and started acting all crazy. Shouting nonsense and whatnot. And then he bit me!” He gestured with his wrist. “Now I’m gonna get herpes or something. I don’t wanna have herpes!”

“You don’t get herpes from bites,” Kevin said rubbing his eyes.

“You sure?”

“Fairly.”

“Well it’s something! My arm’s all weird feely now.”

“Let me see it.” Ben snatched his arm. “Man Lenny, you’re so full of bullshit. There’s not a scratch on you! Now quit your whining and we have to keep going!”

A few hours later, Lenny was hunched over. He acted like all his body strength was gone. He fell back off his feet and sat on his amp. “Need… to stop…. Need… food…”

Ben rolled his eyes at his act. It wasn’t the first time he played sick to get out of working, and he wasn’t going to buy it this time. “Food later. Music now.”

“Ben,” Kevin interjected, “We’ve been playing forever and he looks like he’s going to pass out. We’re at a good stopping point. Let’s just take a break. Okay?”

“He’s faking it.” Suddenly Ben’s eyes went wide from a brilliant idea. “WE NEED A KEYBOARD!!!”

Kevin just blinked trying to register the statement. Lenny let out a cry that sounded something like a gargling dying cow. Ben took note of his option.

“Do you even know how to play one?”

“Not really, but it can’t be that hard.”

The dying cow cried again.

“Look, let’s just hold off this conversation until we all get something to eat and we can think more clearly.”

The dying cow gave a short agreeing grunt.

“FINE! If it’s the will of the council, you can stop. I’m gonna keep going.”

Kevin put away his sticks and jumped out from behind his set. “I’m going to Wendy’s. You want me to get you anything?”

“No,” Ben snapped, wishing for better band mates.

“Lenny, are you coming with me?”

“No…” He rocked himself back and forth. “I don’t… think I… can move…”

“Are you okay? I’ll give you a ride home.”

Ben glared at him for his betrayal.

“No… just… hungiiiiuuughh…” His words started turning into indecipherable grunts and his head drooped down.

“Okay… is there anything in particular you want?”

Lenny shook his head.

“Alright… Ben keep an eye on him. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yeah sure whatever.” Ben focused down on his guitar. Clearly if anything was going to get done, he had to do it himself, he thought. Her face flashed in his mind and filled him with a warm comfort that he could do anything. God, he thought, I am chessy.

Kevin left and things got quiet except for Ben’s strumming and Lenny’s groaning. The guttural noises started out short and quiet but started growing longer and louder. Ben started to get irritated. “If you’re just going to sit there, you might as well keep practicing.”

“Ca…nt… move…”

“You lazy bum,” Ben stomped.

“No… really…” He raised and dropped his shoulders and his arms lifelessly swayed around. A large pool of drool poured out from the corner of his mouth.

“Ew, Lenny keep it in.” Ben shuffled away from the splatter zone. “And you’re starting to stink. When was the last time you’ve bathed?”

Lenny suddenly fell forward face first to the floor. A loud ‘prang’ of his bass being crushed echoed in the room causing Ben to jump.

“Jesus Len! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Uhgggaaaa….” A pool of saliva bubbled out on the floor.

“Okay fine if you want to leave you can. You don’t have to keep up this stupid act.”

But Lenny didn’t suddenly jump back to life and dart off like he usually did. He just stated down face first in the growing drool pool.  “Len… I said you could go.” Still, he did nothing. Ben threw his guitar down off to the side and ran to help Lenny sit up.  He leaned him against the amp. He was white as a sheet and his arms where ice cold. His mind raced trying to figure out what to do but he kept coming up sort.

“Just hang tight till Kevin gets back. Okay?” He might know what to do.

Lenny’s head swayed and bobbed around his neck.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Ben turned around to call Kevin. Before he could press three numbers, Lenny started loudly dry heaving. Ben turned back as Lenny threw up on the floor. A spew of black vile spilled out all over the carpet. “Holy fuck!” Ben was able to jump out of the way in time.

Lenny barfed out another wave of the black sludge then collapsed back down face first. Ben finished dialing the number. “Uh… Kevin, can you get back here? Lenny’s all sick and freaking me out. Just get over here now!”

Lenny went completely silent as Ben hung up. His feet impulsively twitched a bit but there wasn’t much else going on. Ben stood in horror at his friend. He lightly shook his shoulder a few times. “Len? Lenny? Are you dead?”

Ben got down on his knees and shook him harder. Lenny gave no sign.

“Fuck!”

Ben started to rise to find some help. Then Lenny grabbed him by his tie. Ben screamed and impulsively kicked Lenny in the head. He looked up, his face still stained with the black sludge. He made bite like expressions and went for Ben’s shoulder. Ben kicked him a few more times and tried to pull away. Lenny lost his grip on the tie but latched on to his leg and dragged himself along still in pursuit of bite him.

Ben tried to shake him off, yet Lenny had an iron grip and pulled himself up to his ankle. He took a deep bite down hitting bone. Ben screamed and fell over. He grabbed his guitar and bashed it against Lenny’s back. He got several good swings before Lenny went limp and quiet again. “What the fuck?” he shivered.

Ben wasted no time and jumped up on his feet almost collapsing under his injured foot. The pain was excruciating. He held on to the wall for support and limped to the stairs. The door at the top opened up.

“Ben? Lenny” Guys? What’s going on?” Kevin asked.

“Run! Something’s wrong with Lenny!” Ben stumbled his way up the stairs. Kevin didn’t move and looked confused.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Lenny jumped up from behind and grabbed Ben tackling him down. Both Kevin and Ben screamed as Ben flayed around underneath him trying to push him off. “Help me!” he cried but Kevin was still frozen. Lenny had a good grip and he bit down on Ben’s neck. Ben screamed and still tried to get Lenny off but it was no use. Everything started going dark and he completely collapsed. He heard Kevin scream and saw his black blur run out of the building. Pain started to fade into numbness and everything was going out. The last thing he saw was the red head’s face smiling before him and thought, she would have hated the song.