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josiebelladonna · 3 years

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six feet under | chapter three

I wasn't able to catch up with her following the class but Danny did—once that bell rang, he shot out of that seat like a bullet straight out of a shotgun barrel. He ran faster than I could say the end of this sentence: I had known Danny since we were in diapers, too, so it was shocking to me to see him run so fast out of that room and into the school hallway. I lingered behind so I could pack my things and also speak to our teacher a little better given I was one of four guitar players in that class: there was another kid behind Danny—I don't know if any of you in this very room right now have even heard of him, but his name was John Connelly and he went on to play guitar and sing for a little band called Nuclear Assault, with Danny after Neil fired him from Anthrax.

Danny himself switched to bass down the line as we got older, hence his infamous bassist position in Anthrax, but prior to then, he was Mr. Guitar Player alongside me for a little bit. He and I were two wild and crazy guys back then, and we still are now.

But anyways—I'm going by Danny's words here, but apparently Kristina was the new girl. She and her mom had moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico from Seattle, Washington, of all places, and then to Queens after Las Cruces because her mom divorced in Seattle and then remarried in New York. He asked her what was a ghostly girl like her doing in a sun scorched, barren place like Las Cruces with a separated family.

“Las Cruces is my home,” she said, “and so is Seattle... I was born there, where my mom's from New Mexico. I did like New Mexico but it got lonely without my dad there.”

“So you go to and from Seattle and here whenever you can,” he followed along.

“Exactly.”

“Well, my friend Scott—you might've seen him in class right behind you with the guitar on his lap—”

“Did he ask you to talk to me?” she asked him; and the whole entire time, she was showing him those long black opal nails as if they were claws.

“No, no, no. But he was curious about you, though. And he was going nuts over your guitar here. And I kinda am, too. I like it a lot.”

“It's just something I've carried with me since we moved from Seattle. I've wanted to play ever since I heard songs from Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Bob Dylan and also Pink Floyd. I've only been playing since I was six years old.”

“That's a long time, though! Would you like to meet Scott?”

“I'd love to but I have to get home,” she told him. “Maybe tomorrow?”

“Sure, sure.”

So when Danny caught me coming out of the classroom door, he told me that she wanted to meet me. I was excited to hear that from his mouth. He also told me that the strings on her guitar were all nylon, so I was excited to hear her play for me the next day. I couldn't hardly do my homework that day.

In fact, I didn't sleep very well that night for that reason. I was too excited to fall asleep because I wanted to meet her from the front step in the time being. It was like that excitement you feel prior to the first day of school, but taken to a whole new level.

I finally managed to fall asleep because I was jarred awake by my mom telling me that Danny was outside waiting for me and I would be late if I didn't move about. I was quick to put on a fresh change of clothes, but not tie up my shoes, so I met Kristina with my shoes untied and my hair left unbrushed.

On that day, she had on this long black dress with those Chucks and a little black velvet hat upon her head: she turned her head to one side and I spotted a little light pink rose nestled in the ribbon, and for some reason, it made me think of roses you'd see on cakes in those little bakeries about a block away from there.

Once I stepped outside of our place, she didn't mess around. She took a seat on the curb and once I came within earshot, I could pick up the sound of strumming. Not using a pick—with those long black opal nails Danny and I both were hypnotized by. She strummed those tight nylon strings and the music wandered around us like the colors in a watercolor painting. I can't for the life of me remember what song she played for us, but Danny and I watched her as if she was this classic musician performing for us.

I remember at one point, she glanced up at me and the sun shone down on her face, and it in turn illuminated that head of hair and the skin on her face, and she literally looked like the ghost of an old folk musician from the decade before.

I spotted that rose pendant around her neck, and right behind those little panes of glass, I noticed a metal pendant about the size of her thumb pad. With the light of the sun, I could tell it was in the shape of a skull, like one of those sugar skulls you'd see around Day of the Dead, but it was made of silver, like I could make sight of those expected markings all over the skull. It wasn't until the three of us made our way to school and I caught a second look at it. Right on the crown of the skull's head, I made sight of the words “love Mom & Dad” engraved there.

She had tucked it behind the rose, too. She never explained it to me, either, even when I finally broke through that barrier on the last day of school There was just something about it that made me think. She kept it there but she kept it tucked away behind that piece of glass and silver. It was something that I kept within my line of thought all throughout the school year, even by the time I met my first girlfriend.

#six feet under #six feet under fanfic #new chapter #fanfic #fanfiction #anthrax #anthrax fanfic #scott ian #dan lilker #also on ao3 #text

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