3 My Neighbor Is a Banshee Thursday, 1 August 2019

Wrapped around in floral blanket, Apollo's eyes stared dreamily at the black and white spider mural on his ceiling, imagining Nike. He breathed hard and smiled as he recalled her angelic face. How can someone be so beautiful and sexy with a smile so bewitching that I couldn't stop thinking about her? I maybe under a spell. He thought.

"What are you smiling about?"

And the spell was gone. "Mom, I really wish you could knock at least maybe once month? If you try it gradually, you'll get used to it."

She started picking up all the dirty clothes scattered around the room. "Sorry, dear. Did I interrupt your imagination? Were you thinking about a girl?"

Apollo was twenty-one and yet, he felt like a sixteen-year-old whenever his mom made assumptions. "I'm not thinking about anyone, mom. Here, you can put this in the laundry." He unwrapped himself of the floral sheet and handed it over.

"But this is new." She said as her eyebrows raised a little bit.

"This is yours, mom. Please give me my Spiderman blanket back."

"It's too old. That's why I bought a new one."

"But I'm a guy, mom. I can't have this floral thing ruin my manly physique."

She grinned. "So, I was right all along. You do bring a girl in here sometimes."

"No, mom. Just give me back my Spiderman."

Mrs. Rodriguez took the floral blanket and brought back Apollo's Spiderman without saying a word. As soon as she left, Apollo's phone started ringing showing Gab's registered name as Whiny Gab. He quickly answered the call. "Dude, what's up?"

"What's up? You haven't told me when and what time my gig is at Dulcimer."

Right. Apollo lost focus and was in a dreamy state after they had lunch at McDonald's which was three hours ago. "I have to clarify that with Luke. I'm going there tonight, and I'll give you an update when I get home."

"Then let me come with you."

Shit. Apollo thought. He had not thought about him coming with him and he hasn't talked to Luke yet. "You're going to meet him at Dulcimer during your gig anyway. I don't mind going alone."

Gab let out a sigh. "Dude, you're playing with me. I don't have a gig. You just tricked me to help you plot your meet up with Nike."

Nike. Why do I feel like that name doesn't suit her? It sounds like a kid's nickname. Apollo thought.

"Dude!"

Gab's voice got Apollo back to earth. He then realized he kept losing focus. Damn it. He thought and said, "Don't be mad, dude. You're very talented. I'm sure Luke will give you a spot. I'll call him and text you what time I'll be picking you up."

"Alright." Gab sounded content. Apollo felt glad knowing he was the type who lost patience so easily but moved on very quickly.

Luckily, Luke had a huge crush on Apollo's mom, so it only took one call to convince him in giving Gab a gig at Dulcimer. Luke was more than glad to receive a recommendation, even telling Apollo that he was missing one more spot for the Tuesday acoustics. After relaying the good news to Gab via text message, he expressed his gratitude saying he will pick him up instead. The excitement was way too obvious that he showed up thirty minutes earlier.

They rode in his sister's Toyota Prius Prime. "Does Leslie know you're driving her car?" Apollo asked.

"Wow. Just yesterday, I was asking you if your mom's aware you're taking her car and now you're asking me that question? Dude, we're both losers. We don't have our own cars." He huffed.

Apollo didn't look affected. "I'm happy just being paid by my mom in designing her book covers and websites. Why would I give that up to join the toxic world of employment so that I could afford a car? As for you, you'll get famous and I'll be your manager so just believe in your talent and let's talk business when we get to Luke's place."

Impressed, he gave him a thumbs up with a satisfactory look. "You sounded 10% more matured, dude. Nice. You should talk like that when you meet up with Nike."

Apollo couldn't help but smile. Two minutes later, they reached their destination, got out of the car and walked towards Luke's front door. After knocking thrice, there was no response, so Apollo called out, "Luke!"

Gab knocked on the door again and gave Apollo a blank face. "Does he know we're gonna be here?" He asked.

"Well yeah but we're like 15 minutes early." Apollo responded.

"It looks like he's home because the lights are on. Why don't we try to check the backyard or something? There's probably a backdoor."

"Alright. Let's go." Their pacing was relaxed. There was no need to hurry up because they were early.

"Whoah." Both guys got surprised to see someone in front of the window at the far end of the house's backyard. It looked weird because the guy was wearing a grey cloak; something that maybe a cult member would wear.

"What's that guy doing there? I almost shit my pants for Pete's sake." Gab whispered. Apollo also realized that he was clinging to him like a girl would cling to her boyfriend when she's scared.

"Dude, let go of me." Apollo said in disgust as he wiggled to shun Gab's arms. The guy removed his hood, revealing his face. Except, he was a she. Gab and Apollo were dumbfounded to recognize who it was. It was Nike. "What's she doing there wearing that? Hey, Nike!" Apollo yelled so she can hear him, but she seemed to be in a trance. She didn't even bat an eye.

Gab's confused face gawked at Apollo, expecting to do something. "Well? Let's just approach her."

They were about to, but the wind's sudden strong breeze wouldn't allow them to take another step. They didn't understand what was going on, so they froze in total bewilderment when her long dark hair became silver. As her hair changed, there was a fluttering sound like birds flying around though there weren't really any. She started wailing and her face slowly transformed. Apollo was in too much shock to notice Gab's expression and all he knew was that goosebumps were all over his body and his spine felt motionless. He was too terrified that he wanted to scream but nothing was coming out of his mouth. He couldn't believe the entire transformation and will probably never ever forget the ugly visuals; old hag with witch-like nose and very wrinkly face. She shrieked. And all that Gab and Apollo could do was cover their ears because it was deafening. They both knelt with their eyes closed, still covering their ears and after what seemed to be the longest one minute, she stopped. They opened their eyes and looked at each other's exhausted face. Gab shifted his gaze to the old hag and his eyes widened with fear. His expression was warning enough for Apollo not to look at her, but he was stupid to look anyway, only to find out that the old creepy hag was looking right at them. The two wimps screamed their hearts out. "Oh my God!"

"Run!" Apollo yelled.

For some stupid reason, instead of heading towards the car, they both ran through the bushes without turning back. With almost the same pace, Apollo could hear Gab's heavy breathing on top of his. They ran faster than a speeding bullet that they could've won the Olympics. "Let's climb up there." Gab said as they stopped in front of a big old tree.

"What's that?" It was dark and Apollo couldn't see exactly what it was.

"Just climb for Pete's sake. We're about to die here."

Apollo didn't utter another word until they reached the top and realized they were in a tree house. It was too small that his back could feel the tree bark's flaky texture and Gab's knees were attached to his. They were curled up uncomfortably, trying not to make even the tiniest sound. Both deadbeat from running too fast, they couldn't let out a heavy breathing because they didn't want the old creepy hag to detect them.

They were wrong. After a few minutes of silence, they heard footsteps approaching. It was so blood-curling that Apollo had to close his eyes and silently pray but it was too late. The once lovely sound of his name resonated like the sound of death calling. "Apollo." She uttered.

Apollo fainted.