“SAIL TO THE SUN! MY CHANCES ARE NONE!”

Josh is singing his heart out with Robert playing drums on the dashboard as we drive carelessly down the road. Everyone in the car started going crazy when the chorus kicked in and none of us show signs of reeling it in anytime soon (like Wayne’s World or something). The sub-woofers behind me are rattling my bones to their marrow with the blaring bass line. I don’t think the volume can go any higher, or rather if it should; either way my eardrums would just give out. But, I like the song and I’m having the time of my life playing air guitar in the backseat with Rivers.

I needed this…
The lyrics remind me of soaring through the air in my wing suit trying to reach the sun like Icarus, but never being able to because I’d just burn up. But the freedom of the wind always brought me back. Always brought me hope.

I needed this…

We had just left the mall (after being kicked out…) and were planning on driving back home and continuing the impromptu party at Josh’s place. His folks were away for the weekend and we could be as crazy as we wanted over there. It would be nice to finally hang around Josh’s house like we used to back in high school.

I really need this…

The reason for the get together had been for my twenty-first birthday. I was so surprised to get a call from friends I hadn’t seen in years and them inviting me to come meet them at a bar near the mall. It hadn’t just the three of them at the bar either. It seemed that everyone from my high school days had met up and were socializing by the time I got there. Rivers had apparently called as many of our old friends as he could remember.

As soon as I arrived I was manhandled over to the bar and had all sorts of drinks ordered for me. It was the first time I had been given a drink…legally. Lagers and whiskeys were shoved into my face, but I didn’t down that much for I had actually wanted to remember the night. I had seen Robert and Josh through the crowd and along with Rivers we all started reminiscing about our old band and catching up and all that other stuff you do when you meet up with friends you haven’t seen in forever.

It was amazing that we had only been separated for three years when it felt so much longer than that. I had only really kept in touch with Rivers who had gone off to college at Pitt. Both Josh and Robert were going into their senior year at Virginia Tech and Penn State respectively. Meanwhile, I had been travelling across Europe searching for the best BASE jumping sites I could find. I had spent about a year over there before coming home, but not before catching the Glastonbury festival. Josh and Robert had been particularly jealous after I shared that little detail with them.

Anyway, as the party had gone on we talked and joked and everything had gone back to the way it had been three years prior. It was like everything had changed, while at the same time nothing had changed. At one point my brother came up to me saying that he wanted to take Jen (and old flame) back to his place and was wondering if I could get a ride home. Josh had volunteered to drive me back along with Rob and Rivers. We ended up heading out pretty early because I didn’t want to get so drunk that I’d pass out in the parking lot. That’s when we decided to walk the mall before subsequently getting kicked out. So now we’re driving home singing like maniacs.

The song ends, but a new melody seems to drift in through the open windows being carried along by the night breeze.

Everyone in the car goes silent.

I know that we’re different

I know that we’ve changed

We both go back to it

It’s not how it used to be

People are strange

And now we’re strangers…

Maybe the guys are thinking about how we’ve all been apart for so long, but to me the lyrics hold another meaning. Yesterday, I was dumped.

I mean what kind of girl dumps her boyfriend right before his birthday? Oh gee thanks honey! What a wonderful present…

Alice. I met her when I arrived back in the states two years ago. She was part of a group of first time skydivers I was instructing. I didn’t want to give up the rush of diving, but I needed a job so I decided to become an instructor. She was one of my first students.

I still remember what she looked like the day when I saw her for the first time. She had long golden hair that shimmered in the summer sun. Her eyes were sky blue and her face was so calming like an angel’s might be.

“Hello! Are you here for the diving class?” I had asked when she walked up to me near the hangar housing the planes we used for parachuting.

“Yeah, I’m Alice! Are you…Instructor Anthony?” she questioned while looking down at a flyer that the company sent out for the classes.

“Just Anthony is good. The 'Instructor' makes me feel old for some reason… so... Alice, you ready to jump down the rabbit hole?” I joked in a lame attempt to be funny.

Did I really just freakin’ say that!?!, I had thought.

She laughed. It sounded like a wind chime and made my heart flutter. Her smile…god that smile…

“So what does that make you? The White Rabbit?” she mused in reply. Her smile warmed me from head to toe.

Cupid, you sneaky little bastard…you finally got me.

We started going out soon after our first jump together. But something changed. I don’t know what, but something in her heart pushed me out. Now I’m left sitting here in the back seat of this stuffy car listening to this sappy song and wondering where I went wrong.

How fucking cliché can you get?

“Hey where are you going?” asks Robert, snapping me back to reality.

“Through Valley Forge, it’s nice and quiet through there. Less people to run into anyway…” Josh replies.

“Are you saying that you’re driving under the influence Mr. Byrnes?” jokes Rivers.

“We’re all drunk, dude.”

“True dat,” agrees Robert leaning back in his seat. “But if we’re going this way… Hey! Let’s go to the 80!”

“Ah yeah! We haven’t gone there in years!”

“Yeah let’s go!”

“Alright, fine. We’ll go,” confirms Josh. “It’s a bit of a drive though. And I ain’t jumping into that water. It’s probably freezing right now.”

“Pussy…” taunts Robert.

“Hey! I will turn this car around young man! And we will not be goin’ to Disney World if you keep up that attitude,” warns Josh.

“Aww, but dad…”

“No buts mister!”

Josh turns to meet Robert’s pouting face. The two start laughing uncontrollably. Rivers and I join in.

I really needed this…

*SCRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHH*

“OH SHIT!!!!”

“WOAH! LOOK OUT!”

The car fishtails back and forth. Josh fights for control and luckily avoids wrapping the vehicle around a tree. The car steadies out, but it doesn’t stop.

“What the FUCK was that about!” shouts Robert.

“S-something ran out in front of us. I…I just kinda reacted…” Josh tries to explain, his hands are shaking on the wheel.

“Just reacted? Fuck man! That scared the shit out of me,” Robert exclaims. “Look, just stop…Stop man! I feel like I’m gonna puke…”

Josh slams on the brakes and we all lurch forward in our seats. Robert clambers out and I watch him stumble into one of the old log cabins that were left over from General Washington’s winter here. I start to hear retching and groans coming from the cabin.

I turn to look at Josh in the rearview mirror.

“You alright man?” I ask out of concern after seeing his horror stricken face.

“Y-yeah. I’m cool.”

I hear Rivers take a deep breath beside me and turn to face him.

“You alright?”

“Yeah. That was close though,” he says obviously shaken.

“Close? CLOSE!?! Fuck, I nearly killed all of us!” Josh fumes.

“Dude, it’s okay. No one blames you. Could’ve happened to anyone,” I explain trying to calm him down.

“The fuck it could. God man! We almost died! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” he shouts back.

“Hey, it’s alright. We’re alright,” I say with a reassuring smile. I reach up and squeeze his shoulder in an effort to calm him. He’s shaking slightly, but it soon fades. “Maybe I should take the wheel though. I hardly had anything to drink.”

Josh doesn’t say anything, but simply nods his head.

“Alright, good,” I state, getting out of the car as Josh does as well.

I had learned how to calm people down when we would go up with fresh skydivers. A lot of newcomers would almost be in tears right before we jumped and as an instructor I had discovered many techniques reassure them. There is nothing worse for an instructor than trying to safely deploy the parachute and land while the person beneath you is freaking out.

I walk over to the cabin were Robert had gone to expel his vomit. As I reach the entrance, I see his form come into view. He’s sweating and there is sick dripping down his chin.

“I…I wouldn’t go in there if I were you…” he pants, pointing a thumb back into the dark cabin. “Not a pretty sight, but I feel loads better. How are Josh and Rivers?”

“They’re alright. A little shaken, but nothing serious. I’m going to be driving now though.”

“Good, good... Do you still want to go?”

“Where?”

“To the 80?”

“Oh,” I say flatly. I stand considering it for a moment. “Yeah, why not? It’ll help us forget about all this.”

“Whatever, man,” Robert sighs as he gets back into the passenger seat.

I stride around the front of the car heading for the driver’s seat, but stop dead. I look down and my stomach twists at the sight. Stuck in the grill of the car is the body of a white rabbit. Its limbs are twisted at impossible angles and its fur is stained red. I see chunks of red tissue splattered all across the front end. Most of its face is mutilated from the impact but one of its eyes stares right at me; the life in it extinguished.

I really need this…

Author's Note

Hey everypony! This chapter was written in order to flesh out some of Anthony's backstory and try to develope his character a little bit. We'll be back to Ponyville in the next chapter though so hang tight! Also, I apologize if my choice of music isn't to your tastes, but it was just what I happened to be listening to when I wrote this chapter and was thinking of ideas. I've always wanted to try incorporating music into the story. Thanks for reading!