Death is Only the Beginning

Loud Music

It was just after midnight when Casey was startled awake by the sound of loud rock music that blasted throughout the house, piercing her ear drums and causing the windows to shake from the sheer magnitude of it's sound. 

"For goodness sakes" she gritted her teeth. Did these rich snobs not understand the necessity of a good night's sleep or what being courteous involved. It was deafening, the sound so loud nothing else could be heard. It was like something sharp piercing through your skull over and over again, the lyrics of course making no sense whatsoever and just sounding like someone screeching into a microphone over and over again. Heavy metal music should be outlawed she thought wincing. 

Casey was tired and more than just a little pisse* off right now. All she wanted was to get a decent night's sleep. Was that too much to ask? Already she could feel a headache forming behind her eyes as she grumpily got out of bed and stomped outside her room, clad in a thin pair of pyjama shorts and tank top, hair dishevelled as she glared down the hallway wondering who on earth had the galls to play this type of music let alone so loud at this hour. She was ready to tear someone's head off, not caring whoever the hell it was. She didn't even care if it was Rihanna. She wasn't afraid of her. 

Slowly the bedroom doors opened one by one as Sandy, Candy, Rihanna and Kenneth came out looking decidedly stormy as everyone glared at each other. 

"Turn it off" Rihanna shrieked as everyone else protested."I swear I'll kill you if you don't."

"It's not me" Sandy said and everyone else nodded as well. 

"There's probably a faulty stereo somewhere in the house" Casey yelled trying to be heard above the loud thumping sounds of the bass "it's all I can think of" she added. 

"Great" snarled Rihanna in an extremely foul mood, Kenneth merely giving a shrug, evidently nonplussed with the whole situation. "This place is fucki*g pathetic. I swear I'm going to murder whoever stuffed the dates up and organised this piss poor place. How hard is it to organise something properly for fuc* sake" she hissed. 

Bit rich coming from someone who literally had servants at her fingertips to do anything she wanted thought Casey biting her tongue. Damn this girl got on her nerves and so quickly as well. 

"Let's just split up and try to find it" Casey yelled "pull it out of the plug and stop this horrible noise."

For once the group didn't argue with her, even though she could see Rihanna wanting to,  all of them taking off in different directions as they searched the massive house. Door after door opened as they searched the bedrooms, bathrooms, main living areas, the kitchen you name it. Kenneth even went outside in an effort to see if there was one underneath the house for some inexplicable reason. To be honest it was a lame excuse to get a breather from Rihanna who was driving him round the bend. He hated the fact that he was forced to go back inside and face her foul mood and explosive temper once again. 

They all grouped together in the living room, the girls looking the worse for wear as they began to shiver slightly from the cold. 

"Theres no sign of the stupid radio" Rihanna roared as the others nodded.

"I looked everywhere" Candy wailed "me too" Sandy added.

"I even checked outside" Kenneth said almost yelling to be heard. 

As one they looked at Casey. "I found nada" she admitted, spreading her hands out in defeat. 

Rihanna folded her arms and pouted "I can't sleep like this" she cried, real tears in her eyes "It's driving me bonkers."

"I don't know what else to do" Casey shouted "we might find it in the daylight when it's easier to see."

"and do what in the meantime" screeched Sandy. 

"Does anyone have earplugs?"

They all shook their heads as Casey sighed and pinched her nose. When she got home she was going to strangle Sandra over this so called vacation from hell. Why had she even agreed to come in the first place? This was turning into a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from.

"Unless you want to spend the whole night searching" Casey screamed above the music "then there is nothing we can do but try and sleep. Unless any of you have a better idea? I very much doubt any of you want to sleep outside or am I mistaken?"

There were mumbles and yelling as the others talked all over each other, the music making it extremely difficult to hear one another. 

Casey gave up as their yelling continued, spying Kenneth disappearing into his own room, clearly fed up with the lot of the. She went back to her bedroom and shut the door, firmly locking it and plopping back onto her bed with a loud groan. 

She hated rock music. Always had. To her it sounded like a lot of screeching and thuds and hardly any singing. She was a country music girl at heart. There was just something about the sound of a guitar strumming along and a beautiful voice singing such glorious lyrics. It was something she couldn't get enough of, not in a hundred years or more. 

"Ugh" she groaned out loud "give me country music over this stupid noise any day."

She put her pillow over her head to drown out the noise and stopped still. Had the music stopped? She didn't think so still hearing it outside her room and through the house but for some reason it wasn't loud inside her own room anymore. Thank god for small mercies thought Casey incredibly relieved though still puzzled. 

She cautiously sat up and examined her surroundings. Maybe there was a short in the stereo or cd player? She doubted it. Casey wasn't about to overthink her good fortune right now. She briefly considered bringing the girls inside and poor Kenneth where at least the sound was tolerable rather than ear piercing then decided firmly not to. Where she in their place, Casey had no doubt they wouldn't do it either. All of them seemed like selfish people and so far Casey had yet to see even the smallest bit of kindness from them at all. She was deadly sure they wouldn't do the same for her in the same position. 

She lay back on the bed arranging her pillow. Casey heard several doors slamming as evidently Candy, Sandy and Rihanna gave up and decided to try and sleep through the racket. She wished them luck, even with the noise not coming from her own room it was still loud enough to be uncomfortable for her, with them still getting it blasted into their rooms it would be torture to sleep through let alone cope with for several hours at a time.

She pulled the cover's over her head and snuggled back down into its warmth. Casey fully expected to sleep very little or not at all but was astonished to find her eyes closing and herself feeling extremely sleepy as she dozed off. When she woke up later in the morning the music had thankfully stopped but what was the most puzzling was that her door was unlocked and she had ear plugs in both ears. She didn't remember doing that last night. Had she maybe just forgotten in her rush to get to sleep or had someone done it for her? Maybe she had left the door unlocked after all and someone had given her the ear plugs? It was so hard for her to remember and she gave up. Who cared so long as it was to do a good deed. Maybe these people weren't so bad after all she thought with a big smile, getting out of bed and preparing for the day with a bounce in her step. She wondered with a small smile how everyone else had coped with the music last night. Somehow she didn't think any of them would be cheerful or chirpy this morning.