The Silver Ticket nosleep

“Dad, are you kidding me?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” he replied.

“You’re seriously making me stay with crazy old Aunt Vicky?” I said.

“Stop calling her that Sam,” dad nagged. “Your Aunt is just old school,”

“Yeah old school, that woman acts like breathing too hard is a sin. Do you remember when we were at her house on Halloween?”

“Yes I do, and she has since gotten better, so you’re going to stay there and that’s final."

“But she’s going to be so boring and strict and-

“As long as she’s not beating on you, you’re going to be fine.”

“You’re going to stay there for the whole summer while your step mom and I go on our honeymoon.”

“Can I please just stay at the house by myself?” I asked.

“My decision is final Sam; now pack your stuff up. We can’t miss your flight to Louisville.”

“Yeah, we can.” I grumbled,

With that my dad left my bedroom and closed the door behind him. I couldn’t believe my dad was forcing me to stay with my boring great aunt Vicky. That woman was an old Jesus freak that eats, sleeps, and drinks the bible. Her house is full of crosses and Christian paintings, not to mention the countless shelves of bibles throughout every room in the house. My dad told me that she has a Gutenberg Bible in her house somewhere, and that he tried to talk her into selling it but she wouldn’t do it even though it was worth a fortune. He told me that conversation ended with her screaming “Money is not my god,” over and over again. When I packed up my things my dad drove me too the airport and he put me through the process of getting on the plane. After I got through security I said goodbye to my dad and left for the plane. The flight from Maine to Louisville was long and boring. I spent that time playing my Nintendo 3DS and sleeping. Unfortunately it was a low budget flight so there weren’t any movies to watch or anything else to do. When the plane landed in Louisville, a feeling of dread hit me. It was the feeling you get when you know things are set in stone and there is no turning back. This feeling let me know that I was stuck here. When I got off the plane and grabbed my luggage, I met Aunt Vicky by the front doors. She had a taxi waiting for us both to take us back to her house.

“I thought you had a car.” I told her.

“I do, I got my license taken from me because of a recent D.U.I.

I was surprised by this; she was a very religious person. That led me to believe that she didn’t drink alcohol, let alone drink and drive. After I loaded my belongings into the trunk of the taxi, we were driven to my Aunt Vicky’s house in St. Matthews. When we arrived, she paid the cab driver and I unloaded my luggage. When I walked inside I was greeted by a big painting of Jesus on the cross on the wall. The painting was rather graphic; it showed a picture of a beaten and bloodied Jesus on the cross. He was surrounded by a crowd of people which seemed to be an angry mob.

“This is new,” I said, pointing to the painting.

“I got that at an art festival six weeks ago for six hundred dollars,” She said. “Don’t you think this is a little graphic?” I asked.

“No, Jesus died for our sins.” She answered, “Nobody said it would be pretty,”

“God damn,” I muttered, taking a second look at the painting.

“Watch your mouth!” Aunt Vicky shouted.

I flinched startled by the sudden outburst.

“Let me lay down some ground rules. No cursing, No using the lord’s name in vain, you are to be in bed by eight o’clock. You cannot be out any later than six o’clock.”

“I’m sixteen Aunt Vicky, this is ridiculous.” I commented.

“I don’t care what you what you think, you’re staying with me for the whole summer so you had better follow my rules or I’m calling your dad.”

“Alright,” I submitted feeling defeated.

“Lastly, don’t drink my beer and do not under any circumstances go in the basement.” I gave her a weird look.

“What’s in the basement?” I asked,

“None of your business,” she replied.

“Whatever,” I said walking away from her. I walked down the hall to the guest bedroom, and put my luggage on the floor. I then fell on the bed, nearly passing from being so tired. A few seconds later Aunt Vicky walked in.

“I’m going to the store, do you want anything?”

“I’m good,” I declined.

“Alright, don’t leave the house, it’s almost past curfew.”

“I’m too tired to leave.” I promised

“Good,” Aunt Vicky said, leaving the room and closing the door behind her. I then got under the covers and proceeded to fall asleep. As I was about to lose conscientiousness, my cell phone rang. I took it out of my pocket and looked at it, and it was dad.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Did you land yet?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, I’m at aunt Vicky’s right now.

“You sound tired,” He told me.

“I’ am,” “I know how you feel, you were probably pretty bored on that flight, and I know how that can put you to sleep really easily.”

“Yeah, when does your flight leave?”

“Tomorrow at noon,”

“I wish I could go to Vegas,” I grumbled.

“Maybe on your twenty first birthday.”

“Alright, well I’m going to let you go, so I can’t get me a nap.”

“Alright, I’ll talk too you later.”

“Bye dad.”

I hung up the phone and continued with my nap. After what seemed like a few minutes, I was ripped out of my deep slumber by a loud crash. The room was pitch-black meaning that I had been asleep long enough for it to be late at night. I got out of bed and sped over to the light switch and turned on the lights. I began searching the room in case somebody was in here. I looked under the bed, in the closet and even behind both book selves, but I didn’t find anyone. I walked out of the room and called for Aunt Vicky as I walked down the hallway. That was when I began hearing shouting.

“Yes Jesus, Oh please forgive me.”

It was Aunt Vicky. I followed the noise and I was lead to the kitchen and I saw that the door leading to the basement was open. I walked over to the doorway, the basement was completely dark and I could hear Aunt Vicky down there it sounded like she was praying.

“Aunt Vicky!” I yelled.

“WHOS THERE!?” She hollered, “You better get out of my house.” I could hear her racing towards the stair case, I ran away from the door way, as I ran down the hall I could hear Aunt Vicky shouting “Get out of here before I blow your head off.” The thought of this woman owning a gun scared me. It was obvious she didn’t realize that there were two people staying in her house. If I caught her at the wrong time I could get shot and killed. When I got too my room I ran inside and slammed the door, and got back in bed. I heard her coming towards the room. When she walked inside I shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I could hear her rummaging through the closet too see if anyone was hiding in there. I heard her next to the bed I think she was looking underneath it. She then walked out of the room and I heard her yell from outside the room, “When I find you Billy, I’m going to shove this rifle up your butt crack.” The next morning, Aunt Vicky woke me up early. I looked at my phone and it was seven thirty in the morning.

“Why are we up this early?” I asked.

“We have to get ready for church,” She replied.

“But I don’t go to church,” I protested.

“Well you’re going to start, now put something good on.”

I didn’t bring anything formal with me to wear at Aunt Vicky’s. I guess that was stupid of me because she was a Jesus nut, so that obviously meant she was going to make me go to church. I wore a black polo shirt and a pair of jeans. I even put on a belt even though I didn’t need too. I suddenly heard my phone begin ringing. I went over to it and unplugged it from the charger, it was dad calling. It was unusual for him to call this early because he was such a heavy sleeper.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Good morning church boy,” Dad greeted.

“I take it you knew this would happen too?”

“Of course I did,” dad mused. “Be prepared to do this every Sunday for the rest of the summer,”

“Never make me go to church dad,”

He laughed a little.

“I’m serious, I already get up early for school, and I don’t need to add to it.”

“I’m not making any promises,” Dad teased.

“On a serious note I have something to tell you.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s about Aunt Vicky, I woke up in the middle of the night and I heard her down stairs screaming really loud. She was praising Jesus and chanting all kinds of nonsense.”

“That’s, Aunt Vicky for you. She’s a bit of a holy roller.”

“Yeah but it gets worse, I called for her from up the stairs and she chased me all the way back to my room thinking I was a burglar or something. She then came into where I slept and began searching for somebody named Billy.”

“I tried my best to keep this from you, but I think it’s time I told you the truth.”

Dad hesitated.

“Aunt Vicky is a recovering Schizophrenic,”

“What?”

“When your Aunt had an episode that Halloween that was when things really took a toll on her. I got her committed to the local mental hospital and things began to work themselves out. She came to terms with reality, and after a few months passed I checked her out. I stayed with her for a couple of weeks to help her get on the routine of taking her daily meds.”

“You said you were going on a business trip.”

“I had to tell you that because I knew how you’d feel about me doing that.”

“What do I do if things go south?”

“You get me on the phone as quick as you can no police, no authorities. I’ll talk to her and she’ll calm down.”

“Alright, I’ll call you if she has another episode.”

“Good, because if the cops get her they’ll stick her is an asylum and make sure she never sees the light of day again.”

“I promise I won’t call the cops on her dad,”

“Thank you Sam.”

“I have to let you go now, Aunt Vicky is anxious to get too church.”

“Alright, I’ll talk too you later bye.” You’re probably wondering why my dad cares so much about Aunt Vicky. It started when my father was born in the mid nineteen-seventies. He was the aftermath of a long night of drugs and hippie sex. His parents were two irresponsible teenagers that obviously had no idea what they were getting into. So when he was born Aunt Vicky took my dad in while his parents were allowed to continue their nasty habits. After a year, they were both found in a cheap motel room dead as day old dog shit. In the end they both ended up as just two more overdose statistics to add to the list. After long and boring church service Aunt Vicky and I went back to her house. I decided to spend the rest of that afternoon playing my Nintendo DS. It wasn’t long before I heard her rush to the basement to chant and prey like she did the night before. I knew better than interrupt her like I had done before, after a few hours passed Aunt Vicky walked into the room.

“I’m about take a nap, if you leave the house be back by curfew or I’m calling the police.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

She walked out of the room and shut the door, and I continued to play my game. It wasn’t long before I got tired of playing videogames. It was then that I started thinking about what was in the basement. Aunt Vicky was asleep so I thought that I could get away with taking a quick peek. What could possibly be in there? I quietly walked out of my room and tip-toed down the hallway. I moved as quickly and quietly as I could without making wooden floor in the kitchen creek too much. When I got too the basement door, I knew the rusty hinges would squeak like a gaggle of mice. I couldn’t let Aunt Vicky catch me sneaking in the basement. So I remembered seeing this technique in an old movie to keep rusty hinges from making noise. This was by a long shot but curiosity was getting the best of me. I spit in my hand and rubbed the saliva on each of the rusty door hinges. I then opened the door and thankfully no noise was made. I made my way down the steps, the old wood whimpered with each step closer to the bottom. The whole time I kept picturing Aunt Vicky snatching me back by my shirt collar and dragging my ass back upstairs to blow my brains out. When I finally made it too the bottom, I used my cell phone as a flashlight and looked on the wall for a light switch, when I found one I flicked on the lights and gasped at the sight of what Aunt Vicky was hiding. I stood there in shock at such a sight, but I was ripped back into reality when I heard Aunt Vicky walking towards the basement door.

I stood there in shock at the sight of the basement. Shelves upon shelves of comic books were all along the basement walls. I saw every type of comic book, Super Hero, Adventure, Mystery, you name it. I was frozen with absolute fascination.

"What the Hell are you doing down here!?" The angry voice of my Aunt yelled. My heart sank into my stomach, like a stone falling into a lake. I turned around to see my red faced Aunt Vicky gripping a belt in her right hand.

"I don't know why I'm down here," I told her.

"I can’t believe who you are!" She wailed. "You would dare come down here with the Devils Manuscripts, meant to distract mankind from god’s word." This woman was clearly delusional; however that's when I saw it, a half drunk bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey in her left hand. This was bad; alcohol mixed with her psychosis was extremely dangerous.

"I'm sorry," I told her nervously. "I'm just going to go upstairs to my room now." Aunt Vicky smacked the floor with a belt to keep me from walking past her. I took a few steps back, but out of nowhere I was smacked across the face with Aunt Vicky's belt. I held my face as the stinging sensation ran its course. I was then struck on my neck followed by another crack across the face.

That was when I charged for the basement door. Aunt Vicky tried to grab me, but I pushed her out of my way. I run up the stairs and across the kitchen, then down the hall to my bedroom. I slammed the door and locked it, that's when I saw my phone lying on the bed. I was confused, should I call the Police? Should I call my dad? I didn't know what to do, if I called the cops they would send her away to a mental asylum and I know how much dad has done for her over the past few years. He would kill me when he found that it was my fault she got sent away. If I called him maybe he could calm her down or do something to get this to stop. I nearly fell forward when I felt Aunt Vicky hit the door. BLAM! BLAM! She was throwing herself at the door in attempt to break it down. I ran to the bed and grabbed my phone and called my Dad. His phone rang on the other end numerous times but he didn't answer. I tried again but no luck. BLAM! BLAM! I shuttered each time she hit the door. I didn't know whether she still had the belt or if she had grabbed a knife from the kitchen. I decided that a punishment or scolding from my dad wasn't worth my life, so I began to dial 911. As I was about to hit the green button to call the cops the banging at the door stopped. I don't know why but everything was quiet, but I didn't hear her walk away from the door.

I didn't know if she had walked away or if she was waiting for me to leave the room. I decided to just stay in the room until tomorrow. I decided that if she starts to bang on the door again, I would just call the police.

The next morning I awoke to the sound of Aunt Vicky knocking on my bedroom door. I was a little bit spooked from the night before, I feared that her drunken psychotic episode had carried on into the morning. She proceeded to knock on my door, growing more and more irritated the longer it took me to open up.

"Sam, open this door right now!" She demanded. "Don't make me have to call your dad."

I reluctantly got out of bed and walked over to the door and slowly opened it. Aunt Vicky was standing at the doorway fully dressed and ready to go somewhere. It was early in the morning, I saw from the windows that the sun was just starting to rise.

"Where are you going," I asked.

"I'm off to the grocery store," She said.

"Didn't you just go to the store the other day?" I asked.

"No," She bluntly answered, giving me a weird look. "Do you want anything while I'm gone?"

"No thanks, I'm good," I told her. She turned and began walking down the hallway. As I was closing my door I saw her take her cell phone out of her pocket, I assume to call a Taxi. I shut the door and walked over to my bed and grabbed my phone. i was disappointed to see that it was at five percent.

"Shit," I hissed out of frustration. I went to my contacts and called my Dads number. I hoped to god that he would answer his phone after four rings I decided to hang up, but right when I was about to hang up I heard him answer.

"Hello," He said.

"Hey dad," I replied, relieved that he answered.

"You’re up early," He commented.

"Aunt Vicky had another episode last night," I told him.

"What,"

"I broke one of her rules and I went in the basement, she caught me down there and she got mad and-"

"Now stop right there," Dad interrupted. "If she told you that you shouldn't have been in the basement you shouldn't have gone down there."

"I know but-"

"No, you were wrong on end of story,"

"She hit me with a belt!" I basically shouted, annoyed that he kept interrupting me.

"She hit you with a belt," He said confused.

I told him the rest of what happened last night and he grew concerned. I was hoping that he would let me go home and let me spend the rest of the summer in Maine. However, I knew that wasn't going to happen. Something terrible would have to happen for him to let me go home and I knew good and well he wouldn't call off his Honeymoon that he was paying top dollar for.

"I'll talk to her for you Sam," He said sounding upset. "She knows how I feel about corporal punishment, but it sounds to me like you had just upset her. I know how she is when it comes to liquor; she has been a heavy drinker since I was a kid. From here on out please do your best not to upset her and I'll talk to her about what happened but from here on out, you do your part and I'll make sure she does hers."

"Alright, thanks," I said gratefully.

"I have to go; they're serving breakfast in the hotel lobby." With that dad hung up, without even saying goodbye. After that I wondered exactly what I could do here in Louisville. St. Matthews didn't seem like much judging from the taxi ride, this neighborhood seemed like the type that would consist of old people and young couples with babies. I did see a mall though. It looked like it was in walking distance from the house. Maybe there was more to this town. I decided to go online to find things to do in Louisville. My dad gave me one-thousand dollars for me to spend in Louisville this summer so I decided to make the best of what I had, starting with a break from my crazy Great Aunt Vicky.

I walked out of my bedroom and made my way to the kitchen. I was hungrier than a carpet shark on during a food shortage. When I opened Aunt Vicky's Refrigerator, I was met with a whole lot of disappointment. Everything in the fridge was not too my liking, there was skim milk, sugar free grape jelly, a six pack of diet Pepsi, cheese filled hot dogs, and worst of all turkey bacon. I always hated turkey bacon its way too salty. The rest of the items in the fridge were beer and whiskey, too much of it for anyone to be drinking. There were two twelve packs of Budweiser, Nine six packs of Miller Light and a twenty four pack of Double IPA. The rest were numerous bottles of Jack Daniels Whisky.

This was definitely the fridge of an alcoholic, disgusted I slammed the fridge. There was nothing for me to eat here, that was when I remembered that dad had given me some money for this summer, One-Thousand dollars to be exact. So I decided that I would be going out for breakfast this morning. I walked out of the kitchen and went down the hall back to my bedroom, I then got on my phone and looked up some restaurants in St. Matthews, much to my luck I found a few, they were across the street from the mall. As I was about to look up their hours to see if they were open my phone died.

"Shit," I hissed to myself. I decided to wait until it had enough energy to power up again, but I was met with loud growl from my empty stomach. That's when I decided that waiting wasn't an option. Leaving my phone on the charger I left the house.

Shutting the door behind me I realized that I would need a key if Aunt Vicky was going to be gone this much, then again I doubted that anyone would rob her in this neighborhood. I bet the only crime they get in St Matthews was the occasional parking ticket. I walked down the street; my stomach roaring with hunger and the suns light was starting to overtake the night sky.

I noticed that the neighborhood was quite active at this hour; people were going to work and some were returning home from their night shift jobs. When I was out of Aunt Vicky's neighborhood, I was met with the site of the mall that's when I knew i was near the few restaurants close by Aunt Vicky's neighborhood. My options were Chick Fil A, Arby's, and McDonald's. There was also a Logan's Road House and an Outback Steakhouse, but I knew that they weren't open this early.

I decided to go to the McDonald's because I liked their breakfast better plus they have a better selection of breakfast than most fast food places. After a lengthy walk to the restaurant I walked inside and I saw that there were three registers open and they each had a line that wasn't moving very fast. Meanwhile there was a group of people passing out brochures to everyone in line.

When I was about to get in a line to order, I was approached by this guy who looked to be my age.

"Here is a ticket to a trip to the future," He told me. I looked in the brochure and found a large silver ticket. It was a laminated piece of paper that read, "This is your ticket to the future, please come to this address if you wish to witness how the world turns out in the next tens of thousands of years." The rest of the brochure was pictures of flying cars and massive city's, and different types of future junk you would see in a sci-fi movie.

I pocketed the ticket and tossed the brochure in the garbage. I figured that this was going to be some dumb simulator ride you'd see at the mall or something. I didn't want to waste my time on something like that. After about fifteen minutes of waiting in line I finally ordered my food. After another five minutes I received it and I sat down at a table.

I dove into my hotcakes and sausage with joy knowing it was going to be better than any food I would receive from Aunt Vicky. After I was finished I threw away my trash and started walking back to Aunt Vicky's house. When I got back, I found Aunt Vicky sitting in an arm chair reading a Bible. She didn't acknowledge me when I walked through the front door. This didn't surprise me; she was probably imagining she was on Noah's Ark. I went back to my room and closed the door, I looked at my phone and I was glad to see that it was at thirty five percent. I grabbed my 3DS and began playing Super Mario 3D Land. I was on the way to having the game one hundred percent complete and I decided to spend the next few hours continuing to do so. After I was finished playing I turned the game off and put the 3DS on the charger. I walked into the living room and found Aunt Vicky still reading her Bible.

"Aunt Vicky," I said. She looked up from her Bible and removed her reading glasses.

"What, Sam," She replied irritated that I was interrupting her reading.

"Do you want to do something?" I asked.

"Like what?" She asked.

"Go out to eat. Maybe catch a movie or-"

"You mean you want me to be out there? Around all of that sinfulness? You must be out of your mind."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You see it all the time, girls walking around with shorts, showing off their butts. Sex and violence in the media all the time, do you think I want to be out there?" I gave her a confused look.

"If I could afford to do so I would live in the woods away from all of this mess. We are in the last days and I refuse to risk corrupting myself with sin. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get my studies in."

I walked out of the living room and back into my bedroom. I then unplugged my phone and my 3DS and I walked into the living room. When I opened the front door I looked back at Aunt Vicky; I watched as the old woman delved deeper and deeper into that book of her's.... If only she knew the truth. When I closed the door behind me, I quickly made my way down the street in the direction of the Mall St. Matthews. Instead of looking for food, I was going to do some shopping this time. When I walked into the mall I decided to go to my favorite store first, and that was Game Stop. On my way there I noticed that the mall was kind of full, it was noon and I didn't expect it to have as many shoppers as it did.

When I arrived at Game Stop, I went to the 3DS section and started browsing. As I was looking through the games I saw out of the corner of my eye the guy who gave me the brochure at McDonald's.

"Hey," I said turning to him. "Aren't you that guy I saw earlier?"

"Yeah," he replied. "You’re the guy who threw away the brochure."

"Oh, I'm sorry.

"Don't worry, it happens quite a bit. Not as many people are interested in a trip to the future anymore."

"Yeah about that, what exactly do you mean?" I asked. He opened his mouth to explain but he was interrupted.

"Matt we're done for the day," She told him. "Sophia and James are taking over the last shifts." She looked at me and raised her eye brow.

"Who's this?" She asked.

"I'm Sam," I greeted. "I saw you guys at McDonald's."

"I'm so glad we're leaving in three days, this place is a dump I can’t wait until we go further in the-"

"Debra!" Matt growled. Debra gave an embarrassed smirk.

"Well like I told you earlier," Debra said nervously changing the subject. "I am going to catch a movie."

"Right behind you," said Matt. "Sam, would you like to come with us?"

"Sure," I accepted. i thought I might as well go with my new acquaintances since I didn't have anything else to do. We walked to the nearby movie theater and we walked inside. I won't tell you what we went to go see but let’s just say it was a terrible movie.

"You picked a terrible movie Debra," Matt complained.

"I agree," I added.

"What can I say, i'm just a sucker for horror movies," said Debra. Debra looked at her watch.

"Holy shit, we're late for the meeting," She panicked.

"Oh god," Matt Snorted.

"What meeting?" I asked.

"The Trip to the Future meeting, they occur before the trip happens," Debra explained.

"Can I come with you?" I asked.

"Do you have your ticket?"

"Yeah."

"Then lets go," Matt shouted.

We rushed out of the theater and to the parking lot, we all got into Matt's car and we sped out of the parking lot. He drove us to an old town house in old Louisville. When we found a place to park we scrambled out of the car and we burst inside. We were met with a man in black suit and tie standing by a projector; he seemed to have been giving a lecture and looked irritated that we had just suddenly burst in and interrupted him.

"Matt, Debra." The Man said calmly. "I'm glad you could finally join us." Matt and Debra took a seat with the audience to hide their shame for being late.

"Are you a new recruit for our trip to the future?" The man asked me.

"Yes sir," I answered politely.

"Then take a seat, I'll take your ticket shortly. Welcome to the future new fish."

To be continued...

Submitted April 25, 2016 at 02:22AM by AmazingLover96 http://ift.tt/1MRjzqe nosleep