Hanging around...(Open)

[Emily Carter]

A N A W F U L L Y

[/font] B I G[/font] A D V E N T U R E[/center]

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Emily was standing by the horror section. She regularly frequented that area, and had watched nearly every horror DVD that Rock Ridge Movies owned. Still, she was always on the look out for something new. She reached out a white-gloved hand and pulled Creep off of the shelf. She'd seen it before and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to see it again just yet, but it was a possible. She loved British films, especially horror and comedy. The humour and style was so much more to her taste than some of the modern Hollywood turnouts. Plus, what girl in their right mind could resist that sexy English accent. She smiled to herself, looking at the front cover of the DVD case.

Her room mates would be out that evening, so she'd be watching whatever she rented alone. She frowned slightly. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to go for a horror film then... She almost giggled at how pathetic she was being. Films rarely scared her, but every now and then she'd find something that still gave her that exciting, nervous adrenaline rush. The last film that had made her react like that was Guillermo Del Toro's The Orphanage. She'd recently developed a taste for Del Toro's films. They were all in Spanish with subtitles, but once she got into them, that didn't really bother her, or affect the story. Her favourite so far was Pan's Labyrinth, about the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and a magical kingdom and faun. It was exactly right for Emily; thrilling but with a satisfying ending. However, today she was tired. She'd been writing an essay until one that morning and she could already feel her eyelids getting heavy; not the perfect condition to be reading subtitles.

Hesitantly she pushed Creep back onto the shelf, deciding that she really wasn't in the mood for it, and moved along the row slightly, her eyes filtering over the titles, searching for something to entertain her. Ok, so if she was going to be too much of a scaredy cat to watch a horror alone, she'd go for something funny; a chick flick. She walked around the end of the isle into the NEW REALEASES section. There were a number of titles she recognised from ads on the television and a couple that she'd actually seen at the cinema. Still, she fancied something new, something she hadn't seen yet. Crossing her arms over the brown leather of her jacket, she resolved herself to looking through the DVDs.

[Jonathan Dominic Goforth]

<Zakhar Edit - Because I'm staff and we don't want to leave you hanging over here while Kendall and I get our buts in gear on bios, I'm going ahead and posting with this character anyway!>

Ash wandered up and down the isles blue eyes staring rather blankly at the rows upon rows of DVDs. He barely noticed the strange looks he was getting from the girl standing at the cashier, he had been wandering the isles for close to an hour now. At first he truly had been looking for a movie, but stupidly he had headed to the action section. He hadn't seen an action movie in over a year and yet the first thing he did was headed straight to them. He had actually managed to glance at a few movie titles before one really affected him. There were the Speed movies, Resident Evil, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (what was that doing in the action section?) and then his eyes had landed on Black Hawk Down.

Then the memories started. Oh God, the memories. Jay with blood pouring out of his leg, the little girl's mangled body, the Major shouting orders for a retreat after the hummer in front of them blew up taking, the hummer that he should have been on. The only thing that kept the memories manageable was the pacing. One, two. One, two. He counted in his head as walked. If he could occupy his mind he could get himself out of this stupor.

To think that he had come here with the intention of keeping this from happening. Today was the anniversary of his first battle. Not a day he wanted to remember, so here he was in the movie store trying to forget. The sound of a his own cell phone, however, snapped Ash out of his stupor. He stopped pacing, and though his hands were shaking slightly and the memories still drifted in the back of his mind, he was under enough control to answer his phone with a controlled, "Hello?"

"Hey Ash! Are you busy right now?" came the blessed voice of his little sister.

A small smile spread across the man's face, "Nope, what do you need?"

He could practically hear the excitement in her voice, "Well first, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I new you would want to know. Jay is on his way to Texas to visit his sister, so he called for your address and is planning on surprising you in a few days!" He couldn't help but let his smile grow at his sister's excitement and a little of his own. He hadn't seen Jay in months. Last time he had seen Jay they had both been three sheets to the wind trying to forget the horrors they had seen in Iraq. If anyone could help Ash it would be Jay. "And I was wondering if you could help me with this calculus problem. Mr. Staten's going to give us a pop quiz tomorrow, I just know it, but I don't understand this problem!" Ash quickly found himself explaining limits to his sister as he made his way to the comedy section.

The conversation ended quickly once Tanya understood the problem, she had plans to go out to dinner with a friend and needed to get ready, but promised to call him later. Rolling his eyes at his sister's exuberance, Ash shoved his phone back into a pocket before he started perusing the movies, the horrible memories nearly forgotten in the whirlwind that was his sister.