Sometimes You Make It...

by Indie Cred

Chapter 4

The rest of Indie’s work week passed by uneventfully. He inventoried, he lifted, he smoked, in the evenings he drank. His life had become a constant cycle of monotony, broken occasionally by the odd paying gig or workplace incident. He walked into the warehouse fifteen minutes late on Saturday, and was fully expecting to be docked an hours pay, not to mention the earful he’d get from Mr. Shipley. Instead, he found the doorway taped off, and everyone standing outside.

“What’s going on?” He asked a nearby worker.

“Brickstone… He’s…” The worker started to reply, but was cut short my his own voice.

Another worker, a Pegasus Indie regularly worked lift crew with spoke up. “One of the crates on aisle three wasn’t set properly. One of the lift crews was moving a crate and bumped it… It landed on Brickstone…”

“Which-“ Indie started to say, but quickly thought better of it. He moved away from the two he’d been speaking to and looked through the doorway. A sheet covered the body of Brickstone, blocking Indie’s view. A small breeze kicked up, moving the sheet slightly to reveal his back. A grey coat and a red mane.

Indie suddenly felt sick to his stomach, and moved away from the doorway. He sat down, leaning against the outer wall of the warehouse and tried to light a cigarette. His hooves were shaking badly, and it took a few moments to finally light it. He smoked slowly, staring into nothing, lost in thoughts. He’d barely known Brickstone, but seeing his body there shook him to the very core.

A panic set over Indie suddenly. “Was I on the lift crew that set that crate?” He thought to himself. “Did I kill that stallion?”

He was shaking so badly he dropped his smoke. He didn’t move to pick it up, instead he just stared at the ember. “Try now we can only lose… And our love becomes a funeral pyre…” He quietly sang.

Still shaking, he got up and walked back to his apartment.

“We could totally do this!” Vinyl yelled.

“I know, I know… Stop yelling already.”

“I’m sorry… I’m just excited…”

“I know you are.”

Indie leaned in and kissed her forehead. Vinyl smiled and shoved him away.

“Stop changing the subject you jerk. Are we going to do this or what?”

“Yeah. I’ll talk to Mr. Chance about it tonight. If he’s up for it, the next one will be our show.”

Vinyl smiled again. “Our show. I like the sound of that…”

“Me too hun, me too…”

Indie slowly walked up the stairs to his apartment, steadying himself against the wall. He felt his stomach churn, and bolted through the door and into the bathroom. Retching and shaking, he loosed his last meal, which was luckily just a cup of coffee and a bagel.

He flushed, and stared at his reflection in the water. He hadn’t looked himself in the eye in quite some time. Dark bags were under his eyes, and his mane was slightly matted and dull. He found himself unable to meet his own gaze for more than a moment.

What he had seen today was horrifying, but what truly scared him was how quickly it had happened. All this time he’d been living like he had all the time in the world. Suddenly, he’d realized that he had less time than he’d thought. No more. No more of this living in fear. It took the death of a co-worker for him to realize how easily he could miss his dreams altogether. He turned on the tap and stepped into the shower. He stood motionless, leaning against the wall as the warm water ran all around him.