Chapter 20 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
D are I say it?
As Becca dragged me through the paint chipped doors of the underground venue, jostled on both sides by other anxious fans, I had to admit it…I was having fun .
We weren’t even in the main venue yet, and already I could feel it, a bubble of excitement in my chest ready to explode.
As we were herded down the narrow corridor and out onto the floor, a smile pulled at my lips and lifted the edges of my eyes.
Eyes that must’ve shone with the glow of the neon lights pulsing above in time to the music.
The band currently on stage was one I wasn’t very familiar with but enjoyed listening to nonetheless. I let Becca pull me into the meat of it, brushing shoulders with her and Grey and about six other people as we danced.
Becca laughed as the song came to an end and those around us cheered, I tipped back my head to let loose a wolfish howl, raising my hands to clap with those around me.
I caught Grey staring and whatever bit of ice remained crusted around my heart began to thaw at the look on his face.
It was as though I could read his mind with that single glance. I’m happy you’re happy , he seemed to say, but more than that. There was relief there, too. So deep that it hurt to look at. Had I been that withdrawn lately?
Thinking back to the night of the attack, I realized I had been.
I’d hardly left the loft save for classes and the odd meal with the guys.
And they’d left me to process everything on my own, only popping in every now and again to ask questions, showing that they were working to hunt down my stalker just as surely as I was.
They wouldn’t like what I had planned to finally catch the motherfucker, but if everything worked out, whoever it was would be dead and then none of us would have to worry anymore.
If he wasn’t dead already. My phone had been oddly devoid of threatening messages since last week, and I was starting to think the fall really had been too much for the bastard to recover from after all.
It would make things easier for me, that was for sure, but truth be told, I wanted to be the one to finish him off with my bare hands, and maybe a blade or two. It was a waste for a sadistic fuck like him to die without my being a part of it.
Too easy.
“Hey,” Grey shouted as the band on stage announced that they would play one last song before welcoming Primal Ethos on stage. “Where did you go just now?”
“Hmm?”
“Come back,” he urged me with an encouraging grin, slipping his hand into mine.
But something pained flickered behind his amber eyes and I saw worry there that I hadn’t noticed before.
Something was going on, but whatever it was Grey seemed resolved not to let me carry any of the burden of it.
Preferring to be a grouch the whole way here, at least until now.
“Stay in this moment, AJ. You deserve it.”
Something fluttered in my chest, and I gave his hand a squeeze, nodding that I agreed even if a part of me thought I deserved all the misery the world could muster to give me. I’d ask him what was eating at him later. Help him if I could.
“Come on, Aves!” Becca screamed, twirling as the last song from the opening band started to play, holding her hands out to me as she came to a stop. “Dance with me, babe!”
How the hell could I say no to that face?
Grey stuck close by us as Becca and I danced and my eyes popped open when she stealthily drew a tiny bottle of Jack from between her breasts. I snatched it from her and looked around, making sure no one saw. “Are you trying to get us kicked out?”
She laughed. “Look around, babe! You see any security?”
I did as she asked and this deep into the heart of the floor, there was no security at all and in fact, I noticed several others drinking their contraband booze, and laughed.
“It’s for you,” she shouted, still swaying to the beat as the song began to slow to its end. “I have to drive.”
I didn’t comment on the fact that she seemed totally at peace with driving high, shaking my head at her instead as I held up the tiny bottle to Grey. “Want some?” I offered.
He gestured to me in reply. “All yours.”
All righty then…why not?
I’d been handling my liquor pretty damn well these past few weeks and that was saying something since my life had been reduced to a pile of smoking ash.
“Bottoms up,” Becca cheered as I downed the small bottle in one go and passed the empty to Grey when he reached for it. It seared a path all the way down to my belly, and a prickling warmth bloomed through the rest of my body, making me shiver.
But…
“Nasty,” I said, shaking my head as my tongue recoiled from the flavor.
Becca laughed. “We’ll try Crown next time. That’s my favorite.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I nodded, a heightened sense of ease taking root. “Whatever you say, boss.”
The crowd broke into cheers, and we turned to give our attention back to the opening band, screaming and clapping with the others.
“That’s it for us, Lodi!” the main singer called. “We had a blast tonight and we’re fucking gutted to have to leave y’all, but it’s time for the next act.”
The decibel level as the crowd went wild reached an all-time high in anticipation of Primal Ethos.
I noticed how Grey had positioned himself behind Becca and me and was blocking several overly rowdy concert-goers from knocking into or jostling us. I smiled at him gratefully. Not that I couldn’t have handled it, but it was nice to have him watching out for Becca, too.
“Let’s welcome him back to the stage for the first time in over a year! Who are you here for, Lodi?”
“Primal Ethos!” the crowd responded, and slowly, a chant began to grow, echoing all over the tightly clustered space.
“ Bone Man, Bone Man, Bone Man! ”
Becca and I joined in while Grey remained silent at our backs, tense and so pensive I almost asked him what was wrong, but then the lights all went out, plunging the room into a darkness so deep that I couldn’t even see Becca beside me more than her faint outline.
I clutched her arm, reaching back to tangle my fingers with Grey’s on instinct as the crowd hushed.
A black light flickered on the stage only a moment later, giving us a stilted, shuttering view of a bone-white skeleton face staring coolly out at nothing.
Becca squealed, her voice rising with the others as the black light flickered for the last time, now blooming to cast its eerie glow on the man standing center stage.
As the others around me screamed and shouted, welcoming Primal Ethos on stage, I could only stare, a deeply rooted emotion growing from deep within to claw up my throat, silencing me.
He truly was a real person. This man who sang of things few could ever really understand. Not in the way he did. Not in the way I did.
A beat started and the crowd began a new wave of cheers as the man with the skeleton face on stage lifted a microphone to his lips.
He hummed the first notes with the beats, his smoke and honey voice reverberating in my chest just as surely as it was in his as he felt out the music, letting his body flow with it, too.
He looked like the devil incarnate. The Bone Man , they called him, and I could see how it fit.
Dressed all in black with dark hair slicked back and white contacts covering his eyes, all that was clearly visible of him was his size, tall and muscled, but lithe.
And his made-up face, done in a stark contrast of black and white that managed to look so real you almost had to wonder if it was.
The Bone Man’s voice rose with the first lyrics of Anthem of the Broken and my breath caught in my throat, stuck there, held back by a burning dam.
“We march up this mountainside alone.
Tired and broken, we push on.
One foot. Another. Do it all once more.
We crack and shatter while they rush past,
over jagged peaks with wings of steel…
…while ours are porcelain.”
Becca’s voice rose to meet The Bone Man’s, lifting up and filling the space with hundreds of others all singing his anthem.
But how many of them really understood his words?
How many were crushed under the boots of the mighty?
Forced into silence? How many could relate as he sang the verse about finding your hands red with blood and wondering what you’d done?
About not being sorry, but being afraid of finding yourself immobile, shut up behind bars, locked away with only the voice in your own head for company.
About how insane that would make you. About how that purposeless life wouldn’t just break your already crumbling wings, but shatter your soul, too.
As the song grew in strength building up to the chorus, I felt something in my soul lift.
“Find your broken crew,
’Cause they’re the only ones who can save you.”
My skin prickled as a new voice rose to join The Bone Man’s on stage and the crowd absolutely rioted at the new addition.
The female voice weaving with The Bone Man’s on stage, mingling with his in a way that couldn’t be described in mere words.
I searched for the other singer, expecting a guest act to have joined him, but he sang alone, like he always did.
It shouldn’t have taken me so long to realize why the voice woke something inside of me, but when I did, I almost hit the fucking floor.
How?
How had…
Tremors of fear and unease raced up and down my spine and a cold dread filled me all the way down to my toes.
“Oh my god, she’s amazing!” Becca shouted, teary eyed and screaming as she swayed to the chorus. She hadn’t noticed.
I turned to find Grey staring past me toward the stage, his lips parted and brows drawn.
Oh god.
I turned back and followed his gaze, pushing up on my toes to see.
Tall and lean, broad through the shoulders. You’d never know it if you hadn’t spent weeks imagining what it might feel like to feel the crunch of his nasal bones under your fist.
No.
The chorus ended, segueing into the end of the song and the crowd roared. Not just for him , but for her .