Chapter Twenty-Four #3
Ideally I’ll be able to find him earlier on, but not too early. That way if Wrath is participating, I can maybe try to figure out who he is. Just as long as I’m not the first one there.
I steel myself and enter the building. There are the stairs that lead down to the ballroom, and off to both sides of the lobby are hallways that must lead to bathrooms and probably a kitchen.
I decide to check the lower levels first and make my way up.
I’ll definitely be staying far away from the garden.
I suppress a shudder as images of two nights ago flash through my mind.
The ballroom itself is completely empty, but there are doorways leading to more bathrooms, and also outside. I check each space pretty thoroughly but doubt anyone would want to hide in a bathroom. There’s a doorway that’s slightly ajar and behind it, a stairway.
I pause at the top, wondering if this is one of those moments where in a TV show everyone is yelling at the dumb girl not to go down the steps.
But I decide to anyways, figuring I might as well rule it out.
I do want to get to the hiding spot so I can observe how people are acting.
Maybe someone will slip up in the fun and games of it all and call someone Wrath and I’ll be able to figure out his identity.
One step closer to the life I want.
I get to the bottom of the stairs and turn, finding a long corridor with a few rooms. I check them out one by one and when I enter the last one, I feel a little warmth settle in my belly, as if this room is kept at a higher temperature than the others.
But then the door slams shut behind me and I wheel around, letting out a yelp. Pisces stands there, like he was hiding behind the door. He’s slammed it shut, I realize.
“What the fuck?” I mutter, going to the door. I yank it open and try to take a step out, but find I physically can’t.
Pisces smirks. “We’re stuck here. It’s part of the wristband magic. Prevents you from finding my hiding spot and leaving to tell the others.”
“You guys take this game way too seriously.”
He shrugs. “Sure, but it’s more fun this way.” Says the guy that didn’t seem interested in playing before.
“Why’d you close the door?” I ask suspiciously.
His smirk turns into a grimace. “I wasn’t sure who you were at first. Kinda was hoping to freak one of the guys out.”
I roll my eyes at him and go lean against the opposite wall.
How the stars did I find him so easily? And quickly? I wasn’t even trying.
Silence settles over us, and only the occasional noise from outside permeates the space. Neither of us seem to want to break it, which is just fine by me. I’d rather not talk to him. I spend the next several minutes looking from the window to the open door, anything to keep my eyes off Pisces.
I keep expecting someone else to show up. It’s not like this hiding place is all that hard to find.
I check my phone. I don’t have any service down here. Well, that’s not great.
No email or games to pass the time.
A few more minutes tick by. Pisces clears his throat, and I glance at him, but he drops his gaze immediately. Was he about to say something?
I stop myself from sighing. At least conversation would be less boring.
And if we’re talking, maybe anyone looking for us will hear us and find our hiding spot that much sooner.
“I figured you would have hidden somewhere else,” I say, finally breaking the silence. It’s the only thing I can think to say.
He lifts a brow. “Why?”
“This is so close to where we started. Just seems like it’d be too obvious.”
He shrugs. Stars, I hate that. “Sometimes right under people’s noses is the best hiding spot. Why were you searching here if you didn’t think you’d find me?”
I mimic his shrug and don’t respond. There’s a small window in the room. I stare out of it, seeing a few shrubs and occasionally people’s feet as they walk past the building. Definitely in the basement, then.
“Ah,” Pisces says knowingly. “You didn’t want to find me. Why?”
“Why do you think? The first time I was stuck with you wasn’t really that fun.
” I rub my temples and cross my arms, deciding to sit on the floor.
It looks clean enough. From this angle, I can see out the open door, so hopefully if anyone comes this way they won’t miss me and they can hide with us. I desperately need a buffer.
“No, I guess it wasn’t,” he agrees after a pause.
I huff out a laugh. “You guess? Just so we’re clear, you owe me an apology.” What he said to me was so out of line.
He watches me from the wall he’s leaning on and hangs his head. He breathes out a long stream of air and comes to sit next to me. I arch my brows at him, narrowing my eyes.
He slides down the wall till he’s sitting with his legs spread out straight in front of him. He looks at me sideways, and then straight ahead. “I’m sorry for implying you’re slutty and I’m sorry for implying that you’re just arm candy.”
I roll my eyes, not really sure if he’s being genuine.
“I’m also sorry for making fun of your name.”
“Yeah, about that—who are you to talk?” I ask now, glaring at him. I almost forgot about that part of it.
He smiles sheepishly at me and a traitorous part of my mind can’t help but find his smile endearing and charming. Just because he’s a cute guy doesn’t mean he can get away with being a jerk, I remind myself.
He bends his knees and rests his elbows on them, his hands hanging in between his legs. He fiddles with his fingers. “You ever think maybe our mothers had something against us? Like their labor was so hard they had to get back at us in some way?”
I let out a laugh. “If that’s the case, I would have thought Amelia would have gotten the weird name. Apparently they put my mom on more drugs during my delivery, so it should have been easier.”
Pisces chuckles and the sound does something to me. It’s deep and rough. I look over at him and he meets my gaze, growing somber. “I am really sorry, about before. I was already feeling angry about something else. I took it out on you and I shouldn’t have.”
I guess I can’t really blame him. And I was only talking to him to try to get details on the band. That wasn’t super nice of me. “Apology accepted.”
He smiles softly at me and leans his head back against the wall. His dark brown hair falls into his eyes and he sweeps a hand across his forehead.
“Just so we’re clear, I don’t know how to braid hair, so we’ll have to skip that part of our new friendship,” he jokes.
I reach up and touch the ribbon that’s tying up my hair into a ponytail. But I match his smile.
“Can I ask you a question about your job?” I ask, hoping he won’t think I’m just trying to get information about him.
He looks at his hands. “I guess so.”
“How’d you get started as a guitar tech? I’m thinking if Goddess’ Trance does another big gig like this—which hopefully we will—I should try to hire some techs.”
Pisces and I look towards the door, hearing a muffled sound, but it seems too far away to be anyone coming down here.
Turning back to me he says, “I honestly just got it because I was already friends with some of the guys. You could probably ask around, see if any musicians you know want to make a little extra money. Though there are a lot of technical things they’d have to be familiar with.
It’s not as easy as just playing the instrument. ”
I nod. I’ll task my musicians with asking around.
“Can I ask you a question?” Pisces asks.
“Sure,” I say, a little scared of what he’ll ask.
“You said you broke up with that guy? Goddess’ Trance’s old guitarist?”
“My question was way easier,” I reply, mostly to stall and gather myself. I was not expecting him to bring up Jordan.
He laughs, the sound echoing around the empty concrete room. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“Yeah, we broke up. I finally saw how terrible he was treating me. It was like I had a blindfold on the entire time we were dating. I actually realized it after a Voracious Maw show. Something about Wrath’s lyrics helped the blindfold come off, I guess.”
“Seriously? Which lyrics?”
“In ‘Owe,’ when Wrath sings ‘You don’t get to decide when my fate ends’ and then screams ‘It’s not up to you!’” I pause, smiling. “There are a ton more I could list, but when I heard those lines for the first time it was eye opening.”
Pisces doesn’t say anything, his eyes roaming my face.
“And he crashed his car while driving me home that night. I almost died,” I continue.
A guttural sound comes from his throat and I can see he’s no longer looking at me but at the wall opposite us. His jaw clenches and his fists tighten into balls.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He breathes in and out slowly through his nose a few times and nods. “Yeah. I’m sorry, it’s just—I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
I place my hand on his forearm. I wonder if he can somehow relate to what I’ve told him. His reaction seems to indicate as much. But I don’t want to pry.
The cords of muscle along his arm seem to relax as he allows his fingers to uncurl. I remove my hand and let out a sigh. “I can’t help but wonder what Wrath has been through in his life, for his lyrics to be that powerful. That life changing, ya know?”
Pisces doesn’t respond. I look up and find his eyes have narrowed again. Fuck. I forgot how mad he was when I was asking him questions before about the band.
“I didn’t mean—I’m just talking about the lyrics. Not asking you to spill any details.”
Pisces stands up. “Yeah, but I can’t help but feel like you’re only talking to me because I know him.”
“You think I’m trying to use you?”
Pisces stares down at me, his hands curled into fists again. “Aren’t you? You’re trying to flirt with Simon and now you’re telling me a sob story.”
“It’s not like that at all.”
“But you want to get to Wrath, you want to meet him.”