4. - – Paul
CHAPTER FOUR
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PAUL
“I’m spent.” I whisper into Misha’s ear, feeling her trembling in her post-orgasmic haze between me and the now cracked door behind her.
She looks more beautiful than ever, with her face shimmering with sweat, and the headscarf hanging precariously off her left ear, ready to drop to the floor with nothing more than a heavy breath. She’s disheveled and ruined, and so fucking stunning that I could stay impaled inside of her forever.
Of course I don’t get the chance, and the peace following the rough sex is shattered with the sound of people yelling bloody murder in the hallway just outside the green room.
Dropping Misha to her feet, and making sure she’s steady, I yank up my shorts, not even bothering to tighten the belt around my waist as the sound of feet running past the closed door vibrates it in its frame almost as violently as we just did.
“Paul?” She says my name in question, and it’s all I need to know that I must step in and help with whatever is going on.
I know she’s been a victim of violence at the hands of a man, and I know that she’d want me to be the type of man she sees in me. I just have no clue what’s going out there, and I hope it’s nothing like that.
“You stay here. Let me see what’s going on.” I tell her, stealing a chaste kiss from her flushed lips before picking her up and moving her still trembling self out of the way.
It’s utter pandemonium when I whip open the door and peer out into the long corridor.
What was speckled with a few people here and there when we came through before has become a zoo.
Fans, staff, roadies, and the band members themselves are all running down the hallway towards screams that grow louder near the rear emergency exit of the building.
Their screams of fear and shock, and there are multiples of them.
The only person I don’t see in the mess is Red, Lucian’s girl, and the woman who keeps all these crazy rockstars in check. I scan the crowd, looking through the stampede for her fire engine red hair, but see nothing of her, and when the screams ring out again, I’m certain hers is one of them.
“Paul! With us.” Lucian says as he races past me, grabbing my arm, dragging me behind him and the other three guys who barrel through the mass of people, pushing everyone out of their way, knocking them down, or slamming them into the walls.
“What’s going on?” I ask as he yanks on me harder, making my feet go faster than I knew they could.
“I don’t know. Red went out to the buses to change, and someone said they’re on fire.” He says, seeming aggravated that I’m slowing him down even though I’m at a full run next to him, panting my head off and straining to keep up.
“Shit.” I huff out, knowing that Red is one tough bitch and fully capable of handling business, yet worried just the same.
I’m confused and concerned as we make our way to the back door, and blast through the steel obstruction like it’s made of tissue paper.
It flies open, crashing against the brick of the building outside, rattling on its hinges as we tear out into the dark night illuminated only by the street lamps scattered through the parking lot of the venue.
Lucian screeches to a halt, his feet stopping on the blacktop, and I slam into his shoulder, almost knocking myself onto my ass, but he catches me with one arm as he lifts his face to the sky and sniffs the air like a bloodhound.
“This way.” He says, pulling me with him, then finally letting go, realizing I’m only being a hindrance to his haste.
The others follow him like a pack of wild dogs, whooping and hollering as they get far ahead of the crowd that followed out of curiosity, leaving me behind with the fans and other staff members to follow.
The sleek black tour buses, with the Screaming Fyre skeleton painted on their sides, sit idling at the back of the lot, their engines rumbling loudly, and their exhausts pouring the stink of diesel into the air.
Behind them comes a flickering light of orange and red, and the unmistakable crackling of something burning.
I rush as fast as I can, my heart in my throat, towards the fire that now bursts out from behind the front of the two buses. It licks the sky like a devil and roars loudly as it grows larger with each breath of the night air.
“Holy fuck!” I yell, coming up to the vehicle, seeing the fire licking at its tires and bubbling the paint on the opposite side from the source of the blaze.
Lucian, Cary, Derrick, and Marcus disappear behind the bus, the view of them lost to the flames and the thick black smoke that rises from the burning metal and paint.
“Luc! Marcus! Guys!” I scream out, rushing as close to the blaze as I can get, holding my hand up in front of my face to protect my eyes from the searing heat. “Where are you?”
I’ve worked for the four of them since the beginning, and I’ve seen some weird shit, but this, this takes the cake.
They’ve run straight into a fire that’s now grown into a beast engulfing both buses like it’s just another adventure.
There was no hesitation before they disappeared into the inferno.
They were just…gone and in search of the band mother and the love of Lucian’s life.
The fire is doubling in size every second, pushing me back as I scan the smoke and cinders that float by for any sign of the guys or Red. I can feel the intense heat reaching out for me, licking me, smoldering the clothes on my overheated body.
I don’t think it can get any worse, but am humbled instantly when the bus in the back explodes.
It’s a thunderous racket, rumbling the ground beneath my feet, blasting me backwards onto my ass as the shockwave hits me like a freight train, lifting me off my feet and tossing me into the receding crowd like a rag doll.
“Luc! Guys!” I scream with the last of my breath before the blast and the landing on the parking lot knocks it out of me.
There’s no way that anyone could survive that explosion. It’s too big, too violent, too hot. In an instant, I’ve lost my four best friends, and my employers. The tears well up in my eyes, drying on my cheeks from the heat the second they fall.
“Nooo.” I cry out, gagging on the smoke, burning my lungs with each inhale, blowing black soot out with each wail. “No, no, no, no, no!”