Sunlight filtered in through the worn shutters, making me squint as I got dressed for the day, stretching my sore limbs.
My ears still rang from yesterday's show, the screams from the crowd along with Sebastian's voice echoing in and out of my mind and images of the rabid sea of fans, their faces splattered with blood, flashed through my brain.
I took a deep breath, trying to force it all out of my head.
What if he tries to take it further?
I shuddered, remembering Sebastian's idea to put up burning crosses on the stage and his arrogance towards any sort of voice of reason.
For now, I hoped to God that he would be content with the animal guts and wouldn't suggest any other wild ideas that could potentially get us in trouble with the law or worse.
As I pulled on a sweatshirt, I was reminded of Astrid. I wondered how she was doing and decided to give her a call after breakfast to catch up on all our gossip. I don't even know why I thought of her at that moment...bits of a conversation...something about Sebastian...unhinged...the conversation that we'd had about Sebastian suddenly flashed back to me.
Was she really right about him?
I sighed, not sure what to think. He definitely seemed reckless in the way he acted and some of the things he said disgusted me but I didn't want to jump to a conclusion this soon. Maybe he was still settling in and would simmer down eventually.
I heard a knock on my door and quickly went to open it.
"Morning, Marlene," Eric said with a yawn, "hope you got some sleep after last night's mess."
"It could have been worse," I shrugged, "at least the authorities didn't come."
"Or the priests..." Eric said with a small smile.
"Yeah, oh god," I laughed.
With his dark hair sticking up everywhere and the purplish circles under his eyes contrasting sharply with his pallid skin, he looked as if he could still use an hour or two of sleep.
"So, you ready for a chowdown at Mother Sig's House of Pancakes?" he asked, giving me a playful nudge.
"Sig's House of Pancakes. Are you for real?"
"200%," the guitarist said.
Sigs House of Pancakes was rumoured to be the best breakfast lounge in all of Sweden. Maybe even all of Europe. It was a place that had been featured in newspapers, magazines, and even Sweden's Royalty had eaten his breakfast there on more than one occasion. To say that it was a mere local favourite was an understatement.
"Oh, then absolutely!" I exclaimed, "I'll be out in a bit."
"I'll see you in the parking lot then," he said, giving me a small wave as he walked down the hallway.
For some reason, I had a strange longing for a few brief seconds to spend some time with Eric away from everyone else, an outing where it would just be the two of us...walking hand in hand along the cobbled streets, maybe popping into a record stor-no, what was I thinking? Holding hands with Eric? I inwardly slapped myself for even thinking this to begin with.
He's just a friend, nothing more
I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear my head of all these odd thoughts before pulling on my boots and heading out into the hallway and down the stairs which lead to the parking lot where my band mates were waiting for me.
Sebastian smiled, not his usual smug grin, but the friendly one reserved for me or so it seemed.
"How was your sleep, Marlene?" he purred.
"Fine," I answered curtly, getting into the passenger seat beside Eric.
"Man, last night was fucking crazy!" Ace said as Eric pulled out of the parking lot and into the main road.
"Very. Now, that's how you do a proper set," Sebastian chuckled.
Eric rolled his eyes.
"Look, man your idea went better than I expected as in, like, nobody called the cops on us. But I still feel like it's a bit too much, you know."
"Awww, is daddy's little boy scared of the fuzz?" Sebastian sneered.
Eric opened his mouth to bite back but I was already one step ahead of him.
I usually tried to hold in my anger and keep out of arguments but when it was my two band mates about to start another massive argument in the car and disrupt the morning mood, it was next to impossible for me to just sit back and watch Sebastian be a prick to one of my closest friends.
"Quit it, Sebastian!" I snapped, "be happy that we even went along with your idea at all."
"She's right," Ace said, "I don't know why you're still so pissy about this whole thing!"
"You know what?" Eric said, pulling into the parking lot, "we'll use your idea for now but if we get in trouble with the law, it's out the window. Got it?"
"Yes. Fine," Sebastian muttered, shooting me a hurt glance, upset that I had sided with his sworn enemy instead of him. "Whatever," he grumbled.
I had a feeling that this wasn't the end of the argument.
The three of us got out of the car and began walking towards the restaurant which had been built to resemble the log cabins of the old days.
The delicious aroma of pancakes and blueberries drifting out from the open door and the friendly atmosphere inside the restaurant were such a contrast from our previous moods that we almost completely forgot about the argument as we sat down and began to look through the menu.
My attention slowly began to wander towards the small group of girls and boys sitting at the table across from us.
These were typical Swedish teenagers, the girls dressed in colourful blouses and sweaters with their hair in braids and the boys with neatly combed hair and expensive trousers of the latest fashion.
One of the girls was watching us warily while her companions continued to chat about something...something about a band of Satanists and drug addicts...something about the band performing a Satanic ritual at their show....something about animal heads....?
"Man, why the fuck are those pussies staring at us like that," Ace said as if voicing my thoughts, "I'm pretty sure that I did take a shower this morning."
"Keep it down," I hissed, "I think that they're talking about us."
"The hell are you shitheads staring at me like that, huh?" Sebastian suddenly shouted, standing up from his seat.
"Dude, sit your ass down. No need to cause a fucking scene this early in the morning," Eric growled.
Sebastian ignored him and began to make his way over to the petrified teenagers.
"Stay away from us you freak!" one of the boys snapped, stepping in front of his friends, a knife in his hands.
By now, the eyes of everyone in the restaurant was on us.
"What's this commotion about?"
A waitress walked over to us and crossed her arms.
The boy quickly put down the knife and pointed at us.
"These people threatened us!"
The waitress frowned.
"We can't have this kind of behaviour in the restaurant. All of you. Take your things and get out."
"We didn't do anything, ma'am! I actually told him to sit dow-" Eric began to protest.
"I don't care who started it. Just get out," the waitress said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Eric growled and began to make his way out the door, Ace and I trailing slowly behind him, both of us still trying to process what had just happened.
Closing the door behind him, Sebastian smiled as if nothing had happened and sat down on the curb, as content as a serpent sunning itself on a warm rock.
"What the fuck was that about!?" Eric spat, stomping over to him.
"What do you mean 'the fuck was that about?,'" Sebastian answered coldly, "I got people talking about us."
"Yeah, but causing a scene like that was unnecessary."
"Unnecessary? I'm trying to help you and your band get out there," Sebastian shouted.
Ace groaned, sitting down on the pavement and rocking back and forth.
"Sebastian, just shut up. You're acting like a spoiled 12 year old," he scoffed.
"Keep your nose out of this, Ace," Sebastian snapped, "anyways, you're never going to achieve anything. You'll always be at the bottom, always, if you sit on your fat arse all day, Eric."
"That's not the point, man. There's a time and a place for that kind of poser scaring shit you fucking idiot! A restaurant isn't the place for that," Eric snarled at the bassist, clenching his fists.
Sebastian opened his mouth to argue but quickly shut it as three guys dressed in battle vests with long, greasy hair walked out of the restaurant and began to head our way.
"Hey, we saw you guys play yesterday. That shit was fucking brutal! And we mean that in the best way possible," a tall curly haired one said with a grin.
"Thanks, dude! We're probably gonna do another show in a few weeks so stay the fuck tuned for that," Eric said, all the previous anger gone from his voice.
"And we're also very likely releasing our first full length album soon," Ace chimed in.
"Ooh! That's fucking great. We can't wait for it. You guys have a badass sound and stage setup and we can definitely picture a band like Sodom or some shit having you as an opening act!," curly-hair grinned, his companions chattering in agreement.
"One day," Eric said, looking up at the cloudless, blue sky.
"Next time, bring your demos so we can sign them," I suggested to them, "perhaps one day far in the future, you can look back on them and think 'man, I remember seeing this band play live many years before they were featured on Kerrang and named Sweden's most influential metal band on MTV.'"
"You bet!" curly-hair shouted as he and his friends turned to leave, "we'll see you at the next show!"
I waved to them, thinking about what they said. An opening act for Sodom? That would be a dream come true for all of us. We still had quite a ways to go and we still were in the process of finishing writing the songs for our first album with Sebastian rewriting some of, well, the majority of Kristina's bass riffs. We were hoping that our album would land us a feature on one of the many popular metal zines. It probably wasn't very likely to happen but we didn't let that get our hopes down.
As soon as the group of metalheads were out of earshot, Sebastian turned to Eric with a satisfied smile.
"You can thank me for that."
Eric scoffed.
"It's not like people weren't attending our shows before you joined."
"Did you even listen to what they said?," Sebastian growled, stepping closer to the guitarist, "they seemed very impressed with our stage set up so I suggest we continue with my idea."
"We already said that we'll continue using your idea," I groaned, pulling at my hair in frustration, "can we just get this argument over with?"
"Yeah, man. I don't understand why you're still fucking going at this," Eric said.
Sebastian quickly raised his hands as if in mock defeat.
"Oh yes, I was just making sure that our leader wasn't intent on changing our plans here," he said, giving Eric a look of pure contempt.
As we headed back to the car, our stomachs empty and grumbling in hunger, I suddenly felt nauseous. Not from the hunger, but nauseous at the venom and the passionate resentment that encircled Sebastian's voice whenever he opened his mouth.
Why was he always so damn angry?
What did he have against Eric?
Why is sticking out always his top priority?
Why does he seem to despise everybody but me...?
YOU ARE READING
Metal Storm
General Fiction17 year old heavy metal nerd and English whiz Marlene Fjörsberg had never thought that her near future would be much different from the university life that her family had already planned out for her but a poster would very quickly change all of tha...
