Metal Storm

Behind These Walls

Placing the phone back on its stand, I nodded at Ace who once again turned up Death's Scream Bloody Gore on the record player loud enough that I was pretty damn sure that every forest creature in the surrounding woods got their first taste of death metal that afternoon.
Over Chuck's raw screams detailing acts of sacrifice and disembowelment and the intense onslaught of guitars, I heard a car horn honk.
Peering through the kitchen shutters, I saw that there was an unfamiliar car parked in our driveway.
It was an ancient hatchback, the kind that belched out those awful grey plumes of exhaust that choked the lungs of passerbies and had every environmental advocate shaking their heads.
Someone, a heavyweight dude with a mane of shaggy light brown hair and acne sprinkled across his forehead, got out of the front seat and made his way to the door which i quickly ran to open.
I was sure that I'd glimpsed this guy at yesterday's show somewhere near the front row, screaming wildly in delight and ecstasy as the putrid blood splattered into his face.
Putting on a smile and slipping a pen into my pocket in case the guy had a demo to sign, I smoothed my hair quickly and opened the door only to be met with an unfriendly glare.
"Uh, hi..." I managed to say, "are you looking for somebody."
"Yeah, obviously I'm looking for someone. Why else do you think I've driven all the way to this shithole?" the guy said.
Although I was a bit taken back by his abrupt rudeness, I managed to maintain my composure and asked him who he was looking for.
"I'm looking for Sebastian," the dude said, crossing his arms, "can you go and get him for me, man. We're running short on time here."
I noticed a small pendant hanging around his neck. It seemed to be of some kind of eagle crest thing. It looked oddly familiar but I couldn't place my finger on where else I had seen it but I was sure that I'd seen Sebastian wearing it once or twice.
Running upstairs, I knocked on his door, quickly stepping by when he opened it.
"Oh, hello Marlene. Whats on your mind, my friend?" he asked, peering his head out and staring at me intently as if he was studying every pore on my face.
"Some guy said that he wants to see you," I replied.
"Oh yes," Sebastian said, his eyes lighting up, "tell him that I will be down in a few minutes."
I nodded and headed back downstairs, giving the information to the impatient acquaintance of Sebastian's.
The bassist came downstairs a few minutes later, dressed in dark jeans and a bullet belt, giving me a goodbye wave and flashing me a small smile as he headed out the door, getting into his friend's car before they drove away in a cloud of dust.
"Who was that?" Ace asked me, as he joined me on the porch.
I shrugged.
"Sebastian's friend, I guess? I don't know, honestly."
"Dude, do you remember when he talked about how friendships were for pussies?"
I frowned.
"Yeah..."
I remembered that conversation pretty well.
It happened at dinner a couple weeks ago when Eric had mentioned something about all of us going to one of the metal clubs nearby one day, suggesting that it would be a good way to connect with the Stockholm metal scene, find out about local zines and festivals, and perhaps make friends with some of the people our age within it to which Sebastian had scoffed at, saying that friendships were for weaklings and going on about how the only people that he would let get close to him are ones that he trusted and considered "allies."
"Friends? Who needs friends? Having friends is for stupid children. A circle of trusted individuals and perhaps a pretty girl to sleep with beats any pathetic friendship," he'd said.
We were all quite weirded out by his statement as well a lot of the other things he said but none of us said anything about it or tried to argue with him.
Not even Eric.
By now, we tried to do everything that we could to not cause any more tension than there was in our shared house.
Several times I had heard Svenn and Eric talk about kicking out Sebastian and finding a new bass player only for both of them to eventually come to the agreement that when we were this close to recording our first studio album, it was probably best to just put up with him for a while longer until Eric was able to somehow get in contact with Kristina again and have her join us as the bassist of Hell's Gate once again.
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A/N:
apologies for the slower updates, ive been kind of having a small writing block lately so this chapter isn't as long as usual but i should have a much longer one up in a few days :)) thank yall so much for reading and voting