It's a Long Way Down

Chapter Six: The Ritual

We were all packing up our instruments, preparing to go to the venue. Sodo had kept his word and made me practice all day, making me mess up on the songs I had previously perfected. I sighed as I laid my guitar in its case, locking it up before bringing it to the van bringing all our stuff to the venue. We were all dressed in our Ritual attire, not wanting to risk Fans seeing us in normal clothes or mask-less.

We soon piled into our van, making our way to the venue. Rain was next to me while I was by the window. My best friend was playing with my fingers, probably nervous about the show, last minute jitters and all. Everyone stayed silent the entire car ride there. It wasn't uncomfortable or anything, it was simply unusual. I was used to the arguments between Swiss and Sodo or even Aether and Sodo while the everyone else tried to calm them down.

We soon pulled up to the venue, all of us piling out of the van while paparazzi took photos. Now I understood why we left dressed for the show. We walked past a gate revealing some of the fans waiting to come inside and immediately they started screaming. I was basically clinging into Rain's arm at this point. Copia waved at them, some of the other ghouls doing the same, Sodo doing his simple two finger salute to them before we walked in through a side door.

Rain started prying my hands off him, "You are going to bruise me, Ember, calm down."

I quickly let go saying, "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting so many people."

"The lights will cover the majority of them. You'll be lucky to see past the second row," Rain told me as he rubbed his bicep with a wince. Sodo walked past us saying, "If you're so nervous, don't get on stage. You'll just fuck everything up."

"Shut up, Sodo, no one's talking to you," I shot back. He simply flipped me off, walking off. Swiss walked over to me and said, "You'll be great, I wouldn't worry too much about it."

I just nodded in response as we walked to the green room. Aether was quick to pull me away, teaching me some warm-up techniques for when you're playing the guitar, especially since I'd be playing it for a good long while today. He moved on from actual warm-ups to some ones I can do while just standing around, along with some stretches to make sure I don't pull anything while on stage. I was moving my head from side to side when Cirrus came over to me, "Your first Ritual, are you excited?"

"Jittery, more like," I answered, moving to doing small jumps, hoping that would amp me up a bit. Cirrus simply told me, "You'll be great. Besides, you know where my stage is. You can always come by and chill if you feel overwhelmed."

"Don't you steal my best friend!" Swiss jokingly threatened, pointing a finger at the female ghoul. I stopped jumping when Cirrus pit her arms around me, "She's mine now!"

"Excuse me, but I was her friend first, I think I get the best friend slot," Rain tried, just to be yelled at, "Shut up, Rain!"

He just ended up putting his hands up in surrender, backing away. I took Cirrus' arms off me as I said, "If you two can't stop fighting, I'm gonna take both if you out if the best friend slot."

"Who are you going to replace it with then?" Swiss asked. I just shrugged, "It would annoy the shit out of me, but just to bother you, Sodo."

"I do not want that slot!" Sodo called as he sat next to Mountain, who was doing drumming drills on a small pad. I turned to look at the ghoul, "I don't either, yet if they keep arguing, that's what going to happen. Get used to me, Sodo!"

He just groaned, leaning back on the sofa. Everyone started going back to their warm-ups, Cumulus leading the vocal warm-ups with the ghoulettes. Copia soon walked in and said, "10 minutes to Showtime! Let's gather up."