Alice

show day

The drive is long, it feels like forever. Even with the movies, the gas stations stops, and the constant napping, it feels never ending.

I was only allowed to go into one gas station, it was a 7/11 in a small town and I had to have Spencer next to me the entire time. I was able to grab a few energy drinks and some snacks. I could tell Spencer took mental note of what I got.

We eventually get to the first venue and everyone starts setting up, carrying things on stage, and doing makeup. I sit with spencer in his makeup trailer.

"Hey Spencer, can I steal Mikey for a second?" Justin asks, poking his head into the trailer.

"Sure, just be careful." Spencer says. Justin nods and I follow him out of the trailer. We round a corner and I realize no one else is around.

Despite me trusting Justin, I tense up and feel nervous. Justin looks stressed and conflicted. He gently puts his hand on my shoulder before speaking.

"I know what Spencer did to your family." He says, "I can't imagine what that must be like." He pulls me into a hug.

"I'm guessing Patrick told you everything?" I ask. I try to keep my cool but honestly I was scared.

Justin lets me go and says, "He told me that Spencer broke into your house, murdered your family, and kidnapped you. And now I assume you call him dad to stay on his good side."

"No, no, that's not what happened. I mean it is but its more complicated than that. Do you remember the other day when you picked me up from the bus?" I ask him.

"I do, guessing that was a cleaver lie to try and keep me out of the loop. Look Mikey, its risky but I can help you escape if-" he seems so genuinely worried, he knows better than anyone what spencer would do if I genuinely wanted to escape.

"No. I didn't say anything that wasn't true that day. My dad, my old dad did awful things to me, and to the kids he worked with." I feel tears started to well up behind my eyes.

Justin is silent. I can see the heartbreak in his eyes. I know he's a father himself.

"My old dad was awful, the first thing I did when I saw Spencer murder my father was hug him and say thank you. I thanked him. I hugged the man who mudered my father." I breakdown, releasing years and years of bottled up emotions because someone was finally listening to me. I didn't even explain everything, but the emotion was still there.

I see tears start to fall from Justin's eyes.

"Spencer taking me in was the best thing to ever happen to me. I have a dad who loves me the way a dad is supposed to, not the way I was loved before. You don't understand, it's so much better with Spencer as my dad. I've dreamed of someone taking me away from that place, I was so close to killing myself when Spencer found me." I say, trying and failing to hold back sobs and heaves as tears burn down my cheeks.

"Mikey..." he can't seem to find his words. I can see it in his eyes, the fatherly instinct that my father never had. The instinct to protect and comfort.

He wraps his arms around me and I just cry. I hear footsteps and a door closing.

"Hey you two-- mikey, are you okay? Justin what did--" Spencer asks, stepping off the steps and towards Justin.

"Patrick told me what you did, Mikey told me why you did it." Justin says. There's a short silence before Justin lets go of me and I see Spencer's face.

He looks scared, but not for himself. "You have to understand, I had no idea he would be in the house, this other kid just--" Spencer starts. He paused when he sees my face.

"I'm so sorry Mikey. I had no idea you would be in that house. " He says, stepping forward. I wanted to tell him not to apologize, that what he did probably saved my life.

Justin steps toward Spencer and hugs him. "It's okay, man, you did what you had to do. As much as I hate the idea of it, sometimes... sometimes they deserve it." He says, "I know if someone was doing that shit to my kid, I would have their head on a fucking pike."

Spencer laughs slightly to himself, almost crying. "I was protecting my kid and I didn't even know it." He says. So he really does think of me as his kid the same way I think of him as my dad.

"Spencer, look at me. You know I'm not above the shit you do, and I swear to god if you fuck up with Mikey, I will have your head on a pike. Understood?" Justin says.

"Yeah, no, I totally understand. I already told Patrick, if I fuck up Mikey please for the love of god make sure I don't do it again. He's been through too much already." Spencer says.

"Go finish your makeup, you're on in 40." Justin says, patting Spencer's back. "I can babysit Mikey while you guys are on." Justin says.

"Right, I gotta finish my face. Mikey, go with Justin, and text Noah, tell him you have Justin watching you." Spencer says, running back into his trailer.

"I don't think I have Noah's number." I say, wiping my face.

"You have a phone?" Justin asks. I hold up the flip phone Spencer gave me and Justin holds out his hand. I put the phone in his hand and he starts typing something in it.

"Now you have Noah's number. Don't worry about texting him, I got it." Justin says. I walk with Justin back to the Motionless In White makeup trailer.

"I have an idea, we could do your makeup kinda like mine so you can watch the show from side stage without anyone recognizing you." Justin says.

"Really? That would be so cool!" I say. I've only seen pictures of Justin's makeup online but it always looks so cool.

"Yeah absolutely, a little uncle-nephew bonding time." He smiles, taking out a makeup bag. He takes out a handful of products, the only two I recognize as anything are manic panic face paints, goth white and raven black to be specific.

He takes a brush and starts putting pale foundation all over my face. He won't let me see the makeup until it's done. He does everything except the lipstick and hands me a mirror. He also hands me an un-opened black liquid lipstick, I think its Nyx.

"put a little bit of the lipstick in the middle and blend it out with your finger" he says. I put a few dots in the middle of my mouth and use my finder to spread it around until it looks right.

I finally look at my entire face and realize how different I look. I have black lines around one eye, and fake stitch marks drawn around the other side of my face, and my neck is painted black.

"It looks so cool!" I say. Justin grabs his makeup bag and a hand mirror before walking with me to side stage. I see Spencer in a suit with a tie, and Shevy in front of him, fixing his hair.

"Hey Mikey, cool makeup, you look like chris." Spencer says when he sees me. Someone comes around the corner and says "on in five" before walking away.

"Thank you, five." almost everyone says.

Spencer walks over to me and messes up my hair before running out on stage and starting his set. Admittedly I had no idea what kind of music Spencer's band played at this poiny, but horror based art metal was not what I expected.

The songs are absolutely amazing, and the theatrics in their stage performance are so cool. Spencer carry's around a fake knife the entire time, and during one song he put on a clear rain coat and did a scene from American Psycho.

During another song he put on a leather apron and pretended to dismember one of the crew hands on stage, he pulled a fake arm out from under a stage block, it was so fun to watch.

While I watch them perform from side stage, Justin finishes doing his own makeup while sitting next to me. His makeup looks pretty close to mine, but he has more red in his, and he's wearing two different contacts, one it white and the other is red.

This is going to be fun.