MASQUERADE - Bad Omens

Lyrics - 5

"Secrets I have held in my heart are harder to hide than I thought, maybe I just wanna be yours" - Arctic Monkeys

The concert was perfect, the ending even better as the fans cheered and went crazy for them. The vip fans were amazing as well, echo turned into a photographer that night, all the fans asked her to take their photos with Noah and the guys.

She did, she enjoyed seeing this side of the music business, she never did this, if the fans got to close to masquerade they would be able to see her face more clearly under the mask and paint, or they would be able to make out her tattoos that shown under the paint on her body that wore off from a crazy show and they would be able to find her.

She let fans take pictures of her on stage and even brought some fans on stage with her to do things with but never let them look at for to long. Masquerade was wild and nothing like the Echo her friends knew. Masquerade would brings fans on stage, sit on their laps while she sang, or teased fans with her mask, looking up just enough they could only see the details on the underside of her mask but never close enough to see her face.

She never talked either, only sang, some fans came close to finding out who she was because she talked once, they found her voice in a live video she was on with Folio but she denied all accusations and folio backed her up, shutting down all the rumors. Even though Folio didn't know those rumors were true.

Everyone got back to the bus after loading up everything and shared some shots and drinks celebrating the night. Having a small party was nice celebrating the boys and their successes, laughing, drinking, joking.

It was a relief to Echo that none of them brought up her designs for the masquerade merchandise, that they are only focusing on their drinks and the concert, even pulling her off the couch to dance and just have a good time.

The night was long and fun, lots of drinks, everyone passing out everywhere but their bunks. Folio and jolly on the floor, Noah in the back lounge on the couch, Nick against the bunks, Echo in the front lounge on a couch.

She was the last one up that morning since she was also the last one asleep that night making sure all the guys were okay, she woke up around 11 am not long after the guys but still the last awake.

There was a fair share of groans and winning about headaches and how everything was to loud shared around the bus. Jolly found some ibuprofen and passed it around, while Noah passed around the last Gatorade that was in the fridge so everyone could take the medicine.

"I don't think I would last if we had another concert tonight" Folio groaned as he laid on the couch with his feet across echos lap. "I don't think I'll last with all this complaining" Echo laughed quietly as she rubbed her temples. "You agreed to come with us" Jolly said as he rested his head against the table.

"I'd never leave y'all hanging, but next party I'm not drinking that much again" She laughed a bit "Ditto" Noah said as he walked towards his bunk grabbing his hoodie.

"Where's our next stop" Echo asked as she checked her email on her phone. "New Orleans, we have two shows there back to back" Jolly sighed as he lit a cigarette and opened a window.

"So no partying hard after the first show" She joke, earning a glare from folio and Noah who were still complaining about their headaches. "Maybe a few shots just not like last night" Nick said as he was scrolling through the shows on Netflix on the tv.

Everyone agreed with that, definitely no drinking like they did last night, especially with two shows back to back. Soon everyone was just relaxing and getting over their hangovers, Noah, Jolly and Nick up front watching whatever show Nick had picked. Echo was in the back with her computer and notebook working on a new song, and Folio was in his bunk sleeping.

Echo would occasionally look up and make sure the guys were okay and so she had time to close her notebook or flip the page to a clean one if one of them came back there.

She kept writing the same few lyrics over and over in the book not having much inspiration at the time.

"I'd suffer for you, would you suffer for me?"
"How deep, How far will you go?"
"Suffer"
(From the song "suffer by New Year's Day")

Was this a love song? A sad song? A song at all?
She kept thinking of the meaning of these lyrics, they were a bit different than her normal ones yet also had a similar tone to them. Pain. Would she do it again for someone she was falling for? Or would she bury these feelings like the rest of her emotions.

When Echo thought like this she would turn to one of her bad habits, a habit her friends knew she had, worse than smoking cigarettes. A vape. She liked the feeling of the buzz and it made her think of something other than her emotions.

She closed her notebook and walked to her bunk. Pulling the curtain open and grabbing her bag pulling one out. She sighed when she grabbed it. Knowing one the the guys would know she was thinking especially hard about something.

She looked at the pink ElfBar in her hand. "Strawberry raz, 5%" is what the vape read on the front. Echo walked back to her spot in the back lounge and cracked the small window beside her spot on the couch. She took a hit and inhaled the smoke, feeling the buzz, taking in the flavor and feeling that came from it.

It cleared her mind and she blew the smoke out the window, taking another hit of the vape then picking up her notebook and flipping to a new page writing new lyrics that came to her mind. This felt like a love song...Fuck. She internally groaned. Maybe she could find another meaning to the lyrics.

She knew she couldn't write a love song, her fans would definitely try and figure out who it was about and that could lead back to who she was. The lyrics kept coming to her mind and she kept writing them down. She knew the only way to rid these thoughs would be to write them down.

Echo wrote down the lyrics that came to her head, she read over them over and over trying to find a different meaning for them but it always ended up the same. It's a stupid love song. Maybe a secret love, or just emotions she never let out towards one guy in particular.

She hit her vape again and closed her notebook, getting up to refill her water bottle so she could continue writing. Folio noticed the vape in her hand as she opened the fridge and perked up. "What's wrong" He immediately said as he noticed the vape in her hand.

"What? Oh just some design block" She lied, she couldn't tell her best friend she had just written a song she didn't understand the meaning of, or why it came into her mind. "You sure?" Noah spoke up.

"Yeah I'm sure, just need some more ideas that's all." Echo said with a small smile to ease their minds. "And that helps." Jolly stated bluntly which caught her off guard. Jolly was the only one that could read her emotions, but he never pressured her to talk about it.

"You smoke." She stated as she put the lid back on her bottle. "To ease the stress..." Jolly said as he looked at her causing the rest of the guys to turn and look at her. Shit. "I'm stuck on a design and it's stressing me out okay." Echo said quickly as she walked back to the other lounge.

She quickly shoved her notebook into her bag and turned her attention to her computer. In need of another escape, from her overthinking mind she decided to watch Netflix. Putting her headphones on and resting against the back of the couch with her computer on her lap.

Stupid lyrics. She thought. Why did she choose to hide her identity from the world, why couldn't she just deal with it and show her face. Because it was her escape away from everything. Even though she hated it. Lying. It's what she needed to protect herself.