Sharp Teeth - Sleep Token/Vessel FF

Chapter II

I wondered if this Jace guy treated Alan like that too or if he was just devouring my body with his eyes because he thinks I'm a potential trophy for his collection of "coworkers I've slept with". He wishes he was that lucky. I had a few rules regarding dating, and the number one was: I never date a coworker. NEVER. No man or woman, no matter how beautiful, would make me break this rule.

As I was thinking of what types of pictures I would like to take that night, an older man approached me. He was wearing the band's t-shirt and I found it curious. Was he a fan with backstage privileges? All Staff members were wearing uniforms.

"Hello Ava, thank you so much for covering Alan. I'm Joseph, the manager. Come find me in the hotel after the concert so I can gather all your information and set the payments."

Oh, that explains the shirt. Still, I have never seen a manager wearing merch. Was this a new kind of marketing?

"Hi, Joseph. Nice to meet you. I promise I will do my best to deliver a good result as Alan always does."

"I'm sure you will, child. I'm sure Alan told you our rules but just in case, I'll reinforce them. Please don't enter the band's dressing room. Ever. And don't take pictures backstage. Other than that, you're free to do whatever you want. Don't forget to look for me in the hotel after the gig!"

I was trying to process the dressing room information as that was also news to me, usually the staff is allowed to the whole backstage section, but my brain captured an even more important message.

"Sorry, sir. Did you say hotel?"

"Yes, little lady. Didn't Alan tell you? All staff members must stay in the same hotel as the band during the tour. This is also a demand from the artist. But don't worry, we got everything covered and you'll have a fine room."

"But I live in London, sir. I don't need a room."

"No discussion, lady. All staff members must stay in the same hotel as the band."

"Alright, Mr. Joseph. Thank you so much!"

I had just been bombarded with so much information that I was a little dizzy, so I decided to focus on what was important: take the best pictures I could to make Alan proud. The gig was about to start, so I rushed to the area between the stage and the barricade. I could hear the fans screaming through my earplugs, and the security guards were already positioned.

The lights went off and an eerie melody started. The band members started walking on the stage and the crowd screamed like they were trying to break the walls with their voices. The drummer was the first one to enter the stage, followed by the bassist and the guitarist. They were all wearing masks. FUCKING MASKS! This is a photographer's nightmare. Masks hide all the emotion, they can be the difference between a perfect shot and a poor one. Ok, I wasn't going to lose my shit right now.

The masks seemed to reflect their personality so I would use this in my favor. As soon as the guitarist played the first note, the singer stepped on the stage. He was also wearing a mask, but his mouth was not covered by it like the others - which makes sense because, well, he needs to sing só I could only imagine having his mouth covered would make that difficult, to say the least. He was wearing a hooded cape with adornments on the shoulder. The cape covered part of his arm and the hood was up in his head, but his chest was naked. His skin was painted black.

As he stepped slowly on the stage, the lights started revealing some details from his mask. I thought this was a good opportunity to take a high-quality shot before he started headbanging or something like that, as all metal singers usually do.

He moved in an almost hypnotic way. His movements were not completely natural, he seemed like he was trying to walk and float at the same time, so focused on his performance that he didn't notice me standing right below him.

And then I made a rookie mistake: I tripped in a bunch of wires and fell. I got on my feet in no time and looked around, no one seemed to notice. But when I looked up again, his mask was facing my direction. Even though his eyes were hidden by the mask, I could feel he was looking at me and I felt a chill in my spine. I tried to move, but it seemed like a thousand roots were holding me to the ground. Everything started moving in slow motion, the sound turned muffled and all I could do was stare at his masked face. He raised his hand, moving his fingers like he was calling me to, demanding I get near him. My body started floating fast towards him. This couldn't be real, I was having some sort of delusional episode. He smiled at me, hitting me like fire hits a forest full of dry leaves. My heart was beating way too fast and I still couldn't control any movements, my free will was gone. When our bodies were close enough, he put his mouth next to my ear and whispered something in a language I didn't know.

Those words got me out of that trance so suddenly that I almost fell again. I was back to where I was when he first looked at me, it seemed like everything had just happened inside my head. He smirked at me and jumped his way to the other side of the stage, banding his head. No one around us seemed to notice what just happened - not the barricade fans, not the security guard right next to me. It was like we just entered a parallel world where just the two of us existed, and he was the one pulling me in and out of it. I tried to come up with any logical explanations for that as I focused on doing what I was hired to do but the more I thought about it, the more confused I got. What has just happened to me? Who was this guy? Was I drugged? The concert was over in the blink of an eye and I could only hope the results of my work were not affected by that sinister encounter.