The Apparition || Bad Omens || Noah Sebastian

Prologue

The stage lights were blinding, so intense that it was impossible to see beyond the first row of the audience. Noah raised a hand to his eyes, shielding them for a moment. The crowd before him was a stormy sea, a river of bodies moving to the rhythm of Bad Omens. The deafening roar of the fans was a single voice, a continuous echo that seemed to rise from the bowels of the earth.

"Sold out," the agent had said just a few hours earlier, with a self-satisfied smile. His life's dream was coming true. Bad Omens had become a name in the metal scene, a name everyone knew, and he, Noah, was its beating heart. He had never imagined things could go so well.

It was that feeling of absolute power, that moment when the world stopped and everything revolved around him, his voice, his movements. He could feel his heart beating in unison with Nick's drums, while Jolly and Nicholas unleashed furious riffs. Every note, every breath, every word that left his mouth seemed to shape the reality around them. Noah felt invincible.

Yet, that night, something was different. He couldn't pinpoint what it was, but an invisible shadow seemed to loom over the stage, as if an unknown energy was creeping between the notes, silent but relentless.

"This will be the last one, folks!" Noah shouted into the microphone, his voice hoarse and powerful, but with a thread of unease hidden behind the excitement of the moment. The audience erupted in cheers as the band launched into the final song of the night, one of their most beloved, a crescendo of anger and despair that culminated in a cathartic scream.

However, something was wrong. Noah sensed it before he truly understood. Amid the strobe lights and flashing phones, he noticed something strange in the crowd. A wave of confusion seemed to start at one point and then spread unstoppably. Some fans stopped jumping, turned around, while others were screaming-not with excitement, but with something deeper, more visceral. Fear.

Noah felt a sudden chill run down his spine, as if the temperature had dropped instantly. His hands, steady and sure just moments earlier, began to tremble slightly. He tried to ignore the feeling, focusing on the lyrics, but the wave of panic was growing, larger and stronger.

From his vantage point on stage, he could see the security guards rushing toward the middle of the audience, trying to make their way through the packed bodies. The song continued, but it was as if everything was wrapped in a thick, oppressive fog. Noah exchanged a glance with Nick, who looked equally puzzled, and then with Jolly and Nicholas, who kept playing but with increasing tension in their movements.

Then it happened.

The lights suddenly flashed on the crowd, a white glare that illuminated a surreal scene. A group of people had gathered around a specific point, like moths drawn to a flame. Noah could see it clearly now. Someone was on the ground, motionless. A girl. The people around her were screaming, trying to get attention, but he couldn't hear anything, as if a veil had dropped between him and reality.

"Noah, we have to stop!" Nick shouted, dropping his drumsticks. The sound of the drums abruptly ceased, as if someone had turned off the music itself. Noah turned toward him, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene unfolding before him. Security and paramedics had reached the girl and were performing CPR on her.

Noah felt his heart race, a mad drum pounding in his chest. Something tightened in his throat, making it hard to even breathe. The world around him seemed to sway, to float, as if gravity had suddenly become uncertain.

"God... what the hell is happening?" he whispered to himself.

The crowd, delirious just a few minutes before, had now transformed into a restless, lost mass. Some people were crying, others were hugging, but most were staring at that spot in the center of the hall, where someone's life was slipping away. Noah watched the scene, hypnotized, unable to move or act, as the eyes of the crowd sought in him an answer he couldn't give.

A dull sound, a piercing hum, filled his ears. Security began evacuating the venue. The concert was over.

"Noah, we have to go..." a voice said behind him. It was Nicholas, his hand on his shoulder, his face as pale as marble. Noah nodded, but his legs didn't seem to want to obey. He took a step back, then another. He had never felt so empty, so powerless.

Before leaving the stage, he turned one last time. The girl's eyes were closed, but for a moment, it seemed as though he locked eyes with her, as if something deep and ancient were watching him. As if death were staring at him.

He saw one of the paramedics shake his head at a colleague, and a security guard glanced at his watch.

Time of death.

That girl had died before his eyes, and Noah found himself thinking that he was the last thing she had seen. Perhaps the final notes of the song had echoed in her mind as she left this world, just as the image of her lying lifeless on the ground remained fixed in his, like a painting.

He saw his friends' faces, drained. None of them had ever seen someone die. And the worst part was that it had happened at their concert. They all felt responsible. They were responsible, Noah thought.

If they had chosen a more ventilated venue, if they had started just a little earlier. There were too many variables, and yet he felt guilty.

"Guys, these things happen. You need to stay calm," the manager told them.

"How can we stay calm, huh? She died right in front of us, for God's sake!" Jolly shouted. The guitarist pressed a hand to his forehead, his face contorted in pain.

"I know, it's unsettling. But you need to stay calm, the fans won't blame you."

Noah seemed to snap out of his daze. "Is that what you're worried about? I don't care what the fans think. I care about everyone being safe when they come to our shows."

Nick tried to calm him down, holding him back from leaving, but Noah shrugged off his hands. He headed for the exit. Away from that place of death. Away from the vision burned into his mind: a young woman who would never wake up again.

That concert had taken place in their hometown, and the streets now seemed shrouded in a thick fog, like the one creeping into his brain. He arrived home and locked himself in his room. Soon, he could no longer maintain the stoic expression that had accompanied him until then.

He slid to the floor, clutching the white wall of the room, as tears streamed down his face.

In his mind, it was all his fault. In his mind, he had just killed someone.