How To Save Rock And Roll

Chapter 20 - We got a new plan

Patrick was lying in bed and you were snuggled to his side, asleep. Even though his eyes were closed, he wasn't sleeping. Ever since Tyler's death, sleep was seemingly impossible for the singer. The muscles of his face contracted and moved each time a dark thought crossed his mind. Like the body of Tyler falling to the ground. Or the blood on his own hands; his eyes becoming yellow. And that person wearing a mask of what looked like a raven. He'd never seen that thing before, but it was still carved into his mind, and every time he would close his eyes to sleep, he would see it.

He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. Come on man. You can sleep. You're safe. Nothing's gonna happen, he told himself. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

The body...His hands...His eyes...The mask...And he fell asleep.

More and more images started to appear in his head. His breathing got heavier and his heart started beating faster. Sweat was rolling down his face. He wanted to open his eyes, but he couldn't. It was like that kind of nightmare when all you want to do is wake up, but you're stuck in that horrible world your mind created. A flash of white lit up the room and not so long after, thunder echoed through the apartment, waking up Patrick in a jump. He sat up in bed and tried to regain his breath. He looked down at you and saw you were still sleeping.

He stood up and left the room to go in the bathroom. Once inside of it, he turned on the light. The sudden source of luminosity blinding his eyes that were still accustomed to the pitch black. He squinted his eyes for a few seconds then opened them more to look at himself in the mirror. His hair was sticking to his forehead because of the sweat. His eyes had bags under them. He was an absolute mess. He wet his face and closed his eyes in the process. When he opened them again and looked at himself in the mirror, they were yellow.

"What is happening to me?" He murmured. His voice didn't sound like usual. It was a mix between his own voice and a much deeper one, almost inhuman. He closed his eyes and put his hands on the side of his head as he heard the sudden sound of voices echoing in it. It wasn't just one person, but several, all talking at the same time. He couldn't really understand a word they were saying. It sounded a lot like "Silence the noise".

"Stop!" He cried out as he fell to the ground on his knees. He managed to concentrate on one voice, making all the others almost disappear. He knew this voice, but he couldn't remember who it belonged to. He couldn't understand what this person was saying, but he knew it was different from all the other people. He made out one thing of all this talking before all the voices suddenly stopped, leaving that loud ringing in his ears, "Twin Skeleton's".

"Honey, are you okay?" You asked from behind the bathroom's door as you knocked on it.

Patrick shot his head toward the door. "Yeah yeah. Go back to bed, I'm coming."

You walked away and into your bedroom again. Patrick stood up and stopped in front of the door, looking at his reflection in the mirror one last time. His eyes were still slightly yellow. "I got to find what Twin Skeleton's is." He murmured to himself before turning the lights off and opening the door.

He walked out of the room and went into his office; he locked himself in it. He pulled out a few boxes and set them on the side of the already messy desk. He cleared the desk with a swipe of his arm, throwing papers and cups full of pens on the ground. He set newspapers and maps on the desk and looked at them. "Let's find that thing."

*****

In the morning, Joe got a call from the Blue Birds, telling him to go to Headquarters.

Joe knocked on the big metal door and just a few seconds after, it opened. He stepped inside and went in the principal room where King was standing in front of the table.

"So, what's going on?" Joe asked.
"We got a new plan." King answered.
Joe raised his eyebrows. "And it is...?"
"I don't know if you've watched the news, but, since Tyler's death and the ones of those guards, people in others states heard about it and now they're attacking the Syndicate in the demonstration. At first, people were doing that just to show their opinions but now they're attacking them." King explained.
"And it's a good thing?" The guitarist inquired.
"Well, kind of, yeah. The Syndicate had doubts about us. They knew something was happening, but since people are doing that, they don't have time to look for us and now they're scared of them, so they'll work more on stopping them than on looking for us. You know?"
"But they're just going to kill or arrest the people in those demonstrations." Joe retorted.
King shook his head and sighed. "You're right. But just think about something. Before Tyler's death, there weren't that much people who knew about those murders. But since it was on the news, more people learned that, so now they know that the Syndicate is more dangerous than they thought."
Joe looked at the ground, thinking then turned his head back to his friend. "So, you mean to say that they're, like, in danger?"
King nodded his head, "Yeah."
"So, since people know that they're really killing people, they can't kill them. But they still can arrest them." Joe added.
"Yeah, but, did you see how many people there are in those demonstrations? I think they'll just stop them." King replied.
"So what's your plan?" Joe questioned.
"To get in those demonstrations and attack them. Like I said, they'll try to find a way to stop the population from doing that and won't think about the Blue Birds, so it'll let us more time to find where their headquarter is." He explained.
"Sounds a bit dangerous, but...okay." He said.

Joe was about to leave when King stopped him. "Do you know if Patrick's okay? I tried to call him, but he didn't answer."
Joe opened his mouth to answer but his phone went off in his pocket. He took the phone out of his pants. "Speaking of the devil. Y/N's calling." He pressed answer and put the phone to his ear.
"You need to come right now. I think something's wrong with Patrick."