The Cult of Silence (Complete)

Chapter Four: Impromptu Broadcast

"...so the Scape is basically an interactive dream." Jared finishes his explanation of the Scape, after telling about the earlier encounter.

Shannon and Tomo let this information sink in, vague as it was. Shannon finds himself, not angry that he hid this for so long, but wondering why Jared thought he needed it.

"But why, Jay, why did you ever think you needed a place like the Scape?"

Jared is honestly caught off guard by this question. He drops his head and just shrugs, "I was young, overflowing with ideas. I never thought that'd we would cause this much of a ruckus."

Tomo processes the information, "Was the Hurricane video? Your attempt to show the Scape?" He asks.

Jared looks up in thought, "I guess it kind of was, now that you mention it. Not my original idea behind it; but I guess I was subconsciously doing it."

It is silent for a moment, it reminds Jared of awkward dates. So he quickly rids that feeling by asking, "So are you going to tell me what has you bothered that you couldn't tell me before?"

Tomo leans forward with a huff, "Since I heard it first."

"Be my guest," Shannon says, not looking at either of them.

Jared is starting at Shannon as he finishes telling his dream. Silence falls over them again, this time is it emotional distress. Jared moves in between his brother and friend, they are on sitting on the floor. Jared pulls each of them into a hug, Tomo looks over Jared's shoulder and catching the unspoken question in a sideways glance from Shannon.

"Jared," Tomo says quietly, there was something that he was not really clear on. "How did you send them away?" He pulls away, this is what Shannon was afraid to ask. And why not, it is his little brother.

Jared sighs at this question, of course, they would want to know. A choice of pure selfishness, "I chose to fight."

Shannon brightens up, "That's my brother." He wraps Jared in another hug.

Tears threaten Jared's eyes as he is about to kill his brother's blissfulness, "Shan?"

When Shannon pulls away his eyes are full of denial, "No, Jared, please. We can win this. I can't lose my little brother."

Jared feels lost for words, he couldn't promise anything. So he just goes another way, "I chose to fight, yes. I am not the only target, I left this out in my earlier explanation of tonight's encounter because I wanted to make sure you believed me first."

"Jay, your brother and I believe you and we got your back. The triad will face this next challenge head-on." Tomo declares strongly.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Shannon says.

"When I told them I would fight, I said, 'My cult of believers and dreamers will silence your influence forever.' to which they replied, 'I hope you are prepared to watch your cult and your band suffer.' Now I have a plan but it is going to take a lot of work." Jared pushes back so he can see both of them.

"We're listening," Shannon says.

"This might sound crazy but it needs to be done. First off, we need to protect our followers. So today we need to go down to a news station and do a special impromptu broadcast. Which we will announce a free concert at the L.A Central Arena in three weeks."

"Why L.A?" Shannon asks. Surely Jared hasn't forgotten that the New York Concert Hall is the largest arena in the U.S. It can hold fifteen thousand people as the one in L.A. can only hold three thousand.

Jared answers seeming to have been following Shannon's interior thoughts, "I know that there is a bigger arena here, however, I what to battle in the City of Angels." As much as he loves New York, with all its freaks and passions rubbing against each other trying to make it big. It is the City of Angels that has his boyish heart, the overall wilder aspect of L.A. if this is to be the final performance he wants it to be where his heart truly lives.