Sterling's Blood

The Truck

#9?39!3+3/0?3

December 13th

"This animal", the audience sang along with us.

"This animal.
This animal.
This animal.
This animal.
This animal.
This animal."

I'm surprised they actually know this classic.

"So what if you can see... the darkest side of me? No one will ever change this", we all screamed, "animal I have become!"

After a minute of vocalising, we stopped the music and the crowd went all out on their throats.

Ugh, my ears...

"Fuck you everyone so much for being here with us tonight!", I said half-jokingly. "We'll do more covers like this again!"

"Goodnight, NYC!", said Heston, the 6'7" mammoth of a man.

I was about to walk back stage with him when some blood escaped from my mouth suddenly.

"What the...-?", I whispered under my breath before my legs felt so weak they couldn't hold me up. The next thing I remember was lying on the ground, before fading to black.
________________________

A rhythmic beep woke me up in a hospital bed as I slowly regained conscious and saw Heston sitting on the attendant's chair, asleep.

"Hes.", I called out, no response. "Hey, Hes!", he still didn't move.

"Hes!", I yelled and he shook awake.

"Puta madre!", he yelled back in fear, and took a second to calm down. " Don't scare me like that, bro.", he rubbed his eyes and looked at me.

"The hell happened?", I asked. "Ew, my jacket... It's drenched in blood."

"You got a fever. That's all."

"Fever? What?", I paused, "I was fine the whole show and- and- what do you mean 'fever'?"

I continued speaking as soon as he opened his mouth, "Last time I checked, blood vomits usually didn't occur with fevers. Then again, I could be completely wrong!"

He groaned at me, "Let me talk."

Then he spoke calmly, "Doc said you can't always feel a fever if you're having fun at events like concerts and, uh, that the blood vomit was probably from exerting yourself and from all the unbelievably healthy stuff you've been eating lately. He told me there there might be a few tears somewhere, but we'll need to get tested for that. We can do so but you might have'ta wait-

"No, I wanna go home."

"Dude. Bleeding out is no simple matt-"

"What else did they find?"

"Well... Nothing, really."

"Then we're going home. I feel fine. Tests later.

"Wallace, I'm really scared, I think we should listen-"

"Does your fear help my condition?", I shrugged.

"Seriously, bro? Come on."

I realised how it sounded, "Gee, thanks. I guess."

He sighed. "Why am I still friends with you?"

"'Cause... you'd regret it otherwise?", I smiled.

He showed disappointment on his face as he chuckled. "Okay, so, shall we go back?"

"No, I love being around sick people.", I smiled widely.

He raised an eyebrow and stared at me as if he didn't know what language I was speaking.