My name is Nic, well actually it's Nichole, but if you call me Nichole, and I've done nothing wrong, bad things may happen. I sing in a band called Left for Dead, which is ironic because I was left to die in an alley thanks to my ex-boyfriend.. All of us in the band has been screwed over almost to the brink of death due to poor coping, or being involved in toxic relationships
"Jesus freaking Christ, Nichole, how much longer is it going to be? We go on in 20 minutes!" Alex complained.
"Would you calm down.. Sound check is in 30 minutes Alexandra." I replied, knowing she would give me a glare that could kill an elephant, because I used her real name.
"How much longer is Dora going to sleep?" Alex whined.
"How would I know? Go wake her up if you're so worried." That got her, no one likes to wake up Dora. She spazzes out and hits the person who tries to awaken her.
"Fine. I will." With that she throws back the tiny door of our RV. In the next moment was screaming, "NYMPHADORA GET YOUR SKINNY ASS UP!"
"DON' T. CALL ME. NYMPHADORA!" Oh joy, she's cranky. Thanks Alex. Time to intervene, before she throws something.
"Dora. You need to get up. Sound check is in 30 minutes." I stated trying to not get hit with the pillows that were flying across the room.
"Fine." With that she got up.
While everyone was getting themselves around I took the time to get their musical items. Dora's drum sticks, Alex's bass, and Brittney's guitar.. After coming to the conclusion that everything was out I made a quick once-over of myself in the overly large mirror in our tiny living space. Ten minutes passed and we were all growing anxious about how our first gig in front of more than 50-75 people would go.
"What if we fail miserably?" Brittney asked quietly.
"We won't fail miserably, Brittney. It'll be fine, just focus on some of those nasty riffs you wrote in. It'll be great." I told her to try to keep the 5' 2" blonde calm.
I failed to let on that I myself was on the edge of a full out panic attack. Crowds have never really been my thing, and I cope with things differently than most. Brittney was the only one who knew of my secret, I had promised her that I could quit. Going cold turkey on a habit that you've had for 7 years, is a lot harder than just saying you'll stop. A shrieking Alex snaps me out of my thoughts. "Who the heck leaves a kid at a place like this!?" For a moment I wasn't sure what she was talking about, then I noticed a little boy, around 5 I think, with a dazed look in his eyes, standing in the middle of a crowd of people who looked like they could do some serious damage to an adult, let alone a child.
I decided to go over and see if he needed help. Shoving past the overly rowdy crowd, I made it over to the little boy.
" Are you okay? Is your mom around somewhere?" I asked while crouching down to his level.
" I'm fine Nichole. I was looking for you in fact." The boy stated like nothing was wrong. How could he know who I was? He's like 5? Why was he looking for me? The questions ran rapid through my brain and soon the world felt like it was spinning.
"You seem conflicted. Allow me to introduce mys-" That was all I heard before I blacked out.
~~~~
Coming to, I noticed that the rest of my band was sweaty, and extremely frantic. What the hell happened? How long was i out?
"Well it's about time you woke up." asked an extremely concerned Brittney.
"What happened?" I replied seriously what happened..
"Well twat-face, you panicked and passed the fuck out." Such concern..
"Well bitch, what happened after that."
"Oh. Well, um that child, person kind of just walked off? I don't know, and yeah we did our set while you were in the med tent. So yeah everyone was worried about you, because well you passed out on the cement." Oh so that's where I was, now how did I get back to the RV?
"How did I get back here though?" I asked truly puzzled
"Other band-members are a wonderful asset." This time Dora spoke up with a bruise darkening around her eye.
"You let people carry me."
"You were beating me!"
"That's irrelevant."
"HOW?! You know what, never mind. What was up with the kid?"
You really think I know? A random child whom I have never met before came up and started speaking like he already had a college education in communications.
"All I know is that he was looking for me. I don't even know the kids name for god sake!"
"Oh." With that, she started pacing like she always would when in need of answers.
Two hours past, and we were all still holed up in the back area of the RV.
No one knew what possibly could have led that one child to us. More specifically me, what possibly could have happened to draw this child to me? Maybe it's the spawn of satan to drag you back to hell. Wait a minute!
"Um guys, maybe that "child" wasn't really a child at all, what if he is satan?" I stated shyly. I told them I had a bad past, but I never went in to specifics as to why.
"What are you talking about?" Alex replied utterly confused
Here we go, brace yourself for the end of Left for Dead. They're going to hate you, and leave like everyone else.
"Okay you guys are going to want to sit down."Okay here goes nothing.
"You know you can tell us anything right?" Said a sympathetic Dora
This is going to hurt me more than them, I've never told anyone my full story.
"I know, its just I've never told any one my whole story before" I stated while locking the door and closing the blinds.
"Okay," I say breathing deeply.
"When I was younger I was in a serious accident while I was walking home from work one evening. It was dark, and I worked in this dingy little bar on the other side of town, anyways I put in my headphones, swapped my heels for a pair of Converses and began to walk away from all the drunken chaos that was happening inside. I make it halfway through town before my IPod died and I was left to walk in the unsettling silence at 2 a.m, when all of a sudden I was hit by an oncoming car, and they just kept going, as if they didn't even hit me. After that I blacked out, I awoke later in a hospital with a fractured skull, four broken ribs, a broken leg, and I had pierced a lung that they couldn't keep it from filling with fluid. I wasn't expecting anyone, I had no friends in LA yet, and all my family was in Kansas and Tennessee. So when a man posing as my brother came I was just a little more than startled. I wasn't expected to live for more than a week, the hole in my lungs was too big, and filled my lungs to quickly. He explained who he was, and offered me a deal. The deal was I promise to quit my job, and do something meaningful with my new life. In return he would repair my lung, skull, ribs and leg. Instead of just saying ' yeah, okay' he had me sign something and the pen seemed to write in blood, my blood. I felt it dripping down my arm, and it stopped as soon as I put down the pen." Soon being cut off by the wonderful Alex.
"Wait wait wait. Why would you sign something with out reading it, and why the hell didn't you tell us this before?!" She stated hurt seeping through her anger. I quickly noticed I was shaking and it breathing was becoming difficult.
"I had some serious morphine in my system, may I continue?" I asked rather impatiently. After a curt nod from my bandmates, I continued on.
"Okay, so after I signed the weird document, my companion said some things in I believe Latin, anyways afterwards I suddenly felt extremely light-headed and the air seemed to stiffen and grow warm. I watched a slivery-blue mist begin to linger around the room, slowly making it's way to his cane, then slowly soaking in leaving behind a delicate marking, as if it was burned into the cane prior to his ownership. he thanked me for my service, and was gone. My vital monitors were going berserk, and the room grew cold once more. Nurses, aids, and doctors flooded my room. Doctors were stunned to see that everything no longer did I have fluid invading my lungs, my ribs no longer tender to the touch, my brain completely encased inside of my brain, and the cast that once invaded the movement of my left leg was as if it was non-existent." Well there's most of my past. I ask for questions before I continue on, they shake their heads, but still clearly confused.
" Anyways, a couple months after I was released form the hospital I got an internship at the record company, which is why we were so easily accepted in the beginning of the band. I realized that I could do something meaningful, and help people who are struggling to keep themselves together, and not 20 minutes later I found Brittney again, our friendship blossomed once more, we bought a small 3 bedroom apartment and so began the plot for Left for Dead. But during the plotting I was also doing a little research about pens that write in blood. I found two things, The pen that was used in Harry Potter, which was completely irrelevant, so I dug a little deeper, and saw an image of the mystery man that visited me while I was slowly drowning in the fluids that persistently invaded my lungs and clicked away from the page. I suddenly locked my door flicked off my lights and played some music on my phone to keep me from completely losing what bit of sanity I still had. I acted as if nothing was wrong, just working on some lyrics, but inside I was filling a persistent internal flame of curiosity of trying to figure out what I was. I thought back to my research, in a swift movement I grabbed my laptop, scrolled through my history and crossed my fingers hoping that I would find the things I needed. In the midst of my frantic searching I found a report of an attempted suicide, but no matter what she did it never seemed to work. Slit wrists, gunshot to the temple, cyanid. Five minutes after each attempt nothing was left but a faint scar or in the case of cyanid merely turn to water, leaving an empty feeling inside. She noted that she made a deal with a man and a silvery-blue mist etched its existence in to his cane. Noting again that the man called himself Lucifer, but preferring to be called Lucius. Upon finishing the article I thought back to the moment in the hospital, and quickly realized what I'd done. I had sold my soul, to the devil." I said wrapping up the back story.
"Okay? So is that why you never wear that necklace with the cross that a fan gave you?" Wait they're not angry?
"Uh, yeah pretty much. I still have it, I just can't wear it. Anyways, The child that freaked me out, was the same person that visited me in the hospital all those years ago, just in a different form I guess?" I really hope this whole thing cleared up why I passed out.
"Well, I'm hurt that you didn't tell me when you found out, I mean we we're roommates, and we tour together 8 months out of the year. But whatever, I get it though you sold your soul while high as shit on morphine, its all cool." Oh Brittney, I never ment for it to hurt you like I can see it did, I know you well enough to know you're going to silently cry yourself to sleep as if your tears were the lullabies your mother and I use to sing to you when your heart was broken and bruised from the boys who tried to act like men but stumbled when they saw a pretty girl in skimpy clothing.
"I'm sorry." I whispered blinking back tears that threatened to start pouring like water in a sieve. What are you getting upset about, YOU SAW THIS COMING MORON!
"Forget it. If you'll please excuse me I need some fresh air." She snapped back.
"Brittney wai-"
"No, leave me alone Nichole, I-I can't describe how pissed off and hurt I am right now. This hurts worse than anything my ex's did. Thanks for that by the way." Whomp, there it is. There's the shot that damn near breaks the entirety of your heart. Good job, you always seem to find a way to screw things up. To think this was the best thing you had going for you.
"Excuse you? Who helped you through all of that shit? Who gave you an out away from that abusive motherfucker, who by the way, was going to force you to marry his psychotic ass! I don't know anything about what happened from the time I left home, to when we met again. You didn't know I was in the hospital. So fucking what!" At this time I can feel the tension, alone with my blood pressure and voice rising to dangerous levels. Maybe we should call off touring for awhile, we're all cramped and getting frustrated with little things that don't even matter. I realize that she is going to storm off, smoke, eat a shit ton of food, and come back just like she always does. Fuck this. Lucius if you on the off chance you're listening, this wasn't apart of the deal. Five minutes past and I was still still sitting alone in silence that seemed almost deafening, when I'm cut out of my trance by Dora saying someone was here to talk to me, leaving with a wink. I didn't expect that to work.
"You want to discus the terms of our deal." Lucius stated more than asking.
"Yes. Losing my best-friend and turning half of my band against me wasn't apart of the deal."
"You did hold up your end of the deal by doing something meaningful yes, and I fixed you so, everything that just happened, was your fault and completely fair. So if that will be all, I have other souls to take. Goodbye Nichole, have fun fixing your mess.
The end.
