Even Now

Chapter 1: Rio

Author's Greeting: Hello all! Thank you so much for choosing to read this story :) I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed writing it! 

⚠️ Be warned... there are mature subjects, sexuality, and lots of curse words ahead. ⚠️

*just a lil note: there is music at the top, depending on the device you're using. A theme with this story will be me using movie scores to maybe set a tone? Lemme know if there's a better theme out there to use for each chapter if you don't like the ones I've picked 😅 

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Even Now
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By Blue Skyes

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January 22, 1993: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It was a warm night, moon high over the mountains as a steady breeze blew through the trees.

A sound was carried on that breeze, one distinctive of thousands of people cheering loudly and incoherently.

It was the night a rock concert took place, featuring many up-and-coming bands such as Nirvana- they'd already made it big by this point, of course.

After the curtains drew, Mike Starr, bassist for Seattle rock band 'Alice In Chains', went and hung out with Kurt Cobain. Layne Staley, Alice In Chains' lead singer, had later joined them.

Kurt was a cool dude. They'd never really spent time with him before, which was strange considering they'd all grown up in the same area of Seattle.
Kurt seemed head-over-heels for his infant daughter, Frances.
It would later seem so strange to Layne that Kurt would've killed himself when he'd once been so full of joy, so full of love for his daughter.

The three of them were heroin addicts. Unfortunately for them, there was no apparent access to heroin near to where their bands had camped out.
As a compromise, Kurt had offered to pay for the heroin, but only if Layne paid for the plane that would fly it in to them. Layne had agreed.
When the plane had arrived, the three of them took their heroin and holed up in a hotel room together.
It was fine. Normal, to them. Just rockstar stuff.

Sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. That was the dream, wasn't it?

They shoot each other up. Kurt leaves after a bit.
Then it's just the two of them; Layne and Mike. High as fuck, mumbling nonsense into the stale air. Everything was warm. Comfortable...

It was the best either of them had felt in a while.

You see, this was the night of Mike Starr's final performance with Alice In Chains.
Mike was heartbroken. Layne was devastated.

Layne blames himself for Mike's addiction. He'd been the one to introduce Mike to the stuff during a recording session awhile back, knowing that Mike would've eventually found heroin on his own. At least if Layne were the one to introduce him to heroin, he could make sure Mike was in a safe, controlled environment.

Mike had already been spiralling and continued to do so even after the start of his intravenous drug use. He'd been scalping tickets, sleeping with young girls, and had developed an attitude that just totally threw off the rest of the band, affecting their songwriting and performances.

He had to leave the band.

Mike was unaware of the decision to fire him until the band staged what looked like an intervention for him. He'd cried, told them off, swore at each of them up and down.
He'd been especially furious with Jerry Cantrell, the band's guitarist. Mike had accused him of being jealous and bitter about how many women Mike had slept with compared to him. It was a strange accusation, but hey, the guy was distraught.