Inhale

Chapter 40:

It had only seemed a few days but suddenly August was here.

The safari club was excited to see slipknot play again, especially with a new singer.

Corey sighed as he played with his hair, spray painted red.

Joey smiled "its gonna be great performing again."

"Yeah..." corey nodded. "Great...."

"Ah dont be so negative."

"I'm just nervous." Corey said lighting up a cigarette

"You'll do great." Joey grinned "trust me they will love you."

Corey moved his hair out his face, trying not to smudge his makeup. He still hadnt found a mask and it was irritating him but he wanted one that showed who he was. What he could do, what his inner demons looked like.

He had settled for some cheap liquid latex around his face and some even cheaper white face paint with two black crosses over his eyes.

He looked a mess now that he thought about it, but he swallowed the lump in his throat.

He could do this? Right? He had performed before so this shouldnt be hard.

Corey looked over to everyone else getting ready, they looked happy. He smiled softly as Jim turned around grinning, holding his new mask, they had worn them last practice and jim hated the bondage mask.

He knew they were going to walk through the audience in typical style.

He hoped people would like him like they liked the orginal singer.

He hoped he could portray their lyrics as well if not better.

He had so much anger and pain he wanted to scream out.

He hadnt even screamed before he joined. Yet here he was.

He looked up as he took the last drag. He could feel himself shaking slightly. It was going to be a strange night. He didnt want to let the rest of the guys down. That would be an embarrassment. He'd rather die.

He put his cigarette out as he looked up at shawn.

"Itll be okay." Shawn smiled, "just relax and go nuts."

Corey smiled "I can do one of those things."

Shawn pulled down his mask and nodded

"You dont even know how terrifying you look." Corey laughed

"Yeah, well the clown is insane Corey." He said, muffled by the mask.

"You ready then?" Shawn asked

Corey got up playing with his suit and took a deep breath as he followed shawn.

The audience was way bigger than he expected, and he turned around to see Joey's mask pushed on his head, vomiting.

"You good?"

"Yeah!" Joey mumbled as he wiped the vomit.

He pulled the mask back down before holding two thumbs up.

Corey gulped as he headed through the crowd. Shawn pushed people out the way, as people tried to grab at him.

People looked confused at the appearance of corey.

He bit his lip as they headed to the stage. His head began to hurt a little, as the pink lights shone down at them.

Everyone headed to their instruments and corey gripped the microphone.