Protective Shadows (The Protective Series, Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Protective Shadows reached 1K today! This is SO amazing!

Thank you everyone! I love you all!

The next few months were spent in the MDM studio Izzy had booked for us, recording songs for our second album, titled Three. The idea had come to me when I had thought about Janne not being here - like I did every other day - and the number of members left in the group had repeated over and over in my head. Three.

We had not only defied the odds, but we had beaten them. I was proud of myself, Asko and Jarmo for remaining strong during the whole Corey incident, Mikko incident, and my own struggles with self-harming and drugs. I hadn't cut ever since that afternoon with Asko at the park, and for that, I was tremendously impressed with myself. Unfortunately I still suffered from torturous nightmares that robbed me of sleep, and sometimes my appetite disappeared, but I knew that in order to walk back towards the strong, resilient person I had once been, I needed to take baby steps before I leapt on too far ahead.

Whilst we still remained without a permanent fourth member and drummer, Dominik offered to record the drums for us, and we graciously accepted his offer. He was a very impressive drummer, too. He had explained to me and Asko, while Jarmo had been out on a date with someone, that he knew the casual, standard drumming pattern, double pattern, cymbals and drums, and so on. I'd struggled to keep up with what he had been saying, because I didn't understand a single thing about drums.

Today we were scheduled to fly out to Manchester, located in the United Kingdom. I stood in line at the bag check-in next to Asko, running my hairbrush through my hair for the third time that morning, before sliding it back into the front compartment on my suitcase and zipping it back up. Outside, the wind had been blowing strongly, tossing strands of my hair carelessly over the other side of my head. I huffed, my breath lifting up the one certain long strip of dark blonde hair that continuously fell in my face, no matter how times I flicked it back exasperatedly with my fingers.

"You guys will be on at 8 pm sharp," Izzy said, sliding his finger across the screen of his iPhone. "Your tour manager, Michael, will be waiting backstage for you guys. The roadies are going to set up your equipment as soon as you touch down, so all you three need to do is show up, looking stunning as always."

"Bitch, we look stunning every day," Jarmo smiled, running his fingers up into his messy black hair from his forehead. "I'm kinda nervous, to be honest, is anyone else nervous too?"

Asko and I both nodded in unison. Just the thought of walking on stage again after so many months was enough to turn my palms clammy. I rubbed them vigorously against my knees, shaking off the remaining sweat droplets and turning my gaze towards Izzy.

He pulled the sides of his black leather jacket forward over his torso, pulling up the zip over his plain blue t-shirt. He had grown his blonde hair out a bit, the ends curving inwards towards the sides of his neck. His hairstyle vaguely reminded me of my own months ago, but mine had since grown a quarter of the way down my arms, right back to its original length. I was ecstatic that I finally had my long hair back. Being without it for months had started to agitate me, especially during the coldest days, when my hair could have shielded out the wind from blowing against my neck.

"Flight twenty-one is now boarding," a female American voice announced over the intercom, echoing through the vast interior of Los Angeles airport. "Passengers please make your way through the gate, and remember to turn all devices on flight mode, thank you."

"That's you guys," Izzy exhaled a deep breath, walking over with us towards the escalators that led up to the second storey of the airport, where the gates were. It was almost like he was reluctant to say goodbye to us, since from this point onward, we would be left in the hands of Michael while we continued our tour. "Call me when you can, just so I know you guys made it safely without any complications."