Shadow Jackie: I must be really screwed up.
Mysterious shadow: No kidding.
Shadow Jackie: Well, the rating is for language,
Mysterious shadow: Severe.
Shadow Jackie: …drugs,
Mysterious shadow: Lots.
Shadow Jackie: …and suicide. Oh, and just be warned, that appearances can be deceiving.
Mysterious shadow: Flames will not phase us. Otherwise, enjoy.
The Last Song
The room was dark, as usual.
He sat in the middle of the floor, his CD repeating the same song over and over. A lit joint smoked from an ashtray, incense burned in a jar on the desk, and a used needle lay hidden in the trash. He laughed, partially from the song lyrics, partially from the toxins coursing through his system. No one was home. No one ever was lately. His mother dependant on Ritalin and Valium, his father an alcoholic, and his brother…"Damn it, you jackoff, why'd you have to die on me?" His speech was slurred, almost unintelligible. "Oh well. You'll see me soon enough, you asshole. Sooner at the rate I'm goin'."
He didn't register the sound of the phone ringing, until he heard his own voice on the answering machine. "Man, I sound like a fag when I'm clear," he thought aloud. He listened to the message. It was someone…someone who was waiting for him…to go to some…stadium…
"SHIT! The concert!"
He got up (faster than he should have), tripped over the ashtray, changed shirts, and grabbed his stuff as he stumbled out the door to his car.
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Not a bad crowd tonight.
He had made it (barely) in time to meet up with his friends and make the show. He absolutely hated concerts. He only went because his father and friends forced him to. He had hated them since his life went to hell a year ago. But he went anyway. "This is the last one," he muttered under his breathe as the lights dimmed.
When the stage lights came up, all the audience's attention was on the blonde center stage. Tonight was mostly their usual stuff, but before the show ended, the blonde took the mike and made an unexpected announcement.
"Okay, before we go, there's one last song I want to do for you. It's one of my favorites, even if it isn't really my style." He heard the familiar opening chords to the song he had listened to repetitively in his room earlier. He sunk further into his darkness. "The last song." he said, quietly.
"I never thought I'd die alone
I laughed the loudest who'd have known
I trace the cord back to the wall
No wonder it was never plugged in at all
I took my time, I hurried up
The choice was mine, I didn't think enough
I'm too depressed to go on;
You'll be sorry when I'm gone."
The singer's deep blue eyes glared out through strands on long blonde hair. You could feel the bitterness of the lyrics and the hatred behind them pierce all the way through your heart.
"I never conquered, rarely came
Sixteen just held such better days
Days when I still felt alive
We couldn't wait to get outside
The world was wide, too late to try
The tour was over; we'd survived
I couldn't wait till I got home
To pass the time in my room alone."
He shifted uncomfortably, almost impatiently. It'll be over soon. This is the last song.
"I never thought I'd die alone
Another six months I'll be unknown
Give all my things to all my friends
You'll never set foot in my room again
You'll close it off, board it up
Remember the time that I spilled the cup
Of apple juice in the hall
Please tell mom this is not her fault."
Of course this isn't her fault. She's too fucking drugged to do anything anymore. Hell, I bet she's not going to give a shit about tonight…
"I never conquered, rarely came
Tomorrow holds such better days
Days when I can still feel alive
When I can't wait to get outside
The world is wide, the time goes by
The tour is over; I've survived
I can't wait till I get home
To pass the time in my room alone."
He laughed softly to himself as the audience cheered and the lights went up. "Adam, I don't know who you were, but you ruined a perfectly good song with that last chorus."
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He managed to lose his friends in the crowd after the show, and get to the alley behind the stadium. There was no light, no sound, except for the brief glint of metal and a muffled painful moan. That last song had done it. As he leaned against th wall, holding his bleeding wrist, he saw his family as they once were. Happy, smiling, normal people. Two parents who didn't need substances to live their lives. Two little boys, happy, as close as brothers could be. Until everthing got screwed over.
Before he collapsed, one final image burned in his mind as clear as the day it happened. He saw his beloved oniichan, lying in a casket, wearing a suit he would never have worn in life, his eyes shut forever. "Why'd…why'd you leave me?"
His last thoughts as he faded away were of his brother as well.
"I'm coming…Yamato."
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It didn't take Takeru's bandmates long to find his body. When he disappeared after the last song, they hadn't known exactly what he was going to do, but weren't that surprised to find him behind a dumpster, wrists sliced open, lying face down in a pool of blood. The had already been worried about him, this being the one-year anniversary of Yamato's death, courtesy of AIDS via a dirty needle. His father, not wanting to accept his eldest son's death, pushed him to take over as the lead singer of the Teenage Wolves, even though Takeru had never wanted to. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ishida began drinking heavily, Ms. Takaishi needed heavy sedatives and antidepressants to even function. His best friends, Hikari and Daisuke, began dating each other and forgot about him, an dhis other friends didn't associate with him after he had cussed Miyako out for stalking him, and that had caused a rather bloody fight with Ken over it. "It was probably better for him." said his drummer, shaking his head slowly as he walked away.
But finally, abouve the tragic scene, oblivious to the wail of sirens, two blonde-haired angels stood arm in arm, finally able to let the past go as they slowly faded away.
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Shadow Jackie: I know, I'm really screwed up.
Mysterious Shadow steps into the light and turns out to be Takeru himself
Shadow Jackie: I came up with this a while back, but finally got the guts to write it at midnight after listening to a certain song over and over and over…
Takeru: Let me guess…"Adam's Song" by Blink-182.
Shadow Jackie: Right. I guess I just got fed up with all the "Ken is depressed, he kills himself" fics and decided to throw people for a loop.
Takeru: She told you that appearances are deceiving.
Shadow Jackie: Alright, I hope that this appeased your need for entertainment. If you enjoyed it, I'm sorry, you are just as screwed up as I am. Please let me know what you think. Okay, bye.