"Casey? Are you alive? Wake up if you are!"
Someone was shaking her heavily. She had just died in Hell, why couldn't she just be left alone? But the shaking did not seem to cease, so at last she had to reluctantly open her eyes.
There, close and a bit blurry, was Axel Steel's face. His breath smelled of beer, as usual.
"Stop! I'm … fine," Casey managed to blurt out at last. She understood that she had been lying on the floor of the tour van. The guitar was next to her, as well as a tipped-over glass of whiskey. Right at this moment, the odor did not feel welcome.
Casey was not sure what had exactly happened. Had it been a dream, or had she actually met the Devil? Was her soul still bound to the bridge? Well, the least she could do was to get rid of it. Immediately.
She rose up to a sitting position and turned to Axel.
"Hey. Want to do something? Help me get rid of that bridge on my guitar. We need to install the original back, then ditch the wrong one. But don't wound yourself. It might be cursed."
Axel looked puzzled. "Sure. It sounds like fun. But cursed? That doesn't sound like you at all. What exactly happened?"
"It's a weird story. You probably wouldn't believe if I told."
It was a pleasant-looking sunset as Casey and Axel drove the van to a nearby river. Judy, Johnny and Lars were getting drunk at the motel; so far they suspected nothing.
The discolored Floyd Rose bridge was wrapped in a plastic bag, and Casey tossed it down into the water. For a moment she thought even the splash was somehow distorted and prolonged. Like it was the Devil laughing at her even now. She felt a shiver of cold, but snapped back to reality.
Possibly, everything had been due to seeing her own blood, combined with being slightly drunk.
"It's done now," Casey said. "And you took it well, me being quite silly."
"No problem," Axel answered. "It was a story, alright. Saying 'fuck you' to the Devil. Did you remember to give him the finger too?"
Casey had to think for a second. "Guess I forgot that."
"Well, maybe next time. But let's head back now."
They walked back to the van. Casey felt a little off balance, and she could have corrected it, but in the end she decided not to and collided against Axel a bit.
"You did that deliberately," Axel said.
"So what if I did?"
Axel put an arm around her for a brief time. "Hey. I'm glad to have you back. Seriously."
This whole exchange was a bit silly too. But Casey didn't mind for once. Most of the time Axel was a bit of a brute, who concerned himself with just beer, skulls, motorcycles and heavy metal, but right now she could not think of anyone who would have handled this episode better.