Chapter Six

Changing Fate

For a long moment, Sabrina thought she was eighteen again, staring at her parents over the table in the Ferret Inn, unable to comprehend what it was she had just seen. Back then, she had decided that it was just some kind of horrifying daydream. She had left without registering the clues and then her world had come tumbling down.

Now she stared at herself and saw only her own fear.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Sabrina flinched. It was the exact same tone of Ruby's voice, the same inflections, the same worry. Sabrina grit her teeth and watched one of the stalls in the reflection of the mirror. Just as she had seen, a lady stepped out and looked at the two of them with a strange look. After quickly washing her hands just like before, she left the restroom.

"Sabrina…?" Ruby placed her hand on Sabrina's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"The door will open…" Sabrina muttered, almost as much to herself as to Ruby.

"The door?"

"A girl… Small. Wild." On cue, the blur of Lily Talbot entered the restroom and without even glancing at the two women, she disappeared into one of the stalls. Sabrina stared at the stalls. There was no doubt about it. It was happening. "Ruby, we need to get out of here."

Ruby shook her head lightly. "What's going on? You look scared to death."

"We need to get out of here!" Sabrina insisted, grabbing at Ruby's arm to pull her. Ruby resisted, standing her ground.

Before Ruby could say anything, the door opened again and the young male staff member popped his head in. He looked to Sabrina clutching at Ruby's arm and blushed.

"Get the hell out!" Sabrina hissed, her voice spitting venom. Whatever the man thought they were doing was enough to make him leave the room. As soon as he was gone, Sabrina turned back to Ruby. "Please, can you just come with me?"

"Sabrina. Tell me what is going on." Ruby's face was an unnatural frown. "You've been acting weird all night. I know you have a problem with crowds but you've never told me why. This is a big night for us – for you. You managed to overcome that fear and come here and now you're just going to chicken out now? You said you were okay, didn't you? I mean, I'm alright with leaving but I think you owe it to me and yourself to say why you're so scared of them."

"I'm not scared!" Sabrina replied, exasperated.

"Then explain to me what this is all about. You want to go? If you're not scared, what's got you in this—"

"There's going to be a fire, Ruby! It's going to cause a panic and the hall is going to crumble! People are going to die, we're going to die, so we need to move!"

"…What?" Ruby blinked, taken aback by Sabrina's words. "What are you talking about?"

"The concert hall is going to catch fire, Ruby! I saw all of this! I saw that woman leaving the stalls, I saw her," Sabrina gestured towards the stall where Lily was staying particularly quiet. "You heard me, I called it!"

"Sabrina…"

"If we go out there and we sit down in our seats then we will die!" Sabrina was agitated enough that tears were breaking out. "That musician, Bridge, he will come out on stage and start his performance. It will be a song titled 'Luxuria'!"

"No one knows what Bridge's songs are going to be… How could you?" Ruby asked but Sabrina took no heed.

"He will start reciting some kind of words and a lighting display is going to fall down and a fire is going to start. Bridge is going to die, the audience are going to die, you're going to die, I'm going to die and I am not going to allow this to happen again. Ruby, we need to go right now, damn it!"

Ruby sighed and put a hand on her forehead. "I… This is crazy, Sabrina but… I mean, if what you're saying is… and I can't believe I'm saying this, but if what you're saying is true then surely we need to tell someone, stop Bridge from performing, stop the concert—"

"You think they'll believe me? You don't even believe me." Sabrina pulled harder and this time got Ruby moving. "I'm getting out of here and you're coming with me, do you understand?"

Sabrina's tone and fierce expression brooked no argument. Ruby knew that whatever had gotten under Sabrina's skin was serious. Without another word, she allowed Sabrina to pull her out of the restroom.


In her hiding spot in the stall, Lily Talbot didn't quite know what to make of the conversation she had just overheard. All she knew was that if there was any danger to Bridge, then it was up to her to get him to stop performing. She didn't care about the thousands of people who had turned up from who knows where to watch his concert. Protecting Bridge was her number one concern.

Lily crept out of the restroom and nonchalantly walked through the back of the concert hall and made her way down to the bottom corner as if she were a member of staff herself. She walked through the backstage area until she came to a dressing room door predictably labelled as 'Bridge.'

She opened the door and let herself in, immediately spotting Bridge sitting with his feet up on the dressing table with his eyes closed. In any other situation she would have played with him a little bit, made him irritated, that kind of thing. However, now was not the time for making fun of the man.

"You need to stop the concert," Lily said, with no regards to the fact that no-one – let alone Bridge – would take her seriously.

"Excuse me?" Bridge opened one eye and upon seeing Lily, his face became a mask of annoyance. "Not you… What the hell are you doing here?"

"You can't go out on stage," Lily said firmly, hands on her hips.

"I don't even want to bother with you," Bridge shook his head and closed his eyes. With a frown, Lily stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder. Immediately the tall man grabbed her arm tightly and pried it loose. "Don't. Touch. Me. Get out before I throw you out."

"Don't go out, Bridge." Lily insisted. "Something's going down. It's dangerous."

"Oh, please. I told you, I'm not dealing with you today. Now…" Bridge pulled himself up off of his chair and stood his full height, towering over the much smaller Lily. "Get out, now."

Before Lily could reply, a loud trilling noise echoed into their ears causing Bridge to wince in further annoyance. Lily recognised the sound immediately. She had heard it, and caused it, more than a few times when she was in school and college.

It was a fire alarm and Lily could make a very educated guess as to who pulled it.


The fire alarm echoed around the concert hall, setting off a series of confused looks and mutterings from the crowd. The staff looked around, also confused. There was no sign of a fire, but the regulations said that if a fire alarm went off then they ought to evacuate. However, none of the staff wanted to delay the re-debut of Bridge unless absolutely necessary, so they hung on for a moment, waiting for word of something happening.

It didn't take long until a flustered Eddy Cool appeared on stage, running one hand through his blonde hair and playing with a fake smile on his lips. He held a microphone in his left hand and brought it up to his mouth. "Don't worry guys, this is just a false alarm. We – err, we're just testing the new systems. There's nothing to worry about so please remain in your seats. The show will begin very shortly."

Watching the man quickly leave the stage, Meagan looked to Trenton with concern in her eyes. "I don't like this, Trent. I don't like this at all."

"Have you got a feeling?"

"More than a feeling this time…" Meagan bit her lip, anxious. "Something's terribly wrong. I've never been this way before…" Meagan rubbed at her neck, a gesture that clearly told Trenton that she was more serious than ever before. "It's like what I felt before we got in, just multiplied by a hundred. I saw…" Meagan gulped, interrupting her own words. "Why would someone just ring a fire alarm like that? Not many people would just prank a concert hall."

"What do you want to do?" Trenton asked, leaning in close. He would be happy to stay but he'd also be happy to leave. Meagan was always right about her feelings, always.

Back when they were kids, she had a feeling that something was wrong with her parents car. She had screamed and screamed and screamed for them to stay home but her father wasn't having any of it. In order to prove to her that nothing was wrong with the car, he had lifted the bonnet to show her – only to discover a crack in the engine that could have proven fatal.

Another time was a bad feeling when she was being babysat by Trenton's parents. She had woken Trenton up at night and sneaked to the top of the stairs where they discovered a man in black sneaking about. She and Trenton had thrown toys and anything else within reach at the man, running him off. That was always a favourite memory for Trenton and many of his memories were similar. Not only were Meagan's feelings always correct but she wasn't afraid to act on it. She would make her choice and stick with it.

"I want to go," Meagan stood up. "I don't trust this. I just… don't. Sorry to ruin this for you, Trent."

"It's no problem," Trent stood as well, apologising quickly to the couple at the end of the aisle as they stood to let them out. "Let's find something to eat – then the evening won't have been wasted."

"Good idea," Meagan smiled as they left their seats.

One row below them, Jason Ryan shivered. He had heard their quick conversation – the two weren't exactly being quiet. The fire alarm had startled him and hearing them talk about bad feelings made his own misgivings about coming to the concert all the more apparent. He didn't know what to think – the girl had said something was terribly wrong. Did she know something he didn't? Was something going to happen? Were they in danger? Or something worse? Was someone going to die? He couldn't see that again, couldn't handle the blood, couldn't handle the death, couldn't handle the same thing that happened to Maylene—

Jason found his breathing had grown rapid and he was hyperventilating. This wasn't good. His thoughts got out of order quick and his imagination had gotten the better of him. There was no way he could sit through this concert now. He needed fresh air. Jason stood up and quickly left the concert hall, shivering in the warmth.


"Why did you that?" Sabrina hissed as she pulled Ruby out of the building. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that if you're speaking any inkling of the truth then I want to warn people," Ruby said, surprised at Sabrina's tone.

"You think people are just going to get up and go when you pull a fire alarm in the middle of a hall with staff? It's a miracle we got out before they saw you but they know there's no a fire. No one is going to stand up and leave, Ruby. You've just caused more trouble than is worth it."

"I had to try. You seemed so adamant on leaving…" Ruby closed her eyes. "You don't… You're not involved in anything… well, dodgy, are you?"

"Dodgy?" Sabrina repeated incredulously. "There is nothing 'dodgy', I just know that something is going to go down and when it does, we need to be the hell away from here."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Ruby put her hands up to stop any further arguing as they entered the park area of the Green Lion park. "Can we sit down? Talk about what's going on?"

"I don't really want to talk," Sabrina said, her eyes flicking back and forth through the park with a well-trained eye.

"Then I'll talk." Ruby looked firmly up to Sabrina. "And you'll listen."


"What do you think you're doing? Think you're funny, trying to disrupt this concert? I have half a mind to call the police."

"W-What? What do you mean?" Corey looked left and right wildly, trying to figure out what was going on. A big, brutish thug of a security guard was right in front of his face. "I was just in the restroom. I heard the fire alarm, I got out of there on the double and now you're in my face—"

"You got a problem with that, kid?"

"No, it's just—"

"I'd suggest you leave before I really do call the police."

Corey grabbed at his beanie, frustrated. "No, the ticket was too expensive just to leave."

The security poked his meaty finger into Corey's chest. "When you pull a fire alarm like an arsehole then you forfeit your ticket. Now leave before I call the police. And I will call the police."

Corey bit his tongue. He wanted to respond but this guy looked like he'd played rugby and was kicked out for injuring too many people. He couldn't argue with this. Defeated, he looked at the guard, "Can I at least tell my friends—"

"No."

"Just a—"

"No."

"Don't be a—"

"No."

"Christ, fine." Corey shook his head. "I'll go, I'll go. I hope you're happy with yourself, unfairly accusing me of pulling that damn fire alarm." He thrust his thumb at the camera. "When you look at the tapes you'll see it wasn't me and then you'll have hell to pay, ape-man." With that final retort, Corey stalked out of the building, hands in his pockets, unable to believe his rotten luck.


Bridge stood with his arms open wide, taking in the allure of the crowd. There was nothing quite like standing in front of thousands of people, purple mist swirling around his feet. He waited for as long as he felt necessary before raising the microphone in his left hand towards his mouth. He spoke one word: "Luxuria."

His voice echoed around the concert hall and he could almost see the chills running up his followers spines. Bridge turned around and moved towards the back of the stage, where his drums were waiting. The purple mist swirled and opened to reveal his drums… and one Lily Talbot sitting at his drums, a sheepish grin on her face. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that she had interrupted his performance in front of thousands of people. He couldn't believe she would embarrass him like that. Even as annoying and frustrating and stalkish as she was, Lily had never once interrupted a performance, instead watching it like the fan he knew she was.

Bridge could feel the fury rising up within him. The crowd was obviously confused but neither Lily nor Bridge cared. Bridge took one step towards her and she stood quickly, flipping the drums with her hands. They crashed and slammed against the stage floor in a cacophony of sound. With a quick wave, she sprinted off to the back-stage area.

Bridge followed suit, his head burning. The timing was all off now. The lights would come on and he wouldn't be ready… no matter. This performance was already ruined by that little brat. Nothing else he could do. Bridge pushed through the backstage area just as the timed lights burst on, sending waves of light out at the audience.

"TALBOT!" Bridge roared.

"Bridge, what the… Who is…" Eddy ran towards her, looking flustered.

"Did you see her? Where did she go?" Bridge's eyes were wild. "I'll kill her!" His tone of voice frightened the stage-hands dotted around. They looked at him with fear.

"Bridge, calm down. She ran out the back door, she'll already be gone. I'll call the police—"

"I'll get her and rip her to shreds. How dare she ruin this for me! How dare she—"

CRACK!

The noise reverberated through the backstage area. Bridge and Eddy both glanced back towards the light display, which had snapped from one of its mounts and was leaning threateningly towards the stage. Eddy seemed lost for words as two more cracks reverberated around. The light display in all its splendour fell down towards the stage and crashed hard, sending sparks and light throughout the stage.

Eddy fell back in shock but Bridge remained standing, even as the fire caught the curtains. He watched as one of the catwalks high above the stage snapped and swung like a deadly swing directly to where Bridge would have been standing had he been on the stage. Without a second thought he turned and headed for the back entrance, even as the fire spread quickly across the curtains and the crowd started to panic.

"Bridge? Bridge! You can't just… Bridge!" Eddy scrambled to his feet, running after Bridge, pulling out his mobile to call the fire service.


"…Sabrina…" Ruby found her friend's name leaving her lips as she stared at the scene through the swaying trees. "How did you know?"

At first, the men and women fleeing from the concert hall in an unorganised mess caught Ruby's attention before she could confront Sabrina properly. It didn't take long after that for the swirling black smoke to rise into the dark sky, casting a shadow over Green Lion Square. Soon the fire-trucks had arrived and it was this that Ruby was watching, seeing the men in black and yellow unroll the hoses and tackle the flames that were fighting their way out of the windows of the Epsilon Concert Hall.

Ruby turned back towards the bench, seeking an answer from Sabrina. However, Sabrina's concentration wasn't focused on Ruby or the fire. She had her head in her hands, leaning over her knees. Small choked sobs could be heard from under the strands of blonde hair that had come free from her ponytail.

"Sabrina?" Ruby gently placed a hand on Sabrina's shoulder.

Sabrina looked up with wet eyes, tears trailing down her cheeks. She bit her bottom lip, unable to say a word. She looked for all the world a child who had lost herself in the big city. In the two years Ruby had known Sabrina, she had never seen her like this. Sabrina had always been strong and sure of herself. She certainly had her secrets but they had never overwhelmed her like today had.

Knowing that no words could help right then, Ruby sat next to Sabrina and put her arm over her back, pulling her gently in so Sabrina's cheek rested on Ruby's shoulder. The duo sat like this for a long while, simply watching the fire tear away at the Epsilon Concert Hall; avoiding the fiery fate that it had in store for them.