Chapter Two
Finally Here
Kyrie slowly opened her eyes. Blurred figures stood around her, murmuring things that she could not understand. She raised her hands, rubbing her temples and slowly sitting up, "What happened?" she asked. The figures gradually came into focus.
"You passed out." Alvin said worriedly, "Are you alright?"
She nodded, taking in the surroundings. Alvin stood by her bedside, while Leo was to her left, talking to a professional looking man with glasses. They were in a small nurses office with cream colored walls and white cabinets. Kyrie looked down at the white patients bed she sat on, and then at the dried blood on her jeans. 'I'll never wear these pants again…' she thought to herself, feeling slightly queasy.
"She's finally awake." Alvin said to the others.
"Alright!" Leo cheered, "Now we can get this all finalized. Mr. Ofdensen here didn't wanna start till you were up, Zuzu." Leo pointed back to Charles Ofdensen, who seemed to be studying Kyrie. She felt as if she was being dissected under his cold, impassive gaze. She looked away, digging a silver trinket out of her pocket and playing with it. Charles focused his attention on the rest of the band and cleared his throat,
"Well, now that you are all conscious, I would like to discuss the terms of the agreement." They all nodded, "But before I begin, do you all have any questions you would like to ask?" Kyrie thought for a moment, unsure of what to ask. She looked at Alvin, who seemed hesitant to speak.
"Yea, about that other band….are they ok?" he finally asked.
Kyrie frowned as the horrific scene replayed itself in her mind. "Am I in trouble?" she asked in a small, frightened voice.
"The other band unfortunately died." Charles said with no hint of emotion in his voice, "But, as you may or may not remember, when your band signed up for the initial screening of this contest you were required to sign a Pain Waiver form. That form released Dethklok from all liability from any injuries or deaths which may have occurred as a result of any performance."
"What?!" Both Alvin and Kyrie shouted, Leo had never mentioned any 'Pain Waiver' forms.
Leo smiled innocently, and attempted to calm his angry band mates. "Aw come on guys, I must of overlooked that part of the paperwork. You know I'd never put you in harms way."
"But…Dethklok didn't kill them." Kyrie said in a small voice. Leo shot her an evil look for mentioning that.
Charles nodded, "Yes, but a Roadie was responsible for knocking the lighting fixture out of place, and--"
"That answers' good enough for me." Leo said smoothly, "Enough dumb questions, lets talk about us opening for Dethklok!"
Charles grew irritated by his enthusiasm and choice of words, "As stated by the contest rules, you will be the opening act for Dethklok in their upcoming tour. You will be living and traveling with the band for the duration of the tour. You will be assigned a designated area in Mordhaus, and you are only allowed in your designated area. Do not wander around. Do not bother Dethklok."
Alvin nodded, "So where do we practice?"
"We are in the process of setting aside a private area for you to rehearse at."
"Cool, cool…so could we watch Dethklok rehearsing too?" Leo asked excitedly.
"No." Charles' voice was stern, "You are not permitted to see them rehearse, or permitted to go into the recording studio. After you are all settled in, I will need you to come by my office and sign confidentiality agreements, and a few other important forms. If you would like, I can lead you all to the room you will be sharing for the duration of the tour."
Kyrie cocked her head to the side, "Just one room?"
"We'll need at least two." Alvin quickly added.
Charles looked at Kyrie once more, she felt insignificant under his gaze and toyed with her shiny silver trinket again. "Well, I had assumed 'Barbed Brothers' would mean you were all male. After all, that is what your registration papers indicated."
"Oh, that?" Leo said, thinking quickly, "Yea, what happened was, we had another drummer. Real big guy, but he had to leave for uhm…family reasons, so we had to pick up another drummer short notice, and Zuzu was all we could find." He pointed over to Kyrie, "I mean, she's not much of a drummer, but at least she's cute!" Kyrie scowled at him.
"I see." Charles said, "I will have to make additional arrangements then. If you would all follow me, I will take you to your room until we can find another for her."
Kyrie hopped off the patients bed, wondering why he had put so much emphasis on "her". The three followed closely behind Charles and were joined by two Roadies at the doorway. Outside of the seemingly normal nurses office, the walls of the house were black, with decorative red swirls. Stone, demonic looking figures seemed to watch them as they passed by each, making Kyrie uncomfortable. The house seemed as if it were designed to resemble a castle, or possibly a dungeon, from the European middle ages.
"I also noticed on your registration papers that you are a soft rock band, is that correct?" Charles asked as they turned down a hall.
"Yup." Alvin said, eyeing the medieval weaponry hanging from the walls in this particular hall.
"You are all aware that Dethklok is a death metal band, and that most of the fans at the concerts you will be opening for will also be death metal fans?" Charles asked.
Leo laughed, "Of course we know that. Don't sweat it, we have this all planned out. You worry about your boys and I'll worry about mine. " The manager looked over at him, annoyed by his statement. Charles stopped the group in front of a door, and instructed one of the Roadies to open it. The moment the handle was turned, Leo pushed them aside, eagerly taking in the room. "Hell, this aint half bad!"
Alvin apologized for Leo's rudeness and followed him in, "Better than my parent's place." He said. The room seemed modern and normal compared to the rest of the house. It was spacious, with bright red walls and white carpeting. Three simple white beds were lined against the right wall and a circular red carpet lay in the center of the room. Across from the beds was a desk with a lamp, and tucked into a corner of the room was a small bathroom. A single arched window shed in light from the outside.
"I wonder what my room will be like…" Kyrie wondered aloud.
"I will send someone to get you once the other room is ready." Charles said to her, she looked up at him. "You all can get settled in, I will call for you shortly to finish the final paperwork, and then you can send for your things."
Kyrie clutched her trinket, and watched as Charles and the Roadies disappeared down the hall.
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
Inside the main room of Mordhaus, Dethklok engaged in various activities. Toki bounced around on a DDR machine, enjoying himself even though he was losing. Seated comfortably on a set of couches and surrounded by beer bottles, Nathan, Skwisgaar, and Pickles discussed a new song they had been working on for the upcoming tour. Across from them, Murderface starred up at a television. An interesting program about the Civil War was on, discussing the gory details of the Battle of Antietam.
"What the hell?" Muderface shouted as an 'Emergency Warning NewsFlash' popped up on the screen. "Turn my show back on!"
"This is an emergency update concerning the crisis in the Midwest." A young, blond news reporter said on the television, "The Midwest has received yet another natural disaster blow this month, as a tornado ravished it's way through three states."
Toki pulled away from his DDR game, panting, "Hey Pickle, look on the TVs', they talking about yous' home."
Pickles looked up from his discussion with Nathan and Skwisgaar as the reporter went on about the incident. "I remember growin' up there. There was always tornado's." Pickles said, remembering his teenage years, "And everytime there was a tornado warning, I would have to disassemble my drum kit, and reassemble it downstairs. 'cause you know, if theres a tornado, I don't want my fuckin' drums flying around in the, you know, tornado."
"Yea, but that would sounds' pretty metal." Skwisgaar said, Pickles raised an eyebrow at the statement.
"Good, you're all here." They turned their attention to Charles, who seemed very eager to speak with them. "I would like to know why you chose a band to open for your tour without even hearing them play."
No one said anything, knowing it would be unwise to tell Charles they were only interested in getting rid of their opening band. As Charles looked at each of them, waiting for an answer, Nathan finally spoke. "Did you see the way that chick took out the other band?"
"Yea." Pickles said, "That was brutal. How could we pass up such a metal band?"
"You are aware that they are not a metal band?" Charles asked, Dethklok looked as if they did not understand him, "They do not play metal music, do you know this?"
"What?!" Toki exclaimed, "What the hells' they plays' then?"
"Rock, Toki. They are a soft rock band." Charles answered.
Murderface nodded, "I'm sure atleast some of those jack off's at our concerts will like them."
"Well, it isn't to late to choose another band. No forms have been signed, we could easily go through the contest process again and—"
Nathan cut Charles off before he could finish, "I'm not going through the whole contest thing again. That's our opening act. That's who we want." The rest of the band seemed to agree.
Charles sighed, "If you all have your minds made up about this, then the only thing left to do is finish the paper work." He returned to his office, feeling defeated.
"That was close." Skwisgaar said. "Almost haves' to go through that contests again. Those bands, they can't plays'. Hurts my ears."
"But this one we gots now not even a metal band!" Toki exclaimed.
Pickles was slightly annoyed, "Toki, that's the point, we don't want a good or even decent band to open for us. This'll just make it easier to get them outta our hair."
"But wait, we didn't even hear them play." Nathan said, realizing this, "What…what if they are good? What if they want to stay the entire tour?"
"We could sabotage them." Murderface suggested, they all looked at him for more details. He grinned, "Well you see…"
x - x - x - x - x - x - x
Kyrie held her drumsticks, playing "air drums" like Alvin had suggested. She sat in the mostly empty room that Charles had assigned for her, feeling a little lonely since she was far from Leo and Alvin. The walls of her room were white with dark red outlines, and the carpet was maroon. The room was smaller and less decorated than the room Alvin and Leo shared, but she didn't mind. She just wanted her drums, but they were still being moved to Mordhaus.
She smiled suddenly, and began to play her air drums at a faster pace. Her drums were being moved from her mothers house. She was away from her mothers house. She wondered if her mother even noticed that she was missing, Kyrie shrugged her shoulders, she had atleast told her mother she was going away for a while.
"No more getting yelled at…" she whispered, hitting an invisible cymbal. This would be her first taste of real freedom, her first experiences away from all the hardships of home. "No more sleeping on the floor…". She sat back onto her cozy new bed, playing her invisible drums at an even faster pace. "No more anything!" she shouted happily, dropping her drumsticks and falling back onto her bed.
She smiled at the ceiling, closing her eyes and imagining that somewhere in this very house, he sat. He could even be in the room next to her, she had no idea where all the strange rooms in Mordhaus led to. She looked over at her wall, imagining Skwisgaar's slender figure on the other side of it. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a broken silver locket in the shape of a heart. She opened it, starring at an old picture of Skwisgaar she had taken from one of her mothers magazines.
Kyrie held the locket close to her heart, "I'm so happy I joined this band. I'm so happy I'm finally here. You're so close…" she whispered, her eyes feeling heavy. She closed the locket and tucked it safely back into her pocket, and grabbed a pillow from her new bed. She drifted off to sleep, with thoughts of her beloved guitarist filling her dreams.