Thanks so much to the 'awesome' people who reviewed: Mentalcase50 and . Your reviews convince me that there are still people who want to read this story- am never too sure... Anyways, please enjoy, Murdoc's gonna try out his newly bought drugs...
The Gorillaz band stood in a spare room (the main stage was currently being used) and practised their songs like they had been for the last hour, Murdoc had been repeatedly screwing up his bass playing, much to the confusion of Russel and to the hidden delight of 2D (Murdoc was always having a go at him for being 'rubbish' at singing).
Murdoc stood holding his Bass and playing along to El Manana as best as he could despite the extreme exhaustion he felt when trying to work without Speed in his system.
2D stood holding a mic and began to sing along to the music,
Summer don't know me no more
Eager man, that's all
Murdoc tried to keep his eyes open, trying desperately to play the tune that he'd created a few years ago.
Summer don't know me
He just let me love in myself
Cause I do know, Lord, from you that
Just died, yeah
Murdoc glanced over to Russel as he played the drums and narrowed his eyes.
I saw that day, lost my mind
Lord, I'm fine, maybe in time
You'll want to be mine
He knew what Russel was doing, he was taking over, trying to take the band for himself, he was going to convince 2D and Noodle that he wasn't up for it, that he wasn't young enough to keep up with them anymore. Or maybe 2D and Noodle were already in on it... No that had to be the lack of speed (paranoia) talking, right-
"MURDOC!", Russel yelled.
Murdoc stopped playing suddenly, glancing around to the rest of the band who had also stopped playing and were staring weirdly at him. Murdoc didn't understand what the problem was but didn't want to lose face, smirking as he replied, "Had enough of playing El Manana eh?"
Russel looked half irritated, half confused, "'We' were playin El Manana, You just started playing random chords half way through the song".
Angry at being talked down to in front of 'his' band, Murdoc glared fiercely, "I was playing all the right chords, I invented this song! If you don't know the song then don't play along lardo!"
Russel glared back, his fist clenching and unclenching, "Same could be said for you, the hell is with you today?!"
"Er, guys", 2D called out quietly trying to break through the fight and just get back to practicing. Noodle and put her hand on 2D's wrist and smiled at him in that I've-got-this look, "Hey!", Noodle called out, silencing the growing fight and causing both Murdoc to look at her as she continued, "We could have rest?".
"Sounds great to me!" Snapped Murdoc, not waiting for Russel's answer as he heavily left his bass on floor and stormed out the door.
Making sure no one had followed him, Murdoc let himself into the band's caravan and closed the door behind him. He grabbed a beer from the fridge, sat down heavily on his bed and sighed, he really needed to stop this, Speed withdrawal was making him so irritable and paranoid with the other members of his band, plus it was really screwing up his playing ability. Promising to himself that he'd give up once the tour was over, Murdoc fished one of the 'speed' packets out of his trouser pockets and unwrapped it, it was in a small, block-like form (not unusual).
Rather than crushing it up and snorting, Murdoc decided to swallow it instead, he touched his tongue to it first- it tasted alright. Shrugging to himself, Murdoc placed it on his tongue, swallowed it with a swig of alcohol, laid back on his bed and stared up at the wood panel ceiling of the caravan, hoping he hadn't been sold a dud.
...Five minutes later and still nothing, Murdoc switched on the radio next to him, a Beatles song from his childhood came on (strawberry fields).
Sleepily Murdoc laid his head back on his pillows, watching silently as the wooden panel ceiling began to gently move and flow, almost creating a water wave like effect, rising and bubbling down like the sea. The more it moved, the more it seemed to change colour slowly darkening from a light brown to a dark black before it turned to a beautiful light blue colour. Murdoc grinned to himself, mesmerised by the drug induced beauty of it, before frowning slightly, 2D was in that water floating on a small lifesaver ring, but 2D couldn't swim, what was he doing there?!
Murdoc's eyes widened as a big wave came across the sky blue water, he yelled out a warning to the hapless singer, but it was too late. The giant wave swept over 2D and he disappeared from view, the waters turning into a dark bloody red. Murdoc screamed out, intent on trying to save his band mate, he quickly stood up on his bed to help 2D and trod on the half empty bottle of alcohol that he'd accidentally dropped on the bed at the start of his drug trip. Slipping on it Murdoc fell almost comically off the bed, the side of his head colliding painfully with the floor. Wincing, Murdoc put a hand to the right side of his head and groaned, the pain briefly making him forget what had just taken place.
His eyes snapped open as he heard the caravan door open and someone step inside, dazed, Murdoc looked up, gasping when he saw his old dad glaring down at him and yelling, "I told you, you were fuckin useless, the fuck you doin on the floor you useless little shit?!". Murdoc tried to argue back but he couldn't, mentally he was suddenly a child again and he could do nothing but draw his knees up and back up against a corner of the caravan. He carefully glanced up to see his dad still glaring at him, "Pathetic!", his dad bent down and raised his hand to hit him, Murdoc cringed back, staring at his knees, "Please dad, I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I'm sorry dad, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm-".
"Murdoc, you alright?". Glancing up from the floor, Murdoc saw a confused looking 2D staring down at him, holding out his hand for Murdoc to grab onto. Feeling rather embarrassed at being found in such a position, Murdoc just frowned and nodded silently, grabbing 2D's hand and let 2D pull him off the floor. 2D glanced around, taking in Murdoc's previously scared look, the mostly empty beer bottle (now lying on the floor) and Murdoc's messed up alcohol drenched bed, "Wot appened?". Murdoc shrugged as he sarcastically answered, "Big party, lots 'o' women, sorry I didn' invite yer, but ay you know ow it is".
2D nodded his head in muted agreement before quickly shaking his head, "Ay come on Mudz, that's not wot appened". Murdoc laughed mildly at 2D's stupidity before stopping abruptly and holding a hand to his head, groaning in pain.
"Did you hit yer head Mudz?".
"No, I always do this when am thinkin".
"Oh, ok".
"I'M IN PAIN YOU FUCKIN IDIOT!".
"D'you want me ter call someone?".
"Uh, jus grab some ice outta the fridge or somethin".
2D nodded but continued to stare un-nervingly into Murdoc's eyes, "Hey Mudz, what's wit yer eyes, your pupils are like pinpricks!".
Feeling suddenly self-conscious, Murdoc turned to face the window so 2D couldn't stare, and shrugged, "You're one to talk, your eyes are pupils and nothin but!". 2D sighed, grabbed a pack of frozen peas from the fridge and handed them to Murdoc noticing how the Satanist was now suddenly avoiding 2D's gaze.
"Ay Mudz... You would tell me if yer usin serious drugs again cuz-".
Murdoc's face flushed red, quickly snapping back, "I'm not that fuckin stupid faceache! It's the sun hittin my eyes through the window ain't it? Now either shut up or piss off!".
Twenty minutes later:
2D ambled in to the practise room where a bored looking Russel and a snoozing Noodle waited, grinning as always his long legs strode quickly over to the other two members in comparison to Murdoc who slunk behind 2D, into the room with a slow hand-stuck-in-pockets crawl of a walk.
His head still hurting, Murdoc stopped at his Bass guitar and picked it up, strumming a few chords as he watched 2D interact with the two others. Everything was shinier than normal, 2D's hair was taking on it's own personal shade of sparkling neon blue. Murdoc knew from previous experiances that the drug he'd taken was definitely speed but the hallucinations and colours led him to believe it was also laced with something else, from what he could tell it was some form of LSD.
Grinning (evidently cheered up by 2D's mindless babble), Russel walked over and clapped a big hand against Murdoc's back, shocking him out of his drug related thoughts, "Where were you anyway? We sent 2D out to find you an hour ago".
Murdoc gave a sideways glance and shrugged, "Got held up".
"Mudz fell on his head", 2D chimed in, grinning from ear to ear like an idiot.
Russel shrugged as he ruffled the sleepy eyed Noodle's hair who stood yawning next to him, "Great, maybe it knocked some sense into him".
Murdoc smirked, playing a loud, obnoxious tune on his bass in response, the rest of the band practise went perfectly.
Hours later, stood on the stage behind the curtains twenty minutes before 'curtain up':
Ignoring his band mates who continued to fiddle with their different instruments, Murdoc peaked out from behind the curtains and stared out into the audience they'd be playing to for the rest of the night. He squinted, staring at them, there had to be nearing five hundred or more there, the audience was at least as big as last night. Groaning slightly, Murdoc moved away from the curtain, letting it fall back into place as he rubbed his head, it still hurt from the fall and he was beginning to feel slightly tired. He wasn't sure how long the speed in the drugs would hold for- it wasn't the purest form he'd ever recieved. Finally deciding it was for the best, Murdoc walked away from the stage and quickly ran into the empty staff-only bathroom, standing infront of the sinks as he had done the previous night.
Avoiding his reflection in the mirror, Murdoc crushed up his second packet and snorted it with a rolled up five pound note, washing his nose after he finished to prevent any tell-tale white powder sticking to it.
As always before he went on stage, Murdoc forcibly looked at himself in the mirror- he didn't like what he saw. His eyes were blood-shot and red rimmed, with mere pin-prick pupils, he was terribly thin from barely having eaten in weeks, his hair and (military-style) clothes were immaculate thanks to the make-up and assistant staff but even they couldn't fail to mention to him that he'd seemed to have shrunk several sizes in clothes since the tour began. In short, he looked like he felt, an energetic pathetic drunk-bum. He didn't want to carry on like this but he had to, the drugs had tightened their grip and he knew he'd never be able to continue the tour without them.
He was stupid, he was killing his own body off and he knew it. He could feel it, but he couldn't stop, he couldn't disappoint his fans, he couldn't disappoint his band and he'd wouldn't let those bastard media head-hunters write him off as some sort of useless old druggie. Murdoc shivered feeling suddenly quite cold, but clutched the edges of the sink and glared firmly at himself in the mirror, he didn't care if it destroyed him, he was Murdoc Niccals, this band was what he had breathed, worked, fought, suffered, bled and even sold his soul for, he'd been damned (if he wasn't already) if he was gonna ever let some 'tribute band' take all that away from him.
Shakily Murdoc squinted at his reflection in the mirror and grinned weakly, bearing his sharpened teeth, "Show must go on eh?".
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, if you did please review, if you didn't- review anyways am not too fussy, :D. Next chapter- Will this Murdoc survive till the end of the band performance?