6. You've Seen The Butcher

Finally, I was back to my mountains. Back to my poor, dead coal mining towns and the sad pillheads that populated them. I was home.

"Are you sure Rez will go for this?" I asked John as we watched the roadies set up a contraption above the stage that would pour fake blood down upon us.

"He said it was cool. He's making bank off of this show, I don't think he's too concerned with cleaning up afterwards."

I dicked around for a little bit and took some pictures with people, then the bar opened and I started getting bombarded with old friends and acquaintances. I had missed everyone - well, not everyone - but this was overwhelming. I couldn't get a single second to myself and my nerves were jumping today.

"Kobe!" I yelled through the crowd. "KOBE!"

He turned his head and nodded, then loped over to me as he pushed his way past everyone between us. He put his huge hand on my shoulder and guided me through the thick block of people to the side door that lead outside.

Then he leaned down and threw his arms around me for a second. "How you been, girl?"

"Anxious as fuck, for some reason."

He passed me a fresh blunt. "This should help."

"What time is it?" I blew my hit towards the fence as the door opened and Rez came out. Kobe held his wrist towards me... five hours til show.

"I got some stuff for you, Legs." He hit the L with one hand as he started handing baggies to me with the other.

"Where'd you get all this dope?" It was a pretty vast assortment of substances.

"Everybody's just glad to have you here," he answered.

I eyed a bag of blotter paper and wondered if there was any way I could perform tripping on acid. I hadn't done any in a long time - I wasn't in the right state of mind lately and I knew it, but the idea was still tempting.

"Those Superman's came from my boy," Kobe said as he pointed to some little blue tablets of X.

"Double stack?" I asked, my teeth nibbling at my lip.

"Triple."

A big puff of air whooshed out of my lungs. "Wanna share one and go ride around or something?"

He busted out laughing, the brightness of his teeth shocking against his deep brown skin. "Yo, Rez! You hear this girl?"

Rez just kind of sighed as he looked back and forth between us. "Take your car, not the shuttle. And have her back here with plenty of time."

I popped a tab in half and stuck mine under my tongue. This was a ridiculous idea, but I'd done it before and it had been awesome. I felt like the only real obstacle was going to be making it back in time to play our spot. But... you know. Fuck it.

"Dude... you ever heard of booty bumping?" Kobe slid his tab under his tongue and smiled as I laughed at him.

I sat in the passenger seat, flipping through tracks on his cd player. "Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar. Ugh, Kobe."

"Kendrick's a genius!" he yelled. "A lyrical fuckin' genius, Legs."

"Whatever." I hooked my phone to his system and started playing some 2pac. I rapped and he laughed at me as we made our way through dirt roads in the woods to the Spot.

"Killing, KILLING my ride right now," he complained.

"Stop up there and we'll walk the rest. It's not far."

He pulled off and we stepped out of the car. It was surprisingly warm today, even if the wind was whipping my hair around. The woods were still buzzing with activity, birds chirping and squirrels chasing each other around trees. I saw a flower in full bloom and leaned over to smell it.

"You want it?" Kobe asked as he began to reach towards the lily.

"No," I said quickly. "I'd rather let it grow." I started off down the path that would take me to the cliffs and the caves, looking for the markers that would help guide my way. I passed the knife tree and then Underwear Mountain and could see the graffiti-covered caves up ahead.

"Damn, you WV kids don't fuck around," Kobe said as he looked down at the disgusting old pile of panties and boxers.

"I added to that once."

He made a face at me.

"I had puked all over myself. I added puke panties."

"Gross," he said as he moved forward.

He sat down on the large, flat rock in the cave as I read the graffiti, looking for my own. I found a pretty big "Darrell hearts Liz" that I didn't write, complete with blood dripping from the heart... because that's not weird at all. Then, buried under some other tags was my "Liz Loves Ana Forever". There had been some jokes about it when I'd done it, but so far it had held true and that was more than you could say about most of the declarations of love on these walls.

"I wonder if kids still party out here." The X was starting to hit me full on and I felt strangely nostalgic. My friends and I used to throw huge parties out here and we'd usually camp. My mind was flipping through memories of bonfires and drunk people and witnessing firsthand a few different people actually fall off the cliff - they were fine, for the most part.

"Florida's not like this," Kobe said as he pushed down from the rock and started towards me.

"You probably can't play in the woods because of alligators," I laughed.

"Shit, y'all got bears," he joked back.

I heard a bit of rustling and looked around the leaves for movement. "We also have snakes," I said as I zeroed in on the nearly five foot ratsnake that was slithering our way. "But so does Florida..."

"Oh, SHIT!" Kobe started to panic. He ran back into the cave and jumped atop the rock, yelling the whole way. "Liz! Oh my God, Liz!"

"It's okay," I said evenly. Somewhere in my mind, I remembered that black snakes were aggressive as fuck, even though their venom was harmless. Getting bit sometimes resulted in a nasty infection.

Still, I bent down as the snake approached and I looked it in the eyes. It didn't try to strike me.

Kobe was still totally freaking out. "LIZ! What are you doin'?! You are going to get BIT in the FACE!"

"It's okay," I repeated. We were both kind of flying off this ecstasy and everything was intense as fuck, but I couldn't decide which of us was acting crazier right now.

I held my hand close to the head of the snake and realized who was crazier, because it was definitely me. I felt crazy, but I also felt like I knew what I was doing. A confident kind of insane. The snakes tongue flicked out once and then it came a little closer. The forked tongue flicked twice more before it proceeded to slither up my arm, across my shoulders and down my other arm.

I stood back up and turned to face Kobe in the cave. He just stared, eyes wide and slack jawed. "This is the best ecstasy. Ever."

I dragged a very freaked out and statue-stiff Kobe back through the club doors with just enough time to get dressed and hit the stage. I'd been having a beautifully open and nature-filled experience for the past few hours while he had not fully recovered from his little freakout over the snake. I'd had to drive all the way back out here in his BMW while he sat all squished up and staring, his mouth agape in the passenger seat.

"Rez! Cowboy!" I yelled through the second doorway to the large main room. They came and got Kobe from me and I dashed off to the bathroom.

I got dressed in a frenzy while bitches pounded at the door, and - even though my reflection was totally wigging me out - I braved putting on some extra makeup. I pulled the door open and ran to the stage where my band was already waiting for me, all plugged up and ready to go. Someone I barely recognized raised a shot to me and I tossed it back with a thank you.

"Keep 'em coming, I'm trying to party tonight," I laughed into the mic. The crowd cheered raucously as we swung right into our set.

This wasn't the biggest show we'd ever played, but it was probably the most devoted crowd we could play to. Looking out into the sea of faces, I recognized so many of them. If I weren't so fucked up, I might be nervous.

I did get nervous as we closed our final song. My band was already re-tuning their instruments or switching them out completely. People were yelling for an encore, but we had something even better for them.

"You guys want another song?" I yelled in the mic.

The responded with excitement as I knew they would.

"How about a couple more?!"

I was met with another round of ecstatic roars.

"We've got a special treat for you guys tonight." I hung the mic back in it's stand and stepped aside as my band started the deep, rough music, and Chino himself stepped out on the small stage.

I was instantly under the spell of that voice. I was dancing, swaying, touching my body, just getting lost in the beauty of it all. I didn't even realize it at first, but then I was being eased back towards the front of the stage from behind, and I realized Chino was up against me. He hit the second chorus and the blood started to rain down on us, flying all around.

I was rolling hard off that stack, still after all these hours. I felt absolutely amazing being up there in the bright lights of the stage, covered in sweat and blood like an animal, dancing like no one was watching me. This was the life.

When the show ended, the party began. It was so intense; hot, sweaty, blood soaked bodies were pushing into each other, dancing, grinding, swapping spit and sweat. Sex was in the air and everyone was feeling it. Including, apparently, the rock God that I had just shared a stage with.

We were dancing and he was looking at me like he was going to devour me whole. "You're awesome, Liz," he said right next to my face. "Thanks for having us tonight."

He was so close that I could smell the Armani cologne he wore, a scent that reminded me of the taste of lortabs dripping down my throat. "Fuck, man. Thank YOU guys! Tonight has just been..." There weren't enough words.

"We could make it better," he said, and honestly it stunned me. "Stay with me tonight."

For just a moment, I stared and soaked in the fact that someone I'd crushed on for a huge portion of my life was hitting on me. This was seriously one of the proudest moments of my entire life, and I didn't give a shit who thought it shouldn't be.

"I'm actually with someone," I said into his ear. "But I'm trying to revel in this moment because I'm so flattered. Under other circumstances..."

He smiled at me. "Ah, gotcha. Well, you have my number. Keep in touch. Come see us again." He gave me a quick hug before we parted ways.

I wanted to faint. I sat down for a few minutes and got some water; I wasn't sure if I was overheating from the ecstasy or if my temperature was just rising in reaction to Chino, but either way I needed a cool down. I was chugging the bottle when an old friend, Alley, came up to me and offered to smoke me up outside.

I wanted so badly to call Ana, but I knew that was a bad idea; I texted her instead. She didn't seem as interested in my night as I was and our conversation started to feel stale fast. I wondered if it was anything to do with tonight or if it was just because of the state of things lately.

I finally stole away and called her from Kobe's unlocked car.

"Hey," she answered cautiously.

"You know what I found today?" I pulled the phone from my ear and sent her a picture of the cave wall.

"Awww," she answered after a moment. "I remember the day you did this!"

"Me too," I laughed. "And I was thinking earlier that it's cool I put you instead of whatever dumbass I was dating at the time, because I actually do love you forever."

"I love you too, crazy girl. How's everything going in dub-vee?"

"Good but it's so weird... I know almost everyone but my real crew isn't here." Once Darrell was locked up, his remaining band members had migrated farther away from here and each other. None of them had been here tonight.

"Have you seen your family yet?"

I sighed. I didn't even want to. I mean, I'd like to see my Terra Alta family, but that was back up in the north-easternmost corner of the state. "Not yet. I'm going to mom's in a few hours... maybe less."

There was a knock at the window that made me jump, but it was just Kobe coming back to his own car. I crawled over to the passenger seat and got off the phone with Ana.

"You want a ride home?" he asked me, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Sure."

We drove for a few minutes before we hit a red light, and he started staring at me. "So, we just not going to talk about that fact that you fucking did some weird snake charmin' shit out in the woods earlier, rollin' on ecstasy?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Stranger things have happened. I know."