Doc's Favorite Boyband - Part Two
The guitarist and drummer stayed on stage in silence for a moment before Amy and the Doctor joined me in the venue. The Tardis landed in the balcony area of the venue, so we made our way downstairs quickly to introduce and explain ourselves.
"I was trying to tell you," the Doctor started, "The navigation matrix had a glitch. It's not 2022, it's 2019."
"Not an arena either," Amy added, "He promised us an arena now we've got a small club!"
"Hey don't diss the smaller shows! They're usually more fun anyways," I said defensively, then looked at the decal on one of the venue doors, "Hang on, I think I've been here before."
Examining the all capital cursive letters in the venue name brought a few memories back. The loudness of the music, how much of a hurry my mom was in to go home after the show, my sister walking out of the venue barefoot because her shoes hurt too much.
"We're not in Albany, that's for sure," I said, "We're in Atlanta."
"Atlanta?" Amy asked, "How can you know that?"
"The venue. I went to a show here before I started traveling with y'all! Granted, that was in 2012 but still I recognize the logo. This is the Masquerade. Been in the city since the 80s and it's hosted all kinds of artists." While I waxed nostalgically on my first standing room concert I began walking backwards toward the stage. "My mom drove my sister and me into town for a Passion Pit show when they came through on tour. Man, what a show! I didn't know a whole lot of their stuff beforehand. We were mostly going because my sister wanted to, but after that show I couldn't get enough!"
I kept walking backwards even after the Doctor and Amy stopped in their tracks. For a second I wondered why they did that, but when I bumped into someone behind me I figured it out. Turning on my heels quickly and ready to offer a brief apology, I was left sputtering as my focus was drawn towards Geoff's triforce necklace.
"Oh, sorry! Didn't realize you were right there, man. My bad. Nice necklace though!"
I took a few steps back while looking up to his face and quickly noticed something was… off. What should've been bright blue eyes were instead pale white with pinpoint pupils. They didn't meet my gaze either; Geoff just stared ahead of me towards the back wall of the venue. I looked up onstage; Otto hadn't moved from the drum kit, his vacant gaze focused on the back wall as well.
"Doctor, what's going on? What's happened to them?" I asked, waving a hand in front of Geoff's face. The Time Lord walked up onstage and scanned the drum kit with his screwdriver, then did the same with the guitars, microphones and amps. With a flick of the wrist he looked at his screwdrivers readings and hopped down from the stage.
"Hard to say, really," he concluded, "Definitely some kind of hypnotic influence. Nothing terribly strong, mind you. But enough to keep them from acting on free will." He walked up to circle Geoff once, but paused about halfway around. "What're these in his ears?"
I walked over and saw what he meant; a small red device that looked like a more advanced earbud. I'd seen musicians wear them before, but what were they called?
"I think they're meant to reduce background noise onstage?" Amy guessed, "I've seen artists with them before, but almost always during a performance. Why's he wearing them right now, though?"
We didn't have much time to postulate any further because up in the balcony someone started whistling, and I immediately recognized the tune as the intro to Waterparks's song Peach.
"I think we should get back to the Tardis, girls," the Doctor suggested, already starting to walk towards the stairs with Amy following close behind him. I spun around to shoot a glare their way.
"And leave behind my favorite band in the middle of a crisis? Ha!" I said, retrieving my screwdriver and pointing it up to where the whistling was coming from. I couldn't get any solid readings though and my screwdriver began beeping rhythmically with the song's tune.
"Not leaving, Ginny. Just getting to a more defensive position. Now, come on!" I looked up and saw that the two of them were already on their way through the door.
"Don't wait up then!" I tried running to join them but something was holding me back; something with an inhumanly strong grip. Pulling against it proved to be counterproductive as I was pulled in closer and my hands were held tighter behind my back. The whistling suddenly stopped.
"Actually, no. You're not going anywhere," a new voice rang out from the balcony, "Not with the show so close to starting, at least!"
Wait a minute, I know that voice. I thought, goosebumps crawling across my body. I craned my neck and looked up only to see exactly who I feared I would; but with a noticeably anachronistic fashion sense.
I stared up in bewilderment as an out-of-era Awsten Knight walked across the balcony. His bright red hair complimenting the giant stars drawn over his eyes, which even from my current distance I could tell were the same white as Geoff and Otto's.
"Where's Awsten? What did you do with him?" I demanded, turning against Geoff's grip to face the doppelgänger.
"What're you talking about?" the false Awsten asked innocently, before vaulting the balcony's guard rail and dropping down to the ground floor below with a resounding crash, "I am Awsten. Flesh and bone, the one and only."
"No, you're not," I insisted as he walked towards me, "You might look like him but you're about four years and three albums into the future. So who are you, really?"
The false Awsten feigned offense and held a hand over its heart, gasping in an attempt to really sell the overreaction. He dropped the charade of surprise with a dark laugh and smile.
"You can drop the act too, by the way," he said.
"Act?" I asked, doing my best to be brave.
"All that anxiety, all those worries. I could smell you the moment you left that ship," he tilted my face up so that I was looking into his eyes, "I know how scared you really are, and it's intoxicating."
Suddenly I could feel my heart thumping so fast that for a moment I thought it would fly out of my chest. Despite my efforts to stay calm I could feel myself begin to tremble. I tried looking away from the false Awsten's gaze, but something kept me focused on his eyes; a bright gleaming white save for the pinhole pupils. His smile, though hollow, never faltered and he tightened his grip on my shoulders.
"Wh-what are you?" I managed to ask through a trembling voice, but I didn't receive an answer. Instead, purplish smoke began pouring over me in a thick cloud; its sickeningly sweet odor overpowering my senses as I began to cough uncontrollably. Just as quickly as it formed though, the cloud dispersed.
When the smoke fully cleared I was no longer in the venue. I found myself alone in the middle of a rundown suburban neighborhood. To my right, left, and at the end of the cul-de-sac houses stood in various states of decay; many with wildflowers growing up the walls and across the roofs. Street lamps flickered purple and white against the rain-soaked asphalt, giving the road a glistening appearance. Thunder rolled across the late night sky, and every few seconds a small strand of lightning would dance across the clouds. Even the air around me seemed a bit charged with static.
"H-hello?" I called out, looking around me before glancing down at my hands. Strands of what appeared to be VHS film cascaded down my arms and around my legs. I scrambled to remove as much of the film from my legs as possible, not liking the tripping hazard it posed. As I worked at detangling myself though, I heard a splashing sound advancing towards me.
"Hey!" a familiar voice called out. I stood up on detangled legs to see a young man with shoulder-length hair running toward me. Behind him was a giant wave of VHS film on the verge of crashing, and there I stood like a deer in headlights.
"Don't just stand there like that. Come on!" he said hastily, hand outstretched as he came closer. Without thinking I took it, and as we continued down the street he turned to look at me briefly with an ear-to-ear grin.
Wait a minute, I know that smile!
"Otto?!" I exclaimed, "What the actual hell is going on?"
"Not a great time for questions, Ginny! We gotta get back to the house!" he shouted back, keeping his focus on the end of the cul-de-sac.
Hang on, how did he know my name?
This question would have to wait a moment though as we ran up to a surprisingly pristine house. Unlike the others in the neighborhood this one had no signs of overgrowth or abandonment. Flowerbeds in the front yard were carefully maintained, the windows weren't boarded up, and the golden 103 adorning the front door showed no signs of rust or tarnish.
"Come on. We'll be safe in here," Otto said as he unlocked the door, "Me and the guys have been using this place as a hideout. The film doesn't affect it."
I turned back for a moment to see the cul-de-sac now overrun with a crashing expanse of film. True to Otto's word though, it never came in contact with the front yard, the driveway, or the fencing on the left and right sides of the property. It was like the whole area surrounding the house was encased in a bubble.
"You gonna come in, or what?" Otto asked. I turned back around to see that he was leaning against the doorway waiting for me.
"Sorry, yeah," I stammered, walking past the drummer and through the front door.
The interior was in just as good condition as the exterior, save for a few used dishes still on the kitchen counter. As I rounded the corner into the living room I took particular notice of the small CRT television and the Legend of Zelda dungeon being explored on its screen. My gaze followed the AV cables to the NES on the coffee table, then from the game console to a pair of hands holding one of the controllers, and then finally up past a triforce necklace to a pair of bright blue eyes looking back at me. I held my hand up slowly and gave a nervous wave, butterflies once again forming in my stomach.
"Hi, Geoff!" I said quietly, "Um, nice to meet you I guess?"
The guitarist smiled warmly up at me and offered a quick wave of his own. "It's nice to meet you too, Ginny," he said.
He knows my name too? How the hell is that possible?
Otto walked out from behind me to join Geoff on the sofa before gesturing for me to sit in one of the chairs at the dining table.
"Make yourself at home," he said, "I'm sure you've got questions, and we'll do our best to answer them, okay?"
I nodded slowly before turning a chair around to face the duo and slowly sitting down.
"Okay, how the hell do y'all know who I am?" I asked, "Y'all are one of my favorite bands of all time so hearing you call me by name the first time we meet is… weird to say the least."
Geoff laughed nervously before looking up at the ceiling, obviously trying to figure out the best way to word his explanation.
"Yeah I can see how that'd be weird," Otto said.
"But if it makes you feel any better about it, all we knew was that someone just got here, that they had red hair, and their name was Ginny," Geoff added, "But the really weird part is that no one else would've been here to tell us that. It's like… there was a voice in the back of my head or something."
"So y'all don't really know who I am? You just got a warning that I'd be arriving?" I asked, leaning forward a bit in my seat. The two of them nodded.
"Pretty much," Otto said.
I breathed a sigh of relief, having a pretty good idea of who'd sent the warning. But how exactly was I supposed to explain that to these guys? From their point of view they've probably been going through the most unusual chain of events in their lives, and now I had to be the one to tell them things were only gonna get weirder. But hey, it's not like we didn't have time for background information, right?
"Might seem like an odd question," I started, "but the voice in your head that told you I was coming. It didn't happen to be British, did it?"
Geoff's eyebrows furrowed and Otto's shot up as a dumbfounded look rested on their faces.
"Yeah, it was," Geoff said, "How'd you know that?"
I laughed a little bit, despite our current situation. "He's a friend of mine," I said, "Kind of a psychic, or maybe telepath is a better word for it. Either way, he can send you messages in your mind." I suddenly had a pop culture epiphany, "Ooo, I know! Like, Charles Xavier from X-Men!"
"Ohhh okay, that… almost makes sense."
Otto nodded in agreement before looking somewhere behind me. His eyes widened a bit and a nervous smile graced his face as he returned his attention to me.
"Hey uh, your friend. He wouldn't happen to wear suspenders and a bowtie, would he?" he asked, a little bit of a warble in his voice. I rolled my eyes and chuckled lightly.
"Yeah that's him, alright. How did you—" I looked over me and found myself staring right into the Doctor's eyes, "JESUS CHRIST!"