Sinopse
When the Blood Moon is set on Halloween night.
The chosen ones of the Land of the Rising Sun will stand in the place indicated by the darkness, singing their own song around the campfire as a ritual and sealing their fate.
That night, the darkness will envelop the world, bringing the perfection of Death.
A story based behind the scenes of a Halloween show.
Prologue
P.O.V. Ruki
30/10/2017 – The Day of the show
It was a cold night with freezing winds and a bloody moon shining in the sky, coloring a few clouds with its reddish hue.
We'd just done a Halloween show, and the boys were excited to enjoy the rest of the evening, trick-or-treating or going to a themed party. We're a Japanese rock band, Visual Kei style, and we're on tour with the release of our new album.
To our delight or not, our Halloween show coincided with the date we would be in the USA, and we all know that the best Halloween is here. As luck would have it, this was our last show on the American continent before returning to Japan, but before that, we would have two days off to enjoy this party here in New York.
I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Matsumoto Takanori, aka Ruki, and my band is The Gazette, maybe you've heard of us or heard some of our songs.
I'm outside, watching the staff put away all our equipment, sitting smoking an aromatic cigarette to rest, because the show was intense, and I'm almost out of voice.
Uruha and Kai disturb my solitary moment, the two of them are very excited to tell me that the American staff have told them that there will be a Halloween party. Just like the ones in the movies, at a school near the concert venue
I turn to them, a little indignant
— Aren't you tired? It's been two hours of concert, I'm exhausted, there's not a part of my body that isn't sore, my legs… I don't know if I can get up off the floor. Are. — I say with a flawed and hoarse voice — This show was truly amazing, great
— Come on Ruki-san, we never do anything really fun, it's always show, hotel, plane, and the show again—complains Uruha, pouting her duck lips…
— Get up Taka-san, we're going with our Halloween costumes,-
— But what about Aoi-san and Reita-san, where are they? — I'm trying to find an escape by not seeing the other two.
— They didn't even wait, they've already gone ahead to change at the hotel. — Kai shrugs his shoulders.
— Are you sure? None of us speak English properly, we barely understand what they say when they talk to us. And if it weren't for the interpreters, we'd be lost. — I explain the reasons in my head because I know that "I'm not in the mood" wouldn't work with Kai right now.
— Ah! Ruki-kun always wants to stay in his protective bubble, isolated from everyone. — grumbles Uruha, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.
— We never have a break, it's all work, work, and work! There's never any fun, it gets tiring being a leader like this! You're a lot of work, Takanori. — This time it's Kai who's angry.
— Since our leader wants to have some fun, let's go. Just don't say later that I didn't warn you – I reply, looking them both in the face, just to make sure they've kept my word.
I get up with their help and collect my things from the dressing room, the three of us and some staff members walk to the hotel.
First time I've seen Kai and Uruha happy to do something together, that day of the pyramids tour in Mexico was a fluke, so it doesn't count, but in the end, they enjoyed it and had fun. Uruha even saw aliens at the top of the pyramid, it must have been the altitude.
A few minutes' walk later, we arrived at the hotel. We headed for the elevator and the rooms were on the same floor.
— Ruki, don't delay, the staff are supposed to meet us in an hour in the hotel lobby, so we can arrive at the party at 11 pm," Kai said. He knows I'm too lazy to even breathe, imagine taking off my concert clothes and putting on another one.
— Kai-san, which one are you going with? The doctor or circus freak? — Uruha stops a little further along the corridor and looks at us.
— Kouyou-san, the doctor's outfit is easier to put on, and I just need to touch up my makeup. — explains Kai, checking his theory by looking at the front camera of his cell phone.
— I want to see what Aoi-san and Reita-san are going to wear. — The blond looks around as if he's looking for them, even though he knows they're not here.
The two of them look at each other and go to one of the doors in the corridor, Kai knocks while Uruha stands against the wall staring at the floor. After knocking a few times, we hear a muffled "What?" coming from inside the room.
— Reita-kun, what are you going to wear? — Kai asks, looking at the lock.
Reita opens the door to the room almost ready, in her doctor's outfit and leather mask, looks at Kai and then at Uruha, and makes a hand sign to her clothes.
— I thought it would be easier because of the short time we have to get ready, but I wanted to go with the other one," he explains, scratching the skin under his mask with difficulty.
— I was going to say the same," said Kai excitedly. — I'm going to change too. — He turns and goes to his room.
— Do you know about Aoi-san? — Uruha asks after peeking over the bassist's shoulder.
— He went to his room, and said he was going to take a shower because he was all sweaty and sticky," replied Reita.
— Okay. — Uruha nods.
He hurried to his room, which was shared with the leaders, and before he entered, he looked at me standing in the middle of the corridor.
— Why haven't you gone to get ready yet? We only have a short time. — The blonde looks at me confused, and I realize that Reita has already gone back into her room shared with Aoi.
— So, I'm exhausted, I think I'll stay in the room anyway—I answer in a last attempt, I am a bit sleepy.
— But you won't, we never do anything as a group, you just stay at home with Koron while the four of us go out! — Kai sticks his head out of the room and then comes out completely, I stare at him, seeing him already in his lab coat and almost ready.
— Kai, you know I'm shy about going out and talking to people about things other than music or fashion," I say.
— What's the point of being a rock band if you forget the main thing? "Sex, drugs, and rock'n roll." — Kai tries to relax, and I smile slightly — It's been a while since I've done the former, so don't waste our moment of fun in a foreign country. — Not that we use drugs, we've never thought about it, but it's like the dark-haired guy said, we're always on tour and I love it, but there's no time for relationships.
— But Kaai…—I try to dramatize.
— "Hurry up, Ruki-chan, we're already late," he orders impatiently.
I go to my room and Kai goes to him, Uruha gets ready and goes into Reita's room with Aoi. We soon hear an argument about the mirror between Aoi and Uruha.
— I don't know if this doctor's outfit matches my blonde hair, last time it was blue, and I was also wearing red lenses. — Uruha continues to be narcissistic, talking loud enough for us to hear even though he left the bedroom door open.
— Uruha-chan, cut the crap, and let's go to the party. — grumbles Reita, just the man to make Aoi almost choke on his vaporizer.
— Akira-kun, go to hell! Thick! — Uruha turns on Reita and punches him in the shoulder.
— Have you two girls stopped exchanging insults? Let's go before the party's over! — says Aoi-san, running away from the firing line of two pillows they've thrown at him.
Inside my room, I throw myself on the bed, feeling my muscles complaining. "Ah, but I really don't want to go!"
Suddenly I hear a knock on my bedroom door, and soon it's open, showing the four of them dressed as doctors and an angry Kai.
I've always been antisocial, I'm not going to change now.
— Takanori, why aren't you ready yet? — shouts Kai angrily.
— I said I don't want to go. — I reply sleepily
— You're very annoying, Taka! — grumbles Aoi, holding a "fuck you" in his throat.
— You only know how to call us to those record company meetings and radio interviews," Reita mutters aloofly.
— I don't care, get up now and put on your lab coat. Get your hair done, you've got five minutes Ruki, that's all! — orders Uruha authoritatively, making the others smile along with me. Watching him dictate is fun.
They stay in the room waiting while I get ready, and I'm ready about 10 minutes later.
After this collective scolding and forcing me to get ready, I seem to have cheered up a bit for the ride to the party.
We took the elevator down to the first floor of the hotel, where the staff were already dozing off on the sofa. As well as the American staff, two cameras, and one of the interpreters accompanied us to the van. Everyone got into the van happy and content, except me, who still didn't see what all the fuss was about.
In about 10 to 15 minutes, we arrived at the party venue. The school is a little away from the center, in a neighborhood that looks rural, as there's a forest behind it. Everything was macabre decorated with pumpkin lanterns, spider webs, bats, and lots of skeletons scattered around, lights coming out of the ground, and lots of sculptures that moved and made horrifying noises.
As soon as we get out of the van, we're hardly recognizable, we're all wearing doctors' gowns, with blood even on the surgical masks. The place is packed, with people coming and going, and children running around with bags of bullets on the sidewalks. The adults were very well-dressed, especially the women. As soon as we started to enter the party, five women in Victorian dresses, one of each color, bowed at length as we usually do, surely they realized we weren't from around here. One of them, in a beautiful blue dress, came up to us.
— Good evening! Welcome to Halloween night! — the girl exclaimed, bowing in what we understood to be a long bow.
Our interpreter translates and we understand what she's saying. — "Good evening! Welcome to Halloween night!"
She continued speaking before any of us could respond.
— Stay alive! Let the games begin! — She points inside the house.
While our interpreter translates for us, the girl disappears into the crowd.
— I said Kai-kun, we shouldn't have come! What a strange message, "Stay alive! Let the games begin!" — Ruki complains, already regretting following them.
— Ruki-chan, in case you've never watched horror movies, those were references to two Hollywood films – says Kai pulling Ruki inside, followed by the others.
— Who comes to a Halloween party dressed as a priest? — asks Aoi, feeling a little shiver run down her spine.
— All costumes are valid on this day, maybe they love the movie The Exorcist! — explains Uruha, heading into the school in search of a drink.
— But it's been really weird since we arrived, they keep staring at us, they even look like those serial killers. — comments Reita, running after Uruha, afraid to be alone out there.
As it's a foreign country, we won't be easily recognized, which is quite an advantage.
We enter the school and everything is decorated, the corridors have spider webs, skeletons, and orange and black ribbons all the way to the ballroom where the party actually takes place.
— Kai-chan, you're going too fast! I'm bumping into everyone! — I complain.
— I want to get to the table soon, I'm hungry, and I need a drink before Uruha-san dries everything. — explains Kai, watching the table from afar.
— Come on Kai-chan, I want to drink that punch I always see in the movies, so excuse me! — Uruha seems very keen to try the Halloween recipes.
— Reita-kun, did you see those priests at the entrance? — Aoi asks.
— So, it looks like they've decided to come in too, they're pretty scary, I feel like they've either recognized us, or they want to kidnap us. — Reita pushes Aoi towards the others at the food table.
— I'll keep an eye on them, I've got a bad feeling about this. — Aoi nudges Reita, who has an eye candy in her mouth.
It's very different from Japan, people here aren't ashamed to kiss or grab each other in front of others. Our staff asked us to move to the middle of the room to enjoy the music and dance a bit.
Like people who play rock or metal, we are quite shy, we listen to the rhythms and try to interact with people and dance, apparently, everyone is having a good time. Uruha really enjoyed the punch, even Aoi is trying to get some steps right.
"It's really fun and tasty, Kai-san was right, we needed to get out of the routine and do something different." I think out loud leaning against the table eating a snack and drinking, this punch just tastes like alcohol.
I see that our two cameras have already left the service and are no longer recording our steps. We've each found a date, who, by the way, is very pretty. I don't see the staff who brought us, and I'm a bit worried about how we're going to get back to the hotel.
I notice that our translator says something to Kai, but I can't understand it from afar, so I approach him to find out what it's about.
— Kai-san, where is he going? We're lost without him, I'm terrible at English. — I ask worriedly.
— You worry too much, enjoy the party, Ruki-chan! He'll be back soon, he just went out for a smoke. Satisfied? — Kai replies.
— Kai-kun, have you noticed that those five priests are always standing still and staring at us? — Asks Aoi in awe.
— True, I've been watching them since we arrived, and they're watching us with that evil look in their eyes… like a serial killer. — Reita feels a shiver run down her spine just by saying it.
— Guys, what's the problem? We're here to enjoy the party and not to judge your guests, and look, who are we to judge? — Uruha replied, pointing at his "bloody" costume and finishing his punch to get some more.
As soon as Uruha reaches the table to get a drink, one of the priests grabs him by the arm and starts dragging him out, just like that. He shouts for help, but the circle closes behind us and the priests are behind us too.
Uruha punches his captor in the stomach and runs towards us. The five priests set upon us with fury in their eyes and without a choice we run out of the hall towards the corridor, running over the others who are trying to get in.
With no way out, we consider going to the van, but we haven't seen the staff anywhere and all the others have disappeared too, and we don't have the key. We stood outside the school looking for the translator, everywhere he had gone out to smoke, he couldn't have been far away.
When we looked back, one of the priests was waving for the others to split up and surround us again, they were trying to kidnap us.
— So, Kai-san, what are we going to do? — I ask nervously.
— They're not joking, why do they want to catch us? — Reita asks.
— My arm hurts! Man, he squeezed it too hard. — complains Uruha, rubbing his arm to ease the pain.
— I felt a bad omen when I saw them staring at us. — Aoi sighs.
— We don't know anyone here, and we don't know how to ask for help, and our only cell phone has no signal, they won't understand us. HAVE THEY DISAPPEARED WITH OUR FRIENDS TOO? — Kai asks in despair as the priests approach again, one from each side of the school.
We're together between the school gate and the staircase, there's no escape, and any one of us could be caught. Why are they chasing us?
Then the woman in the blue dress appears from behind one of the tombstones in the cemetery at the school entrance, waving at us.
— Kai, look at the woman at the entrance who welcomed us! — I remember her.
— It looks like she's waving at us, — comments Aoi.
— In a way, I guess so. She's calling us over! — replies Reita, intrigued.
— She's gesturing for us to get down and go to her. Right? — concludes Uruha, holding his still sore arm.
— She must have realized that the priests are after us. — explains Kai, bending down and walking towards her.
She was to the right of the stairs behind the bars of the fake cemetery. So we went down the stairs half-lowered for fear of being caught, skirted the railing, and made our way one by one to the gravestone.
We crouched down and hid, just watching the priests meet on the stairs and not finding anyone else. They go crazy walking everywhere, heading towards the street looking for us until a big black car arrives, they get in and drive away.
We get up relieved and thank the woman very much, who answers our curtsy in Japanese too.
— Do you speak our idiom? — Kai smiles, showing his dimples.
— Yes, I got interested in listening to your music, then I took a course so that one day I could go to Japan," explains the woman in the blue dress.
— Did you recognize us? How? — Reita asks.
— I went to your concert! I was so surprised and happy to see you at my school party! — she replies.
— But at the entrance, you welcomed us in English and it was so formal, any other fan would have been screaming and crying and kneeling at our feet! — says Uruha, cocky as he is.
— I was screaming and crying inside, but I knew you needed space and this time to enjoy yourselves. — said the woman, laughing.
— Do you know who the priests were who were chasing us? — Aoi asked with an air of concern.
— I've never seen them around here. They arrived just after you passed me at the door. — Aoi replied, standing up straight and straightening her back.
— We can't leave, our friends who were with us are gone, and I'm afraid to go back inside! — I complained in a wise tone that this night was going to be no good.
— Have you ever danced around a fire? — asked the woman.
We shook our heads in the negative, surprised by the question.
— My friends and I are going to celebrate the Sabbath of the fertility of the earth, where the participants dance and rejoice around a bonfire. We can also sing a song by the band, we have a guitar there, it would be a private concert by the band to celebrate the blood moon on Halloween. Would you like to go?
— How far is it from here? —I asked.
— No, it's behind the school in a clearing. — he smiled.
— I've never danced around a bonfire before! — exclaimed Uruha, euphoric at the novelty.
— That's something I've never heard of, it must be nice. — Reita gets excited.
— Dancing around a bonfire would be a rather daring experience, — said Aoi, still a little undecided.
— We're grateful that you protected us, so we'll go with you, — Kai replies, his dimples showing again in his sideways smile.
The woman asks us to wait here. She goes around the bars and up the stairs. After a few minutes, she returns with four more beautiful friends dressed just like her, only in different colors. They approach us and each one grabs the arm of one of us.
— Let's go! It's almost midnight!
We nod and head towards the clearing. From a distance, we can see that the smoke from the campfire is burning loudly. It's very strange trying to talk to the other person by mime as we speak different languages, but the funniest thing is that everyone seems to understand each other. The friends of the woman in the blue dress are very funny and outgoing, their laughter is very enjoyable and extremely attractive.
Final Notes
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