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I follow the search deeper, encountering less mere factual reporting and more fan sites and forums.
There issomeinformation.
Nothing concrete. Nothing confirmed. I don’t know where these people even get their sources. So much seems just hearsay.
Neither Elias nor Caelan are originally from LA or even the West Coast. They try to pin Caelan as an East Coast boy, although I get a headache trying to read through senseless debates over his accent. It’s not identifiable as any one thing. They’re right, I can hear some New York in it and something from further south, but the only thing I can tell is that it sounds like he’s traveled and lived in many different places. Elias, on the other hand, came from Europe, although that was a good couple of decades ago.
No surnames. No birthdates. No ages. From looks alone, they could be in their late twenties or early thirties, but even that is a guess.
The consensus is that the ‘real’ people behind Elias and Caelan are cryptids of the highest order. It’s almost ironic, in a way. They’re practically hiding in plain sight.
Everything else, the majority of what anyone cares about, focuses on the details of their appearance, the demonic characteristics, and the powers they seem to have. The stories of the characters they’ve created, and their personas.
I don’t want to start digging too deep into the story element. Elias had said that what was shown in the videos was exaggerated. That implies thereis, nonetheless, a grain of truth to it. But how do I know what’s real and what’s not? What’s just a song, and what is a reference to what they think, feel, or have been through? I can’t go down that path. I’d be wandering blindly, never knowing where to draw the line and making assumptions that could easily come back to bite me in the ass.
With a frustrated sigh, I close all the tabs I have open. There’s nothing. Nothing goddamn useful.
All I want is to get to know more about them. I don’t mean it to be in any weird way. I justlikethem. I’m curious.
The entire notion is silly, though. As if knowing some basic facts would make us closer or make it more likely for things to work out.
My gaze falls on my phone, and I laugh wryly at myself.Idiot.I’m going about this all wrong, looking up things about them online. If I want to get to know them, I can just call.
Not that I’m going to ask them directly. I’m hardly about to interrogate them. I want to keep in contact, spend more time chatting with them, and, yeah, I’ll admit, get closer to them. But closeness doesn’t come from knowing a bunch of useless trivia facts about them.
Keeping in contact has never been one of my strengths, and I know I’ve missed so many opportunities because I’m too awkward to be the one to start a conversation. I absolutely refuse to make the same mistake this time.
I open my messages and ask how their day has been.
ChapterSeven
Three months.
Time is moving so fast that it doesn’t seem like it’s been so long since we first ran into each other. It’s a little nerve-wracking.
I take the bus to LA, giving me too much time to think. Enough time that I calculate dates, which makes me think of it at all. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve seen them.
There’s something unsettling about the realization.
What if going to see Elias and Caelan again is a mistake?
Technically, I’ve onlymetthem once before, been on one date together, then had sex. Utterly amazing sex, but their experience is probably more extensive, and their opinions may differ.
I don’t know.
What if they don’t want me around anymore?
They wouldn’t have kept in contact all this time,I remind myself. God, I’m being dumb. They are not exactly human. A pair of demons have no reason to play nice with my feelings. They would have told me to fuck off in no uncertain terms if they weren’t interested. Instead, they spent hours texting and calling, sending pictures of backstage locations while complaining about how the tour was going, and responding to the racy pictures I’d sent with even racier ones of their own. Though, that was mainly Caelan. And then there are those entire paragraphs Elias and I regularly sent each other, interspersed with Caelan ribbing us for being so verbose.
If they didn’t want me around, they wouldn’t have invited me to this event in the first place.
From the way they described it, it’s a combination of an awards ceremony and a gala. A smaller event focused on the indie and alternative music industry rather than the glitz and glamour of a full-scale awards ceremony. Which I’m glad for. Just that much feels out of my league already.
My stomach is still doing weird flips as the bus pulls up to the LA bus depot. I can’t pin down quite what it is. Excitement. Anticipation. Nerves. All the above.
I grab my bags, a small shoulder bag for going out during the day and a larger one packed with the usual weekend getaway items, tickets and bookings, and the fanciest dress I own.
In less than a quarter of an hour, I will be at the hotel where the event is being held and where we’ll be staying, where Elias and Caelan will be.
