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How the hell could I say no to that face?
Grey stuck close by us as Becca and I danced and my eyes popped open when she stealthily drew a tiny bottle of Jack from between her breasts. I snatched it from her and looked around, making sure no one saw. “Are you trying to get us kicked out?”
She laughed. “Look around, babe! You see any security?”
I did as she asked and this deep into the heart of the floor, there was no security at all and in fact, I noticed several others drinking their contraband booze, and laughed.
“It’s for you,” she shouted, still swaying to the beat as the song began to slow to its end. “I have to drive.”
I didn’t comment on the fact that she seemed totally at peace with driving high, shaking my head at her instead as I held up the tiny bottle to Grey. “Want some?” I offered.
He gestured to me in reply. “All yours.”
All righty then…why not?
I’d been handling my liquor pretty damn well these past few weeks and that was saying something since my life had been reduced to a pile of smoking ash.
“Bottoms up,” Becca cheered as I downed the small bottle in one go and passed the empty to Grey when he reached for it. It seared a path all the way down to my belly, and a prickling warmth bloomed through the rest of my body, making me shiver.
But…
“Nasty,” I said, shaking my head as my tongue recoiled from the flavor.
Becca laughed. “We’ll try Crown next time. That’s my favorite.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I nodded, a heightened sense of ease taking root. “Whatever you say, boss.”
The crowd broke into cheers, and we turned to give our attention back to the opening band, screaming and clapping with the others.
“That’s it for us, Lodi!” the main singer called. “We had a blast tonight and we’re fucking gutted to have to leave y’all, but it’s time for the next act.”
The decibel level as the crowd went wild reached an all-time high in anticipation of Primal Ethos.
I noticed how Grey had positioned himself behind Becca and me and was blocking several overly rowdy concert-goers from knocking into or jostling us. I smiled at him gratefully. Not that I couldn’t have handled it, but it was nice to have him watching out for Becca, too.
“Let’s welcome him back to the stage for the first time in over a year! Who are you here for, Lodi?”
“Primal Ethos!” the crowd responded, and slowly, a chant began to grow, echoing all over the tightly clustered space.
“Bone Man, Bone Man, Bone Man!”
Becca and I joined in while Grey remained silent at our backs, tense and so pensive I almost asked him what was wrong, but then the lights all went out, plunging the room into a darkness so deep that I couldn’t even see Becca beside me more than her faint outline. I clutched her arm, reaching back to tangle my fingers with Grey’s on instinct as the crowd hushed.
A black light flickered on the stage only a moment later, giving us a stilted, shuttering view of a bone-white skeleton face staring coolly out at nothing.
Becca squealed, her voice rising with the others as the black light flickered for the last time, now blooming to cast its eerie glow on the man standing center stage.
As the others around me screamed and shouted, welcoming Primal Ethos on stage, I could only stare, a deeply rooted emotion growing from deep within to claw up my throat, silencing me.
He truly was a real person. This man who sang of things few could ever really understand. Not in the way he did. Not in the wayIdid.
A beat started and the crowd began a new wave of cheers as the man with the skeleton face on stage lifted a microphone to his lips. He hummed the first notes with the beats, his smoke and honey voice reverberating in my chest just as surely as it was in his as he felt out the music, letting his body flow with it, too.
He looked like the devil incarnate.The Bone Man, they called him, and I could see how it fit. Dressed all in black with dark hair slicked back and white contacts covering his eyes, all that was clearly visible of him was his size, tall and muscled, but lithe. And his made-up face, done in a stark contrast of black and white that managed to look so real you almost had to wonder if it was.
The Bone Man’s voice rose with the first lyrics of Anthem of the Broken and my breath caught in my throat, stuck there, held back by a burning dam.
“We march up this mountainside alone.
