Chapter Text
While on their recent tour, the metal band known as Black Veil Brides perform a sold out show in Saltbay City located somewhere on the eastern seaboard of The United States. This is their story.
***
Chapter 1 Andy
“YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH! WE LOVE YOU SALTBAY! GOODNIGHT,” I shout as out as we finish In The End. The song ends, I wave to the roaring crowd goodnight and walk off stage. The guys soon join me after tossing drumsticks and picks out into the crowd. We unwind for a bit in the green room before meeting fans to sign autographs. Halfway through the tour and I have to say that Saltbay City has to be one of my favorite stops. I haven’t heard of Saltbay before the tour started, and wasn’t 100% sure that we’d have a good turn out. But this place has been full of surprises.
“You guys were amazing tonight! Its been ages since I’ve been to a show. So glad it was you guys,” a fan sys as I sign the back of his jacket.
“Hey thanks so much! Glad you had a good time,” I reply.
“Have you been following us long,” Jake asks as he takes his turn signing?
“I’m sure you get this a lot, but I’ve been listening since the We Stitch days. This is actually my first time hearing and seeing you live.”
“That’s awesome,” CC says with one of his signature smiles.
“How old are you? Is that ok to ask,” Lonny asks?
“Nah its fine. I’m 30 believe it or not.”
“Seriously? You look great! Even with the grey you look like you’re in your early twenties.”
“Aww shucks thanks!” The fan reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone. “Can we take a pic together,” he asks as he begins to open the camera app.
“Absolutely,” I exclaim. The fan quickly asks another fan, a woman with long blonde hair with a shock of blue dye to take the photo. The fan quickly cleans his glasses as the six of us bunch up together to fit within the frame and the woman snaps the photo. After the photo was taken and he got his phone back, the fan looks at the photo and smiles.
“This is great! Thank you so much! My boyfriend is going to love this!”
“Oh? Where’s he at? We can get another pic together,” Jinxx says.
“He’s meeting me later. He had to work tonight and couldn’t make it, but he knew how much I wanted to come tonight.”
“That’s too bad. But hey at least you got to tell him that you had a great time tonight.”
“An amazing time,” the fan corrects with a smile, the scar on his lip stretching with it. I briefly wonder what had happened to him before I reach out my hand to him.
“What was your name again,” I ask?
“Peter. Peter Giovanni,” the fan answers and firmly shakes my hand.
“Hope to see you again if we’re ever in town Peter Peter Giovanni.”
“I’m already booking tickets for next tour,” Peter promises.
“Maybe we can meet you’re boyfriend next time.”
“Fingers crossed. Have a good night guys,” Peter smiles and waves goodbye. After we finish meeting with the rest of the fans we start boarding the tour bus. I take one last look at The White Coral theater where we performed an awesome show. I look in the direction of the backstage door and along the wall I think I see Peter leaning up against the wall looking at his phone. I’m about to call out to him when a figure just appears out of no where. I don’t know how I couldn’t have noticed this person approach. From where we were parked I could see the persons pale skin and the green rain poncho that they wore. I think that this person is suspicious as he starts approaching Peter. I begin to call out but stop when I see Peter turn this strangers hat around with a smile and begin to hug and kiss the stranger. Must be the boyfriend I think to myself.
I stay outside the bus long enough to watch the two leave and am just about to get back on the bus before I hear the sound of an angry voice. I cant see who it is but all I hear is a male voice in what I could only guess is a slight British accent yell at someone.
“I don’t care what he said! If he was so worried about it then he shouldn’t have gotten the family involved! Get! It! Done!” I walk over to the end of the bus, towards where I thought the voice was coming from just as I hear the sound of a phone clicking off and footsteps quickly fading away. I look out into the parking lot only to find it empty. It is completely devoid of cars and of life. I jump and yell out as a hand taps my shoulder. I spin around and sigh in relief as I see Lonny take a step back and start laughing.
“Jesus fuck Lonny!”
“Sorry! Hahaha! Are you ok?”
“Scared the daylight out of me,” I reply catching my breath.
“What were you looking at out here?”
“Nothing,” I answer as I look behind my shoulder to make sure there was indeed nothing there. “Nothing. Never mind. Lets get on board.”
We both board the bus and nod in greeting to the driver. Lonny and I squeeze past Jinxx who’s helping himself to a Monster from the mini fridge and past CC who’s changing into a clean shirt. Jake is in his bunk going back and forth between Twitter and a game app. I head to the back off the bus and call Juliet on my cell. Five rings go by before my call goes to voice mail.
“Hey its me. We just finished the Saltbay City show. Its…,” I check the clock on my phone. “Oh god, 1 am? You got to be asleep right now. I think we’re going to be leaving in a few to the next venue. Just wanted to check in and tell you that I love you. This tour has been so fun but I miss you so much and-,” I stop speaking when I look out the bus window. Through the glass and the dark parking lot I think I can see someone lurking outside the bus.
“The fuck is that,” I ask with the cell still to my ear? I get up from my seat and try to look outside but can barely make out anything. “Hey, I’m going to check something out. I’ll call you back in a sec to let you know what’s up. Love you.” I hang up and head back out to where the guys are and lean down into Jake’s bunk.
“Is the crew still loading the equipment up?” “I don’t think so. I think they might have went on ahead an hour ago. Why,” Jake asks as he looks up from his phone?
“I think there’s someone lurking outside the bus.”
“What?” Jake says as he starts to get out of his bunk.
“Someone’s outside,” Lonny asks looking down from his bunk?
“I don’t know. Maybe,” I say and walk toward the front of the bus. “Hey driver! Is someone outside,” I ask as I walk in between Jinxx and CC, interrupting their conversation?
I hear the sound of heavy footsteps boarding the bus. I stop as I see someone in a black cassock with red embroidery and wearing a gas mask board the bus, pointing a silenced pistol at the driver. My eyes go wide and I cover my mouth and scream as I watch the armed stranger shoot the driver once in the head and twice in the chest.
“JESUS!”
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
All the windows in the bus start shattering as smoking canisters are being thrown inside. Its starting to become hard to breathe and I start coughing to the point where I’m starting to cry.
“SHIT,” Jake yells as he trips over a fallen Lonny. Everyone starts coughing uncontrollably, and trying to frantically get to the nearest exit. Everything is starting to spin and go blurry. I fall to the floor unable to catch my breath. Its not too long before I can’t hear my brothers anymore. I hear the footsteps of the stranger approach. As I start to fade in and out I can hear the stranger through his gas mask.
“Those who thirsteth, let them come; and those that will, them take of the water of Death.” I grab the strangers cassock and look up at his mask, into the lenses to see extremely pale blue eyes.
“Why,” I start to ask weakly but fail to finish the question. The stranger shakes my hand free and kneels down to look at me. I feel a cold hand brush the hair away and his thumb press into the middle of my forehead.
“In nomine noctis, et sanguinis, et spiritus Caine,” the stranger says as he stares into my eyes. A tear rolls down my face, as the last thing I think about before I pass out is wanting to see Juliet again.
***
The hunger is what wakes me up. Not the cold of what room I’m in, or the light of the blue fluorescents, or the discomfort of waking up on probably the most uncomfortable mattress I’ve ever laid on, but the hunger. I feel like I haven’t eaten in days. I have to get up. I have to eat. I sit up and look around the room. The walls of the room are made of metal and I see patches of frost accumulate in areas. Along them I see four more ratty mattresses, each one bearing one of the guys on it. I start to panic and go to CC who’s laying on the mattress across the room from me. As I get up I feel something fall to my side.
“WHAT THE FUCK,” I shout out?! Hanging from my side is a long tube that is connected by a needle to my arm, and at the end of the tube there looks like…oh God…is that a blood bag? An empty blood bag?! My breathing becomes heavy as I gingerly take out the needle from my arm. I go over and check CC to see if he’s ok. Oh fuck…oh fuck he’s got no pulse. No, no, no, no!
“CC! CC wake up! Please wake up,” I beg and start shaking him. I let out a long sigh of relief as he starts to stir. It’s then I suddenly realize that its cold in here, and I can’t see my breath.
“Dude, what?! What,” CC says as he comes to and opens his eyes?!
“Oh thank God. Something seriously fucked up is going on.”
“Oh, God,” he says after a pause. “The driver. I remember. I remember everything.” He puts his hand up to his forehead as if he was nursing a headache. Then I see the look on his face. The same one I had when I found the blood bag.
“The hell is this,” he asks in shock as he lifts up the IV tube?!
“I had one too,” I tell him as he recklessly takes out the needle and then clutches his stomach.
“Jesus why am I so hungry,” he asks and stares at me with a painfully hungry and afraid expression. “Dude what’s up with your eyes?”
“What? What’s wrong with them?”
“They’re white.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like they were always blue but now they’re like really pale.” I stare back in CC’s eyes.
“Yours look lighter too,” I told him. I look down towards the other end of the room at the other mattresses. “Help me wake up everyone else. We need to figure this out.”
We go around the room and wake up Jinxx, Jake and Lonny. As expected each one of them wake up with varying degrees of hunger, shock and angry over being connected to an empty blood bag via IV, and paler colored eyes. Out of all of us CC is the worse one in the hunger department.
“Where the hell are we man,” CC asks as he sits back down on a mattress and clutches his stomach with a pained expression.
“I found a door. There’s no handle though,” shouts Lonny. I look as Jinxx rushes over to Lonny who’s examining something at the one end of the room. Just as they said, there is a solid metal door covered in frost that Jinxx and Lonny start trying to force open by ramming into it. But the door won’t budge.
“And we can’t take the hinges off because they’re on the other side,” Jinxx says in dismay.
I move over to the door and try to get it open, but like Jinxx and Lonny I don’t have any luck. I start banging on the door with my fist and start yelling to let us out. There is a sound of metal sliding on metal from the back of the room. I turn around and see everyone looking up at the ceiling at a square hole that had opened up. CC gets up from his seat and looks up into the opening with Jake. Jake starts to give CC a boost up but that plan was short lived when a large black bag falls down on top of them. The hole in the ceiling closes as they recover from getting knocked down. I can smell something in the bag. Something sweet and metallic smelling. I slowly approach the bag and so do Jinxx and Lonny. Somehow I know that they can smell the same thing. Maybe its that hungry look in all our eyes. Oh God does it smell good. I kneel down and examine the bag until I find a zipper and I slowly begin to unzip. A thought hits me like an electric shock as I begin to open the bag, and once its open the contents confirm my suspicion.
“Fuuuuuck,” Jake says and turns away. I feel like I could vomit in that moment. I cant help but to stare at the face of our now deceased bus driver. A stream of blood had poured down from the bullet wound on his forehead onto the look of shock that had been permanently affixed to his face. The sweet smell wafts through the air when I open the bag up further, and I’m horrified. That’s him that smells like that. That’s his blood.
“What’s that,” Lonny asks as he nods towards the drivers belly.
I avert my gaze from the drivers lifeless eyes and look to where Lonny was paying attention. There looked like a piece of paper tucked into the drivers waistband. I cautiously reach for the piece of paper but Jinxx beat me too it. He starts unfolding it and took less than a second to read what was on the page before he closed his eyes and passed it to me. I take it gingerly as if it would bite me and read it. I take a deep breath and on the exhale I read the words aloud.
“Drink up,” I say and pass the page to Lonny who groans in despair as he takes the page. I start to reach out for the zipper to close the bag back up when I see CC start to lean forward. At first I think he’s going to help cover up the driver but…wait a second. Are those fangs?! Everything is starting to make sense now. But that means that CC’s going to-
“Don’t,” I say and push CC away from the body and hold him down!
“Get off me man!”
“Andy, what are you-,” begins Lonny?!
“You’re not going to drink him,” I sternly tell CC.
“What are you talking about?! I wasn’t going to-“
“BULLSHIT,” I shout at him! “You look like you haven’t eaten in days, and you had fangs out CC! FANGS! You were going to bite into this guy! Do you not realize how fucked up that is?! How fucked up this whole situation is?!” CC pauses and stares back into my eyes. I can see the hunger in them as clear as day. Everyone in the room had that look including me. But in the eyes of my brother I see something more. I watch as his eyes went from contempt to hurt and then suddenly realizing what he was about to do. What he had become. What we had become.
“How are you staying so calm? Yeah this is all fucked up but how come you don’t want to just bite down on that guy right now?”
“You don’t think I want to? I am absolutely starving right now. But we can’t do this,” I say motioning to the body bag. It’s not a lie. The smell of the corpse in the bag smells too good. The temptation to bite and drink up is there and its so strong. But I can’t and won’t do it. Besides I know that whoever put us here in this box wants us to do it. Knowing that is making me angrier the more I think about it. Me trying to stay calm is the only lie I tell in this moment because I know I have to stay strong for my brothers, but I know that at any moment my dam is going to break and it’s going to be violent.
“And whoever did this to us; we can’t play their game. So lets all agree on two things,” I say aloud to the group. “We don’t drink from the driver and when we find a way out of here we confront whoever did this to us and find out why they did it. We’re going to pull this. Okay?” CC nods and I loosen my hold on him. We hug each other. I feel a hand squeeze my shoulder and I look up at Lonny who nods down in agreement at me and CC. I squeeze his hand and look over at Jinxx who had dragged the body off to one side of the room. He looked up from the body and flashed me devil horns signaling his support, to which I return the gesture.
“I’m with you guys all the way. And pretty sure that whoever put us here just watched all that and is now shitting themselves. If not then they will be,” Jake says off in the corner towards the sealed door. I look over to him and see him staring up at something. I stand up and in the ceiling corner I see a small red light. I don’t need to get closer to know that this is a camera and its filming our every move.
“ARE YOU WATCHING THIS?! ARE YOU HAVING FUN OUT THERE MOTHER FUCKER?!” The moment had finally come. The dam was finally breaking. I walk over to the corner, reached up to the camera and ripped it from the wall. I stare into the lens as if I was staring into the eyes of the bastard who put us here.
“I hope you’re having a good time because when I get out of here you’re fucking dead! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD!” I throw the camera at the wall as hard as I can and it shatters on impact, sending shards of plastic, glass and circuitry everywhere. I start to pace pack and forth the room angrily until I finally sit on the mattress I had woken up in. My body is shaking and I start to take deep inhales to try to calm down. I’ve been angry before but this…this is a whole new angry. Of course I’m angry at whoever kidnapped us. That’s a definite no brainer. I’m mortified that we’re what I’m suspecting is no longer human. I’m pissed at myself because I know I can be doing more to help my brothers get out of here besides trying to keep us all from eating the guy who was our driver.
But most of all I’m metaphorically kicking myself in the ass for even thinking the next thoughts that come into my head. What’s going to happen when we do get out of here and we take care of whoever did this? What will our families think? Mom? Dad? Juliet? Will I ever see them again? What will they do when they find out that we’ve become some kind of monster? What if I can’t get us out of here? What if we’re just trapped in here with a corpse until we go crazy from hunger? From my peripheral I look at the body bag and suddenly think about one of our songs. As the lyrics go through my head they suddenly have new meaning and become relevant to our predicament. The sense of us loosing our humanity, being trapped and trying remain calm so I can figure out a solution that gets us out of here, only to just absolutely fail in the former. All of these thoughts and questions going through my head and I cant help but to look solemnly at the ceiling and sing on a slow, deep exhale.
“And then I lost it all. Who can save me now?”