Lunacy Read online

  “I said I’m not moshing!”

  “Not, schmot. Don’t try and feed me your lies, woman.” He came around the table and grabbed my wrist, tugging me along behind him.

  Feign wiggled his fingers at me in farewell, the tattooed muscles bared by his sleeveless black tee flexing deliciously. “Nice meeting you, Feign!” I hollered back to him as the much taller Jynxx led me into his world.

  His world was what Heaven must have looked like; people from all different walks of life and in all sorts of styles of dress talking to each other as if this place was a haven free of judgment. It felt right; it felt like home. I’d never been inside Club Luna before, so the cavernous three-tiered setup that resembled the inside of an industrial warehouse was a bit of a shocker at first. Bustling with activity, there were people rushing back and forth with instruments and equipment here on the ground floor. Aside from that there were a fair amount of other teens, some perhaps a little older, milling about waiting for the show to start. Some were here on the floor, where the pit would be, while there were others hanging about in the two upper tiers that were surrounded by thick metal rails.

  As I’d expected, I didn’t see very many people that I recognized. On stage I saw the Derringer triplets tuning their instruments and waved to them, gaining a nod from Josh -the youngest of the three- and a wink from John. Joe -the middle triplet- was immersed in perfecting the positioning of his drum kit, pounding out a few experimental beats on the bass drum that emanated through the club and resonated deep within my chest.

  “Whoa,” I murmured.

  “What’s up?” Jynxx asked, concerned.

  I shook my head. “I haven’t been to a live show and had the bass rattle me internally like that in a while.”

  He grinned. “Feels good, doesn’t it?” I nodded with a little laugh of my own.

  Ten minutes came and went and the area around us filled with people. Unfamiliar people. There was still a comfortable amount of space, but I found myself stepping closer to Jynxx in anticipation of needing his protection. I’d never been a big fan of crowds.

  I felt even safer when Teigan and the others from Jynxx’s band gently jostled their way through the throng to join us. Conner stood next to me, between the towers that were Jynxx and Teigan, looking nauseous. Gavin was somewhere behind us, and that made me mildly nervous. More so than I wanted to admit aloud. It made me wonder if Taylea’s mother had seen Gavin anywhere in her portents of doom.

  “You gonna be okay?” I asked the ash blond boy beside me, noticing he was nervously sliding a silver tongue ring back and forth with a set time interval across his lower lip. His honey colored eyes were focused somewhere else, the faraway look in them giving away his distraction.

  Conner jumped a little when I spoke, nodding finally and blinking rapidly to bring himself back down to reality. “No biggie, Kacea. Just a little stage fright... If I run off to puke just before our set, don’t worry about it. My butterflies tend to wear boxing gloves.”

  It seemed silly to me for a guy as big as Conner, who was almost Jynxx’s height but much more slender, to be afraid of a little time on stage. But my having partial social anxiety disorder was on par, so I couldn’t really say anything. I didn’t know him very well, but I understood his plight and reached out to give him a bear hug, full of as much positive and supportive energy as I could muster. It ended with my nose buried in his chest, and I couldn’t help noticing how amazing he smelled. Clean, fresh, and outdoorsy; like taking a walk through the woods the morning after a rainstorm. I had no words of comfort, so the hug was the best I could do.

  He laughed and patted my hair, looking a little less like he was going to pass out from nerves as I stepped back into my tiny spot of personal space. A group of four girls, friendly with Jynxx and his band from the look of it, came to make our congregation that much more colorful. Literally. One girl had hair as blue as the ocean with eyes to match, another’s was as neon orange as Feign’s in moderately long curls, and one had brightened blond locks with streaks of auburn and black through it. The fourth looked younger than me, and was the most subdued out of the four, her hair dark to match her somber attitude. The only thing bright about her was the row of silver hoops that hugged the entire length of her left ear, showing through her choppy black and mussed Joan Jett cut.

  Jynxx introduced me to them. The blue haired girl, whose chest was ridiculously large for her height, was Sherry. The brooding younger one was Kerry. The very friendly blonde was Aya, and the orange haired Asian girl’s name was Juri.

  “We’re the next band after Triple Hack’s set is done.” Aya put in proudly. They were the only all-female group on the bill, not to mention in the area.

  “That’s awesome!” I replied, happy to know that the scene over on this side of the tracks wasn’t exclusively male like it was back home. “What’s the name of your band?”

  “Take My Revolution. Dunno if you’ve ever seen the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, but we’re big fans.” Aya laughed.

  “That just happens to be one of my favorites!”

  Oh yeah. These girls and I were going to get along just fine.

  Chapter 6

  Triple Hack's set was winding down, and with Jynxx and the boys around me, I'd managed not to get jostled around too badly. Then again, they were more alternative rock than really heavy metal, so the mosh pit was likely tamer than it would be for some of the later acts. From what I'd heard in the mumblings around me, the band Blunt Trauma was full of dinosaur screaming and excessively crunchy guitars. Even though Gavin rolled his eyes when I asked about it, he did admit that their drummer's skills with double bass were nothing to sneeze at.

  The last few chords rang out and the boys' voices all faded as one, their pitches all perfectly synced. It made me wonder if there was really something to that whole theory that twins, triplets in this case, had some sort of creepy psychic connection. I was distracted from pondering that thought in more detail as everyone on the floor and in the higher levels went absolutely insane with clapping and cheering. Again, as one, the Derringer triplets stood and bowed gratefully, hurriedly going about beginning to pack up their equipment.

  Aya lightly gripped my shoulder as she walked past with her band. "Time to go get our stuff ready!" She gave me a sly little wink with those very blue eyes of hers. "Hope you enjoy the show, Kaysh."

  Jynxx couldn't resist a little laugh and I looked to him questioningly. He just shook his head and I punched his arm, instantly waving my hand back and forth in the air and regretting it. "Jesus! That was like punching a damned brick wall!" He laughed even harder and I cocked my fist back again, only to have it be caught by someone behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and Teigan smiled at me lightly, his touch instantly cooling my Irish temper.

  "Save the violence for the pit later, Kacea." Teigan’s voice, which usually calmed me, filled me with more anger than I’d felt in a long time. And it was completely irrational. The thought of getting jostled around shouldn’t have made me want to kill someone.

  "You rotten bastards! I am NOT going to be involved in a mosh pit!" I almost yelled, the familiar heat of rage swelling inside me. I wrapped it around me like an old blanket and felt safe again, starting to wonder how Teigan could alter my mood so quickly.

  Before I could think on it further, there was a tugging at my other hand and I met the stressed amber gaze of Conner. "What's up?" He tilted his head to the left, but held onto my hand, apparently wanting me to follow him somewhere. I looked askance at Jynxx and he nodded.

  I went with him and we ended up back away from the floor, out in the much cooler hallway near the soda machines and bathrooms. I was about to ask him what he needed again when he doubled over, his knuckles turning white from the death grip he suddenly had on his knees. The veins in his forearms stood out in dark ropy tendrils, even through the deep tan of his skin. His breathing was labored for a moment and, as I put my hand on his shoulder, I swear I felt his temperature jump at least ten degrees.
But then it was like nothing had happened and he straightened, his hand only pleasantly warm as he covered mine and held it to his shoulder. His eyes seemed much calmer than before as they met mine.

  “What in the blue hell was that?!” I shrilled, feeling like he could have had a seizure and died on me right then and there and I’d have been the only one around to witness it or be close enough to try to save him.

  He smirked a little, a confidence I didn’t think he was capable of on his pretty face. “Stage fright,” he said simply, as if that would explain it all away.

  “I call bull and shit, son.” I pointed at him with my free hand. “Stage fright doesn’t make all the veins in your body look like they’re about to burst. Stage fright doesn’t make your core temperature rise so rapidly that you’re practically friggin’ radiating heat in waves. Stage fright doesn’t--”

  Appearing from nowhere, Kenshin’s voice cut me off. “He’s okay now, Kacea. Don’t worry about it.” I opened my mouth to protest, but something in his icy green stare told me that dropping it was the best course of action. The air around them felt dangerous. Very dangerous… But it was quickly gone and both Conner and Kenshin coaxed me back to the floor.

  In the few moments we’d been gone, Aya and the girls had gotten everything set up. Kerry was doing a sound check and my jaw dropped as her fingers danced along the fret board with the grace of Fred Astaire, the scales and arpeggios bubbling from her fingertips like a waterfall of metallic goodness.

  “Wow…” My jaw dropped at her skill.

  Jynxx’s only response was a grin. Conner seemed especially hyped for their set, but I really knew nothing about what was going on behind the scenes with everyone here. There were a lot of young people and that usually meant a more than healthy amount of drama. For all I knew, they could be seeing each other. Or they could even be related. It didn’t really matter to me. I was more interested in seeing them play after the awesomeness of Kerry’s sound check.

  Another moment of random noise from the other girls and -not surprisingly- it was Aya who took the mike. “Evening, everyone! Put your hands together for our good friends the Derringers and their band Triple Hack!” Like any good audience, everyone clapped and cheered madly for a few seconds. As it quieted, Aya nodded her approval, a smile on her lips as she continued. “For those of you who’ve never heard or seen us before, we’re Take My Revolution. We’re the only all-female group in the tri-county area, and we’re here to show you that girls can rock just as hard as guys can!” Many feminine shouts of agreement, mine included, followed that statement. “So, without any more chitchat bullshit, here’s a song about being one with something greater than yourself. It’s called ‘Moonshine’.”

  Aya’s vocal range blew me away as she went from almost operatic and clean to guttural and nigh-demonic. But the lyrics were beautiful, and all about feeling like you’re a part of the Night, and the Moon being your mother. Musically, it was pretty and flowing, and then choppy and angry when she mentioned no one understanding how the stars were her family.

  Just when I thought the song was almost over, my worst fears were realized as the beat picked back up, the rhythm of the drums building to a fever pitch that made me wonder how in the hell the slight Juri could be keeping the pace. The group of people around me had grown while the opening band had been playing, more so than I would have thought possible in such a short amount of time. Apparently being fashionably late to these shows was common. The crowd had grown from around thirty people to somewhere closer to several hundred. And, much to my dismay and due to my location, I was almost directly in the center of where the mosh pit was starting. I took a second to internally calm myself, or I was gonna get knocked over and squished under an army of unknowing boots.

  And that one second was enough to be my undoing. I had thought that maybe I'd be partially safe, since I was standing next to Jynxx and the rest of Battousi, and none of them were little guys by any stretch. But a girl a little bigger than me slid in past them, flung by some friend of hers, and slammed into me hard enough to do several things at once: it knocked the wind out of me, caused me to slide several feet backwards, and knocked me into more people in the process who shoved me back in the other direction. I felt like a human pinball, and I wasn't digging it in the slightest. A little shoving here and there is one thing, but I'd gotten hit in the arm enough times now that my wound was starting to ache from the stress I was putting on it. But it had only been three days since I'd torn it open in gym class. My dumb ass should've known better than to be abusing it already.

  I got tossed into a guy who was definitely too old to be in high school still, and built like a tank. He was probably a family member of someone else in the crowd or one of the bands, and he shoved me forwards so hard that it actually lifted me off the ground. The next body I hit was a familiar one, and I clung on for dear life. Jynxx probably could have caught and supported me without any issues, but I wasn't taking any chances. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, clinging to him like a koala and not giving a damn about the compromising position it put me in.

  It also put his face dangerously close to my cleavage, and he couldn't resist a lewd grin up at me. "Shut it!" I half yelled, knowing he probably couldn't hear me. Another minute of psychosis later and the music faded out, my ears ringing loudly to fill what now seemed like silence. People filled in closer around us, closing the gap that had been the circle which nearly ended my life. ...Alright, I'm exaggerating, but only a little.

  I was ready to stand on my own two feet again, but Jynxx seemed reluctant to set me down. "Aww, come on! At least you'll be safe up here!"

  "Ha! I'm not sure 'safe' is quite the word I'd use, Jynxxie. It may be the lesser of two evils, for the moment, buuuuut... There's something about that smarmy man grin you've got going on that I don't trust." He pouted and I poked him in the chest firmly with my finger, careful not to break myself in the process. "You can put me down, now."

  He sighed heavily, and I was painfully aware of the frightening potential in all the muscle that rippled just under the very thin fabric of his shirt as he let me down. "Fine, fine. But don't be a stranger, alright?"

  "Sure thing," I added with a chuckle. "Next time I have some guy with arms as big around as my waist chuck me like a spear, I'll be sure to jump into your arms, ok?"

  "Well... That doesn't have to be your only reason." He gave me that smile again, the one I still wasn't used to seeing on his face. The genuine, happy smile. Being here with his friends and surrounded by music, he seemed much more at home and comfortable. I was envious, but I knew where he was coming from. I guess everyone needed some sort of sanctuary from the day to day bull shit.

  Much to my chagrin and embarrassment, one of the lights from the stage swung out to focus on Jynxx and I. Aya whistled into the microphone and laughed, "Alright, Kacea! Whoo! Get it, girl!"

  I covered my face and felt my ears burning as my skin flushed brighter than a cherry. "Oh, Jesus. Someone kill me, please..." I murmured, ignoring the short chorus of catcalls and cries of encouragement.

  “Well, if little deaths count, I can probably assist.” Jynxx said with a grin. I couldn’t turn any redder without losing consciousness from the rush of blood to my face and chest, so I bit my lower lip and bopped him on the forehead with my palm. I tried to laugh it off, not wanting to project that I could probably be alright with that sort of murder.

  My public embarrassment was short lived, as the girls started up another song and the attention was drawn away from me. I was more prepared this time around and managed to keep my footing through the entire rest of the set.

  The crowd eased up and parted a bit once it was over, everyone taking a moment to cool down and catch their breath. The girls from Take My Revolution started packing up their gear and clearing the stage. Jynxx, Teigan, Gavin, Kenshin, and Conner all turned and started to walk off and I grabbed my classmate’s arm. “Where are you all headed off to?” I asked, a tiny threa
d of panic entering my voice at the prospect of being alone on the floor.

  He smiled and patted my hand. “The girls will come and watch your back. No worries, Kaysh. We’re on next.”

  Chapter 7

  Sherry was the first of the girls to meet back up with me, and it gave me a moment to notice that her arms were in absolutely amazing shape. It seemed odd for a girl so short and otherwise curvy to have biceps and triceps so defined that I knew guys who would drool with envy. The other three joined us and I realized that they all put me to shame, and I spent at least an hour at the gym every day. They must have been taking some super awesome vitamins, or spending any and all of their free time when they weren’t practicing lifting weights.

  “So, you’re running with the manslayers?” Aya asked.

  It took me a second to realize she was talking about Battousi. That was a really weird way to put it, so I shook my head. “Jynxx and I just recently started talking and hanging out, and I usually serve Teigan’s drinks at work. Other than that, the rest of their crew is new to me.”

  She nodded and the tall Asian girl, Juri, spoke up. “What’s the deal with you and Jynxx, anyway? You seemed pretty cozy out there in the pit.”

  I scoffed, my cheeks lightly burning at the memory of how solid the muscles of his abdomen had felt pressed against me. “There’s nothing like that between us. I don’t know if you could even call us friends yet.”

  She nodded, seeming oddly pleased. “Be careful around him. He may not be dangerous, but he has a bad tendency to surround himself with people who are.”

  People like Gavin… I thought to myself.

  Juri peered down at me with striking honey-colored eyes that seemed to glow a little in the dim lighting around us. It made me wonder where the original settlers of this area came from. That pretty amber color was fairly common over on this side of town, and it definitely wasn’t from colored contacts, so it had to be something in the genetic roots of this place.