#bcte

Demolition Lovers by Michael Wyant

I glared at the puny audience of bystanders and dog walkers that stood before my garage as my cover band painfully rocked out to the song that defined our band.

“Like a bed of roses there’s a dozen reasons in this gun”

            Every time that I sing “Demolition Lovers” turns into a struggle for emotional control within my body. And it makes me wonder how My Chemical Romance performs it so well. I look at the others and they seem to feel the same way. Over by my car is a skinny guy with long, jet-black hair, who we call Hades for his obvious obsession with death. I noticed that as we ran his guitar solo he got within millimeters of breaking down. Next to him is Shelby on bass. Everyone calls her the hulk because of her green hair. But that’s not why we call her that. Whenever she gets a bass line going, she gets this look of pure anger on her otherwise cutesy face. Towards the back is our drummer, Rebecca. She just about gets the same way in this as Shelby, but instead of having green hair, she has bright, red hair. When I utter the last words of the song, I feel the world go numb in my fingertips and my heart turns into an iron block, which sometimes leads to me collapsing on the spot. But I don’t think our nonchalant audience understands any of that, based on the fact that they just walk away as if life was a walk through the park. After they all left, I looked back at my band mates, all of them drenched in sweat.

            “That satisfies me. Do that the same way tomorrow night at coffee house and we’ll be talked about for days! Just don’t be late… That means you Hades,” I announced.

            “Shut up, that was one time,” he chuckled.

            “Hey, Mike, I hope your parents don’t mind me staying the night,” Rebecca said.

            “Aw shoot! You two are going to smash! I just know it!” yelled Shelby.

            “Meh. She would never do that to me,” I admitted

            “Hey, you never know,” winked Rebecca.

            After a while, Hades and Shelby left. Apparently they were headed to the pier to creep on some tourists. Hades and Shelby. Probably one of the most awkward couples, but I’m still very jealous of what they have. I myself, take a certain liking to our red-headed drummer. But as I look into the mirror at a scrawny kid with glasses, I don’t see her next to me in the near future. As far as I know, she probably thinks I’m gay…

            Later that night, Rebecca and I lay in bed staring at the ceiling and talking to each other of the day’s events.

            “Ugh, Michael, you know what professor Shock did today?” she asked.

            “I haven’t the slightest idea,” I casually responded.

            “He was totally staring at my tits the whole time!!” she angrily exclaimed.

            “I don’t blame him!” I trolled.

            “Shut up!” laughed Rebecca.

            I turned to her and looked at her un-forgetting icy blue eyes and asked,

            “Seriously speaking, would you… uhh… ever… you know… as Shelbs put it… smash me?” I nervously asked.

            “Oh Mike, I love you so much… But you’re really not the one for me. You deserve better,” She retorted. 

            “Oh… okay, just wondering.”

            And on that awkward note, the room fell silent as she went to sleep. After countless minutes or hours, at this point I don’t know how long, I thought of her and what would happen tomorrow in front of all our college peers and their families. Alas, I finally dozed off… Into a nightmare. I had dreamt that an ancient evil spirit told me that my love would die. And it said that when this happens, I can bring her back under two conditions; that my soul is his property, and that I must kill one-hundred men.

            I awoke to a storm outside and a putrid odor in my room. I turned to face Rebecca and stared in horror. What looked like dry phlegm was crusted around her mouth and a trail of stagnant blood from her nose dominated her upper lip. Her icy blue eyes were locked into an eternal stare with my ceiling. My love was dead, the spirit was right. I did not cry. I knew what I had to do. There would be plenty of people tonight.

            After the ambulance took her away, I ventured to the park in which the band meets before each of our gigs. When I arrived, I spotted Hades and Shelby in an embrace, and it looked like Shelby had lost it.

            “Stop that.” I mumbled.

            “Our best friend just died, man…” she responded.

            I told them what that spirit told me in my dream last night. And for the longest time, both of them just stared at me with their mouths ajar.

            “That’s crazy! Preposterous! But… do you really believe that?” asked a confused Hades.

            “Yes. It’s our only chance of bringing her back… Please help me,” I pleaded.

            “I guess we have no choice… we’re in,” answered Shelby.

            “My dad’s a hunter,” said Hades, morbidly.

            With that, Shelby’s knees buckled and she fell to the floor, bawling her eyes out.

              “All right, where’s Demol- Hey! You can’t-“

Screams.

“I’ll let you know just how much you mean to me… And after all the things we put each other through…”

            Anyone in the front row was riddled with bullets. The stains all looked like demonic roses, but I knew better. The whole thing felt surreal. As people rushed for the unfortunately locked doors, Shelby and Hades kept playing and I kept singing while I fired round after round into the scampering crowd. As we drove through the soft measures of the song, we could hear sirens and see a faint flashing blue light through the crowd of scratching people at the door.

“I mean it! Forever!”

Silence.