Skeleton Head 2
A single note pierced the air, and suddenly the first song began. The rumbling beat shook her very soul, she thought, and even though she never liked Lightning Myster’s music, she appreciated that she could feel it. The screen on stage flicked between projections of clouds and stripes, and Lightning Myster’s silhouette bounced up and down with his movement, all timed to the music.
It was all a very effective performance, when the projector wasn’t shining directly in her eyes.
Trying to mimic the people around her, she bopped up and down with the sounds, letting the music wash over her. Up on stage, Lightning Myster half-chanted, half-sang his song, and she tried to determine if she’d heard it before. If Trevor had played it before. Probably.
As one song blurred into another, there were moments where she forgot Trevor was here at all. There were even moments where she forgot she was there. It felt surreal, like this was all a scene in a movie, and she wasn’t really in it.
“Alright, alright. I want to see everyone’s hands in the air. Everyone!” Lightning Myster shouted into his mic, and the bass beat like her own heart, reverberating through the floor and rooting her into her spot. On command, hands lifted in front of her, and she knew that these people were thrumming with the same beat that she was, so she raised hers too. Glancing to her left, she watched Trevor lift his, and he flashed her a smile.
The lights strobed, the beat dropped, Lightning Myster screamed out unintelligible words, and she could only see snippets of the room around her. The entire room blinked on and off, no light to bright light to none again so fast it made her head spin, and she waved her arms because that’s what she was supposed to do.
It was like watching everything through a camera lens, snapshots of movement. The strobes continued, highlighting the crowd as the people in front of her jumped up, then suddenly they were on the ground. It all was happening so fast, and all the while that beat thump thump thump-ed through her bones.
That song led directly into the next; Lightning Myster didn’t even introduce it, just yelped, “Yes, yes!” and plunged into the new song. The LED candelabras sparked to life, and the fake flames pulsed to the beat.
She made sure to smile in case Trevor was looking her way, but her eyes were wandering to the ceiling, watching the fans spin, watching a stray streamer caught in the rafters struggle against the wind like a dying animal.
Lightning Myster played more songs, all of them sounding the same to her, and he never came out from behind the screen. She could only see his shadow, animating up and down and left and right, never in the same place.
A green laser whipped across the crowd, flashing over her and Trevor, blinding her momentarily, and Lightning Myster called out again, “Yes! Yes!” The music shifted into a recognizable tune--Ghoul--the one song she could recognize. It was Trevor’s all-time favorite, and he’d told her that he always saved it until the end.
This was it. One more song, and then she’d be free.
She didn’t know when exactly it had happened, maybe as everyone else got drunker and drunker it only made her appear more and more sober, but the venue had lost some of its charm. What once was a well-worn and grungy but cool interior suddenly felt dirty and beer-stain sticky. The crowd was wilder, too; there was a guy flailing around not too far ahead of them that looked unsteady on his feet, ready to fall and topple everyone over domino-style.
The guy that had held up his drink at the beginning and grinned at them had moved off to the side, his hips gyrating against a short girl that she desperately hoped he knew. And the flame-shaped glasses guy was at the bar again, requesting another shot of vodka, the red-and-yellow-haired girl he'd been with nowhere to be seen.
“Put your hands UP!” commanded Lightning Myster from behind his flashing screen. The crowd obliged, but she kept her arms at her sides, suddenly unwilling simply because it was suggested. Or, no, because it was expected.
She was such a spoilsport.
She looked over at Trevor, who was gleefully waving his arms in the air, eyes glued to his favorite artist. The shadow of his favorite artist.
A couple from just to the right of them scooted over as the woman pulled out her phone to take a picture. As the girl stepped in front of her, she tried to take a step back, but someone was behind her, and on either side as well. The girl’s hair tickled her arms, and the guy bounced up and down to the music. All the while the projector from on stage flashed white light into her eyes.
The song wound down, and the people were still so close to her, and there was so much room literally everywhere else. But it was ok, because that was the last song.
“I’ve got two more songs for you all. You want to hear ’em?” Lightning Myster shouted. The crowd cheered in response, and the DJ’s shadow grew bigger as he took a step back, blocking more of the projector’s light. “I SAID, DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THEM?!”
The noise grew to a deafening roar, and she couldn’t tell where the voices of the people around her ended and where the music began.
* * *
The crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk, and she hopped around a lanky, staggering boy who had clearly had too much to drink. Her ears were ringing, and the night seemed too quiet out here.
“What’d you think?” Trevor asked, his voice laced with excitement.
She stepped over a dropped slice of pizza and squinted back at the street food cart parked outside the doors of Skeleton Head. They must get good business, based on the line of people already forming.
“It was good!” she replied, whipping her head around and gathering her hair into a ponytail with one hand. She stopped and pressed the button for the crosswalk, staring at the street, which was still busy with cars. Where were they all going at this time of night?
She checked her phone. It was eleven, earlier than she'd expected, and they'd get home around eleven-thirty, and she could maybe be in bed by twelve-thirty. Earlier if she took a really fast shower. Or no shower. Actually, she had to shower; she had work tomorrow morning.
“Thanks so much for coming with me,” Trevor said, and she couldn't help but actually smile this time and meet his eye.
“Yeah,” she said more softly, tucking her phone back into her pocket. She did like it. It was just draining. “I think it was just a little long, though,” she admitted with a short laugh.
He nodded. “Oh, yeah. I totally agree! It can be a lot. Honestly, I could’ve left after he played Ghoul.”
The walk sign turned on, and she glanced at him as she clomped across the road in her boots. “Aw, you should’ve said something! Me too!” She's glad, at least, that he felt the same.
He chuckled. “Oh. I’m glad we stayed, though. I mean, I still enjoyed it.”
She nodded. “Mhm. Right, me too.”
And, sure, even though she decided that she kind of hated Lightning Myster, she was glad she went. Even if it was just for that opening DJ that she didn't even know the name of. Even if it was just for laughing once with that one random guy who made a joke, or enjoying seeing a crowd of people dance and forget all their worries for a little bit. Even if it was just to spend some time with her friend, which she was always forgetting to do.
They reached the car, and she unlocked it with a click. “Thanks for inviting me,” she said over the car roof as she opened the driver’s side door.
From the passenger’s side, Trevor just ducked his head and smiled.