"That was weird," Draco said, observing Evie in the distance riding her blue motorcycle in pursuit of a mysterious enemy.
Then he looked down.
He wasn't afraid of heights.
But today he was a little afraid of being so high up in society. Stardom was a very tall tower, and he knew he had to go downstairs sooner or later.
He was afraid of his own memories, which often came back when he was in a crowded place.
Angry mobs what was he remembered when it happened, like flashbacks and echoes.
Sometimes he needed to get away from all the hubbub.
"Here you are," Zeth said, walking with his hands behind his back and his head up.
"Not fair. Evie told you I was here," Draco grunted.
"Where is she?" Zeth looked around.
"She was here a second ago, but she saw something in the distance and left, she was very stressed actually." Draco shifted his shoulders and clucked his mouth, swinging his feet.
"Alex is about to turn Kade Fort upside down, Draco. Next time at least call him and tell him you're okay."
"No one has called it Kade Fort in thousands of years, only you," the vampire replied, "Just call it campus, it sounds less weird."
"Draco, Alex is worried. The whole school is looking for you."
"Well, the search is over I guess," Draco pouted, "You know, I was remembering that time I came up here with Hazel."
"Hazel? The girl you helped graduate because you liked her?" Zeth asked and Draco nodded.
"Yes. That girl. The last time I was here, I was with her," Draco said, smiling as he fiddled with his fingers, "Mi-a fÄcut o felaÈie, dar numai pentru a-Èi demonstra recunoÈtinÈa."
"Yeah, I suspected something like that happened when I saw you smiling like that," Zeth rolled his eyes, "I heard she moved to Miami after college."
"I didn't hear anything from her after that afternoon," Draco said, looking into the distance. "Everything was simpler back then. This town, I see everything from here. It's grown a lot, don't you think?"
"We've grown too, old friend, and that's why I worry." Zeth sat down next to Draco with his feet dangling. He was not afraid of falling either because the injuries would not last. "You and Alex went out last night, and I guess it was because of that girl. I wonder if it's because you're willing to fall in love again after so many centuries."
"I don't want to love again because it never lasts forever. Humans live short lives. Even monsters," Draco pursed his lips. "Of all of our bandmates, you and I will be the ones to see everyone die."
"We did not choose this life," Zeth looked at the horizon nostalgically, "And getting stabbed by a sacred wood spear or someone finding the jar that has my heart to stab it can also end you and me."
Draco laughed briefly.
"Cadence used to call you heartless in college."
"And she was right," Zeth whispered, "You always said she reminded you of your sister."
"I was wrong, my sister was worse," Draco laughed, "Batrix was as cruel as King Zehtt Greak, and thought she was as smart as our father, but she was as dumb as King Ozyrez Rahman."
"The second king of Evalon? Or the King Ozyrez who indirectly caused the Clash of the Rahmans?" Zeth asked and Draco shifted his shoulders.
"They were both fools," Draco sighed.
They remained silent for a while.
"You say you're bisexual," Draco looked Zeth square in the eye, "I mean, what happened in The Titan stays in The Titan but... How did you know?"
"I just knew," Zeth said, shrugging his shoulders. "But I thought you always knew you were bisexual too."
Draco lowered his head and nodded slightly.
"I see no difference between man and woman, biology aside. But I think I love someone, a man, and I wonder... How can I know if he is bisexual? That is to say, he is quite the womanizer, or at least he was."
"I suspect I know who this guy is," Zeth put a hand to his chin, thoughtfully cocking his head, "Draco, please. Everyone knows who you love except for him. But he is straight so, it may be just platonic, got it? Now let's go downstairs. We have a lot to do today."
"Hey Zeth," Draco spoke as his old friend stood up, "If Jade is Erich's 'daughter' do you think she should come with us to Lyonfort?"
"That's exactly what I was considering. But I doubt Erich will let her come to Death Cliff with us. We'll have to talk to him... But there are things I don't understand. Why did Erich bring Jade back after so many years? I need more information. Evie could only find..."
"Evie, Evie, Evie, Evie, Evie, " Draco shook his head, looking at Zeth with angry eyes, "You know what I need?"
"To say her name less often?"
"Zeth, I am old and I have eyes." Draco frowned, "And I know you way, way, way too well, old man."
"What?"
"If you don't tell Frank, and the guys, sooner or later they'll find out."
"What exactly are you accusing me of, Draco?" Zeth crossed his arms.
"You two can fool anyone but me," Draco said, "I know everything, Zeth. In fact, I know more than you think."
Suddenly, there was a lot of noise, shouts, and screams. Zeth and Draco looked at each other and then ran to the bell tower, looking down. Frank was arguing with some people, men dressed in red suits. There was a huge truck that didn't belong to the Monster Mash staff downstairs, and a lot of people carrying cameras and reflectors that didn't belong to the Monster Mash staff either.
"What is this?" Zeth asked.
"It's a plot device the author used to shut me up and keep the reader engaged," Draco said.
"I'm talking about what's going on down there!"
"Oh! Nu Ètiu ce dracului se întâmplÄ." Draco said.
"Well, me neither," Zeth said, clenching his fists.
"Did someone else come to shoot something here today?" Draco asked, his voice getting lost in the yelling and banging in the school parking lot. He scanned the crowd, unsure of what he was looking for. "Maybe someone made an appointment before you did?"
"No," said Zeth, shaking his head. "Someone came to fight, and everyone is out of control."
"They don't look like just anyone," Draco raised an eyebrow. "There's a trailer over there with a huge picture of some guys that... Is it another band?"
"Could be," Zeth shrugged. It didn't make sense why anyone would come today, especially after he had instructed Egor to make an appointment to film all day and night without any interruptions. Now there were reporters all over the place, and everyone was panicking and shouting things.
"It doesn't make sense for both of us to be here at once..." Draco whispered.
"Shit! Look!" Zeth pointed downwards. Everett was carrying a man in a suit on top of his head, threatening to throw him into the crowd of red-clad men. "He's going to damage our image!"
"He's going to damage that man! We have to go down!" Draco said, and Zeth nodded. "We'll jump. There's no faster way!"
"Don't you know what stairs are?!" Zeth yelled.
"Awwwww. I wanted to jump."
"No!"
"Fine! We have to run!" Draco rolled his eyes.
"Well I don't see you running!" Zeth said, taking his phone from his pocket and speed-dialling Egor. "Hey! What's going on down there?" Zeth talked on the phone as he and Draco entered the castle. "What's that? And where did that band come from? Cadence's son is the leader? It just can't be! I'm going downstairs!" And then he hung up, running down the stairs faster than Draco. "Hey! Animaniac! A new band..."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard!" said Draco, descending quickly and agilely in his gothic boots.
"Then run!"
"I'm going to fall and smash my head!"
"Weren't you the one who wanted to jump from the bell tower?!" Zeth yelled and yanked Draco's arm. The vampire had to hold on to the black railing to avoid falling face first. "Be a good friend and run!"
"I hate being your friend!" Draco yelled behind him.
Zeth immediately opened the main door when they arrived at the foyer, stepping out into the chaotic scene.
Everything was wrong, everyone was shouting, pushing each other, the Mashers were fighting against a group of fans of this new band. It was civil war, and there was only one man, panicked and paralyzed, standing like an idiot observing and doing nothing... Frank.
"Rubinstein! What happened?!" Zeth yelled.
"Chaos!" Frank was sweating profusely. He stood at the bottom of the stone steps, looking from side to side with his head in his hands and his eyes wide, "Zeth, I tried to calm them down but they all went crazy!"
To the right, Alex was roaring and leaping like a wolf at the staff members of the other band while Finn tried and failed to reason with him.
To the left, Everett threw the guy in the suit to knock down staff members as if they were bowling pins.
"If this disaster continues, what happened to King Anuber when he made bad decisions during the Clash of the Rahmans will happen to us." Zeth said.
"We're going to have a lot of angry people at the door," Draco said.
"Who had the idea to use violence instead of words, Frank?" Zeth asked.
"Everett and Alex," Frank replied and Zeth face palmed.
"Their idiocy compares to that of Treevor Nosferatt," Zeth whispered, "Remove Orlog Nosferatt from the office of Great Adviser and his son will send the nine kingdoms to hell!"
"Why do you always speak in Weirdglish? I don't understand anything!" Frank shouted, and then a reporter van opened, with a woman holding a microphone and a cameraman following her.
"Oh no! The reporters are going to transmit live!" Draco panicked.
"Frank! Electromagnetic pulse, now!" Zeth ordered.
"I'm not a Pokémon!" Frank yelled, raising his bionic arm, which hissed and buzzed. Frank's hand split in two, revealing an electric blue-green interior. The metal plates on his forearm split and formed a cylinder around his wrist. Clattering, it finally took shape and his bionic limb became a whirring cannon. "Hey, Zeth! If I do this, we will ruin our equipment and all the mobile phones around too! Even the cars!"
"Better than ruining our image!" Zeth yelled.
"And can't you use one of your magic tricks, Zeth?" Frank asked, and Zeth lowered his head and nodded.
"I usually use my powers on one person at a time," Zeth took a long breath, "But I've done this before and on a larger scale. I can do it! I'm the best! I'm handsome! I'm fucking Zeth Rahman!"
"Frank, you have no idea what will happen if he does that," Draco said but Zeth put his hand on his shoulder.
"It's worth a try, old friend," Zeth sighed and jogged in his place, moving his head sideways, making his neck crack, "I hope I don't release a plague by accident," Zeth held up a hand, and his eyes turned bright golden.
The wind blew hard, creating a resounding natural roar that made everyone look up at the sky. The smell of sand grew stronger. An immense and warm darkness transformed the sky from grey to a deep orange and yellow, causing everything to glow in a gentle fiery hue.
Emerging from behind the castle, a storm of golden sand loomed like a beast from a Lovecraftian novel. It had no legs but moved towards them at an incredible speed. The wind intensified as the sandstorm approached. People screamed and ran, while others simply observed, too afraid to move.
Like an evil cloak, the dense cloud of sand covered everything with its dark shadow.
The golden sand covered the entire campus, and with a snap of Zeth's fingers, the chaos stopped.
When the sand faded into nothingness, and Draco and Frank uncovered their eyes, people were standing like zombies, motionless and expressionless, including Everett, Finn, and Alex.
"Their memories... I will wipe them in a second," said Zeth, whose eyes returned to their typical sapphire blue. He fell onto his knees, rubbing his temples. "God! My head!"
"What did you do to them!?" Frank asked, and Zeth stood up with a grunt.
"I put a curse on them to force them to obey me," he explained, tumbling a bit.
"That's called oppression," Frank complained.
"And it was your idea so shut up Frank!" Draco looked very angry.
"You want the world to know what's happening here?" Zeth asked, grunting. His head ached like brainfreeze.
"I just hope it doesn't rain frogs like when you ended the trench warfare during World War I," Draco said, rubbing his eyes. There was still sand in them.
"Okay, let me try this," Zeth said, raising both hands, but he tumbled a little until Draco caught him.
"Zeth, last time you did this, you were in a coma for a month."
"I'm fine," Zeth whispered, his eyes golden again. "Now listen up, people not as beautiful and talented as me!" His raspy voice rang like an evil echo over the entire place, "Erase all evidence from your devices. I want you all to forget everything and... And..."
"Fuck!" Draco and Frank barely managed to catch Zeth, who fell unconscious into their arms.
"Zeth? Zeth!" Frank panicked, "Fuck! I shouldn't have proposed this. Draco! Please tell me Zeth will be okay!"
"He'll be fine," Draco said, "When he spends too much dark magic, which is what keeps him alive, his artificial gold heart shuts down his body to prevent him from dying. It's complicated, it's like a safety lock that prevents him from spending all his life force. It might take a few minutes, or maybe a few months, for him to recharge."
"And how can we recharge him faster?" Frank asked, way too worried, "I've never seen this happen to Zeth before! What's going on? How can I help him?"
"Well, Zeth's soul will transcend to a dimension outside of time and space, and once he defeats the Children of The Sphinx, Khefren and Niktoris will give him permission to join a ceremony to worship the unknown Black God so that it grants Zeth..."
"In English!"
"We can only wait, okay?!" Draco shouted.
"Wait, what if Zeth doesn't defeat these Children Of The Sphinx?" Frank asked, terrified, "Will he die forever?"
"No. He'll just face them over and over again until he can defeat them. Astral things are very strange and I never really understood them. But we have to let him do his weird supernatural things in peace and without pressure. We will take care of the earthly problems."
"Fine, perfect... How do we do that? We don't know how to do anything without Zeth! He's the one who makes the hard decisions!" Frank was even more nervous than before, but Draco, with a determined look for the first time in ages, answered.
"We'll figure this out and make Zeth proud when he wakes up."
"What's going on here?" A voice asked behind them.
"Jade!" Draco said, turning quickly as Frank scooped Zeth into his arms, "Good to see you! I need your help!"
"Sure... Oh God! What happened to Zeth?!" She almost fainted, "Is he okay?! Oh god! How can I help?!"
"Follow me," Frank said.
Jade had no idea what was going on, but she wouldn't ask any questions, she just followed Frank to the tour bus and got in after him.
The tour bus was spacious. It had a small diner-style cabinet, a refrigerator, six sleeping bunks, and the walls were purple with orange decorations. It was so big that it looked more like a trailer and so complete that it looked like an apartment on wheels.
"Can you stay with Zeth here?" Frank asked, placing an unconscious Zeth in a bunk, "In case there is another conflict, I need to at least know that he is safe."
"Another conflict? Was there a conflict?" Jade asked, biting the sleeve of her jacket. She looked out the window but saw nothing but people chatting in a friendly manner. Among them was Draco, who was chatting with a guy in a suit and tie. She knew the man. That was the Dean Maddox Hill, who kept lowering his head, apparently apologising.
"Yeah, that's why Zeth ended up like this. There's a rival band out there that came looking for trouble," Frank rose up, and Jade turned to look at him, biting her lip.
"Everyone out there looks calm," Jade said, avoiding Frank's gaze, "You said something about another band?"
"Yeah, they are still around. Zeth couldn't control them to leave, I guess," Frank said, and Jade raised an eyebrow.
"I have no idea what you're saying but I hope he wakes up soon," Jade dropped her shoulders, her arms hung like noodles.
"Don't slouch, it makes you look lazy," Frank said, taking a step toward her, placing his hands on her shoulders to push them back, "Stand up straight. That's what Zeth always told me when my limbs hung like spaghetti long before I became a cyborg."
"Good advise, mum used to tell me that too," Jade nodded, looking up and straight into Frank's eyes. "Hey, I just have one question... Why choose me to watch over Zeth? Is it because I'm super special to you?"
"Those are two questions."
"You chose me to watch over Zeth because I'm super special to you?"
"Yes," Frank said, and she smiled, "And because you literally appeared out of nowhere and I didn't want to waste much time looking for someone else."
And Jade's smile faded.
The bus door opened, and heavy Goth boot footsteps approached the back where Jade and Frank stood.
"Alex, Finn, and Everett don't remember anything," Draco said, texting someone. His phone had a red casing with black bat wings. The screen was cracked and taped together, "I asked Egor to talk to the manager of the other band, and it turns out that the manager is Faltom Operman, who is not here. So the one in charge is Faltom's son, and he wants to talk to our manager but..." Draco sighed, turning to see Zeth lying on Frank's green bunk. "He's asleep."
"Zeth is your manager?" Jade asked and bit down on the sleeve of her jacket again.
"Zeth is our manager, producer, public relations, human resources, creative head, marketing head, costume designer, and bandmate," Frank replied, taking a long breath after saying the entire list like a nun praying to defeat a demon. "He pretty much does everything. He has people to help him, and Egor, but Zeth's the brains of our band."
"I asked Egor to summon the rivals to the cafeteria, so come on, Frank," Draco said, turning to Jade. "If Zeth wakes up, tell him to come to the cafeteria."
"Understood," Jade nodded.
As Frank and Draco left, she stood by the bunk where Zeth was, watching him closely. His features were perfect. She even ran a finger along the contour of his round shoulder to the prominent vein on his bicep, tracing it carefully as if the touch would make Zeth wake up.
Maybe they both started off on the wrong foot, but Jade couldn't deny that she always admired him and dreamed of meeting him.
"I'm not sure if you're listening," Jade whispered, stroking Zeth's perfect hair. "But I wanted to tell you... I understand your actions, and you are..." She hesitated for a moment. "The greatest example of a human being I've ever met, and you're not even human. You really care about the people you love, about helping people in general, and it's very noble and admirable." She smiled and leaned against the bunk. "It must be so wonderful, having that kind of feeling for someone... I have my mum in L.A. and my dad here, but they are family so they obviously care about me. But what you have with your friends is unique, a family that you chose, and I never wanted to be a bother."
A few minutes passed, and she hoped to hear him wake up or say something at some point, but Zeth just didn't open his eyes.
Then she thought about fairy tales, about the kiss that woke up the princess, and how the roles had been reversed.
Perhaps a kiss would wake the prince, and perhaps that would lead to a wedding... Or a lawsuit.
"Look at me, I'm so selfish," she told Zeth. "Maybe you can hear me, maybe you can't, but... Of all your friends, it's you who has always driven me crazy, for better and for worse." And suddenly, the tears came, falling from her eyes, and she quickly wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "And I just want you to wake up."