All Fired Up

by Madelynne Ellis

  ‘Then you’ll screw yourself and your idiot mates for tonight. I don’t see another drummer standing by ready to help you out.’

  Iain somehow managed to get far enough away from Ash’s fists to scramble to his feet. He kicked an amp over in an effort to block Ash’s approach, and, when that failed, started flinging anything he could lay his hands on: drumsticks, nuts and bolts, even a microphone on a lead.

  Ash dodged the missiles with varying degrees of success.

  ‘You haven’t the guts to get rid of me. You need me. Think of all the sad faces you’ll make if you cancel. The mad bastards that come to see you won’t like it. Didn’t they flip over a car the last time you pulled the plug at the last minute?’

  ‘I won’t need to get rid of you if you’re already a bloody smear on the floor.’

  ‘Oh, there’s plenty of smearing I can do. I bet the world would love to know what a bunch of batshit crazy freaks you are, and that’s before we touch on Elspeth’s little shrine to a man who couldn’t get it up for her and liked to bang her ex instead. You have to admit she’s unstable, Ash. I mean, look at all the restitution she’s seeking. Those lights came down awful close to Xane’s head the other night. That glass might have cut up his pretty face or crushed him into a bloody pulp.’

  ‘Don’t you blame her.’ Ash was going to flatten Iain into a pancake. ‘It wasn’t Elspeth who’d tampered with the lights, it was you.’ And he hadn’t meant to scar, but to maim or kill. ‘How did I ever fall for your friggin’ lies?’

  ‘You lie to yourself all the time, Ash. All … the … fucking … time. You think your little pissant group is something special. They’re mediocre at best. We could have done something great, but you fucked it up when you decided to weld yourself to Xane Geist’s backside.’

  ‘Is that what this is all about?’ Astonishment caused Ash to pause in his pursuit for a moment. ‘You’re still bitter because I cost our stupid college band some poxy deal with a minuscule record label?’

  ‘I worked my arse off to get us that deal.’

  Ash shook his head and began advancing again slowly. They’d already made a couple of circuits of the stage. ‘That contract was only on the table because of me, and, for the record, I didn’t turn it down because of Xane. I did it because of Connie.’

  ‘Connie wasn’t even in the picture by then.’

  ‘Exactly. She wasn’t around and you thought you could order me around as you damn well pleased. I don’t know what you did to her, Iain, but I know you did something. I’ve only just realised that. Then, it was simply because you didn’t give a damn about the fact I’d just had my heart broken.’

  ‘Oh, please! Cut the romantic crap. You’d never even fucked the chick.’

  Ash saw red mist and lost all mental capacity. He dived a good six feet to hit Iain and destroyed the rest of the drumkit when he grabbed the ride cymbal to whack him about the head.

  ‘Ash, what in Beelzebub’s name are you doing?’ Rock Giant dropped his bass guitar case and sprinted onto the stage from the wings. ‘You lot don’t stand there, stop him.’ He threw his hands up in despair at the huddle of stagehands who were side-stepping to keep out of the path of the conflict. They were predominantly new guys and site support staff with no vested interest in the band, although Liam was among them too.

  ‘Guys, get in here fast.’ Rock Giant grabbed Ash around the waist. Spook was suddenly on him too, appearing like a streak of light across the periphery of his vision before driving him up against a pillar at the side of the stage. The distraction meant Iain got in a retaliatory punch before Cave Troll, their main driver, picked him up by the collar and shook him like a jacket he wanted to get the creases out of.

  Spook wedged his knees against Ash’s thighs and used his upper-body strength to hold him taut against the pillar. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  ‘Ginny,’ Ash gasped. He knew Spook understood. That ought to be explanation enough to persuade him to loosen his grip, but his wingman didn’t let go.

  ‘Killing him won’t help get her back.’

  ‘Connie,’ he blustered.

  ‘Her neither.’

  ‘You don’t understand. He’s been screwing with the equipment too. He’s tried to sabotage the tour.’

  ‘This isn’t the way to handle it.’ He managed to wrest the cymbal from Ash’s grasp. It dropped with a hideous clatter to the floor.

  ‘He’s fucking insane,’ Iain yelled. He weaselled himself free of Cave Troll’s hold. ‘I haven’t screwed up anything. There’s no need. You all do that well enough for yourself.’ He swiped the back of his hand across his face, smearing his knuckles and cheek with blood from his flattened nose.

  ‘Maybe both you gents need to calm down a little,’ Cave Troll remarked, his beetling brows lowered in an angry frown so that he resembled a troll out of a fantasy flick. He swung his fist as if he meant to hammer one or both of them into the floor. ‘You boys need to remember the rules. Any arguments you take outside. You don’t solve them in the vicinity of the equipment or when situated on property that isn’t your own.’

  ‘Tell him that.’ Iain waggled an accusatory finger at Ash. ‘He’s the one who’s chucking around accusations as if they were carnival treats. I was just trying to get my fucking drumkit set up so that I can play at tonight’s bloody gig.’

  The drumkit was destroyed and would likely need replacing pronto.

  ‘You’re not playing with us. You’re not performing another goddamned thing with us ever again,’ Ash yelled.

  ‘Ash,’ Spook cautioned.

  ‘He’s been fucking with everything, Spook. He’s trying to destroy us.’

  ‘And you’re high as a bleedin’ kite,’ Iain retaliated. ‘Maybe if you stopped popping pills and screwing tarts you’d manage to make some decent life choices. I didn’t do anything to your current squeeze. She came on to me. You can hardly blame me for the fact that she’s a slut. If you insist on dating women with morals so loose their knickers constantly fall off, you shouldn’t be surprised when they’re prepared to invite whoever’s available to sample their cunts.’

  ‘You’re a liar. You spiked her.’

  ‘Whoa.’ Spook tightened his grip.

  ‘With my dick, maybe.’

  ‘Breathe,’ Spook advised. ‘He’s not worth it. Breathe, Ash.’

  ‘I’m going to fucking tear his head off.’ Ash surged forward, knocking Spook flat on his back. He dipped under Rock Giant’s arm as he stretched to grab him, hurtled past Troels and Tony and caught Iain with a sucker punch to the stomach. He dropped like a stone, laughing like the frickin’ psycho he was.

  ‘Guys, get him off me. You have to see that he’s deranged.’

  Rock Giant and Troels separated them. ‘Calm,’ the latter warned Ash. ‘Say what you need to, but without the fists.’

  ‘I’m done talking.’

  ‘Are you done?’ Rock Giant asked Iain. ‘I think you’d better both take walks and cool down.’

  But Ash wasn’t actually done. Not nearly – a point he proved a moment later when everyone took their hands off him and he socked Iain in the face again. After that he found himself squashed against the floor with two man-mountains sitting on him.

  ‘I don’t need to take this shit,’ Iain spat. He slowly pulled himself up straight and flattened down his hair. There was still blood dripping from his nose that he tried to staunch by pinching the bridge. ‘I don’t owe you any favours. Have a ball this evening, guys. I’m outta here.’

  ‘Genius,’ Rock Giant remarked, when they were all certain Iain was far enough away that Ash wouldn’t go tearing after him. ‘That’s roundly screwed us for tonight. Anyone know any hard rock drummers that happen to live in Karlstad? I’d post it to our webpage, but I’m not sure the calibre of applicants we’d have showing up would be up to snuff.’

  ‘Like to tell us what that was all about?’ Spook asked, stretching out a hand to help Ash stand.

  ‘I’m going to go source
some more drums,’ Liam remarked. ‘Cave Troll, you’re with me. Tony, see what you can salvage.’

  Elspeth, who Ash hadn’t noticed was present, sighed. ‘I wouldn’t sweat too much over it. Unless Xane shows up, we’re not going to have a show to put on anyway.’

  ‘I thought Ulf said he was on his way,’ Rock Giant said.

  ‘Yeah, several hours ago. He also said Xane would be here by five. It’s ten to now.’

  * * *

  Spook dragged Ash back to the tour bus to find a cold compress for his battered knuckles. Ash expected a grilling but instead Spook asked about Ginny.

  ‘I assume you’ve spoken to her, and that she’s the reason you decided to catch a train to Karlstad at the crack of dawn, rather than ride on the bus with the rest of us.’ How Spook was able to fathom this stuff from fragments of information, Ash would never understand. ‘Did she give you the dirt on Iain?’

  ‘Not entirely,’ Ash confessed. He still felt bad about his part in everything. Considering he believed … no, he knew that he loved that girl, he’d let Iain’s actions split them up far too easily. Sure he’d been hurt, but he hadn’t even fought for her. He guessed the problem was that he’d never really believed she’d stick with him in the first place. Women let him down. They just did. ‘Some of it is extrapolation.’ His guts knew the truth and Iain had essentially confirmed everything while they’d been fighting.

  Spook brewed them both pint mugs of builders’ tea, thus proving he meant business, because he hadn’t tried to fob Ash off with anything gruesomely healthy. He even dished out chocolate biscuits to dunk.

  ‘And where is Ginny at the moment?’

  ‘At a hotel.’ Exactly where he wanted to be right now, preferably in her arms pretending the rest of the world didn’t exist. ‘I don’t want her anywhere near Iain. There are lines, Spook, and Iain crossed too many of them.’ All in all Ginny was taking things better than he was. He supposed the fact she couldn’t remember events helped there, whereas he got palpitations every time he pictured Iain with his hand up her skirt and thought how far the evil bastard might have taken it. She probably wouldn’t react well to finding out he’d taken a cymbal to Iain’s head; not after they’d agreed to a strategy of calm, whereby Ash got rid of him quietly and efficiently without providing Iain with any ammunition to come back at him. He was just the sort of dickhead that would file assault charges. Then again, maybe her only gripe would be that he hadn’t let her bash Iain first.

  His best friend nodded sagely, while fishing the soggy remains of a partially dissolved biscuit from his tea. ‘I think you’d better run the story by me from beginning to end while we wait for Xane to show up, and let’s pray he has a plan.’

  ‘I guess you’ve forgiven him his craphead remarks from last night, then,’ Ash remarked, recalling that Xane had managed to rile Spook enough to make him walk out of the bar.

  Spook pursed his lips. ‘Same old Ash. Whenever the ball’s in your court you seek a diversion. Xane says plenty of crass things when he’s cross. We all do. It’s already forgotten about.’ He gave up trying to filter his tea and set the spoon down on the table. ‘Now tell me what the deal is with Iain, and start from the beginning.’

  It took another round of tea, plus toast slathered with peanut butter and a bag of pork scratchings before Ash was finally done. As prompted, he had begun at the very start, explaining his relationship with Connie and how it ended, and what he thought Iain’s role had been. Also about Love Rocket, their band, and the deal he scuppered when he’d quit to join Black Halo. Then the current situation and issues they’d faced on the tour.

  ‘I’m not honestly sure we should let him near the stage tonight even if he does show up,’ Spook remarked at the end of the long, sorry tale. ‘But without someone to replace him, I’m not sure we have a choice. The promoters aren’t going to understand, nor are the punters. Listen, we can’t tell the others any of this, not before the show. We’ll have to deal the cards afterwards, then at least after tonight we’ll have a couple of days before the next gig. That should give us time to find someone willing to step in for at least a few shows.’ At least they agreed on that point.

  ‘That was supposed to be my plan,’ Ash said. ‘I just hadn’t realised how badly I wanted to throttle him.’

  ‘You’re going to have to stay calm for the gig.’

  ‘All this is assuming Iain turns up and hasn’t done a runner just to stitch us up completely.’

  ‘His stuff’s still here,’ Spook remarked. ‘He’ll be back.’

  Ash wasn’t so sure. It’d probably make Iain’s day if he managed to derail the gig. It’d be like hammering another nail into Black Halo’s coffin. A lot of folks still hadn’t forgiven Xane for walking off stage mid-gig several months back.

  ‘Fine,’ Spook amended. ‘He’d better be back, or I’ll ring his scrawny fucking neck.’

  Ash smiled at Spook’s fighting talk. His friend rarely made idle threats.

  * * *

  Iain didn’t return. Ten minutes before the show he was ‘officially’ missing, and despite numerous phone calls no one had managed to contact him or find a replacement who could get to Karlstad in time. To make matters worse, Xane’s arrival had been delayed by traffic problems. He was buttoning his shirt backstage when Spook and Ash returned from a last-ditch attempt to winkle Iain from wherever he was hiding.

  ‘So he’s walked, the mangy bastard,’ Xane griped.

  ‘Looks like it.’ Spook didn’t sound very sorry about it. ‘We’ve searched everywhere. Security swear he’s still on site, but I think they just didn’t notice him leaving. It’s not as if they check passes on the way out.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Rock Giant started thumping holes in the wall with his head. ‘If we don’t go on, it’s going to result in a major contractual screw-up.’

  Never mind that, Ash thought. What was worse was that Iain would have won.

  ‘There’s always the backing tape we were originally going to use, before Ash insisted we needed to employ his friend,’ Elspeth remarked, giving Ash the evils. He wasn’t sure if they were in response to him having hired Iain in the first place or having caused his departure. ‘It may not be perfect, but it’d be something.’

  ‘Except it’s a shit plan,’ Xane and Spook chorused together. ‘It always was. We were fooling ourselves ever believing it would work.’

  Ash shoved his hands into his hair and pulled. ‘I’m sorry guys. This is all happening because of me.’

  ‘Oh, get off the pity train,’ Elspeth blustered. ‘We don’t have time for that now. What are we going to do?’ The support act were just leaving the stage, and she eyed their drummer, a guy with a lime-green Mohican and round-rimmed spectacles, as if he might be their salvation. ‘We have about thirty seconds to decide, guys.’

  ‘We use Luthor, that’s what,’ Xane announced, to a chorus of gasps and demands for repetition and clarification. ‘I did intend to talk to you all post-show about him taking over the drumming position as I think he’ll be a better fit, but I guess since Iain’s gone we may as well trial him now.’

  ‘He plays drums?’ Ash asked, still trying to get his head around the surprise announcement. How could they have been travelling through Europe with a drummer tucked away on the bus that nobody knew about? Well, nobody except Xane, apparently.

  ‘Ulf hired him to play for you right at the start of the tour,’ Dani explained, seeing his look of apparent confusion. Considering she wasn’t an official member of the band or crew, he found it a little disturbing that she knew more about their mystery drummer than he did. ‘When you hired Iain, Ulf decided it was best not to cause additional conflict by telling you he’d found someone else.’

  Ulf, their chief sound guy! Ulf knew they had another drummer with them and had kept quiet despite Iain’s too-numerous-to-count cock ups. The old geezer was obviously going senile. ‘Why the hell hasn’t he said anything this evening?’

  Spook scratched his biceps. ‘H
e probably didn’t see the point, since Luthor was with Xane and it seemed questionable whether he was even going to make it.’

  ‘I’m here now,’ Xane muttered. ‘As is Luthor.’ Their newest roadie had just walked through the door, someone having obviously run to find him.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, looking around at all their eager faces. ‘Is there trouble with the kit? Liam said he’d had to replace some bits.’

  ‘The kit’s fine, it’s someone to bang it we’re missing.’ Xane handed him a set of drumsticks. ‘Are you up for it?’

  ‘You’re joking?’

  Xane shook his head, making his jet-black waist-length hair sway.

  ‘What about Iain?’ Luthor asked, turning his head to look for him and failing to spot him in any of the dark corners.

  ‘Forget Iain. Let’s just get out there and play.’

  * * *

  Ash went on stage that night with a severe case of butterflies. He didn’t know what to expect. Until this point, Luthor had simply been a roadie and a bit of a nuisance as he was obviously attracted to Xane, and Xane, being his typical self, couldn’t keep his hands off, even though it made his girlfriend uncomfortable. However, after a couple of minutes on stage with Luthor, Ash was praying that relationship issues weren’t going to cause problems, because Luthor was a damned fine drummer and they needed to sign him up for the rest of the tour immediately. The guy rocked the hell out of ‘Fatal Error’, the track they’d had to drop from the set back in Paris. In fact, Luthor seemed to pump extra zest into their whole performance.

  The gig passed crazily fast that night, one song seguing into another, so that, before he knew it, Ash was backstage grabbing a quick mouthful of water and swallowing one of Xane’s bananas before they rushed back out to perform the curtain call.

  They needed more nights like tonight, where everything came together and went right instead of wrong.

  Really he ought to have known better than to have called anything over before it was over.

  Ash’s fingers started disobeying part-way through the first encore. At first he put it down to the bruises and swelling across his knuckles. After 90 minutes of intense playing it was hardly surprising they were protesting the effort. A little shake and some flexing seemed to sort them out, at least for a moment or two.