Victory RUN: Collected Victory RUN 1, 2, 3
Page 58
I turn and it’s Rob the Knob, heading toward the sound booth.
Oh no!
He stops and looks at me, “If you’re with the next band, you need to wait in back until your band is called.”
No!
“Come on,” Rob the Knob says, “Move it.”
In my lame man voice, I say, “Uhh…”
Kellan suddenly says over the P.A., “All right, everybody. Thank you so much. We’ve got a special guest tonight for our last song.”
“That’s me,” I say in my man voice to Rob.
Rob the Knob frowns, “Who?”
“I’m the special guest,” I grunt, trying to sound more mannish, “For Suffer The Gun.”
Kellan continues, “A very good friend of mine…”
Rob looks toward the stage, then back at me. Then he looks at my white Fender Strat. “Why do I know that guitar?”
Kellan continues, “You may have heard her play before…”
“All Fenders look alike,” I say lamely.
I watch Rob the Knob mentally connecting the dots. He says, “No, I remember this guitar. It was…we bought it used and resold it too—” The light bulb goes off over Rob’s head.
Kellan continues, “Her video now has over a million views on YouTube…”
“Hey!” Felix trundles down the stairs and grabs my hand, “You’re on! Right now!” He yanks me up the stairs
“Get back here!” Rob the Knob shouts at my back. His arm shoots out, trying to grab me.
Kellan continues, “You all know her as Victory! Victory Payne, everybody! Give her a big hand!”
I dodge Rob’s grasp and stumble up the stairs onto the stage.
I can’t believe what happens next.
Chapter 126
VICTORY
The stage lights blare in my face. To my amusement, the face mask cuts down on the glare and I can see the crowd better than I normally can.
They are going crazy as I stumble onto the stage.
I vaguely hear Rob the Knob behind me shouting, ‘Get her off my stage!”
I twist and see Felix intercept him and bodily restrain him. I’m really going to owe Felix after this.
Kellan is standing at the mic center stage, clapping enthusiastically, “Victory Payne, everybody!"
I wave at the crowd while I walk up to Kellan and shout in his ear, “What the hell is going on?”
Kellan looks over my shoulder at Rob the Knob who is still shouting, “Get her off my stage!”
Felix is struggling to hold Rob back.
Kellan frowns, “You tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Rob recognized my guitar!”
Kellan’s eyes bulge. A second later, he says, “Take your mask off. Right now.”
Since Rob the Knob recognized me, it doesn’t really matter. I take the KFC bucket off my head and pull the face mask off.
“Let your hair down,” he commands.
I shake it out and let it flow.
Kellan unplugs his instrument cable from his guitar and jacks it into my Fender. “Now shred,” he orders. “I’ll take care of that guy,” Kellan motions at Rob the Knob. Then Kellan takes off his Les Paul and hands it to Dubs to hold. He rushes over to Rob and Felix.
I’m half stunned.
Kellan turns back to me, “Shred!”
I can do that.
I crank the volume on my Fender and distortion rolls out of the amps behind me, the monitors at my feet, and the P.A.
The sound of my guitar shakes the house.
There’s is nothing more awesome than wielding an amped up electric guitar that shakes the entire building. I feel like Zeus throwing thunderbolts down from the heavens.
It’s incredible every time.
I start jamming out random show stopper guitar solo riffs and the crowd goes wild. I throw in every cool lick I can think of, including two handed tapping runs. I can tell the crowd is loving it. They cheer like crazy.
I periodically glance over at Kellan, who is busy talking to Rob the Knob and Felix, gesturing wildly with his muscled arms.
I keep playing, working the crowd, and they love it. Nobody loves a guitar solo better than a heavy metal crowd.
I’m in my element.
After a couple more minutes, I see that Rob the Knob has calmed, and is nodding at whatever Kellan is saying. I bet the insane noise of approval, cheers, and applause made by the crowd during my extended guitar solo is helping Kellan convince Rob the Knob to let me continue playing.
When I get to a natural stopping point, I strum my guitar rapidly and bring it all to a close.
The crowd erupts and people start screaming my name.
“Victory!!! Woooo!!! You rock! Shred it!!! Victory!!!”
It’s totally awesome.
No one is yelling Skin Trade or Scott’s name.
They’re yelling my name.
Victory Payne.
It feels incredible.
What I can’t get over is, how did everyone know my name?
In my experience, when you’re a nobody, nobody gives a shit when you play, no matter how good you are.
Kellan strides over and grabs the mic center stage, “Wasn’t that fucking incredible?!?!”
The crowd goes crazy. I laugh. I can’t help it. This is too awesome.
“Victory Payne, everybody!!!” Kellan points at me and the crowd explodes again.
When the applause finally dies down, I hear some guy in the crowd shout, “Play the video! Play the video!”
Kellan looks at me expectantly.
I walk over to him and shout in his ear, “What are they talking about? What fucking video?”
He grins and hollers, “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” I demand. I really have zero clue.
“About our video?”
I growl, “Our video?!?!” I shake my head, “I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about!!!”
Kellan’s face softens into an amused grin. He leans over, cups my cheek and mutters into my ear, “Remember that first night you spent at my apartment?”
I nod, “Yeah?”
“And I made us record that video of the two of us playing?”
“You mean the one you forced me to record?” I joke.
“Yeah, that one.”
“What about it?”
“I uploaded it on YouTube awhile back. Now it has something like one point two million views.”
“What?”
He grins and nods, “You’re famous, Victory. Probably every guitar shredder on the planet has seen your video by now.”
“What?” I’m stunned. I can’t believe what he’s saying. It seems impossible and doesn’t make any sense.
Kellan looks over at the sound booth and makes a cranking motion with his hand. The guy behind the booth nods.
“Look,” Kellan points behind me.
There’s a huge projector screen on the wall behind and above the drum kit. It shows a computer desktop. The mouse pointer moves around and clicks on Firefox. When the browser window pops open, the guy behind the sound board enters in some words in the search window:
“Hot girl guitar shredder Ms. Yngwie Malmsteen.”
A second later, a YouTube page loads. I notice that it has 1,275,296 views. The mouse pointer clicks on the full screen button, then the play button.
The video shows Kellan sitting down on his living room couch next to me with his blue Skyburst Les Paul. I’m holding his Ibanez RG550.
A second later, the two of us on the video are playing that riff we wrote. The sound pumps out loudly from the club’s P.A. speakers. The recording of me and Kellan sounds really good. I forgot how good it actually is. We’re amazing together. Super tight, super melodic, super fast guitar playing, and powerful emotive music above all else.
My heart hammers in my chest as I remember everything from that night. The intense connection I felt with Kellan when we played guitar together, almost like I was playing with Victor agai
n. Seeing Kellan’s incredible nearly naked body before bed. Tossing and turning all night thinking about going into his room but not. Fantasizing about him in the shower the next morning, breakfast afterward. Him asking me to start a band. And him asking me to sing.
I remember every last second of it.
I realize the audience is dead silent. I can see them clearly because the stage lights are dimmed to allow everyone to see the video. The light of the projection screen bounces off their awed faces.
I’m going to cry.
I can’t believe Kellan did this for me.
He posted the video without telling me.
He has gone out of his way to help me out at every turn.
Why couldn’t I see it before?
What was my problem?
He’s the incredible one here tonight.
The most incredible man I’ve ever met.
Chapter 127
VICTORY
When the video finishes, the crowd explodes with cheers of approval.
They love it.
I’m ready to die, I feel so overwhelmed.
“Play it!” the crowd shouts. “Play the song!”
Kellan walks up to me, “I think they want us to play the riff from the video. Do you remember it?”
I wipe a tear from my cheek, “Yeah. Do you?”
He scoffs, “I’ve watched that video of us a thousand times. I know it by heart.”
I almost start blubbering.
Kellan grabs the mic, “You guys want to see us do that shit live?”
The crowd goes crazy.
Kellan takes his Les Paul from Dubs, who now stands at the far side of the stage. Then Kellan plugs into a different amp. He plays a couple chords to make sure it works, then walks over to me. “Ready?” he asks.
I nod.
Kellan looks at the sound board guy and makes a “cut” motion with his finger across his neck.
The projector turns off and a lone spotlight shines on me and Kellan. We are front and center, the stars of the moment.
Me and Kellan Badboy Burns.
He counts, “One, two, three, four.”
Then we play the riff together like that first night.
We’re perfectly in synch. It sounds beautiful, harmonious, and hard as hell to play. We’re a perfect pair of virtuoso guitarists. Half way through, Kellan leans his back against mine, just like he did with Switchblade at The Dive Bomb when I got jealous of her.
But now, Kellan is playing with me.
Me.
We’re onstage together and the crowd loves it. They’re so loud I can barely hear our guitars over them.
Kellan and I finish with a flourish and I do a big dive bomb on my Fender. The strings rattle against the pickups and the deep bass sound shakes the entire Cobra Lounge.
The crowd is twice as loud with their applause.
Kellan grabs my waist and kisses my cheek and into my ear he mutters, “You did that.”
He releases me and points at me. He leans into the mic, “Victory Payne, everybody!!!”
The crowd cheers.
I grab the mic from Kellan and shout, “Kellan Burns, everybody!!!”
I tiptoe up and kiss him passionately on the mouth.
His tongue meets mine immediately and we kiss like we invented french kissing.
The crowd loves it. They cheer and jeer their approval.
I don’t know how long I kiss Kellan, but it feels far too short and eternal at the same time. My whole body is infected with his fire. I’m tempted to have sex with Kellan right on this stage in front of everyone, but that would be too much.
After I reluctantly break our kiss, I lean into him again and shout over the crowd so he can hear me,
“WE did that.”
Chapter 128
VICTORY
“Calm down everybody,” Kellan laughs over the mic, “Calm down.” When the crowd quiets, he says, “There’s one more special surprise for you guys tonight! You guys want some more?”
The crowd cheers.
When they settle, Kellan says, “None of you know this, but not only is Victory an amazing guitar player, she’s also an amazing singer.”
My throat locks, but I do my best to relax it.
He’s never heard me sing before. He just took my word for it.
My stomach knots, but I inhale slowly and try to let out my tension.
Kellan and I went over this several times backstage, so I know what’s coming next.
Kellan shouts over the mic, “Who wants to hear Victory Payne sing?”
The crowd begs for it like natives demanding a human sacrifice or peasants at a beheading. And I’m the one about to have their heart cut out or their head chopped off. That’s how it feels, anyway.
Still on the mic, Kellan says, “I’ve also got a special surprise for you, Victory.”
He walks over to me and leans his head against mine.
I say in his ear, “You got my backing tracks ready?”
“Better. We’re your backing tracks.”
“Who is? I’m confused.”
“My buddy who runs open mic at The Dive Bomb records the shows. I asked him for the tape of the show the night Suffer The Gun played. It also had tape of you and your friend Liv. I learned all the songs you guys played.”
I frown, “Why?”
He rolls his eyes, “Because, I want you and me to make a band. That’s why,” he smiles.
I’m ready to cry all over again. “You know Sunset Farewell?”
“By heart,” he says earnestly.
“What about Dubs and Joaquin?”
“They’ve seen the video of you and Liv ten times. They’ve heard your song. They can follow along.”
“Are you sure?”
Kellan shakes his head, “Joa can learn a tune front to back after hearing it once. Especially a basic ballad like Sunset Farewell. Dubs can cover it as long as he knows what key we’re in, and the basic chords. Trust me, they’re good to go.”
I can’t believe this. It’s the next best thing to having Olivia, Lucas, and Logan here with me.
“Who’s singing harmony?” I ask.
Kellan levels an intense look at me, “Who do you think?”
My heart goes crazy in my chest.
He arches his eyebrows, “Me.”
Victor.
I haven’t sung with anyone since Victor.
And now I’m going to sing with Kellan.
I don’t know if I can do this.
I have to do this.
I nod at Kellan, “Let’s do this.”
I walk to the mic center stage and people cheer.
“Hey everybody!” I laugh into the mic, overwhelmed by the wonderful reception I’m getting.
More cheers.
I glance over and notice Kellan is huddling up with Dubs and Joaquin, who both nod at whatever Kellan is telling them.
A moment later, Kellan walks over to me and says, “Whenever you’re ready.”
I nod and say into the mic, “This song is called Sunset Farewell. I thought I wrote it about my ex boyfriend. But I realized I really wrote it about my brother Victor…” I look up toward the heavens, and I see the blinding white lights over the stage that shine down from eternity.
I take a deep breath and say, “Wherever you are, brother, this song is for you. I miss you so much. I love you, Victor Payne…”
I step back from the mic and play the shimmering opening chords by myself.
On the second measure, the band joins in flawlessly. Joaquin and Dubs do an amazing job. Kellan is in perfect rhythm with me and them. He doubles my guitar part while I sing:
“You left me behind
Your journey into night
I asked you to return
The treasure of our light
You needed it for guidance
So keep it for a time
The only chance to find it
Your pathway into light”
Memories of Victor flash through my
mind as I
(singsingsing)
sing. I can’t believe I didn’t realize I was writing this song to him all along. I miss Victor so badly, and it all comes out in my singing.
When I sing the pre-chorus, Kellan harmonizes with me:
“My soul has been unwell
Since your heart set sail
I never said goodbye
Still seek our holy grail
Memory fades with passing days
Forgotten how you fell”
Kellan’s deep adult voice is nothing like Victor’s twelve year old voice, but the sound of Kellan and me singing together is impossibly beautiful. I haven’t heard him sing a mellow ballad until right now, just ballsy hard rock and metal style.
But his voice is perfectly suited for something soft and heart-felt like this.
The sound of the two of us makes me shiver from head to toe.
Dubs adds a third voice during the chorus, singing bass beneath Kellan’s baritone and my mezzo soprano. Dubs doesn’t sing the lyrics, he just goes, “Aaaaaah, aaaaah, aaaaaah.” But our three part harmony is beautiful and haunting.
My shivers intensify and goose bumps tickle my skin while we sing:
“Trapped in your sunset spell
Eternal carousel
Believing my own lies
Trapped in our sunset spell
The prison where I dwell
Holding onto life
Trapped in your sunset spell
Eternal carousel”
When I start the next verse, I’m weeping, and doing my best not to break my voice. But it’s hard. The emotion is overpowering as I conjure more memories of
(singsingsingsingsingsing)
Victor.
It’s like he’s here with me right now, singing with me for the first time in ten years:
“You got lost in darkness
You said there’s room for two
I begged for you come back to me
Together we’ll renew