Looking for a Lifeline

"But you can't... I won't....-" Larry stamered as I walked in, his eyes darting from me to the paper infront of him "Yah, I'll tell them... oh, you did? Great, I'll set up the fort so we all don't get killed. Thanks." He hung up and looked at me "Hey Rin." He smiled weakly.

"What's up?" I asked.

He shook his head with a sigh "The guys just went down the tubes." He shook his head as I sat down.

"Oh." I mumbled "Cash?" He nodded "Oh..." I said a little more depressed now.

"Yah well... where's Matt? He's usually here before you or with you." He looked at the door behind me.

I scoffed "Yah well... about him," I scratched my neck, moving aside my long brown hair, as he stared "I"m gunna pack and leave, I don't think this is best for anyone."

"WHAT?!" He asked "I trust you with them, you keep them all... you're like their babysitter you can't leave!" He groaned, in complete seriousness.

"Val can do that." I hissed and stood up.

"He went back?"

"Again." I sighed as Larry isntructed me to sit down "I get fucked over every year, I don't see why I don't learn." I huffed.

"Because you love him... did you tell him?" He asked, playing the role of psychiatrist he played all too often.

"No." I scoffed "It'd be a waste of my breath to tell him that. He wouldn't listen anyways.." I said, my blood boiling now as my cell phone rang. I glanced down at the ID.

"Answer it." Larry whispered.

I looked up at him with a laugh "It's Brian, you're jedi skills don't work." I half heartedly smiled and slid the phone away "I don't want to yell at the somewhat innocent. I'm... we just need to talk."

"Then when he gets in, talk to him."

I nodded and got up, just as tthe doorbell rang "Got it." I mumbled, all of the guys and girls had keys, so they better have a good excuse "He-"

Before I could say anything, reporters and cameras invaded the house "Excuse me? Is it true that [i}Avenged has gone bankrupt?" A woman asked.

"Hey... HEY!" Larry shouted, trying to push them all upstairs "Get out of here!"

"Excuse me, sir?"

I looked up as Matt walked in, I was still sitting on the floor in shock. I glanced outside to the dark and saw the guys walking in .They looked like something straight out of a gang movie. Zack shattered a Jack Daniels bottle at the feet of a reporter as he walked in, getting in without a word.

Matt stood for a minute, he looked down at me and kept walking by. What crawled up his ass? I stood up and grabbed his arm "Matt, we-"

"Not now Corinne." He answered as Val dragged him to the stairs.

I crossed my arms, getting tired of his asshole attitude "Matthew Charle Sanders!" I shouted. He turned, his eyes giving me the most explicit warning I'd ever seen. I shook my head "You know what... fuck it." I shrugged.

"Wait, Rin, wait!" Larry shouted, taking my arm "Just,"

"No." I cut him off. "I'm fucking tired of this. I stormed outside, shoving reporters out of my way as I walked into the dark night sky. I looked down the driveway into the pitch black. Usually I'd be wetting my pants scared.

But I had other things on my mind right now. I held my head in my hands and looked up at the full moon in the sky.

"SOMEONE'S GOING TO FUCKING DIE!" I shouted, unaware of my surroundings for a moment. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned.

"Rin, come back inside." Brian's brown eyes pleaded with mine.

I shook my head and shrugged out of his growing hug "No. You can tell him I've had enough of this, it's getting too... too... confusing, and I need my own life." I sighed.

He hesitated before walking back inside. I looked down at the broken glass under my sneakers. I huffed and crossed my arms, wiping under my eyes.

"Miss,"

I turned around slowly at the chilling voice. A man, in about his fourtie stood there. His face pale and his eyes a dark almost black color. His hair was a light color, and his smile... looked like he spent over two million dollars into it.

"May I help you?" I asked as he walked over to me, a notepad in his hands and a recording tape in the other.

"I think you could. I'm Dan McKenzie, and I hear you know everything about Avenged Sevenfold." He smiled wide, causing chills to run up my spine "Care to elighten me on the current situation."

My conscience knocked hard against my chest "I don't think I-"

"There's a cash reward involved, of course. How ever much you want, but we want to know everything down to the last hair on their rockstar heads." He handed me a form.

I looked down at it, carefull of where I placed my thumbs. The contract in Beat and the Harlot blurred in my mind "I'd... holy cow that's a lot of money." I muttered, looking at the numbers he had written down. Nine figures.

"Is it enough to betray your best friends though?" He asked, I looked up, biting my cheek as I scrawled my signature across the line. His smile widened.

"More than enough.... To break his heart." I whispered the last part under my breath as we began walking, to where? I don't know.

"You can come with me, we'll go to my office and talk all about them. I get my information, you get your money. Deal's done, painless, shameless..."

"Shameless." I repeated as I climbed into his red Ford Escape "Nice care." It was.

"Thanks, the job pays nice." He smiled and turned on a recording device "Now, I want to know everything. No bars held, what's the deal with you and the lead singer? Rumors have been flying around-"

"There's nothing." I answered, too quickly for Dan's liking.

"Tell me." He smiled.

I bit my lip and spilled my heart out, and maybe a few more gallons of tears.