Stigmata

“Dude. I’m totally lighting a fire,” Johnny announced, as the bus pulled into the packed fairgrounds. Their alcohol stop had meant that the group was going to be a little late on arrival and wouldn’t get the best spot in the parking area of Warped; something that didn’t bother Vivien after several shots of Stolichnaya.

“Dude, you’re totally going to get in trouble,” Valary quipped as the entire group made an attempt to exit the bus at once.

By the time they arrived, the only thing the boys had been interested in was starting some sort of fire somewhere - anywhere - and had chosen to attempt to do so about fifty feet away from the tour bus, even though the girls had attempted to warn them that the proximity was very dangerous for a number of reasons. Viv and Val had finally relaxed in folding chairs when they realized they could do nothing but observe the situation (“Men!”) as Matt and Johnny argued over the best way to stack the wood in order to produce the coolest, most awesome fire possible. In the end, it was Jimmy and Zachy who ended up simply pouring an errant bottle of cheap Burnett’s on the thing and lighting it without any pomp and circumstance - the two women agreed that it was better that way, anyway.

“Brian, my friend, you pour a mean drink,” Vivien slurred as she accepted yet another mix from the man - vampire - in question.

Currently, the guys sat beside the women in their own chairs, swapping bartender’s duties like they had some sort of predetermined rotation. Vivien was surprised at their efficiency - and at the huge group that tended to congregate whenever a fire was lit on Warped Tour. She recognized several bands who had gathered, and was even more surprised to see some of them partake in the burning blood-and-alcohol mix Jimmy was personally serving.

“I didn’t know there were other -” Haner cut the girl off with a wave of his calloused hand, mindful of the ‘mortals’ around her. Confused, Vivien began to ask her question again just as an anonymous stereo began to blast some sort of awful European Techno music. The guitarist thanked his deity of choice as he invited the two be-chaired women to dance around the fire with the rest of the group.

Vivien complied readily, but had to drag Valary out of her chair, as the woman kept shouting;

“I can’t dance, I can’t dance!”

“So what. You have an ass, just shake it, Val!” In the end, Vivien realized that the other woman was, in fact, a hopeless dancer, but managed to convince the bottle blond that enough alcohol could make up for her lack of skill. While a blatant lie had been told, Viv felt better with a dancing partner who was not either trying to ram his half-erect penis into her genital region or attempting to apply tongue to any exposed patch of skin on her body.

Eventually, the little redhead excused herself from Valary’s crazed dry heaving and made her way back to the bus - even vampires had to use the bathroom… to apply fresh makeup. She bounded up the stairs, and ran right into Brian’s solid chest.

“You might not want to go in there right now.”

“Why the fuck not?” Viv glared up at Brian through his crossed arms.

“You just might not want to,” The guitarist grinned in his usual shit-eating manner, but there was something in his flat eyebrows that made the dancer wonder exactly what was going on in the bus - and made her determined to find out.

“Look at my face, I need makeup pronto. Let me through!” Pushing through Brian was all too easy, which she would have though strange if she hadn’t entered the bus just in time to see Johnny sucking on the neck of a small girl with fire-engine red hair. That wouldn’t have alarmed her as much if Jimmy hadn’t been doing a line of some sort of white powdered substance off the kitchenette table right behind the pair. Apparently, Brian had been attempting to shield her from the shit show.

Vivien didn’t even know she was staring until the bus door slammed behind her, and Haner spun her around almost forcefully.

“What … fuck?!” Brian gave her that ‘I told you so’ look, and sat her down on the couch.

“Jimmy, you got some splainin’ to do,” He called, as he separated the pair on the opposite couch with a fair amount of force. The little redhead was expelled from the bus very quickly - she looked slightly dazed, and didn’t seem like she would remember that a member of Avenged Sevenfold had just sucked her blood.

“Drink up.” With a cocked eyebrow, Vivien met Jimmy’s gaze, and looked away poignantly. “It’s not like it’s spiked, honey.” The skinny woman snatched the cup away from the drummer, still avoiding direct eye contact with him. Jimmy gazed over her shoulder at the wall, as if he were having a staring contest with it (or a mental conversation with someone else, Vivien was still in the awkward stage of learning to understand just when that was happening), and sat down on the couch beside Vivien as she slowly sipped out of the cup.

“Listen, Vivien, don’t knock it until you try it. Drugs are entirely different when you’re a vampire. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s very difficult to kill one of us.” The redhead opened her mouth angrily as if to say something, but Jimmy put a hand over it. “I don’t care. I use drugs. They’re rather fun.” Vivien yanked his hand from her mouth with her free hand to speak.

“I can’t understand why, isn’t this shit - like, being a goddamn vampire - isn’t it enough for you?”

“Ah, but you’re so young. You’re still enjoying ‘this shit.’ I’m nearly one thousand years old.” Eyes wide, Vivien finally looked at the drummer, her jaw slack.

“You mean.. like… you were alive in the… the Crusades? Like, invaded Jerusalem and shit?” Jimmy sighed deeply, took a long draught from Vivien’s cup, and replaced it in her hand before he launched into the Campbell’s Condensed version of his life’s story.

“In life, I was named Taticius, a Byzantine general. I was born a slave of the future emperor Alexius, and eventually became one of his generals - I was damn good at killing people, and I though I would live forever.” Jimmy’s eyes were almost glazed over by memory, as if his entire mind was elsewhere, reliving battles on horseback, and Vivien was glued to the face she had been attempting to avoid looking into. “During the First Crusade, Alexius pledged men to help reclaim the holy land. I led a large platoon, and even helped plan the Battle of Dristra, which we won. I got cocky. After my advice for the battle of Antioch was ignored, I started looking for trouble after that, and found it while out scouting - I was run through by Bohemund, a commander I respected greatly. Luckily, the person assigned to dispose of my body - one of my own soldiers - was a vampire. He changed me and brought me into his coven.”

“Wow, way to overwhelm her,” Heavy hands on Vivien’s shoulders accompanied Brian’s voice. The small redhead spun around beneath the guitarist’s palms, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

“How old are you?!” Haner’s lopsided grin widened.

“Drink that, and I’ll tell you later.” He patted the top of her little ginger head, and faced Jimmy over her. “I put him to bed, he needed it. Got anything for me?” Jimmy stood and rummaged in the overhead bin of the opposite couch, and came away with what looked like a cigar box.

“I don’t want to know any more, Brian. I’m out.” Vivien vaulted from her seat, and made a beeline for the door of the RV, but Haner caught her arm before she could even make it past the couch’s second arm.

“No. You’re staying here, and you’re going to try something for me. Just do it. Because you can’t possibly understand why we do them until you do. It’s all of the good with none of the bad.” Her face souring, Vivien shook free of Brian’s iron grip.

“You aren’t about to make me take drugs, Haner.” She drained the solo cup of Jimmy’s Special blend and tossed it down on the floor of the bus as she whipped around to face the pair again. Jimmy was digging through the box as if he could give two shits about Vivien’s tantrum; Haner’s arms were crossed over his broad chest.

“Then don’t give me that disproving glare, you little ass. Leave if you really aren’t interested.”

“You are such a pusher, Haner! Did you practice with different generations of street corner kids? Jesus Christ!”

“Since when did you become a saint, Vivien?” The quiet question made the redhead scowl; she watched with a hand on her hip as Haner accepted a palm full of pills from Jimmy and swallowed them dry. “Try one.” His hand was outstretched, and there were still two little white pills stuck between his fingers.

Under the withering glares of the bandmates, Vivien reached out and took the pills from Brian; she studied them in her hand, analyzing their texture, the symbols etched onto their faces, their weight, even their scent.

“What are they?” She finally asked, accepting a fresh solo cup of anonymous liquor from Brian.

“Ecstasy.”

“Shit, really? Start off small, right?”

“Trust me. You’ll like it.” Jimmy grinned brightly as Vivien delicately sniffed the pills once more, then threw them back and chased them with the substance in the cup - which turned out to be Jack Daniels, judging by the burn involved. Haner and Sullivan exchanged a glance that clearly said Wow, she tried hard…

“I wonder what kind of high she’ll have,” Jimmy asked the guitarist standing next to him.

“I dunno, but we should take her outside.” Haner offered the redhead his arm to lead her off the bus, which she denied, still slightly in a huff.

“I’m standing right here, you know.” Nevertheless, Vivien took the arm the guitarist proffered after a moment of sulking, staring silence. “Fine, fine, let’s go.”

Minutes later, Vivien found herself sitting atop of Haner’s lap in one of the only remaining chairs - she couldn’t tell who’s legs were shaking more, Jimmy’s, Brian’s, her own, or the legs of the folding chair she and Haner sat in. The world was beginning to turn Technicolor; Brian had said it should take nearly twenty minutes to kick in, but five minutes after popping the pills they seemed to be affecting her senses.

Not only did colors seem brighter, but smells were more poignant - she could practically taste the nearby fire as the flames licked up the wood, each one its own perfect, separate tendril. The bass line became the beat of her heart, and the jiggling of Haner’s legs the rhythm the blood pumped through each individual vein in her body. She could feel it, every part of her body and its function to her survival, it was just like the first time she woke up a vampire - only better. Brian and Jimmy had told her that she might end up jittery, but at that exact moment all she felt like doing was sinking into Brian and just cuddling with him.

“How you feeling, little ginger?” She snatched the cigarette he had been lighting out of his mouth and held it to her own lips, only to realize that it wasn’t aflame and she was puffing on air.

“Like I want to climb on top of the bus so I can see everything!” Just like that, before Brian could say anything, the lithe thing had bounded away toward the back of the bus.