Tonight The World Dies

So love me while you can

The cold hands lay on his face, and Johnny looked bemused at his best friend. The man had black hair that looked slightly unkept, yet felt silky and smelt like fresh apples. His nails were neat and short, covered in chipped black nail polish and his eyes looked unwaveringly at his smaller friend. Jimmy removed his hands, and turned to sit sideways to the younger man. The wind was howling far off in the distance, but inside the old, boarded up bandstand they were warm. The small stage once stood in the centre of a large park, but the park had long since grown into a forest that weaved throughout the space. The whole forest was dark and creepy, but many years ago it had been the teenage Avenged Sevenfold’s favourite place to meet.

“Hey, Johnny,” Jimmy smiled at his friend, and fumbled with the beer cans in his hand. He offered one to the silent man, looking down at his hands to avoid Johnny’s suspicious eyes. “Listen, there’s something I’ve got to tell you.” He didn’t carry on his sentence, simply cracked open his can and downed as much of it as he could swallow in one go. His throat bobbed as he did, and Johnny could practically see the liquid as it passed through him. God, when had Jimmy gotten so thin? When had his skin turned paper thin and pale, his eyes watery and colourless.

“Cool it dude, we’ve got to be at least semi sober for Matt’s party tonight, and he’ll kill us if we’re not.” Johnny grinned in a vain attempt to lighten the situation. He hung his beanie hat on a nearby tree branch, and allowed his flat hair to breathe. His black hair was cut in a mohawk style and, unspiked, it lay flat and soft on Johnny’s head. He took a swig from his beer and turned to his friend with a smile.

His friend did not return it. Jimmy looked forlorn, his normally smiling face aged with each frown line and the crease of his brow didn’t sit right on his face. It looked too foreign, all wrong for the man that usually brought the laughter and cheer into any of the band meeting they held. Something was wrong, Johnny could tell it from even the way Jimmy stood, hunched and broken like an old man.

And take the time to understand

“Look,” Jimmy began again. He stared fixatedly down at his can, and refused to look up, his fringe flopping in front of his face and concentrated on that instead. “So, I’m leaving.” In the silence that came after that, Johnny got up and walked in front of Jimmy.

“What the hell do you mean? You’re leaving the band?” Johnny glared to emphasize his anger, his brows creating a shadow over his face. “What are you talking about?”

Jimmy didn’t move, or look up. The sky suddenly felt darker than before, and birds cried overhead. The trees leaned in as if to listen, and the howling wind whirled round them, enclosing them in a small patch of protection. For a moment, Johnny could only hear the wind and the birds, but soon other sounds joined the orchestra of noise. A dog barked frantically in the distance, loud and long. Each bark sounded like a deep howl, and the din sent shivers down Johnny’s spine. Jimmy stood, and strode away on long, lanky legs.

“I,” he started, “I’m leaving.” And he was gone into the night. “I’ll never be far.”

Johnny raced after him, calling out his name and yelling for him. He ran until he was blind in the darkness, but he kept on running. He could hear bushes snapping ahead of him, so he ran harder. He was almost close enough, “Jim!” he yelled. “You fucker, get back here!” But it wasn’t Jimmy ahead of him.

A large black bird, a raven, swooped down in front of him and screeched in his ear. Johnny screamed in fright, and the bird flew away into the black night. The wings were horrific, mangled and bloody like the bird had lost a battle, but the rest of the bird was clean and strong. Looking up, Johnny saw that ahead of him, the old bandstand reappeared out of nowhere. “What?” Johnny muttered, “I just ran away from there.” However, he headed on forwards to the figure in the stand. “Jim?”

Jimmy turned around, his face solemn and sober under the pale light of the silvery moon. He clutched an empty, crushed beer can in his left hand and his drumsticks in the other. “Johnny, I’m not leaving the band. I’m dying, Johnny-boy. The medication, it’s not mixing well with the life of a rockstar. I’ve got to go now, it’s early.”

As long as I can touch your face

“What?! Jimmy, what are you talking about?” Johnny yelled after his friend as he faded out of sight, into the darkness. He reached forwards for him, but the space Jimmy had occupied was empty. “Jimmy!” Johnny ran again, his feet thudding in time with his heart as he thundered down a disused path. Calling his bandmate’s name, he attracted the unwanted attention of the raven once more.

The giant raven as large as an eagle flew behind him, swooping down with claws outstretched to catch him. Johnny threw himself to the ground, narrowly missing the razor sharp talons. Rolling out of the way of the second attack, he ended up in a ditch full of old leaves. He clambered up, but his shirt was torn slightly and hung off of him, revealing his chest. He got up and ran again, faster this time. The bird dived again, screaming, and this time he was caught.

His skin ripped on the raven’s claws, shredding at the mere touch of the monstrous talons. Bleeding, Johnny struggled to unhitch himself from the monster. But it wasn’t only his shirt that was caught on the monster, he was hanging on by his skin, and he couldn’t free himself.

You know I'll never leave this place

“Johnny,” Jimmy’s voice came from somewhere unseen. “I’ll miss you brother.”

If only in my mind