Night of the Hunter

In all honestly, I can’t really say that I expected win the concert. I mean, after all, there were far more dedicated fans of the band that I was. I’d heard about 30 Seconds To Mars in high school from one of my closest friends, Jasmine. We’d listened and poured over who our favorites in the band were. Then when senior year was over, we all rocketed off to your own predetermined choices of college.

She went to Kent State and I was at OU. We Skyped all the time, texted, and she even read some of my writing. So when I saw the flyer for the contest in my student center it sort of reminded me of her.

I still think it’s amazing that I won.

* * * *

“So wait, I don’t understand. Are you telling me we’re not touring in Ohio first?” I asked.

Jasmine, the band, and I were all already on the tour bus. Some creepy old driver was in the front seat of the bus, an old man with a cap suspiciously covering his head. I only say suspicious because it seemed weird that I didn’t know whether or not he actually had hair. Jared had made some baked apples that Jasmine had practically devoured and we were all sitting all sitting at the table near the kitchenette. The Ohio highway passed by in blurs outside the bus’s windows. Jasmine was pressed next to me while the entire band sat across from us.

There was Jared. He wore these leather fingerless gloves and this year on tour his hair was sculpted into a messy black Mohawk. He lacked the usual eyeliner that I saw him on television with, but all of his other features were just as much perfection as I imagined. He had a strong sort of rugged face with jawline sharp enough to cut meat. At the same time, he seemed boyish even with the brightness of his eyes.

Shannon Leto, his brother, I knew was a bit older than Jared. Forty one years old to be exact and his face as a whole was less sculpted. He sort of had this happy glow to him and liked poking fun at Jasmine since the hour or two we’d been on the bus with them. His hair was a milky brown that seemed to grow past what he permitted. As far as hair goes, he hadn’t seemed to have shaved in past week or two.

Then there was Tomo. He was the guy I knew least about of all. He was Bosnian American, sort of tallish, and liked to tap around on things with his hands. His face was easiest to remember of all of them somehow. It was square and sort of tended to lift up in playfulness whenever he smiled.

“Well, it’s not exactly that, but…”

“So, this contest was a lie. Is that it?” Jasmine tested from beside.

I had to saw that when I first saw her, that her witch ensemble scared me. But I’d already tried to fly away on the broom, so I guess I could make no fair judgments.

Jared looked to her, already prepared to calm her down.

“Now wait, we’re not saying that. It’s just we created the contest a few months ago and we had all these applications and-“ Jared stopped short when his brother, Shannon, gave him a sharp look. The tour bus hit a hard bump and it sort of knocked the wind out of the conversation for a short bit.

“And what?” I asked. “What are you guys not telling us?”

Shannon was the one looking down at the table. Some of his hair draped over his ears in a curtain.

“We think some of our fans might be in danger.”

The reaction between Jasmine and I was immediate. We both shrank back in our seats and she spoke first. “What do you mean in danger? Does that mean us? Anyone who comes to your concerts? What?”

Jared sighed and fell back into the cushion behind him. His slim arms crossed before him in his gray tank top with the band’s symbol on it.

“Some of the applications weren’t real applications. They were these freaky letters with red paint and death threats. Then some girl died a few days ago and people started asking us questions.”

“What girl?” I pressed.

“I think I know who you’re talking about.” Jasmine intervened. “I read on Twitter that some fan from Ohio that you guys had met had gone missing a few hours after a concert and…”

“And what?!” My voice a little bit more and everyone looked to me.

Tomo answered. “They found her body the next morning. Apparently she hadn’t gone home after our concert and her parents had called the cops, but they told her she needed to wait twenty four hours, but there was no point.”

“She was strangled.” Shannon said. “Some of her clothes were missing.”

“Clothes missing?” I murmured, voice going dry. “Wa- Was she raped?”

“They’re still analyzing the body…” Jasmine’s voice seemed far off as she spoke again. “I can’t believe it’s connected to this contest.”

“And it’s not exactly connected.” Jared tried. “It just means that it’s suspicious and we should have warned you guys before coming here, but it’s here and we wanted to tell you guys in case you wanted to reconsider this.”

Reconsider this?

Shannon still had his eyes sort of glued to Jasmine. I wasn’t sure yet why he tended to stare at her so much, but he must have only been worried about her. Maybe he had a daughter or something no one knew about?

“Well if she was raped, I’m going home then.” I stated.

“Ryant…” Jasmine tried to protest.

I shook my head. “No. No. I’m not going on some crazy tour with some crazy rapist. It’s disgusting and I’m not gonna deal with that.”

“But we don’t even know if it’s connected yet.” Tomo almost reached out to touch me, but I gave him a look that argued the action. “We don’t.”

“Then why are you guys sitting here and telling us this? What did the death threats say?”

Jared sighed and then nudged his brother. Shannon reached into his pocket and got out an iPad from beneath the table. He clicked the screen a few times, and then handed the tablet across the table to us. As soon as the screen’s image recognized with my eyes, shivers went down my spine.

The winners of this contest will die.

“And you didn’t think this was connected?” I gasped. It almost seemed like fatal error of intelligence on the band’s part. How smart were they?

“Look, we get threats like this all the time. When you’re hyped up by the media or you have fans that can tend to get a little crazy, things get scary sometimes.” Jared clarified. “But that doesn’t mean-“

Jasmine scrolled to the next picture.

Blood. Blood. Blood. That’s all I want.

“Vampire much? That’s weird.”

I wanna watch them die.

“See? No mention of rape.” Jared attempted and I cut him another look.

“Yeah. I guess anything below rape is considered moral, like first degree murder or draining someone’s blood.” I almost rolled my eyes, but I wasn’t ready to have those sort of problems yet.

“Look,” Shannon said. “We realize this a lot for us to throw on you guys and we’re sorry for that. We’ll give you guys time to think. Don’t think about the media or the fact that your names have been released as the contest winners. Just think about your safety and what you want. If you decide to leave, it’s fine. We can handle it.”

Still when Shannon spoke, his eyes stayed on Jasmine.

“But we don’t want you guys to go.” Tomo said openly.

I could feel Jasmine beside me. I wondered what was going through her mind.