Daughter of the Girl

Alex parked the bus a few blocks away from, “Klub der Nacht”. KDN, Kayden, KN for short, but most people just called it “that German place”. It was apparently run by a man named Davien something. Dave, Davy, D for short, but most people just called him “that German dude” if they didn’t know him.

We walked in silence through the dark, the streetlights giving a glow that highlighted the sidewalk. I felt safer knowing Alex was there, much safer indeed. The neighborhood was extremely different to mine. Dogs barked in the background, chain-link fences surrounded broken down basketball courts, and as we walked along, the houses became fewer and fewer. Soon, no buildings stood. I began to get nervous…where were we going?

“Um…Lexi?” I wavered. His brown eyes glanced at me, and then went back to the stone set way he looked ahead.

“Yes?” His voice cut clearly through the night air.

“Where are we going?” I nervously replied. His mouth quirked up at one side.

“Into the middle of nowhere so I can kill you.” Alex told me off handedly. I screwed my mouth up to one side and narrowed my eyes playfully.

“How do you know I won’t kill you first?” I challenged. A small laugh escaped him.

“Yeah right!”

“I’m strong!” I said indignantly. Alex turned, grabbed me into his arms and threw me over his shoulder, he spun in a circle. I giggled loudly as he changed elevation as well. He slowed down, out of breath from laughing along so hard, and slipped me feet first off his shoulder. Looking down at me awolfish grin spread across his aged face.

“I’m stronger.” He taunted in a whisper. He made a fake surprised face and I wacked his chest lightly. “Oh ow.” He said sarcastically, stepping back and laughing along with me. It took a few seconds, but our laughter died away and we resumed our slow pace. “We’re going in the right direction. See those lights?” He asked, bending down to point them out correctly.

A ways away, mulit-coloured lights mixed with the satin of the sky. I could faintly hear the bass line thumping, and the shine of cars could be noticed when one paid attention. As we drew closer, I noticed how large the place was.

“Yeah…I see them…” I faintly whispered. Alex had straightened, and took a deep breath to sigh out.

“It’s bigger than I remember. They really played off Izzy and Declared’s success. Especially Damien and Izzy’s marriage. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised, nor happy, if they had a picture of you in there.” He snipped the last sentence slightly. My jaw just dropped.

“What they do? Follow me around?”

“Most likely.” He said impatiently almost. I saw why once I looked ahead again. We had gotten to the edge of the cars. Once I let myself come back to reality, I realized how loud the music was.

Damn.

“Alex…” I said, nervous once again. The people walking around were so much different than I thought could be.

Girls my age were dressed in shredded jeans, and cut off shirts. Tiny miniskirts and tank tops. Beat up sneakers, thigh high boots, high heels, and strappy sandals. Fishnet tights and ripped up stockings. Boys had the same jeans, some were baggy, and band t-shirts. Wife-beater tank tops and muscles. Both genders were littered with tattoos and piercings, scars and hair dye. The boys gave me dirty smirks as they walked pass, the girls sizing me up.

I felt out of place in normal skinny jeans and my old JAGK shirt. No piercings except for the ones on my ears, and those were diamond studs. I had a white gold necklace with another diamond in it, and I put that inside my shirt. I let my hair fall over my ears, and I self-consciously licked at my shiny, expensive, light lip stick. Alex spoiled the hell out of me, and I knew it. Though, he made sure I knew it took work to get those things. But now, I felt plain out of place.

Alex wrapped a protective arm around me, glaring down the kids staring at me. I tried to look less afraid, but failed miserably. I caught a golden-brown eyed kid’s stare, and he gave a questioning smile. I blinked at him, an innocent look adorning my face, and let a smile ghost my face. But he was removed from my vision as we neared closer still. Alex led us right up to the door, and took us to the side.

“Stay close. I’m not letting you go once we get in there, okay? If we get separated, don’t talk to anyone. Either get out or follow the wall to the bathrooms, the offices and dressing rooms are past that. You’ll be safe there. Promise me?” Alex severely sincered. I recoiled slightly, but nodded none the less. “Okay.” He affirmed, then pulled me in and kissed the top of my head. When he pulled back, I felt him grab the top of my arm tightly. Alex pulled me in through the door, and I immediately wanted to run the hell away.

The entire building reeked of smoke, alcohol, vomit, and sweat. Smoke hung in the air and the only light was from the active stage and the small lights around the ceiling. The place was hotter than hell, and the music blared at a ridicules level. Alex’s grip got tighter as he made our way across the sea of grinding people. My eyes darted around, taking the scene in…but I faltered and froze when my gaze landed upon something in particular. Alex tugged me forward harder, and I walked along.

The thing I saw made so many emotions jack into action.

I saw my mother. An entire wall was dedicated to kids who had made it in the music business. She had an entire line of pictures, the very top, which showed her life since she met them. From eleven to…me. They had a picture of me sitting on a park bench. ‘Cause you know, that’s not creepy at all!
The next line, underneath hers, was of Damien. Well, my biological father. Anyways, they had his life from fifteen to me. Same picture. The rest of Declared had their own lines, and some unfamiliar faces took up the rest of the space.

I didn’t understand this place. I honestly didn’t have time to. Alex seemed set on getting us to our destination as fast as possible. I think he did too.

We arrived at a hallway. It was dark, and people were making out against the walls. Alex made a disgruntled sound, and I would have laughed had the situation been different. We went down the short hallway, and took the left corner to see a door marked, “STAFF ONLY, BITCHES”. I could just tell Alex was rolling his eyes.

My uncle reached forward and opened the heavy door. We walked through and his grip finally relaxed, and he dropped his hand. The brunette turned to look at me, an unreadable look in his eyes. “Are you positive you want to do this?” To me, Alex seemed more unsure than I was.

“Completely.” I nodded. Alex bit his lip but nodded as well, obviously not liking my answer.

Nevertheless, Alex walked on. We followed the hallway to the end, where another dark wood door was. He brought his guitar calloused hand to the knob, but I stopped him. My dainty, yet strong, hand reached out to knock three times.

We heard rustling on the other side of the door, and then it swung open. And holy hell I wasn’t expecting this site.

A woman stood before us. She had faded red hair, and dull glassy blue eyes. Her skin was wrinkled yet her body type suggested she was young. She gave us a yellowed smile. “H-Hi there!” She said, sounding slightly out of it. Alex pulled me behind him, so that I was in between him and the wall as this woman stumbled past us.

“May I help you?” A professional voice asked. Alex stepped forward, and I peeked around him to see a thirty something year old man. He had short black hair, and mysterious deep blue eyes. The man’s skin showed none of the wear the girl’s had, and he looked generally healthy.

“Yes. I’m Alex Gaskarth. We have a meeting.” My uncle went into business mode. The man blinked his eyes, gave me a glance, then looked back to Alex.

“Of course, Sir. Come on in.” The man said, politely keeping the door opened for us. Alex went in first, and I smiled a little at the man as I walked past. He gave me a curious smile, and it reminded me of the boy I saw earlier. But I sat down in the seat next to Alex, and the man sat behind his desk. “My name’s Dakota. I run this place with my older brother Kade.” He introduced himself, reaching across to shake Alex’s hand. As he shook mine, I decided to tell him my name.

“I’m Scarlette. You can call me Scar.” Dakota froze mid-shake, and stared at me almost longingly.

“You’re her daughter. Izzy’s daughter…damn. I never thought I’d see you around here…” A new man’s voice sounded, and we all turned to look at the new person. He had the same dark hair except it was longer, his blue eyes were lighter and didn’t hold the same shine as Dakota’s, and he didn’t look healthy. In fact, he reminded me heavily of the girl who we had seen earlier. At least his teeth were good, and his skin was only deathly pale.

“That didn’t stop you from taking pictures of her did it?” Snapped Alex. This new man smirked, and I heard Dakota sigh.

“Kade, what have I told you about those pictures?” Dakota asked tiredly.

“But the people love it!” Kade…taunted? All I know is: Dakota was not happy with him.

“What are you even doing in here?” Dakota asked once again, yet poison laced every word.

“They were getting out of hand. They’re even trying to get back here!” Kade laughed.

“What?” Dakota seemed overly alarmed. I gave Alex a nervous look.

“How can I help?” He quickly asked the collected brother.

“You can’t. They really want in, they’ll get in.” All the while, Dakota was locking the door. Noise on the other side suddenly got louder. The door started to get pounded on, and I stood backing away a little. Kade was watching me, smirking in a way I couldn’t understand. Before I had the chance, a flood of people came in, and I was pulled out the door as Alex and Dakota got caught up in the moshing crowd. I tried to see where I was being pulled, but I couldn’t with all the chaos. I found myself out of the hallway, and into the main room. The cushion of a rounded booth caught me as I was thrown into in. I looked around desperately for a moment, realizing I was out of sight for Alex and would be until he checked here. And knowing him: it be the last place he’d check.

I looked to my right, and saw Kade. Out of breath and grinning, he talked. “That took them long enough.”

“What do you mean?” Nervous. I was very nervous.

“I had to get you alone. Had to talk to you. I knew it the moment I saw you. You want, no need, answers and no one here will give you the ones you want. Listen, we don’t have long. The kids will lose interest quickly and they’ll find us. Just pay attention and you can ask questions later. Lysander, Sam!” He called to the men I had met earlier. Lysander took my other side and Sam slid in next to him.

“Okay, so first off: Sam and I are the only ones left unfortunately. Terrance and Quinn died years ago from overdosing. Lysander here was the most hated man in all the land!” Kade dramatized. I gave a small giggle. The three men shared a smile and Sam continued the story.

“We wanted to kill him. Better yet, we wanted to torture him to death.” Lysander’s face was hilarious. “But we didn’t. People started to realize or get ideas of what was going on. Sander here wasn’t exactly careful.”

“I was in love!” Lysander tried to defend himself.

“You kissed her in public you idiot!” Kade laughed. Lysander just rolled his eyes, and I stifled a smile. The pandemonium around us ensued relentlessly, but we continued to sit in the booth.

“Anyways,” Prompted Sam. “We hated him. So, when he left, we were happy. And surprisingly enough, Izz was devastated. She didn’t understand how wrong that was. We tried to make her happy, but it didn’t work.”

“You have to understand, drugs weren’t uncommon around here. Dakota’s trying his hardest to keep them down, but they’re still around. Not nearly as bad as when we were kids, but still bad. Anyways, Sam and I were into them already, so it didn’t surprise people much when she did. Izz would drink day after day. She got drunk at like eight am sometimes. Then, she met Cole. He pulled her straight out of her depression. It was memorable. She quit drinking, quit smoking, quit cutting and quit drugs. The girl wouldn’t even admit she did drugs.” Kade shook his head. “She was a beautiful person. Always helping others before herself. But she realized she couldn’t help others unless she was relatively okay.” I looked down, slightly guilty at that. I felt two fingers hook under my chin, turning my face to Lysander’s. I saw Sam glare at him, and I felt Kade’s hand on knee, giving me some form of reassurance.

“I know what you’re doing.” He taunted. I blinked at him.

“Leave her alone, Sander.” Sam warned. Lysander’s eyes suddenly flickered, with what I don’t know, and he dropped his hand to lean away.

“Sorry. Heh, old habits.” He tried to brush off. Kade’s hand remained on my knee, and Sam decided to move things along.

“Yeah, okay, so back to the story. Elizabeth was amazing. Especially after the depression. She could connect with so many people at once. It was crazy.”

“Alex is coming. You guys go distract, I’ll finish.” Kade rushed out. Sam and Lysander jumped up and ran over to distract my uncle who was looking in the opposite direction. “Listen closely now,” Kade leaned in. The atmosphere was serious, and if circumstances were different one could call it slightly romantic. Dark booth, close together, man’s hand on girl’s knee, giant moshing fight surrounding them. It was a total My Chemical Romance love story. “She loved you. Never forget that. Okay? Forget Damien and all his fucked up ways. You’ll be alright. And if you ever need anywhere to go, anytime, come here. We’ll be there. Take this.” Kade slipped a piece of paper into my pocket. I distinctly heard my uncle yelling at people, and I knew our time was limited. “We won’t let you go.” Kade whispered, his breath fanning across my face. His lips pressed into my cheek, and I was ripped backwards.

“Get the hell away from her.” Alex seethed.

“Lexi-“

“Shut the hell up and get to the bus. Now.” I recoiled defiantly at that one. I looked at Kade and he nodded. I turned around and received smiles from Sam and Lysander. I walked pass them, and the almost empty room. They had sent most people home by now.

I found myself walking pass the wall of photos, and somewhere in my mind I recognized the fact that one was missing. Soon, I got out to the parking lot, and as I walked to the edge, I realized I didn’t know where I was going. But that was remedied fast as the boy from earlier grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the club. I could hear Alex screaming as we walked away.

“Here, have this.” The boy spoke, handing me a big framed picture of my mom at fourteen. I gaped
at him. “I’m not stealing. My grandfather owns the place.” Upon seeing my confused face, he smiled a little. “He’s the Germen dude. Dad and Uncle Kade just run it here I guess. I basically get to do whatever I want. Hell, I get to perform whenever I want!” He said offhandedly.

“Perform?” He made one of those faces that shows the person talking didn’t think before talking. But that faded away into an adoring smile.

“Yeah, I’m in a band. Called Groveling.” He said slightly dreamy. I smiled softly at him.

“I’ll look you up.”

This kid walked me those blocks, Alex’s voice getting more and more distant.

“I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused.” I randomly blurted out to him. The boy knocked his shoulder into mine lightly.

“Girl! My life was boring before this, I thank you for the new turmoil.” He tried to be serious, but burst into laughter. I joined him.

We came around a corner and stopped. Well he stopped, and then grabbed my arm. His jaw went slack and he tried to hold in newly found laughter. I followed his gaze to the technicoloured bus. I let out a giggle.

“Like it?” I mimicked my uncle.

“Hell yes!” He dragged out. The kid walked me to the door, and I opened it. Before I stepped on, he caught my hand softly. “They don’t stop talking about her, you know? If you ever need anything, call us. I’m serious! Even if you’re in, like, Sweden, we’ll come get you.” He assured me. I smiled at how he talked like a valley girl.

“Don’t be a stranger.” I told him in thanks.

“Don’t plan on it….”

“Scarlette. But you can call me Scar.”

“Leta.” He said simply. I raised an eyebrow, and he rolled his blue orbs. “I’m original, babeh!” He
struck a pose. “I’m also Trevor. Trey for short.”

“Trev?”

“Sure thing, Leta.” We gave each other a hug. Then he left me there. I walked up into the bus, and put the picture in the office area.

I placed my hands on my hips and sighed.

Alex won’t be happy.