Tales To Make You Jump In The Dark

A month in to the tour and the guys were starting to think that chaos and disaster were following them around wherever they went. The first night of their tour a young girl had been ripped to shreds outside the building in an empty alleyway. The night after and one state away, a young boy had been killed in a nearby park, his throat torn out. The last night a young couple had been attacked in their car and the male had been killed, while the female had survived long enough to tell the police that she had been attacked by a very large wolf.

The guys hadn’t known any of this was happening until after they were already four states away and now they were across the country in a small town in Virginia. Andy was looking around the dressing room, a soft smile on his face as he got off the phone with his girlfriend and stashed the device in his makeup kit. The guys were all in various stages of dress-Ashley was straightening his hair, Jinxx was fixing his eye makeup and Jake was getting his boots on. CC, well, he had disappeared again. The drummer had become very withdrawn over the past few days and Andy noticed that the same thing had happened towards the beginning of the tour.

Usually CC was the first one at soundcheck, the first one ready and he was always down for a shot right before a show. The past few days however CC had become very separated from the rest of them. If they weren’t playing, doing soundcheck or doing a meet and greet, CC was in his bunk. He kept to himself, kept his headphones on and didn’t really talk to any of them. A week ago CC was the drummer that Andy knew and loved, but two days ago he had become withdrawn and silent. Andy looked around and finally noticed that CC had come in to the room and was silently leaning up against one wall of the dressing room, with his tattooed arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his lips.

Before approaching the drummer, Andy thought back to how things had seemed over the past few days. It was a full moon, which he normally loved because the crowds seemed so much more hyped up. Not only that but the guys had all been having a really good time. But, last night they had been informed that there was another killing and this time it was one of their own. A smaller band they were touring with, a small band with big attitudes, had gotten in to an argument with CC and Ashley at some bar last night and their cocky little shit merch guy had disappeared-never coming back to their bus that night.

The following morning a group of teenagers found him in a set of woods that lined the backside of the venue they were parked near. His throat had been slashed and one of his arms was missing.


“You doing okay man?” Andy asked as he approached CC and noticed that the drummer had stiffened slightly.

“I’m fine.” He said through gritted teeth and Andy couldn’t help but feel like his presence wasn’t desired in that moment.

“Really? You don’t seem fine. Look man the whole thing with Tony has us all pretty shaken, but it’ll be okay…” Andy stopped talking as CC had finally looked at him, his usually happy brown eyes filled with nothing but hate.

“I said I’m fucking fine Andy.” CC said and the singer could tell that his bandmate and best friend was trying very hard to hold back his temper. CC was usually the calm headed one but lately he had been a bit of a grouch.

“Well I’m just concerned about you man…we all are.”

“I don’t need your fucking concern!” CC was yelling now and trying to walk away, but Andy quickly grabbed the drummer’s left wrist and knew it was a mistake.


Andy found himself being pushed backward and his eyes closed as he was slammed up against a near wall and his skull smacked against the white brick. CC had him held there, one arm holding Andy across the neck while his other was keeping Andy’s arms against the wall. They were almost nose to nose and as Andy’s blue eyes locked with CC’s he noticed that the usual brown color had a slight yellow tint to them. It had to be a trick of the light and as Andy looked once again, he noticed that the yellow had all but disappeared. People were rushing towards them and their merch guy Toby had CC by his arms and had finally been able to tug the drummer away from the singer. Andy gasped for breath as CC’s arm had been cutting off his air supply.

CC stormed out and left the rest of them in his wake, except for Toby who followed after the irate drummer. Andy stood his ground near the wall, one hand rubbing his now sore throat while the other dug in his jacket pocket for his cigarettes. He couldn’t smoke inside the building and so with a quick nod to Ashley and Jake, Andy walked out towards the hallway. They still had about half an hour before it was time for them to go on and he knew he would have some time to smoke. The air hit Andy in the face and the cool wind felt refreshing and made him feel slightly better.

That whole thing with CC wasn’t something that Andy had been expecting and something else the singer wasn’t expecting was to hear the distant sounds of yelling coming from around the corner. It was probably just a bunch of drunks hanging outside of one of the many bars in the area, but Andy had a bad feeling in his stomach. Silently he moved to look around the corner and his eyes grew wide as he noticed what was going down. It wasn’t a fight outside of a bar like he had thought-no, it was CC and Toby and the much smaller guy was yelling at the taller drummer. Andy snuffed out his cigarette, but instead of going back inside, he tried to hear the shouting match a little better without being seen.


“Stop it man!” Toby was yelling and Andy noticed that the smaller guy had a finger in CC’s face. The thing about Toby and something that all merch guys had to be able to do was to stand up to people-especially drunk people.

“Stop what?! I don’t have to stop anything…no one can stop me!” CC said and then there was a blood curdling scream as the drummer reached out, grabbed the finger pointed at him and bent it so far back that it completely snapped. Andy cringed and then stood in shocked horror.

Should he do something?

“What the fuck man?! I was just trying to get you to calm down!” Toby screamed from the ground where he had fallen in pain and was now still laying. Andy watched as CC laughed manically, throwing his head back and his black hair was flowing down his back.

“Calm down?! Calm down?! There’s no calming me down…not right now…not this time of the month!” The drummer howled as Andy watched him look up towards the moon and then the singer felt like he was going to be sick.


CC had fallen to the ground and Andy could hear the bones cracking, breaking and clicking back into place as CC turned in to a four legged thing that looked terrifying. His nose and mouth became elongated into a muzzle and on either side of his lips were needle like fangs that were dripping with saliva. CC tossed his shaggy black head back, howled at the moon and then lowered his face towards Toby’s. The merch guy was whimpering and then screaming as CC sank his teeth in to the soft neck that was exposed and Andy felt like he couldn’t move. He was frozen in place as he stood by and watched his best friend eat someone like they were a turkey sub.

It all made sense now and as Andy turned away and stood on the other side of the corner, he thought some things over in his head. CC always seemed to be rather grumpy and withdrawn right around the full moon-which it was this time, last night and would be tomorrow. All of the killings had included ripped out throats and lots of blood and gore and from what Andy had seen from CC just now-the wolf was more than capable of being pretty blood thirsty. There was just one thing Andy couldn’t figure out and as the screaming died down and he thought about his question silently, it all came to him.

CC had been bitten back over two months ago when he had been camping up north and while the bite had been on his arm, it had healed rather quickly and he was never able to identify what had bitten him. The bite had all but healed and there really wasn’t much of a scar, which gave Andy pause because CC had needed a lot of stitches. Slowly and as silently as possible, Andy tried to edge his way towards the door he came out from without drawing attention to himself. The screaming had stopped, but that just meant that Andy could now hear the ripping and tearing of every limb, ligament and muscle that CC was devouring from Toby’s body.

What should he do? Should Andy go in, proclaim that CC was the murderer but it was because he was a werewolf and possibly not completely in control over his own body? Or should Andy just forget everything that he had seen, walk inside and get ready for the stage? As he reached for the handle, Andy jumped out of his skin and then his heart stopped as he turned around and looked at the blood soaked face of his best friend and cold blooded murderer.

Notes

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