CHAPTER 2 (Fallen Angels – Black Veil Brides)
Ashley POV
I took the card Andy held out and examined the photo. Bloody hell she does look fairly similar to me I thought, now that I can really see what she looks like. Wait, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her at the tattoo shop I sometimes work at, we’d gotten ink done at the same time and I did some of hers too, we even got snacks occasionally.

I glanced at the name which indeed was Arsenal Neytiri Jaxx. That’s a really weird last name. I wonder how she came up with it... I thought curiously, mentally noting to ask her sometime. “Hmm, her birthday... 18th July 1988?! That was my little sister’s birthday!” I exclaimed quietly.

I saw out of the corner of my eye that the guys were staring at me but I was too busy trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I was told that she was dead. I remember as a little boy that mom and dad were having a baby girl. When she was born they named her Arsenal.

But when she was two she was kidnapped, I don't know who by though. The police investigated but then came to the conclusion that she was dead as they couldn’t find anything. Mom and dad believed them but I didn’t. I didn’t believe that Arsenal Purdy was dead. I loved my sister more than anything and I one day I would find her.

And now, staring at Arsenal Jaxx’s ID photo, I was beginning to suspect that she MIGHT be my little sister. She and I had the same facial features but hers were a bit softer, we both had the same eyes, high cheekbones and all. Come to think of it, she’s got killer talent on bass; guitar, drums and vocals too, I sometimes watched her YouTube videos of covers and tutorials she puts up.

Made touring fun when we were bored, the guys thought she was pretty talented too, she even played violin from what I remember. “Fucking hell” I said, attracting the attention of my band mates. “Everything ok Ash?” asked CC. “Guys, look at Arsenal’s picture carefully, and then at me. I want to know if you guys think we look similar cos I'm goddamn sure we do” they exchanged puzzled glances but looked anyway.

“Fucking hell Ash she does look like you, just with blue & chrome in her hair” Jake exclaimed, Jinxx, CC and Andy agreeing. “Remember how I told you guys that my sister’s birthday was the 18th July 1988?” “Is that on the card there too?” I nodded. “You think that blue haired Arsenal Jaxx is Arsenal Purdy?” Jinxx asked.

I nodded again, hoping to hell I had found her, I haven’t seen my little sister since she was two, and I was six at the time – we’re now age 30 and 26, well her birthday isn’t for a few more months but you know what I mean. Then a Doctor in surgical scrubs came out to the waiting room and said “Arsenal Jaxx?” we all stood up, Jinxx carrying her bag again and walked to the Doctor. “Is she ok?” asked CC.

I imagined he was feeling guilty about what happened, I don’t blame him though. I felt terrible for a few days after my near miss, but we were told whoever got me out of the way was going to make a full recovery so that made us all (especially me) feel better, then we were insanely busy on tour so I didn’t really have much time to dwell on it and I had forgotten about it by the time that tour was over.

“She is going to be fine; she’s currently asleep from the anaesthetic but she’ll wake up soon. She has several broken ribs, a broken arm and broken leg. Other than that she’s fine, just some bruising and scratches, thankfully no internal bleeding and luckily avoided a punctured lung” the Doctor explained.

Andy winced in sympathy at the ribs part, seeing as he’d tried to fly once and that resulted in him breaking a few of his ribs. We all sighed in relief, CC especially; he visibly deflated in relief, that she would be ok.

“Can we see her?” asked Jake. “Yes she’s in room 23 on the orthopedic ward which is-” “Level 4” “Been up there before?” “Broke my ribs once, tried to fly but ultimately failed” Andy explained. “Ah I remember hearing about that. You can all go up to see her, she should wake up in an hour or two” we walked to the lift and went up to level four.
“That’s gonna suck being in the orthopedic ward” said Jinxx, we nodded and went down to room 23 and sat around Arsenal’s bed. She looked a bit battered up and had a cast on her left arm and right leg and some sort of support on her ribs, like Andy did. Her right arm had a drip inserted into it and some sort of bag with liquid in it was connected to it, giving her something.

She was sleeping peacefully and a nurse came in to give her something to reverse the effect of the anaesthetic. “Well she sure did herself a bit” said Andy, examining the cast on her arm. I however was curious about the tattoos on her arm. “She’s got some interesting ink on her right arm” I said, looking at them.

I recognized a few things here & there and saw a fair few quotes. Jinxx chuckled quietly; the guys knew I was a tattoo artist as well as bassist & backing vocalist and fashion designer. “Of course you’d be curious about what she’s got inked onto her body Ash” he said before looking at them too. “Looks like she’s a Bon Jovi fan” said Jake as he spotted the Bon Jovi logo on her arm shortly above her elbow.

“And has a thing for Greek mythology” Andy chimed in spotting a design that reminded me of Poseidon. “I think that’s one of the ones I did” I said thoughtfully. “What do you think the writing under it says?” said CC, looking at the writing with curiosity; none of us knew how to read Greek so it was just fancy lettering at this point.

“Don’t know, we’ll have to ask when she wakes up” I replied, going back to staring at her face. I heard Andy poking curiously through her bag and laugh when he finds something. I look over to see him holding guitar strings for both bass & electric guitar, heaps of picks and plenty of drumsticks in a shopping bag for the music shop we visited this morning.

“Looks like she plays 3 instruments” said Andy. “What makes you say that Andy?” asked Jake, looking up from his phone, he was probably texting Ella, they are a cute couple. I wonder when they’re gonna tie the knot...

“She has heaps of guitar picks, strings for both bass and electric and a fair few drumsticks in this bag from the shop we stopped into this morning. And it looks like they’re the same sort that CC uses” Andy replied holding it up. “Way cool, we should ask if she’d like to jam with us sometime” said CC, grinning and bouncing around like a kid on Christmas morning or Andy when batman comes on TV (hehehe).

I rolled my eyes and asked Andy what else was in the bag. Hey, I was curious and there wasn’t much else to do here, I could go on twitter or instagram but that gets boring pretty quickly, maybe I’ll watch a few of her videos, they’re always pretty entertaining.

“Hmm let’s see... wallet, keys, a hello kitty case with something in it, hello kitty body spray, phone, earphones, folder of some sort, external hard drive, con- oh for the love of batman she’s reminding me of you more and more Ash, and not just with the hello kitty stuff”

“Why’s that?” asked Jinxx. Andy held up a packet that was FULL of condoms. I rolled my eyes at that, I often had girls over and I’d fuck them, therefore distracting the guys from sleeping. “Good lord I don’t wanna know what she does with all that” said Jake, shaking his head.

“What did you miss sex ed back in school Jakey?” said CC, laughing at Jake’s ‘seriously?’ expression. Andy tossed the condoms back into the bag and kept looking. “Ok moving on... iPad, toy cat I think, toy something that has overalls and black hair made from wool”

“Oh I know what those are, one of my friends had one as a kid but I forgot what they’re called” said Jake. “What's with the ‘I think’?” asked Jinxx.

“It looks demented, stitch marks literally all over it. Oh hey a purple Yoshi is in here too and looks like that’s about it – oh wait never mind” said Andy going slightly red as he realized what the last object was. “Come on Andy what’s got you practising your tomato impression?” Andy shot a glare at me and mumbled “tampons and other girly things” I couldn’t hold back my laugh and neither could the others and soon we were laughing our heads off but calmed down relatively quickly. Jinxx and Jake went to get us something to eat & drink.

“How you holding up C?” I asked him. CC’s expression turned grim as he thought. “Physically I'm fine, mentally.... I’m still shocked and on an adrenaline high. I keep seeing her body on the road in front of me, it was fucking scary man...” said CC, me and Andy gave him a hug as Jinxx & Jake came back in with food & drinks.

We ate and drank and sat around as we heard a small groan from Arsenal. “Hey can you hear me? My name’s Jinxx” said Jinxx, gripping Arsenal’s hand again. She groaned again and squeezed Jinxx’s hand a bit, her face contorted a bit, probably has a nasty headache poor girl, then again the room was lit pretty brightly. After a few seconds she opened her eyes slowly and winced from the brightness of the room.

“Someone kill the lights? It’s too fucking bright in here” she croaked. Jake turned the light down and returned to her bedside. “Are you ok?” asked Andy. “Ow... sort of” said Arsenal, holding her hand to her head and hissing quietly.

Arsenal POV
Owwwie my chest is aching like mad AGAIN I mentally complained as the anaesthetic FINALLY wore off as the reversal thing kicked in.

I could hear voices around me, they got clearer and soon I heard the voices of BVB around me. ‘What are they doing?’ I thought as I heard someone shuffling around. “Looks like she plays 3 instruments” I heard Andy say. I heard Jake ask what made him say that then I heard Andy explain the strings, picks and sticks.

Then CC said they should ask if I wanted to jam with them. That’d be SO much fun if that ever happened. Then Ashley asked what else was in my bag, ‘hehehe nosy little fuckers’ I thought affectionately.

Andy started rattling off answers. I couldn’t help but smirk when Andy found the condoms I kept in there. I almost laughed out loud when CC teased Jake, but I wanted to hear where this went so I stayed quiet. Andy found my iPad – he’d better leave that alone, my childhood toys I liked to keep with me, then he found my ‘female’ stuff. Now I really had to work hard not to laugh.

The guys laughed their asses of then two of them walked out somewhere. I heard Ashley ask CC how he was going. Soon the guys that walked out came back and I heard them eating & drinking.

Then my headache which I was able to ignore suddenly flared up causing me to groan in pain.

I felt someone grip my hand and ask if I could hear them then introduced themselves as Jinxx. Holy shit, BVB’s in my hospital room! Calm down Arsenal... all I could do for now was groan again and squeeze his hand. After a few seconds I opened my eyes and winced from how bright the room was.

“Someone kill the lights? It’s too fucking bright in here” I croaked out. I saw Jake turn the lights down and come back to my bed. “Are you ok?” asked Andy. “Ow... sort of” I replied, holding my hand to my head and hissing quietly.

I looked around me and saw all five members of BVB sitting around me with worried expressions on their faces. My eyes widened comically and I gulped, my arm dropping back onto my bed, making them laugh as I finally processed they were here – hey, don’t blame me, the meds they jab into me do things to you *pokes mental tongue*. I rolled my eyes and pointed to the jug of water nearby.

Jinxx handed me a glass of water and helped me drink it, and then put it on the table nearby. “Thanks Momma Jinxx, I’m always thirsty as hell whenever I wake up from medically induced naps” I said, sitting up with Andy helping as my ribs hurt like a bitch. Jinxx groaned and mumbled “Not another one...” “Get used to it Mr. Mystic, a lot of the army refers to you as that” I said, before pressing the nurse call button. “Darling, you’re awake!” she said in an overly sweet tone. Yup another bitchy nurse, come on! I mentally complained.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, “Yeah yeah whatever Barbie doll, now can you get me some pain relief, my head and ribs ache like crazy” I said, rudeness leaking into my tone as an annoyed expression came onto my face. She sneered then walked off after I flipped her off.

“Ugh!” I complained, throwing my right arm up but minding the IV drip thing they jabbed into my hand, seeing as my left one is in a cast. “What's wrong?” asked Jake, noticing my expression. “I always wind up with the bitchiest nurses whenever I land myself in here, it’s so annoying!” I sat there and pouted, hearing an ‘Aww’ from them all.

“We haven’t introduced ourselves have we? I’m Jake Pitts” said Jake, extending his hand which I took. “I’m Andy Biersack” “I’m Christian Coma aka CC” “I’m Jinxx” “I’m Ashley Purdy” they all introduced themselves. “I’m Arsenal Jaxx” “That’s a funny name” “Yeah I know, but I like it. Better Jaxx than Grayson” I said, muttering the last sentence.

“Why’s that?” asked Ashley. “They were my adoptive family. Preppy snobs the whole lot of them. Me? The outlaw, freak, weirdo, emo etc.” I said, wriggling my toes and inspecting my fingernails. ‘Damn they all need to be re-painted’ I thought, frowning slightly, wincing as my right leg was a bit sore, I’d forgotten it was broken.

“You ok?” asked Andy, noticing my frown. “Yeah, my nails need repainting – fingers and toes; and my right leg’s a bit sore, I forgot it was broken” I replied, glancing up at him.

“Hey Arsenal?” I heard CC say rather quietly. I looked up to see him with a nervous expression, “Yeah CC?” he sighed, “I just want to thank you for saving my life. If you hadn’t shoved me out of the way, I probably would be dead” I smiled softly and held out my arms for a hug.

“Your more than welcome C” I replied hugging him closely and kissing his cheek. He let go and blushed slightly then sat down as my Doctor walked in, Jake & Jinxx snickering quietly. “How you doin there Ars?” “Can't complain, headache, sore ribs, sore arm, sore leg not too bad otherwise” I replied, laughing at the guy’s faces when the Doctor called me Ars.

“That’s good; I take it you got another bitch of a nurse?” I groaned, “Don’t remind me, I always get stuck with the Barbie dolls that are so fake even China denied they made them” I said, making everyone laugh. The Doctor chuckled and wrote something on the clipboard he was holding. “I’ll go get some morphine, that’ll make you feel better soon”

“So would a bottle of Jack and Purdinxx” I retorted, attracting confused looks from the guys. Doctor Jones laughed and went to get the morphine. The funny thing about him is his first name is Davey, so we made a lot of POTC (Pirates of the Caribbean) jokes.

“So you’re a whisky girl huh?” asked Ashley with a grin on his face, I was surprised he hadn’t tried flirting with me; he tends to do that to a LOT of girls. Wait, he did flirt with me a bit at the tattoo shop I go to when I get my tattoos done, it was weird but hilarious at the same time.

“Fuck yeah” I replied, fist bumping him. “What the hell do you mean by Purdinxx?” asked Jake, he looked incredibly mixed up. “Oh that’s one of my 6 guitars I have at home. It’s shaped like one of Jinxx’ guitars, but decorated with your war paint Ash, with a few extra details added” I explained.

Ashley and Jinxx grinned and fist pumped the air, making me laugh.

“Hey Andy, pass me my iPad from by bag would ya along with stinky, Yoshi & Jeremy? Oh yeah I heard you guys snooping around too, but I'm not mad. And if I say something really weird, its either the drugs they put me on making me loopy or my perverted sense of humour” I said, snickering at the guilty expressions on Andy, Jinxx & Jake’s faces and the innocent ones on CC & Ashley’s.
“Who are stinky and Jeremy? I'm pretty sure you aren’t talking about Jinxxy over there” said Andy, passing me my iPad and Yoshi. I laughed and said “Nah if I was I would have asked him to sit on the bed next to me. I was talking about my golliwog when I said Jeremy; I named it after one of my only friends. Stinky’s the ‘demented’ toy cat who I’ve had for almost my whole life” I explained, using air quotes for the word demented.

I asked Jinxx for another glass of water and sipped it while unlocking my iPad (fucking anaesthetics always making me thirsty *insert whyyyy u no?! Meme*), searching for the photo app as Jake put my toys on the bed next to me; I cuddled stinky closely with my left arm or as close as I could with a cast on.

I looked up to see them watching me curiously, “What? I’m a kid in a tattooed autistic/ADHD 25-yr-old’s body” I joked, poking my tongue at them, making them laugh. I saw Ashley & Jinxx shoot me a questioning look, I just shook my head slightly and mouthed ‘later, not now’ with them nodding subtly.

Opening the photo app, I found the album that had my instruments and design drawings I’d taken photos of and found the picture of my Purdinxx guitar. “Here, that’s Purdinxx” I said, passing the iPad to Jinxx. “Holy shit that looks cool” he said, zooming in and examining it closely before passing it to Jake.

“Fucking hell that looks sick” “I know right? It’s one of my three fave guitars” CC, Andy and Ashley’s jaws dropped when they saw the picture of my Purdinxx guitar. I swiped it off Andy and located the pictures of my other two guitars, Janxx and Jeddie Van Pitts.

“This is another one, I called it Janxx, no Jake it doesn’t involve you, but the next one does. This is shaped like James Hetfield’s guitar but decorated like Jinxx’s recluse which is one of my faves” I explained, again passing the iPad around. The guys all liked that one too then I swiped to Jeddie Van Pitts and explained it.

“This last one is called Jeddie Van Pitts. Why don’t you try and guess why it’s called that?” I said, wondering if anyone would be able to get it. “Shaped like Jake’s signature Schechter, Van Halen stripe pattern, Jake’s colour scheme?” said CC. “Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!” We all laughed as Doctor Jones came back in.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, administering the morphine. “I was getting the guys to guess why one of my guitars was called Jeddie Van Pitts, CC got it right” I explained, sighing in relief as the morphine kicked in, the pain in my body lessening. “Hey Doc?” “Yes?” “How long do I have to camp out here for?”

“Two weeks then you can go home, but you’ll need to come back in to get the casts off in around a month or so and you can sleep on your side as long as you put pillows under you” he replied, answer the question I was about to ask, my mouth literally ready to say the words and everything.

“Ok” the Doctor walked out. “Hmm, not much different from last time this happened” I mumbled, staring at my lap. “What do you mean? And why’d he say to put pillows under you” asked Andy, concern written on his face. I sighed, this will be interesting.

“With the pillow thing, I ALWAYS and I mean always sleep on my sides, I never sleep on my back, but when I’m battered up like this I have to put pillows under me” “Ah” he replied. Then with Ashley & Andy’s help I adjusted myself so I was sitting more comfortably, swearing about various things along the way, earning a few laughs.

Once I was comfy again I kept explaining things. “Do any of you remember what I said when I ran to get CC out of the way, just before I got hit?” I asked, looking at them all. “You said ‘Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!’” said Jinxx, wondering where I was going with this.

“I said that because I was involved with Ashley’s accident, except Ashley was the guy about to get smooshed, rather than CC” I began, looking at them all. Realisation dawned on Ashley’s face – “You’re the one who got me out of the way, weren’t you?” he gasped. The same expression was on Jake, Jinxx, Andy and CC’s faces too. I nodded, “Yeah that was me. I had a somewhat different appearance at the time though” “I remember, fluro green streaks instead of blue, your hair was in a ponytail, you had a white Mötley Crüe tee on, denim shorts and running shoes” said Ashley as he tried to remember me that day and well obviously succeeding.

“Yup that’s me. I was the one that shoved you out of the way, same with CC today. I couldn’t let that happen to you, either of you” I said, sniffling a little and wiping away tears. Soon I found myself enveloped in a hug from Andy. I hugged him back, not bothering to wipe away the tears. Then I got a hug from the other guys.

I noticed Ashley was looking at me with a curious expression on his face, he did that earlier a lot but now it was making me edgy. “Ash, what are you looking at me like that for?” I asked, a little irritated. “Oh I’m just wondering about something. You kind of remind me of someone, though I'm pretty sure I’ve seen you at the tattoo shop I work at and at a few other places. Didn’t I tattoo you once or twice?” he said.

“Ha-ha I’m surprised you remembered that, and yeah you did the leviathan flail on my right side and we got a few done at the same time on occasion and have gone on snack runs, usually to McDonalds. But as for the ‘remind you of someone’ I’m not exactly sure what you’re on about” I said, amused and then confused.

“What do you remember about when you were 2?” he asked, a serious expression on his face. I thought back to 1990 which was when I was 2, that part of my memory was hazy as I was desperate to forget what the Grayson’s did to me throughout my life.

I remembered having a mom and a dad that loved me, I remembered a boy, not much older than me, and he looked about 6 or so and liked hello kitty.... much like Ashley Purdy does! I snap out of my trance and look at Ash, “I remember having parents that loved me, and I remember a boy that looked similar to me, most likely a brother. I think he was around 6 and he liked hello kitty... a lot like you” I said, frowning slightly before continuing.

“I don’t really remember much after that, which was when I was kidnapped by the Grayson’s. They abused me and all that and I tried to forget about it so that’s a bit fuzzy. I was told my real family was dead” I explained, crying at the last sentence. Ashley put his arms around me and held me while I cried.

“Andy, you mind explaining?” I heard Ashley say while he cuddled me closely.

Andy sighed, “Arsenal, the reason that Ashley’s asking you about it is because he suspects that you might be his missing sister. The police that investigated her disappearance ruled her out as dead as they couldn’t find anything. Ashley never believed she was dead, he knew he would find her one day. He had a good look at your ID card and said that you have similar features to him along with the same chocolate eyes. Then he saw your birth date was the same as his sisters”

“18th July 1988” I choked out. Andy nodded, “Then he told us to look at your picture on the card, then at him and we saw what he meant” “You really do look a lot like him Ars, just a bit more feminine and with blue & chrome in your hair” said Jinxx. “R-Really?” I asked quietly. “Really really” said Jake & CC.

I nodded and sniffled, then looked up to Ash. “Do you think we could get a DNA test done?” I asked him, he nodded and Andy went to get Doctor Jones. Soon after, Ash & I had DNA samples taken so now we had to wait for the results. To calm myself down I went onto YouTube and checked my notifications.

I had a fair few for my latest cover video which was Black Veil Brides’ ‘Perfect Weapon’. I laughed at what some people wrote, attracting the attention of the guys – a lot of people’s comments featured ‘eargasm’ which always made me laugh and there were the ones that say they love my covers and then there were the requests that were always being posted.

“Something funny?” said Jake, who was scrolling through twitter. I giggled and indicated to my iPad, and then I passed it to Jake who read through the comments, laughing at some of them. “Oh my god some people are from planet idiot! And the ‘eargasm’ thing is hilarious” he laughed, passing it to Jinxx. He laughed too and asked what the video was.

“Scroll up to the top and play it... on high volume” I said, smirking. The guys all crowded around Jinxx who pressed play and the sound of me screaming filled the room. I knew they’d see the clip of me in the top corner of the screen screaming the intro, and then playing the instrument tracks when they came in.

I laughed at Andy’s baffled expression at my vocal ability. When the video finished, they all stared at me with their jaws on the floor. I couldn’t hold back my laughter then I grabbed my phone and took a picture of their faces.

“Damn girl you are good, I didn’t know you could scream like that! It’s rare to find a girl that can do that” said Andy, shaking his head. I snickered, “What my voice that’s deep for a girl didn’t give it away?” I said, mimicking one of Ashley’s expressions I saw in an interview video once then laughed again, Ashley’s face was priceless.

“Any other covers?” asked CC. “Yup, on my channel I have a heap of them. Some are all the instrument tracks, some just vocal, just drums, just bass etc” I said as Doctor Jones came back with the results. “Ash, doc’s back” I said. Ashley then sat on the bed next to me after I scooted over. “So what’s the result?” asked Jinxx, me and Ash were too nervous to say anything.

Notes

i am so sorry if this gets a little confusing! i've tried to make sure ash was relatively distracted throughout this chapter so yeah... any questions, just ask via comment or inbox i'll be happy to answer them :)

*revised 29-03-15*