Ch 5 - Alex

It’s dark. I look around and I barely see anything, but I walk through the darkness and stop where an x-shaped tape sits in the middle. I look down and close my eyes. This is it. This feeling. This familiar feeling. It sparks a grin on my face.

The drumsticks signal the countdown and then a huge spotlight illuminates my band with me in the middle.

“Let’s go!” I instinctively scream at the microphone. I start singing and the rest of the band follows-up with their parts and the crowd starts chanting our names.

I feel the rush as I perform on stage again after what feels like an eternity.

“Will I be able to reach the skies? Touch the skies and paint them as dim as my world, so when it rains, they would know the story behind my scars…”

I’ve missed being on stage. I had almost forgotten this feeling.

“Tragedies aren’t for everyone, so I’ll wrap them up in a pretty little package and decorate them with strings and glitter, because it’s the lies we sell that make people listen…”

As I finish the song, the crowd goes wild, but the cheering is muted. The whole place spins into a colorless mess and my vision gets blurry. What is happening right now? I try to speak, but no sound comes out. My left arm suddenly hurts almost like it’s going to come off. Everything hurts. My head spins and my attention gets stolen by my wrists, no, my whole arm filled with slashes and blood dripping out.

…What the—?

When I open my eyes, I’m standing on top of a building with a park exactly below it. Why does it all feel so damn familiar?

A strong gale emerges from behind as if it was trying to push me off the ledge, and then I look down.

“Oh, I see. I remember now.”