Tonight, Erika will be sleeping in smiles. After the band returned from their brief discussion, they announced that both Arin and her will go on the Nightmare tour with them. And they will be taking turns in playing the drums. Avenged Sevenfold will announce them as guest drummers and she already had her fingers crossed, praying that their fans will accept her as she is.

She was glad that Arin made it too. The tour will be more fun then.

After they had announced the great news, they practiced a few songs from their previous album including their latest just to see how well they blend with the full band including vocal.

Arin played Beast and The Harlot amazingly well. He really likes to add in his own notes and the band didn’t seem to mind at all. Erika played Almost Easy, her favorite drum track from Rev because he managed to combine a bit of Mediterranean beats into heavy metal. She thought of it as genius. And just for fun, Erika played piano in A Little Piece of Heaven as Arin played the drums. Apparently they had a piano upstairs too. But not a grand one, just a medium-sized upright piano.

Arin had never practiced A Little Piece of Heaven before, so he was stumbling a bit. But in the end he made it quite well.


“Erika Quinn Wesley, where have you been all day? You didn’t pick up my calls, you sneaked out!”

Erika took off her headphones and saw her mother entered the room. Here she goes again, she thought. She put on her headphones back and even turned up the volume.

“Talk to me! I’m your mother godammit!”
“Fine! I went to an audition! Happy?” she yanked out her headphones away and tucked herself inside the blanket with her back facing her mother.
“Audition? Tell me it’s piano audition.”

Erika rolled her eyes. Her mother never did agree with her being a drummer. She despised her loud heavy metal playing. She even said that all those Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica, Guns n Roses, Nirvana, and many more band posters around her walls were some kind of ritual to attract Satan. She huffed into her pillow.

“Erika, what audition? Are you going to enter some kind of a competition somewhere?”
Erika’s eyes lit up suddenly. An idea came to her mind. Quickly she sat up straight and faced her mother.
“Mom, I’ve got great news.”
Erika’s mother raised her eyebrows and listened carefully.
“I went to this piano audition for my college. They’ll be having a competition tour throughout Cali. I’ve been chosen as one of the pianist, mom!”
“Oh my, that’s really great honey!”
“Yeah! It’s exciting! I can’t wait to explore California!”
“Wonderful! When will you be going?”
“Next month.”
“Well, you better pack up then young lady. And practice more! I haven’t seen you practicing around. How do they even pick you?” She mumbled as she went out of the room. Erika smiled in glee. Her plan worked!
“I gotta tell Emily. She wouldn’t believe this is happening in my life!” She got up from her bed, dressed up casually and sneaked out from her window.

*****************************************************************************************************

Brian went home to no one. Not even Pinkly, his spoiled Maltese dog was there to greet him at the door. His house was dark. He wondered curiously, where was his fiancée at this hour? He reached for his phone and dialed her number.
“Hey, baby where are you?”
“Hey, I’m at Val’s. You home yet?”
“Yeah. What are you doing over there?”
“Oh, just girl stuff. You wanna eat something? I’ll come home right now and cook for you.”
“Nah, I ate. Just don’t be too long. I missed you.”
“Aww. Me too, babe. But I gotta stay a bit longer. You’re okay being alone? You want me to call Zack?”
“Uh, nevermind. I’ll cope. Ok bye, love you.”

After that he just hung up. He actually dared not being alone by himself. He tried for a couple of months after Jimmy passed, and he just broke down every day. He couldn’t wait to get back on the road again so that he could forget all the emptiness around him for not having Jimmy to bug him anymore.

Without knowing he turned back to his car, started the engine and drove on. He missed his best friend so much. He wanted to talk to him.

Brian arrived at The Good Shepherd Cemetery after somewhat 15 minutes of driving. He hadn’t visited Jimmy’s grave for a while because there were too many fans visiting, and bringing so much love for him. He can only come at times like this.

The cemetery was dimly-lighted, and looked eerie. The front gate wasn’t locked, so he went in easily and paced towards Jimmy’s grave plate at the end of the park. There was a bunch of flowers on it but most of them had died. He stared down and read the plate for the thousandth time.

Beloved Son, Brother, Best Friend
James Owen Sullivan
1981-2009
Jimmy jumped into life and never touched bottom
He smiled weakly at it.

“How are you doing, dude?”

The wind blew softly around him. He felt chilly all of a sudden and so he quickly tightened the grip on his leather jacket.

“We held an audition for the new drummer. So far we found two amazing kids. One of them is a girl.”

He laughed softly as he squatted on the ground, and starting to clear up the mess on Jimmy’s plate.

“Heh, I knew you would totally go for the girl, right? She’s definitely your type though. Young and didn’t care.”

He took a deep breath, and scanned around the cemetery. There were a few people visiting their relative’s rest place at this time of night.

“Well, they’re both talented, we just don’t know how to pick. You’re the crazy genius among us. Help me out here, Jim?”

He can only stare at the plate and waited for some kind of signs to show up. But nothing happened. He sighed heavily.

“I gotta go. Michelle’s gonna be worried about me soon. Goodbye, brother.”

He stood up and turned around. But he stopped abruptly as he saw a person in front of him, standing awkwardly with flowers in hands.

“Miss Wesley!” he flinched and frowned.
Erika waved awkwardly. “Hi, Syn. Just call me Erika.”
“Erika. What – what are you doing here?”

She walked forward slowly passed him, towards Jimmy’s grave. She stopped for a second before moving on the grave next to his. Brian frowned and eyes narrowed watching her.

“I came to visit my best friend.” She spoke as she squatted down and put the white daisies on top of the grave plate. Brian drew nearer, he’d never even thought of looking at the grave next to Jimmy’s before.
“Your best friend?”
Erika nodded. They both stared at the grave plate.

Loving Daughter and Best Friend
Emily Theresa Livingston
1988 – 2008
Living her life to the fullest

“I’m sorry you lost her.”
Erika looked up to Brian and smiled weakly. “I’m sorry you lost yours too.”
Brian sat down on the ground, next to her, interested to know her story. She too, settled herself on the ground as she watched Brian did it.
“She died a year before Rev?”
“Yeah. As you can see.”
Brian chuckled and rubbed his hair. It was a pretty stupid question.
“She’s lucky to be buried in here, next to The Rev. I found out not long after Rev died that his grave is next to Emily.” she muttered in a low voice while looking at The Rev’s grave.
“How did she die?”
“OD’ed.” (Overdosed)

Brian raised his eyebrows. He went silent after that. No words came out of his mouth. Erika started telling her story then.

“She was our bass player. My only friend that I can count on. She always protected me from the guys.”
The wind blew again, a bit roughly this time.
“Wait, protected you from the guys? What do you mean?”
She hesitated for a bit. “Uh, nevermind. Nothing that you would be interested in.”
“Come on, you’re about to become one of us. Tell me.”
“I’d rather not. It’s dark past of me and Emily. I’m trying to forget about it anyway.”

Brian narrowed his eyes even more. He was curious as hell.

“Anyways, one night I went to her house. It’s a routine thing, I would always play the drums at her place since my parents will go crazy if I play at home. I got into her house, started assembling my kits, and went to her bedroom. To wake her up.”

She paused, for quite a long time. Remembering how she found her best friend on the bed, having an awful seizure, white bubbles coming out of her mouth.

“I can’t save her. She was on the brink. No matter how much I pumped her chest, she-”

She broke down in tears. Brian then understood her completely. They both had lost someone important in their lives. They both can’t do anything about it. He landed his hand on her back, rubbing it softly. He glanced at Jimmy’s grave for a second and before he knew it, he was pulling Erika into a tight embrace with his face buried in her strawberry scented hair.

Erika cried on his chest, inhaling his cologne smell but for a split second later she realized - she was in Synyster Gates’ embrace and he was fucking engaged. Quickly she pulled away, and glared at him nervously. Brian was taken aback. They stared at each other for a short moment.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to, um-” he stuttered.
“Nevermind. Sorry I cried on your shirt.” She looked down at the wet patch on his tshirt.
He looked down too and smiled. “That’s okay.”
Silence caught again between them.
Brian’s phone rang suddenly, and he immediately answered it.


“Yeah?”
“Brian, where are you? I’m home and you’re not here.”
Brian glanced over at Erika for a second.
“I’m…at the studio. Something’s came up.”
Erika raised her eyebrows. He lied? He fucking lied to his fiancée? Why?
“Oh, come home soon. Zacky’s here. He’s ready as fuck. Says he’s going to beat you this time.”
“Okay. I’m on my way.”

Brian got up as he ended the call while brushing the dirt off his pants.

“See you at practice.” He muttered to Erika and simply went away. Erika watched him go and turned back to Emily’s grave, half screaming.

“Did you see that Em? He fucking hugged me! Synyster Gates fucking hugged me tight! He smelled so good, you should’ve smell him, Em. And he lied to Michelle too! I wonder why is that though. It’s not like we’re having an affair behind her back or anything. Oh if only you were here.”

She chuckled to herself, imagining that if Emily was here she would’ve screamed herself.

“Anyway, I came here to tell you that I’m going on a tour with them!”

She yelled out in happiness, not caring about other people on the graveyard that looked at her strangely.

“Good for you.”
A deep voice suddenly appeared from behind her back. She jumped and quickly turned.
“Drew!” she gasped as the black figure drew nearer from behind a tree and revealed himself. A cold face and sharp eyes emerged slowly under a ray of moonlight. Erika guessed he must be here to visit Emily too, as she was his long time girlfriend.
“I saw everything. Well aren’t you a slut? You seduced a rock star and next thing you knew you’re going on a tour with them?”
Erika’s mouth dropped open.
“You’re out of the band, Erika. We don’t need a slut in our band.”

Without knowing, tears were falling down her cheeks.

Notes