It's a Long Way Down

Chapter Twenty-Five: Wrong Guy

The next few weeks went by quickly for Ember. She was finally able to try playing guitar again and she now had the cast off her leg. She had the biggest smile on her face when she and Sodo were walking back to the common room.

"I finally have more freedom. I can walk on my own, I can run, I can finally be upfront with you on stage," Ember listed off. Sodo just chuckled, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, "I don't think you miss interacting with the fans that much."

"I do, Sodo, I like being next to Swiss and singing, but it's just so far from the fans and I don't like not being able to walk around and rock out like I used to," Ember told him. Rain walked by and motioned to Sodo he needed to talk to him. Sodo told his mate, "Hey, the common room isn't too far, I can see the door from here. Go ahead and get there, everyone else should already be there, I need to talk to Rain for a second, okay?"

"Oh," Ember said, "Yeah. Okay."

He kissed her on the forehead before letting her walk down the hall. He watched her until she disappeared into the common room. Turning to Rain, "You figure something out?"

"It only took forever, but yeah. The pain meds were spiked. A shit ton of melatonin and some Ammonium Phosphate. Dude, I'm surprised it didn't kill her," Rain said. Sodo sighed, "Yeah, I'm sure that was the goal but we caught on too fast. Satan, I thought we were done with the whole get rid of the fire ghouls bullshit."

"We all did," Rain told him. Sodo groaned in frustration, "It's always one thing after another and it just never fucking stops."

"Hey, she's better now, nothing too bad happened. The situation with her meds could've turned out so much worse than her sleeping for a week. She's okay. You're okay. That's all that matters," Rain said. Sodo told him, "Yeah, but how long until they try to kill us again?"

"Let's not think about that, Sodo. Let's just go spend time with everyone before the next ritual. Try and enjoy ourselves a little," Rain told him, "Maybe a game of Uno?"

Sodo sighed and nodded, going with Rain inside the room.

During the rituals, it was normal for Sodo and Rain to get confused. Ever since Rain added a black and white bass and Sodo got a full white guitar, it wasn't uncommon for fans to confuse them.

"I want you to get rid of the one with the white guitar."

"Then consider it done, ma'am."

Ember was standing on Sodo's spot where he would usually be to start playing Kaisarion. She looked back at him, standing in her old spot next to Rain. Sodo just gave her a small wave just as Imperium ended. She turned around to face the crowd, starting to play the beginning of Kaisarion. The crowd started screaming seeing who they thought was Sodo starting to play until the curtain dropped. The screams got louder when they saw Ember had returned to the stage.

She smiled under her mask, walking to the front of the stage with everyone else as they all played. They all soon moved out of the way when Copia came on stage.

Everything was going smoothly, except when Ember stomped her foot too hard on accident during Hunters Moon, making her leg hurt.

She walked by Sodo with a small limp, him asking, "You okay? You need a break?"

"No, I'm okay. It was my fault. I'm okay, though," Sodo nodded and continued to play. Her limp slowly went away and by Year Zero. She was walking normally again. Near the end of the song, right when the flames went, she saw Rain go down. She didn't think anything of it, thinking he probably just fell. It wasn't until the end of the song when the stage went dark and Spöksonat started playing that she noticed Sunshine run to him. Ember slowly walked over. The smell of blood filled her nose. Her eyes widened, noticing Sodo going backstage to grab his other guitar for the next song. She got his attention tonight, waving him over, "Rain's hurt."