In It Together || Witt Lowry

One

I stared at Dan.

Dan stared back at me.

The pause was almost eternal; it took me a while to find my voice again. My brain wouldn't process what I'd just heard. "The... the rest of the world?" I asked, chuckling softly, albeit humourlessly. A guy could dream, right?

Even though my intentions were clear, Dan still shook his head. "Actually-," he paused as Mike stepped back in, holding what I could only guess to be the art cover mockups for my next album. Clearly, I was right. "Hey," he smiled, "where do you want these?"

"Just drop them on the desk, I'll take a look at them in a bit. Thanks, man." I replied with a shrug, my hand drifting towards my wrist, pushing against it. Stupid nervous tics. 

Once he was gone, Dan spoke again. He wasn't an easy person to scare - he'd been with me since the start, I knew that by now if nothing else - and the toxic mix of fear and anger in his eyes told me more than enough. "A small group found your last video," he explained, "and suffice to say, they weren't happy. They won't identify themselves, but..."

I stood, throwing myself across the room and pushing against the wall, as Dan's throat caught. For God's sakes, this was fucking bad.  Had I failed?

All I wanted was to pass music on to those who needed it. A hand to those who couldn't get up. 

I failed to help them. And I failed to keep my crew safe.

I failed to keep Dan safe.

I failed.

"What do they want." I said. It was not a question.

Pulling out his phone, Dan loaded up an incognito video. I wasn't much of a deep web person, but I knew enough to know that this would be untraceable. 

To repeat the contents of that video... I'd break. No. This could not be shared. Not with the crew, not with the police, not with anyone. 

"They want me." I sighed. "But why?"

The second part of my question was ignored.

"You - or us. One by one."