Play me hard (will be edited)

Chapter 31. This can not be happening!

3 months later.

Mike gazed out on the sea of people from his elevated position at the front of the stage, and he did what he had done since the beginning of this tour, he pasted a fake smile on his face and shouted out all the lines that were expected from him in between the songs.

Inside he still felt like he was ripped in half, his heart was still beating but it was not alive. It was just functioning to let him breath, eat, sleep, wake up and to just finish this god damned tour.

Tonight they had conquered the city of Austin Texas, and tomorrow it will be Houston. It was all just a big jumble of cities passing, all of them looking the same. Mike felt numb.

It was like he was put on auto-mode when he was on stage, he functioned, but he wasn't really there. In his heart and soul he was someplace else, somewhere far away from where he was right now.

The crowd roared beneath his feet and he walked back to the drum podium to get his bottle. He took a huge swig from it and grimaced into the crook of his arm. He needed that. He needed to sedate the pain that had been his constant companion over the past 3 months, so when nobody had seen he had simply switched the water with pure vodka. And up till this date, he had not made any errors due to alcoholic interference. Heck, he could do what he did now in his sleep.

Walking over to the front of the stage again, he grabbed the microphone stand, addressing all the ladies in the crowd with a voice laced with velvet, making their screams literally lift the roof of the building, telling them that the last song is just for them, and them alone.

~ ~ ~

'Smut' stared at him, frowning. Then he gently leans over the table and addresses him softly.

"Hey Mike!" his voice almost a whisper,"You really have to stop drinking all that shit on stage, man!" he leans back again in his seat.

Mike cocks his head to the side, a little boosted by the alcohol."Why?" he asks dryly."You drink it all the time."

'Smut' quirks his lips up a little, but not enough to classify it as a smile. "Fair point well made. But I do not drink for the wrong reasons, Mike. You do!"

Mike's jaw drops open for a second and he stares with disbelief at his friend."I do?"

'Smut' nods his head and turns to stare out the bus-window,"You do! And you've been going at it for some time now, bud. It's not healthy!"

Mike sighed heavily and snorted."I know it's far from healthy. I feel like shit, I have been feeling like shit for a long time now, so please, let me feel like shit a little bit more, huh?" he glared at Smut from under his bangs.

"You like to revel in it, don't you? C'mon Mike, forget about her!" Smut sighed but smiled an enigmatic smile.

Mike's eyes widened and he almost choked on the juice he had gulped down the second earlier.

"Forget about her?" he hissed silently, getting 'Smuts' attention,"It's like cutting of my right arm, for gods sake!"

He sighed loudly. How would he ever make them understand? The day Sammie disappeared, she took away a huge part of him too, the most important part of him, his heart!

Smut frowned and shook his head."Well, I guess when this stretch is over, well have us a search party, eh?" He gazed at Mike.

Mike snorted and gave him an annoyed stare.

"I'll fucking tear this country apart to find her, and I'll start with finding out who hired her in the first place. That person must surely know her whereabouts..."