Come Back to Me

17

Dead could feel the anger boiling deep inside him, everything seeming to move in slow motion as the cab took him back to the hospital. There would be a court date but, from what he had paid attention to, there would be little to no consequence given the circumstances. Something along the lines of justifiable homicide he believed is what they called it. Still, it would most likely be on record that he had in fact killed someone. He had a feeling that Euronymous probably knew more about what had happened than he really wanted to know. The message he had gotten about needing to come home had been proof enough of that.

Bastard.

Maybe Vanessa wouldn't look at things the way he was, she was far too forgiving a person to hold a grudge over someone and given the fact that Euronymous had tried to put a stop to it at the last minute probably saved him from her hating him at all. Dead, however, wasn't nearly as forgiving. The man he had built up a relationship with had stabbed both him and Vanessa in the back and no reason he could give would ever change that fact. There was going to be hell to pay on both ends. The media had already begun reporting the event, some sides portraying him as the controlling boyfriend while other's told a more sinister story of Varg and his own checkered past.

There was little comfort in knowing that the man already had a bad history, some of it Dead had seen first hand with several burned down churches before they came over to the States. Still, something like this was beyond cruel. The first half of the car ride, Dead busied himself with looking up Varg's records, seeing for himself what all he had done. Aside from the church burnings, he had been a suspect in two murders, later being released due to lack of evidence. Assaulting a former roommate had been another charge. From what he read it hadn't been all that bad of an altercation, but it still didn't make it any better.

The man was a fanatic. Regarding himself almost like a God. Everything he talked about from women in general to the world at large left a bad taste even in Dead's mouth. While he generally hated people he didn't share any of Varg's opinions or beliefs. He knew where the line was now. Brutality, blood, extreme shows, and self-harm would always be something he clung to, but to want to burn the world to the ground just for the sake of starting over seemed a bit much to him now. Maybe a long time ago he would have agreed with some of Varg's beliefs, but he knew better.

The years had forced him to grow up considerably. So many brushes with death, horrible trips from all the drugs, and just nightmares in general had left him lower than rock bottom. He had watched everyone around him mature and grown in their own ways while he spiraled further down the rabbit hole of self destruction. Hellhammer had finally settled down with Melanie, although they had their fair share of ups and downs. At one point they had stopped seeing each other completely because of Dead's near overdoses. He had, of course, felt terrible about it but had struggled to make any of it right. Thankfully they had gotten back together after a few months and seemed to be stronger than before. Melanie, however, still liked to keep a healthy distance from him whenever possible.

Necro had started to calm down from his playboy lifestyle as well; meeting some people and even having a few serious relationships. Those had failed for other reasons. One or two of them had been related to him and the drugs while the rest simply either parted mutually or because of how often they toured. Necro seemed to be content with the way things were going, present issues aside, and had started talking to someone again. Dead couldn't remember her name, but from what he had heard she was a fairly decent person.

Then there was Euronymous. Still bitter about the hand he had been dealt all those years ago. To some degree Dead could almost understand the hatred he felt towards him and Vanessa. There had been plenty of times where they could have been less in his face about it, knowing how he was still feeling about Vera, but Dead had almost wanted to stick it to him. For once he had something Euronymous didn't and he had let it go to his head. He couldn't blame him for the resentment that had festered, but it didn't excuse any of this.

Pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and middle finger, Dead took a deep breath as he felt the start of another headache.

Maybe Varg had something on him.

The thought was nothing new of course. It had crossed his mind at least a dozen times that just maybe Varg had pushed Euronymous into doing this based on some dirty secret or threat. Euronymous may have resented Dead for his relationship but he had never shown signs of wanting to hurt either of them before. It was something he would have to talk to him about once he got there.

Whatever happened, whatever got said, they would have to either work past it or one of them would have to leave Mayhem for good. It wasn't something he wanted to do, but he couldn't stay around someone who couldn't tell him the truth about what happened.

Opening the tab on his phone that had Varg's information still on it, he continued to skim through it. There had been nothing particularly interesting aside from the trouble he had been in, mostly just information about his home, parents, and things like that. His eyes narrowed as something caught his eye. It was further down the record, a small enough detail that he easily could have passed over if it hadn't been for a familiar name; Jessica Lynn Sutton, former girlfriend.

Former girlfriend...

The words had his stomach turning. Granted he hadn't really felt any true emotions for Jess, but the fact that she had been his girlfriend the entire time had him wondering what all Varg had known about them just from her telling him. Did she know something about Euronymous that Varg blackmailed him with? Did she have a part to play in this? If that was the case, it was more than likely that she would have something against him as well. Now that Varg was dead, what would stop her from telling the world whatever she knew?

Whatever she had on them, or thought she had, they would need to tread lightly now. The media would swallow her words like starved animals, painting whatever picture they wanted and ruining everything they had worked for. Granted they could probably get her for defamation if that was the route she decided to go, but the damage would already be done even if they did.

This just got a lot messier...

**I would just like to thank you all for sticking around for this story, I know updates have been a lot slower than before but a lot has been going on in my personal life that has thrown a bit of a wrench in things. Future updates will now be going on a loose schedule until I have a more solid rhythm /available time. So going forward updates will be every other week  between Thursday night, Friday and Saturday as those are my only real days off. I'm trying to get back into a more weekly update system but for now it's going to be bi-weekly. Again, I thank you all so much for your continuous love and support for this story and I hope you continue this journey with me! <3 Lily**