Warmth. I could feel warmth around me, which confused me a little. I remember being freezing cold at first. The next thing my brain registered was voices. Gentle, quiet voices a few feet away from me. I swear I remember being outside before, it didn't sound like we were outside anymore though. I painfully began to open my eyes as a killer headache kicked in. Not liking the pain, I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping it would go away pretty quickly.
"I want to know who it is that thinks it's Ok to do this to a woman!"
"I know, look we all do Ok? But you can't just bombard her with questions the moment she wakes up."
"Well whoever it was, I'm gonna find them and not let them walk away from me uninjured."
"Corey, you don't even know the girl, calm down a little bit."
Wait... Did he just say Corey? I don't know, I was to confused and I could hear at least three different voices which was to many for my brain to process at the moment.
"I know, but think about it, if you saw a woman lying almost half dead in a side alley, you'd be a bit pissed at someone too, wouldn't you?!"
"Well yeah, but-"
"Exactly, so let's just help the dam girl and make sure she stays safe and-"
"Corey?"
"What?"
"She's waking up."
The small whisper-shouting died down as I finally managed to open my eyes to see three figures standing opposite me, the other side of the room we were in. I took in my surroundings and realized were in a small cream coloured room, with mirrors, bags and boxes everywhere. It looked sort of like a dressing room, I thought. I came to notice I had a fluffy grey blanket placed over me too. I then looked to face the three men, one of which was making their way towards me and- wait a minute... He looked liked Clown...
"Hey love, my name's Shawn, I'm not gonna hurt you so don't freak out Ok?" He said. Oh my god it was Clown.
"I-I know who you are... I was w-watching your concert earlier," I stammered, a dry throat and a shit ton of nerves did not mix well when trying to talk.
"Oh my god I'm so fucking stupid! See, I told you she looked familiar!" Corey suddenly burst out, making me flinch and inhale a breath quickly.
Shawn scowled at Corey who quietened down again and apologized, holding his hands up in surrender.
My attention went back to Shawn who looked back at me and gave me a gentle smile.
"Ok, so I better let you know what's going on. Basically the short story is we left the venue after clearing everything away, and when we left to go to the bus, we caught sight of you laying across the floor. You were in quite a bad state, blood everywhere, so we took you back into the venue. This is the dressing room you're in now, and we cleaned the blood off of your face whilst you were out cold. That's about it really, we didn't know what else to do."
I nodded as he explained. Biting my lip as tears started to build up. Before I could let them fall, a pair of arms were wrapped around me and I realised that it was Shawn.
"Hey don't cry, it's alright you're safe with us now," He soothed as I tried not to let too many tears fall.
"Do you know who done it to you?" I turned to face the unfamiliar voice and saw Mick now sat next to me. I took in his huge build and long black hair before answering.
"Yes... I-It was my... It was my boyfriend," I confessed. I was tired of lying for him, it was about time someone knew about it, even if it was a band I was never to see again.
As soon as I said that, Shawn sighed a little and Corey stood up almost imedietly after I said it.
"Right that's it, I'm phoning the police. I'm not having some sick bastard running around thinking he can put girls into a state like that!" His sudden out burst set my adrenaline off and I began to internally panic. He can't phone them, Ryan would literally kill me!
"Corey just calm the fuck down! You're scaring the living lights out of her! We can phone the police later, Ok? Right now, making sure she's Ok is the priority. Not getting the police out and surrounding her with more people or questions than she can deal with!" I heard a different voice raise up. I looked to see Joey appearing from around the corner.
Once that was said, Corey let out an agitated sigh and walked over to the sofa that me, Shawn and Mick were by and slouched down in the space between me and Mick, causing my heart rate to pick up. Wait, what? Why was that happening?
"Ok, fine. So what do we do then?" He asked, annoyance showing clear on his face. One thing I'll say is that Corey Taylor is very intimidating when he's like this, I'd hate to see him in full anger.
"Well, we need to be out of the venue pretty soon, so let's go back to the bus and... Sorry I never asked for your name sweetheart?" Shawn stopped, turning to me as I told him my name was Crystal. With that, Shawn nodded and smiled, continuing to tell everyone what we were to do. Amongst all the chatter I felt Corey look over at me from the corner of my eye. Once he looked at me, he seemed to visibly relax and become less stiff and annoyed.
"You've got an absolutely beautiful name by the way," He whispered quietly to me, making my cheeks flare up a soft red colour. I looked at him and he gave a small half smile, just like the one in my painting back at the house, making me instantly feel a tiny bit better about everything.
"Thank you," I said back, making his smile a little bigger and his eyes relax even more. He placed his hand on my lap in a comforting way and I caught Paul, who had joined the gathering a few moments after Joey, looking over at smiling at the two of us, before looking away once I had made full eye contact with him. That was weird...
Shaking it from my head, we all got ready to move out to the bus, with Mick helping me up from the sofa. My hip was starting to hurt pretty badly from when I was pushed into the drawers earlier, and I heard I few gasps here and there one I had stood up and pulled the blanket off of me. I looked at Shawn who motioned towards my stomach with his eyes, and I looked down to see that my tank top had been removed and numerous black and blue bruises placed all over my torso. I felt tears prick at my eyes again and I was pulled into another hug from Shawn.
"They look a lot worse than we thought they were," I heard Mick say, while I took a breath in and tried to calm myself. Once I pulled away from Shawns hug, everyone began leaving for the bus, when a hoodie was held out in front of me. I looked up to see Corey there, now without his hoodie on that he was wearing moment before.
"Here wear this, it's cold outside," He said, helping me put it on.
"But what about you?" I asked him, as I took in what he was now wearing. He would surely be cold himself in just a pair of jeans and a white tank top.
"Na, I've got all the muscle to keep me warm," He joked, making me smile a bit. He wasn't wrong though, it was difficult to keep my eyes from lingering for to long at his build. Oh my god, what am I thinking? Again, I don't know the guy and I am still with Ryan... Well at least I guess I am anyway...
Once we were all settled on the bus. Paul took to giving me a tour around so I was familiar with everything. We weren't staying on the bus for the whole night, so there wasn't a lot of point, but it was something to do I suppose. That was another point, I had no idea where I was to go for the night.
"Guys, we need you back out here!" Joey called out. Me and Paul rejoined everyone else who was gathered in a group, some sitting, some standing. Everyone waited until we had joined them before Joey started to talk.
"Ok so, I know we're only a group of guys who play music and shit, so we might not be able to help 100%, but we do know that none of us take kindly to guys who beat the crap out of anyone. So, having said that, I don't think any of us are comfortable letting you go back to wherever he is, meaning that we've all offered to let you stay with one of us for a couple of nights and we'll help sort something out with you," He explained. I couldn't believe that they were offering to help out like this.
"You really don't need to do that, I can find a hotel or something, it's Ok," I protested. The last thing I wanted was for a huge band like Slipknot to go out of their way to add me into their already busy schedules.
"No, honestly it's fine, at least that way we know you're safe, and that we don't have to worry about where you or what state you're in," Corey replied, giving me a stern yet gentle look that I couldn't say no to.
After a moment of silence, I gave in and they got me to choose who I was to stay with. After being torn between Shawn and Corey, I ended up choosing Corey. Once again, you can't say no when he looks at you with such a trusting look in his eyes.
So that was that, one by one, each band member was dropped off at their houses, with Paul and Mick being the only two left once me and Corey arrived at his stop.
"Well, see you again soon brother! We should all meet up for a few drinks soon once we've caught up on sleep," Paul said while him and Corey exchanged a bro hug.
"Yeah, definitely dude, I'm just looking forward to a whole summer off for the first time in a long time," Corey replied, going to say goodbye to Mick to. I smiled at the height difference between the two of them before being pulled into a hug from Paul.
"See ya around chick, it's been great meeting you. I hope everything works out for ya," He smiled, as we pulled away from the hug. I smiled back and said thanks, giving him a quick fist bump then turning to were Mick was stood with his arms held out, awaiting his own hug.
"C'mere you tiny lil thing I want a hug too!"
I giggled at what he said and let him wrap his arms around me. Once the hug was over and we'd all finished saying goodbye, Corey led me out of the bus and towards his house. It was smaller than I'd imagined it would be, surely he'd have a girlfriend living with him or something? But aside from that, I found it so surreal that I was actually going into Coreys house. In fact, none of tonights events had completely hit me until right now. I snapped back to reality when I heard Corey getting my attention as we stood by the front door.
"You Ok?" He asked slowly, with a hint of worry in his face.
"I've just met fucking Slipknot," Was all I could say before Corey let out a small chuckle and went to unlock the door.
"And the realisation hits. I wondered when it would. I'll prepare myself for any future fangirling," He replied, looking at me and smirking, giving a wink as he opened the door and stepped in with me following. Yep, up goes the heart rate.
He shut the door behind me and then led me through house towards the kitchen. It was only small, but I guess if only two people live here together then you wouldn't need much. Come to think of it, the house promised to be that of a similar layout to mine.
"So, problem number one, I only have one bedroom so uh... We need to sort something out about that..." He began, trailing off as he fell into a thinking trace, pursing his lip make great him look even more adorable.
"It's Ok, you've probably your girlfriend sleeping upstairs already, the sofa would suit me fine," I said, before I could stop myself from mentioning any possible girlfriend. His attention snapped to me and I began to get worried. What if he thought I was jealous of the idea of him having a girlfriend? Well I mean... Who wouldn't be slightly envious of the lucky girl, but- No that's not the point! I mentioned it in a completely innocent way... I should just stop letting words flow out of my mouth already.
"Nope."
I focused on Corey as I frowned in confusion.
"What?"
"No girlfriend, haven't for about 8 months now, she cheated while I was on tour. Danny Worsnop I think it was... Not his fault, he had no idea she was with me," He explained like it was the most simple and basic thing in the world. Literally, I could not see even a flash of negative emotion as he said that. Dam he must be good at moving on from things.
"I see... I'll still take the sofa though."
"No you won't, you've had a rough night, you get the bed."
"I will be fine on the sofa-"
"No, honestly, you can have the bed."
Throughout this small debate, I realized that Corey was walking closer towards me until he was stood right in front of me. Dam his eyes were so blue...
"N-no."
"Yes, have the bed."
"No, I don't want the bed I want-" Jesus fucking Christ, do not say that to him Crystal! I thought as I somehow managed to stop myself mid sentence. I don't know about you but accidentally saying to a famous band member you'd just met that you'd want him and not his bed seems like the worst possible thing to say. All because of the way Corey was stood infront of me, looking down at me and making my heart beat at uncontrollable speeds.
"What were you gonna say?" He questioned, raising on of his eyebrows. I might as well just give in.
"I was... I was gonna say I'd prefer the sofa, but I'm to tired to argue anymore."
With that, Corey flashed a grin and led me up to where his room was. We reached the door and he showed me around. I looked at everything surrounding me. The walls were a basic cream colour and he had simple black photo frames hanging on the walls with pictures of him and the band, him and Stone Sour, various magazine pages with articles about them, and a few pinboards with all sorts of sticky notes and pieces of paper stuck up on them. His bed was below his window and had a bedside table placed on each side. Opposite to that, he had his wardrobe which took up the whole wall and had huge mirrors on it, making the room look even bigger. I glanced in the mirror and caught sight of what a mess I was. I let my mouth fall open slightly at the sight of running makeup and scrapes and bruises clear on my arm. Looking away quickly, I was faced to see Corey putting his suitcases in an empty space in the corner, next to his acoustic guitar.
"So, if you want, you can burrow some clothes to wear, they might be too big for you but hopefully we can find something," He said as he slid one of his wardrobe doors open and began searching for a change of clothes.
I was about to decline his offer when I had a sleeveless shirt, a pair of boxers and jogging bottoms held out towards me.
"Here ya go, the jogging bottoms used to be Chantelles, so hopefully they'll fit good," He explained as I nodded and said thank you, assuming that Chantelle was his ex.
Corey stepped out of the room for a moment while I got changed and put my original clothes into my bag, now thankful that I hadn't chosen a stupidly sized shoulder bag. I opened the door to see if he was still waiting, but the hallway was clear. I walked across to the stairs and peered over the railing to see him jogging back up the stairs.
"Ah, you're done, did the bottoms fit alright?" He asked, automatically smiling when he saw me.
"Uh, yeah they're a little loose, but it's cool," I answered, receiving a satisfied look from him.
"Ok cool, did you wanna get anything to eat? I'm kinda hungry myself so I don't mind fixing something up for you too?"
"Uh, I think I'll just get some sleep, I'm kinda getting pretty tired now," I said, declining his offer. He smiled and nodded, going to give me a hug.
"Alright then, well you get some sleep and I'll see you in the morning, Ok?" He said and I nodded into his chest, not really wanting him to let go. Unfortunately though, he soon did and we said goodnight, going off in opposite directions. I walked back into his room and shut the door behind me, walking quietly over to his bed a slipping under the beige coloured covers. I laid down completely and got comfy, letting sleep completely wash over me as a few moments of silence passed before the quiet sound of an acoustic guitar appeared. I sleepily smiled to myself as I realized that Corey was playing Imperfect, from Stone Sour. I slowly ended up falling asleep to the sound of his singing, finally being able to get to sleep without having to worry about anything happening to me.