Nate walks into the warehouse. So forsaken and rusty like the last time...nothing has changed...
"It may be where you live but it's not your home..." he sighs and walks to the most close corner of the warehouse. A big crate stands in the corner, hiding the way to the secret stairway. He puts the bag down and leans the cane against the wall, jumping his way to the crate.
He pushes the crate away, revealing the rusty stairway that leads downwards to his hideout. He jumps back to his cane and grabs the bag. He looks down the stairway. Only darkness and emptiness comes from it. He takes a deep breath and starts to walk down the stairs.
On the way, not a single light appears, he's walking in darkness. He takes out his phone, using it as flashlight. After like 5 minutes of pure stairway a giant metal door appears in front of his eyes. He pushes it open, revealing more darkness.
He presses the switch, turning the lights on, revealing a large room with a lot of different furnitures. Some tables and stairs, a couch and a paino.
This hideout was the only place where he was alone with his father. Nobody except them knew about it. His father teached him a bunch of stuff here, like playing paino or drawing...and he was so thankful for that.
He closes the door and walks to one of the tables. He leans the cane against the table and lies the bag down to the ground.
He sits down on one of the chairs, while a burning sensation on his right ankle starts to appear. He rolls up the jeans, revealing a big wound that goes from his ankle to the half of his shin. It's deep, but not bloody.
He takes out a bandage from his bag and starts to go around the wound multiple times. He knots the two ends together and stands up. He knows that his left leg is weak, but it can take in some damage...
He walks over to the another table with a bunch of drawings, most of them made by him and his father when he was young.
He sits down on the chair next to the table and takes the pencil, that lies on one of the drawings. He cracks his neck and spontaneously starts to draw. He adds a bit of shading to the drawings. He takes a few thinking breaks and continues.
After some time he stands up and goes to the piano, playing a few notes of his song 'Take Me Anywhere'.
"I've got a one way ticket straight out of here, and I don't know where it goes..." he sings, thinking about a solution.
"It's not the destination, it's the crawl.."
"Was it out of love, or out of fear? If you ask me, I don't know. You forget how to want, once you've had it all." then he gets an idea. If he doesn't find her...he brings her to him...
He stands up and walks to another table, where are standing a few chemistry tools. He takes a few chemicals out of the closet in the wall. Fortunately he was good in chemistry when he went to school...
He mixes a bunch of them in a test tube together, spilling some of them over his cloths, but he doesn't care about it. After he finished the mixture he lets it stand there and notes the progress on a piece of paper. He draws his idea on the piece of paper and brings it over to the pinboard at the wall.
He walks back to the seat and sits down. At the same time he feels another burning sensation on his right shoulder. He removes the shirt off of his shoulder, which makes the burning sensation even worse. He's clenching his teeth in pain.
As the shirt doesn't cover the wound anymore, he looks down at it with a confused but also hurted look. The spots where once his flesh was, is now pure metal. The fake skin is ripped, but not bloody. He closes his eyes in defeat. He never expected something like that.
"Forgotten who I am..that's the truth.." a single tear runs down his cheek. He tears his entire arm out of the shirt and wraps another bandage around the wound.
"But once in a while you just got to come clean.." he mutters and puts his shirt back on.
He walks over to the table with the mixture and puts on the protective glasses. He doesn't care about how this happened, he just wants to achieve his goal now. And that is seeing Jessica again...
He pours some blue liquid in the mixture. It switches it's colour to a toxic green. Green smoke comes out of the test tube. He looks at it confused, but also curious.
He inhales a part of the smoke, making him drowzy. A bunch of pictures are flashing in front of his eyes. All of them are showing Jessica. His eyes widen. Could this be the solution?
He inhales it again, thinking about his PaidInExposure tour. The pictures are now showing him, Andy and Shawn on stage, singing.
"This gas could be the solution!" he exclaims happily. He just couldn't believe what he just did.
He quickly takes out a cork and seals the exit of the test tube and puts it in a chest with other chemicals. He picks up the chest and walks to a backroom, filled with different shelfs with different content in them.
He walks up to one of them, trying to place the chest on one of the higher levels. He pushes it upwards so that's fully on the shelf.
But before it's completely on it, it slips out of his hand, landing on one the shelf, and a the part of his arm, near his elbow, stuck between it and the shelf.
He cries out in pain, trying to get his arm out. He pulls and pulls, tearing his skin more and more apart. He finally pulls with full strengh and his arm comes out, leaving a piece of flesh behind.
He stumbles backwards, right against one of the other shelfs. He presses his hand against the wound, which causes him more and more pain.
He slowly walks to the table where his bag is and takes out another bandage. He removes his hand from the wound. Like the other wounds it isn't bleeding.
A few metal wires and a bit of his bones are peeking out from the wound. He lets out a deep sigh as he sees the flesh.
"It's underneath my skin...like ink that's still reminding me..." he mutters and wraps the bandage around the wound. He ties the two ends together and wanders to paino again. He sits down and starts to play the refrain of the song.
"You can't take me anywhere..."
"You can't take me anywhere."
" I've got a way back home and an open door, to everything I left, face down on the floor."
"You know you can't take me anywhere..." he sings to himself. He doesn't know why, but this song kinda fits the situation for him.
After a few times of repeating lines and refrains he lies down in the middle of the room. He throws a ball to the ceiling and catches it, still muttering the song lyrics.
"It's easy to see it, too hard to believe it.." he looks back to the pinwall with the drawings
"But once in a while you just got to come clean.." his eyes widen as an idea comes in his mind.
He immediately gets up and runs to the pinwall. He places his hand on one of the drawings that shows a triangle and a container.
"You can't take me anywhere..." he looks fascinated at the drawing.
"You can't take me anywhere! That's it! That's the solution!" he smiles widely and run to another backroom.
A big worktable is hidden under a big cloth. He throws it off of the worktable, revealing the big, silver workbench. He wanders with his hand over the table, remembering all the stuff that he crafted here with his dad.
He runs back to the backroom with the shelfs and pulls the chest out of the shelf. He slowly places it on the ground, opening it carefully. He takes the test tube with the gas out of the chest and immediately runs back to the other backroom.
He opens the test tube, pouring the chemical into a container of metal. He takes out a tool with a circular chainsaw on it, puts on working gloves and a protective mask and starts to work.
He drags a few layers of the metal container away so that there is no metal left and just a big hole is to be seen. Before the mixture can run out, he closes the hole with a pane both sides.
After some times he's finally done and brings the result in his main room. He puts the green glowing container down on a little desk. He looks down and sighs uneasy. All the time, all the work, all the time. Only for this little container...
He removes the gloves and throws them on the desk. He slowly lowers his hands to touch the container. As closer as he gets, as more his vision gets glitchy and pictures are flashing in front of his eyes.
As he finally touches the container he's back on the ground with the ball in his hand. He looks around confused. Everything seems like before. He wanders with his hand over the ball and wants to stand up, but without success.
He closes eyes and is back in front of the container. He slowly moves his hand away from the container. Like in trance he removes his bandages and they fall to the ground . But he's just staring at the container like hypnotized.
"I've got a one way ticket straight out of here, and I don't know where it goes. Maybe you can show me the way to Jessica..."