Madelynne Ellis - Come Alive

‘How did you get out of the hospital unmolested?’

‘Police escort,’ Xane explained. ‘They wanted statements, and they had fuck-off big guns to keep the crowd under control.’

‘Nice,’ Rock Giant drawled through his terse grin. ‘I gave them my run of the events last night.’ He closed the door of the humming fridge, hiding a little of the destruction and instantly halving the local noise pollution. ‘I dunno what cleaning stuff we have. The dust-buster and washing stuff’s normally in there.’ He pointed to a cupboard door that was splattered with a mixture of baked beans, ketchup and lentils.

Xane deposited the remains of his mug on the draining board and gingerly inched open the cupboard. Miraculously the contents had escaped the destructive force that had whipped through the rest of the bus like a tornado.

‘Why am I not surprised that Willows didn’t know where to find the bleach and scouring pads?’

‘I’m not sure he even knew where to find the teabags.’ Rock Giant reached past him to grab a roll of bin bags and a dustpan and brush. ‘I vote for shovelling all the shit up and throwing it, unless you feel a salvage operation is necessary.’

Xane pulled his long hair back into a ponytail. ‘There’s nothing on here that’s irreplaceable. Shovel away. I’ll start on the surfaces.’ He delved into the cupboard and rose again armed with two bottles of spray detergent.

‘You’re going to need a cloth too, super-spy.’

Xane aimed the jets at the nearest defiled surface and let rip, before seeking out a cloth. Cleaning wasn’t exactly his forte, but sometimes focusing on labour-intensive tasks helped to clear the brain. In any case, if they were going to make the bus habitable again before tonight, they needed to put their backs into it, and more than likely round up a few additional pairs of hands.

‘Where did you, Spook and the girls stay last night?’ he asked after they’d been working for a minute or two.

Rock Giant stopped whistling in order to answer. ‘Apparently, Ginny had a hotel room booked, so Dani went there. Spook pulled an all-nighter at the hospital, which is why he’s crashed out like a baby now, and Elspeth and I squeezed into the motorhome with Sally and Graham. It wasn’t ideal, but we managed. I think the road crew kipped in the van, or else found themselves some accommodating young ladies to slumber beside.’

‘I’d appreciate a hug from my accommodating young lady right now,’ Xane mused. Dani had only been permitted to visit for a few minutes the previous night before the staff had insisted he needed his beauty sleep. Considering the headache, and the invisible elephant he’d had pressing on his chest, he hadn’t objected. His head was much clearer today, but his ribs still ached, especially when he twisted.

Having scooped most of the broken glass and crockery into a bag, Rock Giant paused to catch his breath. ‘Did I catch that right last night, that Dani’s agreed you can screw Luthor?’

The crudeness of the remark irritated him a little, but he let it go. Rock Giant had a knack for making his hackles rise, but the important thing was that they were a team and there for one another when they needed to be. ‘Yeah, you caught it right.’

‘How the fuck did you get her to agree to that?’

Xane shrugged. If he was honest, he wasn’t entirely sure himself. He’d done his absolute best to avoid acting on the chemistry that existed between him and Luthor, but Dani had got hurt all the same. Then right at the point when he’d been convinced he was going to lose everything, she’d announced she was prepared to give the notion of sharing a go. How it was all going to work out, he didn’t know, but with the band on an extended hiatus they had time to negotiate the details. So far all she’d stipulated was that if he and Luthor were doing anything, she wanted to know about it, because that way she wouldn’t fret.

‘You’re a jammy git, you know that?’ Rock Giant complained, as he took the brush to the seating area by the window. Both of the seat cushions had been slashed. ‘You realise I haven’t got laid since Amsterdam and that chick that tore handfuls of my hair out, but you … you get Miss Sweet Cheeks and top it off with the new drummer boy.’

‘Is my name being taken in vain?’ Luthor asked, appearing at the top of the entry steps. ‘Jeez, it smells like a zombie’s armpit in here. Looks like one too. Gross.’

‘It looked even worse ten minutes ago. Where did you disappear to?’ Xane scrubbed the last bit of ketchup from one cupboard front.

‘Graham collared me. I’m afraid you’re all stuck with me now. He insisted I sign a contract on the still warm bonnet of the taxi or he wasn’t letting me within two hundred yards of you.’

‘He better not have screwed you over.’

Rock Giant scratched his chin. ‘I’m astonished he hasn’t insisted on a full psych-evaluation.’

‘Would I be expected to pass or fail that?’ Luthor asked brightly.

‘Good point. Black Halo does consist of a bunch of screw-ups,’ Xane remarked. There was no sense in pretending otherwise.

Rock Giant scowled. ‘Speak for yourself. I’ve never had to check myself into rehab.’

Xane rolled his eyes.

‘Fine, you’re totally balanced, but the rest of us …’ He shook his head. ‘Ash is screwed up.’ There was no contesting that, seeing how he was currently occupying a hospital bed. ‘Elspeth is completely batshit crazy. I mean, she was before all the stuff with Steve happened. I don’t think I need to remind you she has a shrine in the back of this bus. And I freely admit to being a deranged, sex-addicted devil-worshipper.’

Both Luthor and Rock Giant sighed and chuckled.

‘The first two are true,’ Rock Giant agreed. ‘But you must have been praising Satan awful quietly, given the amount of shit that keeps being heaped on you. I thought the point of selling your soul was it reaped you major benefits and a platinum “Get out of jail free” card.’

‘I’m alive, aren’t I?’

‘Apparently so. Hey, you missed a bit, near the handle.’

‘Spook’s not screwed up,’ Luthor muttered, his brow wrinkled in thought as he wrestled a bucket and scouring pad out of the cupboard.

Xane and Rock Giant both buckled over with laughter.

‘Why’s that funny? The guy’s totally together.’

‘Spook’s the biggest fuck-up of us all,’ Xane wheezed. Dammit, he needed a good laugh, even if it hurt like hell.

‘True … totally true,’ Rock Giant added. He levelled his gaze at Luthor. ‘Come on, there’s nothing sane about taking a vow of chastity. What sort of psycho does that?’

‘Yeah, but that’s just hearsay, isn’t it?’

‘Nope.’

‘Cross my heart.’ Rock Giant made the sign across his chest. ‘Spook is unequivocally weird. I mean, he doesn’t even masturbate. How disturbed is that?’

Xane nodded in agreement.

‘There’s a reason, though. I mean, he didn’t just decide to go without for no reason.’

‘Reasons smeasons,’ Rock Giant said.

Xane fell quiet and busied himself by squirting the next set of surfaces with spray cleaner. Sure Spook had his reasons. He wasn’t about to go into them. He might not be very good at keeping his cock in his pants, but he was a superb secret keeper. If he was told something that wasn’t meant for other ears, he was never the one to spill the beans.

Dammit! He knelt in a puddle of them, the nasty fart inducers, so he was forced to use the cleaning cloth on himself.

They fell into silence as they worked. Xane watched Luthor from the corner of his eye. Spook’s vow of abstinence predated the band, but curiously none of them had ever really questioned it, or, if they had asked why, they’d been content with an answer that told them nothing. If Luthor was actually going to dig, things might get awkward.