Despite the pounding that the Demon Axe tour van took, it
did an adequate job of getting Daniel and Raven from point A to point B. The
breeze blowing through the shattered windows felt good against their wrapped up
wounds. The feeling of having their hair blown backwards was relaxing to where
Daniel almost fell asleep at the wheel.
He couldn’t complete drift into dreamland just yet because
he knew where his ultimate destination was. The thought of returning to that
outdoor arena formed a knot in his stomach the size of a medicine ball. His
blood ran cold like a frigid river of anxiety and depression. His skin tingled
like a thousand needles impaling him. He tried the old trick of breathing
deeply, but not even a hurricane force breath was enough to calm his frosty
nerves.
Raven could see the terror on Daniel’s face and ruffled his
hair in a small attempt to bring him back down to earth. The affectionate
gesture soothed him, but only minimally as the van was getting closer and
closer to the outdoor arena. When a highway sign said that it was at the next
exit, that was when Daniel slammed on the brakes and pulled over on the side of
the road, his breathing intensified once more.
“I can’t do this. I can’t go back there, Raven. I’ll go
fucking crazy,” said Daniel through a shaky voice.
“I know this is hard for you, but you need to trust me on
this one. Within the holy grounds is a portal to the elven world. You’re going
to see some things that you hoped you’d never see again, but I’m here for you.
I wouldn’t bring you back here if I didn’t think it was important for you to
see my king. He can help you. And you can help him. Whether you know it or not,
the world needs your help, Daniel,” said Raven with a soothing tone.
Daniel shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and said,
“What the fuck do I have to offer to the world? I can’t just sing my way
through all of this. Music can only do so much. It was never meant to do much
against a blade-swinging maniac!”
Raven placed her tender arm around Daniel’s shoulders and
said, “You can do this. It’s either this or a lifetime full of pain and misery.
I like your chances better when you actually put forth the effort to healing
yourself. Or you can sit around in your home while bills pill up, debt
collectors scream at you, and your house eventually gets taken away. You can
either be traumatized at the arena, or you can be traumatized on the streets. I
hate being this rough with you, but that’s the reality of it.”
After Raven removed her arm, Daniel stared out the shattered
windshield with his eyes half closed and his mind numbed out. It would be
another half minute before he started the van again and bolted down the highway
towards the exit ramp. He felt like a human popsicle with the chilled feeling
in his blood intensifying. But when he finally pulled into the parking lot, his
facial expression changed from a vegetative zombie to a warrior ready to march
into battle. He turned to Raven and sternly warned her, “You’d better be right
about this portal. I’m not fucking around with you.”
Both passengers got out of the van and began walking around
the arena with the chilly morning air blowing gently against them. All of this
walking was the first real form of exercise that Daniel got ever since the
incident took place. Being mobile and active actually felt good on his Novocain
mind. It was common knowledge that exercise was essential to a healthy life,
but feeling this sudden burst of endorphins relaxed Daniel a little bit. It
also helped that Raven held his hand the entire time. They had just met and
would probably never be a romantic couple in a million years, but this was a
stark contrast to the “coward” labeling from back at the house.
Daniel and Raven were so busy getting their exercise in that
the former failed to notice a small stump that tripped him without knocking him
over. “Sorry, Vulture Man, didn’t see you there.” The Lord of the Pit realized
the gravity of what he absentmindedly said. His eyes widened, his lips
quivered, his body trembled, and his intestines felt like he got hit in the
stomach with a baseball bat. He didn’t want to turn his head, but when he
slowly did so, that was when the realization hit him like a thunderous right
hand. The bureaucratic geniuses who scoped this place forgot one measly little
detail: the heads and spinal columns of Daniel’s former band mates, which were
covered in grass, though still visible to the naked eye.
“Daniel, please don’t cry. Please hold it together. It’ll be
okay,” begged Raven with her hands together prayer-style.
After a few tears trickled down the Lord of the Pit’s
shaking face, he let out a blood-curdling scream like he had just walked into a
horror movie. The pathetic nature of his screaming fit caused Raven to slowly
back away from him while holding her hands in a defensive, pseudo-calming
gesture.
The traumatic rage sent Daniel running like a wild man into
the woods where he began scraping at a nearby tree with his fingernails. He
climbed up the sturdy oak like a wild animal, slipping and sliding a few times,
but ultimately achieving his destination at the highest branch. He curled into
a ball and rocked back and forth while muttering nonsense to himself and
shedding an avalanche of tears. His head felt like he just got kicked by an
angry horse with steel shoes. If he could, he would stay up in this safe place
for the rest of his life. What good was he as a hero if he was constantly
fleeing like this?
With more grace and athleticism than her male counterpart,
Raven scaled the tree and took a seat next to Daniel while wrapping her arm
around him and fluffing his hair yet again. “It’s okay, Daniel. It’s okay.
You’re going to be just fine. I need you to trust me. I know of something that
will help you put your mind at ease. I should have done this earlier, but I see
that you need it now more than ever. You can even do this yourself if you’re
ever feeling helpless.”
“Get lost, you crazy bitch! What can you possibly do to help
me now?! Look at me, I’m a train wreck!” shouted Daniel. Raven placed one hand
on each of his shoulders and tapped them rhythmically one at a time. “Wait a
minute, what are you doing?” Daniel asked. The elf warrior continued this
strange form of therapy while the Lord of the Pit’s tears started to dry up and
his sitting position became more relaxed. He had no idea what his new friend
was doing or why it was working, but as long as he found his temporary peace,
he wouldn’t complain.
“Deep breath in…and out,” said Raven, to which Daniel
complied. “If you had agreed to go to a trauma therapist, he would do this
exact same thing for you, but with an electrical device or a light board. It’s
called EMDR, or Eye Movement Distortion Reprocessing. I know this because I had
to start doing it for my people when they experienced the trauma of having
their homes invaded. While you don’t necessarily have to use your eyes to do
it, it’s supposed to use both halves of your brain to deal with a traumatic
memory, hence the patting of both sides of your shoulders. Psychologists swear
by this treatment. And I can see it’s beginning to work for you.”
Raven continued to apply this therapeutic technique and
Daniel’s breathing became deeper and more stable. She added positive messages
to this unique treatment when she said, “The deaths of your band mates and the
audience members are not your fault, Daniel. You didn’t swing the blade. You
didn’t hold hateful beliefs in your heart. You didn’t spread terrorism of any
kind. You were there to play music. The dark fantasy tropes of Demon Axe are
more than just a gimmick. They’re a creative force that is just as important as
the heavy metal music itself. Creativity is what will set you free in the end,
not mindless conformity. You knew that when you formed Demon Axe and it’s still
true to this day.”
The therapy had ended, but the recovery was just beginning
for Daniel Mercer. As he looked down at his lap, he contemplated having to use
this same technique in the future for the journey that lied ahead. Everything
that Raven told him just then was true. Creativity killed conformity. Dark
magic is not sinful. And goddamn it, the Lord of the Pit was far from finished.
He looked at Raven with dewy eyes and a renewed sense of
purpose. “I’m ready. Let’s go,” he said. The two of them slowly descended the
treetops and continued their walking exercise for the day. Daniel walked by the
severed heads and spinal columns of his former friends and merely waved at them
before saying, “I’m doing this for you guys. Your deaths will not be in vain.”
Raven patted her friend on the back and squeezed his
shoulders as they trekked along the blood-bathed arena. She along with Daniel
held the lives of everybody who came to the concert in their hands. They were
determined to bring peace to this world and to the fallen ones if it meant
using every last breath of fresh air and every last shred of strength to do it.
And right at that moment, Daniel felt stronger than Greek titan.
