Jack, feeling upset, longs to get lost in the crowd before Jenny, and especially Robert, sees it. The crowd has all but dispersed though, while he was talking. And without him even noticing, the band on stage has finished its set. Most of the people in the crowd have moved onto their next venue of choice or sat down. Jack feels Jenny’s and Robert’s eyes on him as he moves away, and then to add insult to injury, he trips over a stray foot of somebody sitting down. Jack doesn’t turn to apologise. He catches his fall and carries on walking.
He struggles to understand why he is so upset that he is on the verge of tears, for God’s sake? Jenny ended their relationship a long time ago and it was easily the hardest time of his life when she had; he had nearly gone completely off the rails. Only recently has he begun to get some semblance of normality back and started to feel like himself again. Of course, he has wondered if she has had other men in her life since they broke up. Was he kidding himself that she hadn’t, that she and his daughter had been living in isolation? He thought that he had got Jenny out of his system, but obviously, she wasn’t, not completely anyway. He still wants to provide for her and Sophie, and that’s why he is here, risking everything. It was either this or go travelling, to lose himself, to who knows where. He could never do that though; he loves Sophie far too much to leave her.
Pull yourself together, Jack tells himself, don’t be so hard on yourself. It is hardly surprising seeing Jenny with another man has had an effect. Slowly, Jack quenches his feelings. He needs to concentrate, get this weekend done and get his life back on track.
Jack finds himself at the top of a low grass verge. The verge, in between the tree and the bushes, leads down, out of the main field, into another field that has the two smaller marquees pitched in it. He looks back over his shoulder but he cannot see Jenny now. She is lost in the melee of people moving in all directions.
Jack trots down the shallow verge, eager to move on from his shock and carry on with his task. With the main stage quiet for the moment while it prepares for the next act, Jack finds plenty of potential customers in the new field. He places himself in the area between the two marquees, where crowds move from one to the other and business is brisk. Jack finds that he will be running out of merchandise himself in the not-too-distant future and he had doubted that would happen.
The two marquees that flank him are smaller than the massive one, back where he entered the Arena. They are by no means small, however, and are big marquees in their own right. One is called ‘Tone Stage’ and the other has an ominous sign reading ‘The Chasm’. Jack has resisted long enough, so he decides to take a break and makes his way over to a bar opposite The Chasm to get a beer.
Get a move on! Jack shouts in his head as the queue for the bar comes to a standstill. Jack hates queuing at the best of times, never mind when he is gasping for a drink and people are more interested in chatting than getting served. He had only planned on one beer, but panic-buys two when he is eventually served. He has drunk half of one of the beers before he has even exited the bar area, and it certainly hits the spot. Finishing off the first beer, Jack tosses the paper cup onto the grass and cradles his second. Nobody gives him a dirty look or challenges him for littering as would be the case in almost any other situation. It is standard procedure here at the festival. Somebody will eagerly retrieve the cup off the ground, it will be a prize for them. A small amount of cash is offered for every cup returned to be recycled. People, usually youngsters without much money to spend, trawl the festival collecting them so that they can get enough cash together for their next drink.
Sure enough, a young girl of nineteen or twenty arrives to pick up the cup, almost before it has had a chance to settle. She giggles to her friend as she pushes it into the top of a growing tower of cups that her friend is holding. The occasional joker likes to pass the time by attaching a length of fishing wire or cotton to a cup. Then when the poor youngster bends down to pick up the cup the joker tugs it from their grasp at the last second, for all around to chuckle at. Jack personally thinks this ‘joke’ is a bit cruel on the hapless youngster.
Jack notices many people moving back towards to the main field as the next performance must be approaching. Fans who are actually here to enjoy the music, unlike Jack, will have timetables. They will know who is performing on what stage and at what time, and some will have made detailed plans of where they need to be and at what time to catch the performances they simply cannot miss. Unless, of course, there is a dreaded ‘clash’ when two acts they want to see are playing at the same time on different stages around the festival.
Even with his beer in his hand, Jack gets sales done as the people pass him by. The Chasm marquee opposite him is pumping out heavy rock music; it is busy with fans but not completely packed out. With only half of his second beer left, he decides to go and check out the band creating the heavy music while finishing it off.
The volume of the raucous band slashing away at their guitars increases exponentially when Jack crosses the threshold into the marquee. The material of the coned roof catches at least some of the sound waves and stops them escaping the marquee.
Jack looks around at the audience, which seems to be split into two sections. The perimeter of the marquee is lined with people, Jack would guess, who aren’t familiar with the heavy band upfront, jumping about on stage. They have come to check out the band from a distance, probably killing time until an act more familiar to them comes on stage. The music is raw with a post-punk vibe and the people around the perimeter don’t look like post-punk types, but still, they watch on, tapping their feet and moving their heads in time to the music.
The real fans are in the centre and at the front, packed in more tightly the closer they get to the stage. The fans there are really getting involved, bouncing and jumping higher as the music builds. Jack moves forward to get a closer look at the melee, the music building inside him too. He has no intention of joining the mosh pit; those days are behind him, but he can stand on the edges of it, reminisce and feel some of its energy.
The beat builds and the lead singer of the band shouts out, winding up the crowd even further. To the untrained eye, you might be shocked and think that fights were breaking out as the dancing gets heavier, and as arms are thrown and people are barged and pushed. There is no malice intended by the participants though; they are all in it together and if somebody falls and goes down, another will pull them up, to shove them again. On occasion, people retreat from the mosh pit with bloody noses or black eyes, but these are accidents and badges of honour.
Jack watches on, remembering the times he has been in the middle of the mosh pit, giving as good as he gets.
Suddenly, the music stops and the lead singer screams out. A low beat starts and the crowd starts to push back from the centre. A circle pit is formed, everybody pushes farther back, making it bigger. Men with their tops off jump into the centre of the pit and barge into each other before moving back to the perimeter. A woman runs from one side of the pit to the other, pulling her top up and exposing her breasts to a crescendo of cheers.
The music starts to build, and soon, everyone will jump into the middle and go wild as the music peaks. Jack smiles, waiting for the moment to happen.
A man jumps into the centre, the music building, his thinly muscled torso covered in tattoos that spread down his arms to his wrists. The man is fiercely intimidating and nobody has the guts to jump in and challenge him. He has the pit to himself for the moment to flex his muscles and scream at the crowd.
Suddenly, it hits Jack that he knows the fearsome man. He looks totally different without his sharp suit and slicked-back hair. Rouben Ivanov is the man commanding the centre of the circle pit. His eyes are bulged and the muscles on his entire body tighten as the music peaks and the entire crowd jumps into the middle to join him.
Jack’s eyes follow Rouben as he goes into a frenzy with everyone else. Anyone who dares to invade his space is sent flying away from him, his strength and stamina awesome.
Jack wonders if he has been sampling his own products?
Rouben moves, barging people out of the way, heading for the front of the stage and Jack loses him in the crowd. The crowd continues to bounce as the band thrash their guitars and smash their drums. The lead singer is driving proceedings, leaning over the stage to get as close to the crowd as possible. The singer is then pulling somebody up and onto the stage. Jack sees the tattooed back of Rouben being pulled up to join the band. He gets to his feet and turns to the audience, jumping and spreading his arms, his face wild as he absorbs the crowd's energy. Then he takes a few steps back before running and launching himself into the crowd, diving from the stage.
The tightly packed crowd catch Rouben, their arms reaching up to stop him crashing into their heads. Rouben is held aloft, on his back, with his arms spread like a messiah. He is passed around, appearing to float above the crowd below. Jack can see Rouben’s face, which is upside down as he is passed farther back by his worshippers. His face is crazed, eyes wild, he looks almost inhuman.
Jack takes a step back, admitting to himself that he is frightened by Rouben’s crazed face and the crowd getting wilder below him. The mosh pit is unlike anything Jack has experienced before, it feels evil, dangerous and it is still building.
Others, around Jack, move forward to get closer to Rouben, reaching out to try and touch him as if he is the rock star, not the lead singer who is on stage. A fevered young woman screams, reaching out for Rouben; her face too is wild and Jack recognises it. She had made one of the first purchases from Jack, earlier in the day, with her boyfriend, who Jack sees nearby. Her young pretty face has changed now; she is going wild like a banshee, literally snarling at Rouben. Finally, Rouben floats close enough for her to touch him, and her hand touches the side of his face.
Without warning, Rouben’s head turns quickly and his mouth opens, his fake white teeth flashing. Shock courses through Jack’s entire body as the teeth bite into the young woman’s raised arm and into her wrist. Blood spirts from around Rouben’s mouth, gushing over the people around, as he bites down hard into her flesh. What the fuck is going on? Jack thinks as Rouben continues to bite down on the young woman. She screams, but it is a scream of ecstasy as if she is climaxing, her face full of wild delight.
Jack wants no part of whatever this is. He backs away farther to leave the mob to their sick ritual, which as far as he is concerned has nothing to do with music. Rouben’s mouth releases the young woman’s arm. Jack wishes he could pull his eyes away from the pouring blood that splashes onto the faces of the crowd around the woman. She waves her arms around to the beat of the music like a trophy, the blood flying in all directions.
Against his better judgement, Jack looks at Rouben, and he immediately regrets it. Rouben’s head is still back as he is held aloft, streaks of blood running down his cheeks and around his wide eyes, eyes that have Jack fixed in the glare. Rouben snarls at Jack as if to confirm he has seen him. Rouben starts to roll over as if he is about to descend from his cradle.
Fear bolts inside Jack. No way does he want Rouben to get to him and he quickly turns, pushing his way through the throngs of people that have come forward to join in with the sickos. Their eyes are wild, almost beast-like and they push in the opposite direction, threatening to stop Jack’s escape. His arms come up and push people aside, a rising panic spurring him on. Etiquette is thrown out of the window as he forces himself through. Finally, he reaches the fringes of the throng and then he is free of it.
Jack keeps going, he speeds to the marquee opening, too frightened to look over his shoulder and risk seeing Rouben following him. Suddenly, thankfully, he is outside and still, he keeps going to put distance between him and the crazy people in the marquee. He mixes in with the crowds outside the marquee, feeling safer in their midst as they flow up the shallow verge and into the main field.
Only then does Jack stop and turn, using a tree to hide behind. He peers around the tree, back down at the Chasm marquee. Nobody is following him, in fact, nobody is coming out of the marquee; people are only going into it. From the distance, it looks normal, like a normal gig where the fans are having a great time, no wonder more people are going to join in. They have no idea what is in store for them inside. Jack isn’t sure what is going on, but whatever it is, it isn’t normal, not even for the most hardcore of gigs.
Chapter 11
Leaning back against the tree, Jack slowly starts to calm down. He looks up to the sky from which the sun has almost disappeared, to try and clear his head. What the fuck was going on inside that marquee? Jack thinks. Daryl had told Jack that Rouben was a bit of a nutter, but he never mentioned him taking bites of flesh out of people; that is a completely different ballpark. Jack cannot remember ever being so shocked and scared. He had thought he was going to be next on Rouben’s tasting menu.
The man had looked vicious, like a zombie or a demon. Surely it wasn’t just the music that had sent him wild. Jack wonders again if he has been sampling his own product and looks down at his nearly empty hip bag. If it was his own product, was it the same stuff that they have been selling all day or something else? Then it hits Jack. Rouben wasn’t the only one in that marquee that was going psycho. The woman whose arm Rouben had bitten, she wasn’t right either. She was just an excited young woman, with her boyfriend out for a good time, until she bought what Jack was selling to help her along. Dmitri Ivanov had said that the product was a new recipe; what the hell was in this new recipe? Is it the cause of Rouben’s behaviour, and the others’, because the young woman wasn’t the only one going crazy in there?
Stop being paranoid, Jack tells himself and brings his head down to focus on the reality around him. Things went wild in The Chasm and some people got out of hand; it’s not the first time it’s happened at a gig and won’t be the last. Times have moved on. Perhaps Jack is out of touch and showing his age.
Jack’s mind quickly rationalises the crazy kids in the marquee. Water is poured on the burning fear that moments before made him push his way out, escaping the situation as quickly as he could.
Excited fans move in all directions, but mainly towards the main stage to get into the best position possible before the headline act comes on. Jack suddenly feels ridiculous and cowardly for the way he acted. Why did he scare so easily?
He looks at the bar just on his right, and could do with a quick beer to completely settle his nerves. It’s rush hour at the bar though, and the queue is long, it snakes through all of the crowd control barriers set up at the front. Shit, Jack thinks, no way is he going to join the end of that. A security guard is standing at the exit and facing away from him, towards the main crowd, which may give Jack a sneaky chance to dodge the queue.
He strolls innocently up to the side of the bar where there is a small gap in the barrier. Quickly, Jack squeezes through the gap and walks up the side of the bar, towards the serving area. He hears somebody in the queue protest to the security guard, but Jack doesn’t stop. He walks along the bar and slots into the first vacant space he sees without looking around.
“One beer, please,” he tells the bearded young man, who is waiting for the next customer. Within a couple of seconds, a beer stands in front of Jack, and Jack is handing over his money.
“Haven’t you got anything smaller?” the barman asks, looking at the fifty Jack has given him.
“I’m afraid not,” Jack lies. He has got smaller, but he doesn’t want to start pulling bundles of cash out to look.
“I’ll have to get some change,” the annoyed barman says, and turns to the back of the bar.
Jack picks up the beer to have a taste while he waits for his change, turning to look at the queue as he does. He tries to get an idea of who tried to alert the security guard but nobody is looking in his direction.
Behind the queue, the main field is packed with a large audience ready for the next act to take to the main stage. The atmosphere is building and the crowd's excitement is growing. A light flashes above the main st
age which raises a cheer from the crowd. The cheer is premature though because nothing follows the flash; it must have been a test of equipment or a ploy to build up the excitement.
Two women walk past the bar and Jack immediately recognises one of them. How could he not? He has been thinking about her all day, it’s Veronica! Jack’s heart skips a beat. Somebody up high must be looking down on him to bring Veronica to him again.
“Your change, my friend,” the barman says behind him.
Jack makes the mistake of turning to the barman to get his change, because when he turns back around, Veronica has disappeared. Jack moves away from the bar quickly and heads for the exit, past the unsuspecting security guard. He looks in the direction Veronica and her friend were heading in, searching. The crowd is dense, with people moving all around its fringes and he cannot see her.
Fucking hell, which way did she go? Jack thinks, craning his neck to try and see over the tops of people’s heads. Did she turn left and go down the verge into the other field, or perhaps right, into the main crowd? Jack suspects she would have gone right to find a position in the crowd to watch the imminent show on the main stage.
His odds of finding Veronica in the crowd are slim; there are so many people packed into the main field. Nevertheless, Jack decides to try. He will head for the area behind the sound tower, where he spotted Jenny.
Jack feels himself take a breath in as he leaves the fringe of the field and goes into battle to fight his way through the dense crowd. This part of the crowd isn’t even that close to the stage and is outside the barriered areas at the front but it’s packed. Jack has to move forward side on, to slip through the gaps between groups of people. Occasionally, there is a pocket in the crowd with a bit more space and when he reaches one, he moves onto his tiptoes in a futile attempt to catch a glimpse of where Veronica could be. With the weaker sun, however, the tops of people’s heads start to look the same.
Kill Tone Page 11
