24 hours

Mike’s POV
“I cannot spend another night in this home
I close my eyes and take a breath real slow
The consequence is if I leave I'm alone
But what's the difference when you beg for love?

As I run through glass in the street
Kerosene hearts carry the name that my father gave me
And take the face of the wolf

'Cause this is a wasteland, my only retreat
With heaven above you, there's hell over me”

I hear Vic sing. Hundreds of kids are singing along, but he is heard loud and clear. I slam my drumstick as hard as I can against my drums and bang my head at the beat. The most fun thing about this song is that it’s nice and fast. I like these kind of songs, because I can release all of my energy in them.
From my spot in the back of the stage, I could see louds of people dancing and screaming along to our song. Some of them were even crying. I would say I was used to that sight, but that isn’t true. You never get used to a sight like this. I guess that’s what was most fun about my job.

“You said what about us, well, what about me?
Hang from the gallows asleep in the rain
'Cause this is a wasteland, my only retreat
Paralyze me
Don't let me jump, don't let me fall!”

Vic screamed out the last words and then it was up to me to end the song. I hit my drums a last few times, and with that, the song had ended. The volume from the crowd increased with cheers and screams.
I saw Jaime and Tony, who were already covered in sweat, walk to each other and give each other a fist bump. I chuckled. My friends were such idiots.
“Hello New York!” Vic said in the mic and another wave of screams and cheers filled my ears. “We’re so glad to be back! Warped has always been one of our favorite tours, so…”
When Vic was doing his usual talk about how delighted we were to be here, I looked into the crowd and examined the people in it. It was a habit of mine. At warped you could actually see the faces. In other venues, the lights were so blinding, that you could barely see a face in the crowd. Warped was different, because it was outside and during the day, so there were no bright lights needed.
I saw a girl with pink hair and a boy with black hair make out in the middle of the crowd, I saw a girl who had written ‘PTV’ on her forehead with eyeliner, I saw a man in his forties who looked like he had no idea what he was doing here.
And then my eye fell on a face I hadn’t seen in at least half a year, but it was a face I’d recognize anywhere. Our eyes met and she smiled at me, I was a little bit too shocked to react at first but eventually I smiled back.
Only when I heard the guitar riff of ‘chemical kids and mechanical brides’ fill the air, I broke the eye contact and picked up my drumsticks again. I couldn’t believe she was here. A short film of those twenty-four hours replayed in my head.
I had been thinking a lot about it the first few weeks after we got freed, but since a few months the memories of our capture came back to my mind less and less often. Now everything came back at me tough. It felt surreal that she was here.
Jaime looked behind him, in my direction with a confused face. I didn’t see it though, because I was sunken in thought. I didn’t even notice I started drumming a lot slower than I usually did.
“As you fall fast asleep, it reminds me
Of the slow symphonies behind me”
I stopped drumming at this part and Jaime walked over to my drums as Vic and Tony ended the song together. “What’s wrong dude?” he asked half laughing. “You were rubbish.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well thanks, Himes. How nice.” I said.
“Dude, what’s going on?” He asked and I gestured him to come closer. Not that anyone would be able to hear anything over Tony’s guitar, but still.
“Amara is here.” I said. Jaime pulled back and a smile slowly grew on his face.
He took my snapback off my head and messed up my hair with his other hand. “Try to keep your head on the music, buddy. You can talk to her afterwards.” He said and he walked over to Vic who had just finished the song. He whispered something in Vic’s ear and Vic looked at me and laughed. I couldn’t help but turn a little red, but tried to cover it up by tightening the screws on my drums. They had teased me so much with my elevator story. I always acted like I didn’t like to talk about it, but that wasn’t true. I just liked talking about her to be honest. Maybe I had done that a little bit too much the first month, it was one of the reasons they kept teasing me about it.
The rest of our set went incredibly slow. Caraphernelia. I tried to search the crowd for her face again, but couldn’t find it. The divine zero. Ugh there were too many people here. Texas is forever. I actually just wanted to run off stage and search her. The first punch. Was it a coincidence that she was her? Bulletproof love. Or was she her to see me? And finally king for a day.
I heard Kellin ask Vic: “What’s up with, Mike?” and he pointed towards me. I tried to act like I didn’t hear it.
Vic chuckled and waved it away. “It’s a girl. The elevator girl.” He said and he wiggled his eyebrows.
Kellin laughed and then the intro to King for a day started. I decided to give everything for this time. That wasn’t hard with this song, it was so intense.
“We'd rather die than live to rust on the ground” and with that our final song finally ended. We heard the crowd scream “shit!” and then it was over. I don’t think I had ever been so happy a set was over as now.
I walked to the front of the stage and did a bow with the guys. As we walked off stage, into the backstage area, several people handed us towels and bottles of water. I dried my forehead and hair with my towel and dumped it somewhere on a chair.
I walked towards the exit, eager to start searching for her until I bumped up to our manager. “Where do you think you are going?” he asked and I sighed. “You have a signing in a few minutes!”
Ugh. I forgot about that, it meant I had to wait even longer. “I was just-“ I started but I was interrupted by Vic, who suddenly stood beside me. “Just let him go for a little while, dude. The signing is in fifteen minutes, he’ll back by then. Aren’t you, Mike?” he said and he looked at me.
I eagerly nodded my head. Our manager squinted his eyes at me first, but then smiled. “Okay. But be back in time!” he said and I nodded again.
I ran off towards the exit and looked behind one last time to mouth “You owe me.” to Vic.
I walked out of the backstage part and hoped that no fan would recognize me right now. I loved my fans and I loved meeting every single one of them…any time but now.
I decided to look around the stage where we had performed. Another band was setting up now and it was a lot more quiet than a few minutes ago. I looked around the place, but couldn’t find her. What color shirt was she wearing? Why didn’t I think of remembering that? That would’ve made things a lot easier.
I felt time tick away as I checked all the stages on the massive grounds of Warped. But no Amara. Five minutes before time I started to think that she wasn’t here at all, that it been a very different person and I just thought it was her.
I was just about head back when I saw a girl with red hair stand in front of one of the food stands. She wore a purple Pierce the Veil shirt and was eating a sandwich. It was Rosey, Amara’s best friend.
And yes, beside her stood Amara. Her long brown here fell on her back and she was wearing a white Pierce the Veil shirt. The shirt she had worn half a year ago to our concert. I recognized my autograph close to the hem of the shirt.
I felt a few nerves rise up in me as I walked up to her. It felt so weird to see her, I didn’t think I would ever see her again.
“Hi.” I said when I reached them. She turned to me and a smile grew on her face. “Hey.” She responded. It was weird, I had almost forgotten what her voice sounded like.
Rosey looked at me, then at Amara and sighed. “I’m just going to check out that merch stall.” She said and she walked off shaking her head with a smile on her face.
“Soo…How are you?” I asked a little awkwardly when Rosey was out of sight. She chuckled at my cliché question.
“I’m alright. And you?” she asked.
“I’m very good.” I said and meaning it. “So, why exactly are you at Warped? It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you would go to.” I looked around me. Most of the people around me had colored hair, piercings, tattoos and/or band shirts.
She nodded with her head in Rosey’s direction, who was trying really obviously not to stare at us. “Rosey. She basically forced me again.But as I promised you. I gave in a little easier this time.” She said and she had a smile on her face that I had never seen before. I felt like she had changed a lot in the last couple of months. In a good way. She seemed less tense.
I felt a warm feeling spread through my veins. “I’m glad you did.” I said and then suddenly I realized I was already late to my signing. “Oh shit, I need to go. I have a signing.”
Her face dropped a little. “Fuck. I was just going to suggest to play strip poker.” She said and I laughed.
“We can still do that. Maybe in two hours or something. And if you can’t find cards to play with, we can also just grab a coffee.” I said and I added a wink.
She moved a piece of her beautiful brown hair behind her ear. “Are you actually asking me out on a proper date, Mr. Fuentes?” she said teasingly. Her teeth brushed over her lips as she said my last name. Damn, she was so sexy. Keep it together, Mike!
“I’ve already done that once and I won’t ask it again. This is your last chance, missy!” I said.
She looked away for a moment and I saw a slight pink color appear on her pale cheeks.
“Okay…” she finally said. “I’ll go on a date with you.”
For some reason that surprised me. Getting her to go on a date had been so hard last time. “Really?” I said and unfortunately my shock was heard in my voice. She laughed at it and nodded. “Okay…well…uhm. In two hours at this spot?” I asked and she nodded again.
“Okay. See you then!” I said.
“Yeah! I’ll be here.” She said and then I walked off.

*

Two hours later, I walked over to the spot we had met up earlier. I found my hands starting to sweat and I wiped them off on my jeans.
When I got there she already stood there, looking through something on her phone. Her long brown hair slowly fell in front of her face and she put it behind her ear again. Everything about her appearance made me think of the memories we shared of our twenty-four hours in that elevator. Her hair, for example, made me think about the time we had made out on the elevator floor. Her hair had surrounded our heads, like curtains to hide what was going on.
Her lips reminded me of the sweet kisses we had shared, but most of all the last kiss we had shared. I had felt the pressure of her lips on mine for the entire night after that. Her shirt made me think of the many times it had fallen on the ground and the fact that I actually first thought she was a fan. Her fingers made me think of the time they had traced over my skin, in awe of my Harry Potter tattoos.
She looked up when I was only a few feet away and her familiar smile appeared on her face. “So what have you planned for this date?” she said teasingly.
A smile grew on my face too. “I promised you a coffee and I always keep my promise. We will follow every hipster date ritual and go to Starbucks.” I said and she giggled. “but after that I want to take you to my favorite place in New York city.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’ve lived in this city my entire life, what makes you think I don’t know the place already?” she said crossing her arms over each other. She was going to make this hard on me and I liked it. Easy girls were boring.
“I just know it. Just trust me.” I said.
“I don’t like surprises.”
“I know.”
She squinted her eyes at me and eventually shook her head. “Alright. Let’s go be hipsters!” she said enthusiastically and it made my heart melt. She wasn’t often enthusiastic, so if she was, it was adorable.
On our way towards the exit of Warped, I got mopped by a few fans who wanted a few pictures. It took ten minutes, but luckily Amara didn’t mind. “It was actually kind of cute how you acted around them.” She said and I tried hard to hide the red color I was getting.
When we got out of Warped, I suddenly realized that New York city was definitely one of my favorite cities ever. That says something because I have been almost everywhere. Just the ambiance that filled the place and the fact that you always got surprised with what you saw made it special. Let’s just say that a lot of weird shit walked the streets of New York.
A few blocks away from Warped was the nearest Starbucks and we got in. It was clearly that we weren’t the only ones having a hipster date today, as practically every table in the place was taken. We decided that we would order our drinks and then drink it outside of the place. It was probably better anyway. At least outside we could make fun of the cliché couples inside without getting weird looks.
And that’s exactly what we did. Around four pm in the afternoon we were sitting on a bench outside the shop, laughing our asses off. That’s probably one of the best things about Amara. She didn’t mind if you were being offensive around her, on the contrary she would be just as offensive with you.
After a few minutes of laughing the conversation slowly faded out. It was one of those moments were you could feel the conversation fly out of the window and through the cracks crawled an old friend called awkwardness.
Out of panic I eventually said: “So, how did things end up between you and your dad?” Great Mike. You should definitely begin about such a sensitive topic on the first date. Great move.
The awkwardness between us didn’t go away, since my question was simply a stupid one. “Uhm…well…” she said a bit blown away by my question.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.” I said waving away the question.
She lightly chuckled. “No, it’s okay. I just forgot you knew all those things about me. Not many people do, you know.” She said and she looked down at her frappe thingy in her hand.
“Well, you certainly get to know a person well when you’re locked up in an elevator with them.” I said still cringing a bit over my stupid question. I was curious about the answer though. It seemed to affect her so much back then. I really hoped she found piece with it somehow.
“True.” She said and she took a sip of her drink. “I met up with him once. After the police released him and found out he wasn’t the one who locked us up in the elevator. We just got lunch together and talked about insignificant things. I didn’t want to discuss all the deep things with him. Maybe in the future, but not now. I don’t need a relationship with him again, but it helped a lot to see him in a friendly way. I think I got closure because of it.”
I was a bit taken back by her honesty. Half a year ago I had to almost beg her to make her tell me these things. It felt great to have her trust like this.
“I’m happy for you. You certainly look a lot happier than back then.” I said and another question clouded my mind. “But if he didn’t sabotage the elevator? Who did?”
I think I had given the police a wrong phone number, because they never called me about the case again. I had always kind of thought her dad would be behind the sabotage.
She stood up, walked over to a trashcan and threw her cup in it. “It was an accident.” She said sitting down next to me again. “Faith playing its part, god playing a prank on us. Or whatever you want to call it.” She seemed to find it pretty funny. I thought back to our first hours in the elevator. She had basically freaked out. I didn’t think back then, that she would ever find it funny.
“I like the ‘god pulling a prank on us’ thing. I have always thought the dude had a sense of humor.” I said.
“I definitely agree with you since that day half a year ago.” She said shaking her head smiling.
I stood up and reached out my hand for her to get up. “C’mon. Let’s go to that place I wanted to show you.” I said and she laid her hand in mine like a princess would do on a ball when she’s asked to dance with.
I held back from making a Snow White joke as I helped her up. But when she stood on her feet again, she didn’t let go of my hand. So we kind of just walked the streets of New York hand in hand.
For at least half an hours we walked, as I tried to remember where exactly it was. I had been there only twice. Half a year ago and three and a half years ago. Along the way Amara tried to uncover where we would go, but I kept silent and that drove her crazy. Which was fucking cute.
We walked into a bad part of the Bronx when she said: “You have no idea where you’re going, haven’t you?”
I groaned a little. “I actually know the way very well, thank you very much.” I said. To be honest, I had lost the way a few times, but I was too arrogant to admit it. Besides, I actually knew where we were going now.
We turned a corner and a few abandoned houses came into view. Some guys that all looked like bad rappers past us on the streets and in the far distance we heard the sound of police sirens mix up with a car alarm. The houses looked like no one had lived in it for years. Garbage had piled up in the front yards and windows were smashed.
Amara looked a little unsure, but nonetheless I pulled her towards the familiar house on the corner of the streets. From the outside it looked just like the rest of the houses in this neighborhood, but I knew better.
“Uhm…Mike, are you sure it’s here?” she asked when I let go of her hand to open the white fence that almost lost all of its paint. There was a hint of fear hearable in her voice.
I chuckled and gestured her to walk in the garden. “Just wait it out. I promise it won’t disappoint you.” I said mysteriously and I knew that would make her even more annoyed of curiosity.
She carefully walked into the garden and I swung open the creaking door. She was already walking towards the living room, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the stairs. “Look out, there are some nails scattered over the stairs.” I said so she wouldn’t stand in one of them.
“Great.” She said sarcastically and I laughed a little. I had felt exactly the same about this place when I was here the first time.
At the top of the stairs I guided her to a room to our right. I knew for a fact that every other room in the house was empty, accept for the one we were going to.
As we entered the room, I immediately turned on the lights, because the windows were blacked out. A string of little lights lit up through the room revealing the graffiti art work on the wall across from us. ‘The bulls of the Bronx’ it said in big colorful letters. Above the letters was an animated version of a bull pictured. The bright shades of pink, green and purple gave the whole room a happy feeling. Against the wall stood a shaky, wooden desk, with an old-fashioned record player. Next to the desk was a tall closet full with shelves with records on them.
I looked beside me and saw that Amara had slightly opened her mouth, looking at the scenery in front of her with awe.
I chuckled. “I told you to trust me.” I said a little cocky.
She closed her mouth and smiled. She gave me a soft push against my arm. “What’s is this place?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I have no idea. Me and the guys found it one time when we just had a show in New York. The graffiti on the wall actually inspired the title of our song ‘Bulls in the Bronx’” I said and I took a hold of her hand again.
She nodded. “I like that song.” She said. Wow. She had been listening to our music. “Do you think some sort of gang meets up here or something?”
“Could be. Whoever made this place has an amazing record collection, though.” I said and I dragged her towards the desk.
She traced the old record player with the tips of her fingers. “Is this an old one?” she asked.
“I guess so.” I said letting go of her hand again. I looked at the records and I tried to find one in particular.
“This is so cool!” she admitted and I felt a wave of relieve wash over me. For a few minutes I actually thought I had blew the date by taking her here.
“Yes! Found it.” I said pulling out the dusty record. I blew the dust of the cover and looked at it with pride. I turned it around so it would face her.
“Holy shit!” she said and her eyes got big. She grabbed the maxi single eagerly out of my hands which made me laugh a little. It was the single of ‘Hotel California’ by the eagles. This was exactly why I had come here with her. I knew it was here and I knew this song had a special meaning to her. A special meaning to the both us actually, as it was an important moment in those twenty-four hours.
She gently took the record out of the cover and put it in the record player like it was made out of glass. She put the needle on the record as it span and not long after the familiar relaxing tune of Hotel California filled the room.
The little lights shown down on Amara’s face and sparkled in her eyes. Her skin had a warm shade, like she felt warm and comfortable. I basically couldn’t help myself when I asked: “Wanna dance?”
She looked at me and chuckled. “First the hipster coffee and now dancing. Can this date get any cornier?” she said laughing.
“Hey! I took you to an abandoned house in the middle of the Bronx! You gotta give credit to my unique idea.” I said, faking an offended voice.
“Maybe I should.” She said as she put her arms around my neck. I placed my hands on her lower back and pulled her a little bit closer. We started to slowly move to the rhythm of the song. It felt amazing to be so close to her again. Definitely when she laid down her head on my chest. When we were dancing there, it felt like time didn’t exist anymore. Like it stood still, just to give us the opportunity to dance without time chasing us.
When the song ended, it felt like we had just been in space and we had now crashed on earth again. A wave of reality washed over us, ruining our little moment of complete happiness. She let go of me and walked over to the record play to turn it off. When she had done that she turned around to face me and placed her hands on the desk so she could lean on it. “You know, we could go back to see it again. The venue is only a few blocks away from here.” She said and she smirked.
I stared at her contagious smile when I said: “Yup. Let’s go the place we’ve been locked up in!”
She laughed. “Yay for nostalgia.” She said.
And indeed, at seven in the evening we stood in front of the venue I had performed in half a year ago. The tall glass walls rose up in front of us and a thousand more memories rushed back at me.
I looked away from the building to look at the street it was placed in. I stared at the spot I had kissed her for the last time. She followed my stare and blushed when she realized what I was thinking off. “Let’s go inside.” She said walking towards the automatic glass doors. We entered the big lobby and there were a few people sitting in the black couches. I guess they were people that worked here. There were way too little people in here for a show to be going on. Besides, I didn’t hear any music.
“C’mon dwarf, follow Snow White.” Amara joked as she walked towards the doors at the end of the lobby.
“I’m way too tall to be a dwarf. I consider myself more to be the prince.” I said grinning and she rolled her eyes.
It felt weird to be back in the white halls in which the bathrooms, the offices we were interrogated in and the elevator shafts were located. I felt both of our stares go to the three elevators to our left. We looked at each other and let out a laugh. “Shall we?” I said gesturing to the left elevator. She nodded without looking away from my eyes.
We walked towards the place we had been trapped in and stood still in front of the tall metal doors. I doubted for a second but then pushed the button next to the doors. We heard the elevator come closer to our floor, before the doors slid open. The familiar metal walls revealed and a feeling of both fear and happiness filled me up. “It’s working!” I said and smiled.
Amara rolled her eyes again. “Yeah it is now.” She said and I grinned.
We stood there staring at the scenery in front of us like it wasn’t real. But then I suddenly felt two small hands on my chest, gently pushing me inside the elevator. Amara pushed me until I reached the elevator wall. She reached her hand out for my cheek as I got lost in her beautiful brown eyes. She cupped my cheek before she stood on her toes and pressed her lips against mine. A sensation went through my whole body as our lips connected. I grabbed her waist, pulling her closer to me, this time I didn’t want to have any space between us.
Her hands travelled to my hair and my snapback fell of my head. This kiss was the weird, but perfect combination of sensual and soft. Exactly how the other kisses with her had been, I had always been craving for more. But this time it felt like there was no burden that was holding us back. No dehydration, no starvation, no panic, just passion.
Damn I had fell hard for this girl, and I didn’t even know her that well. When our lips parted, she said with her lips brushing against mine: “I thought our adventure had ended half a year ago, but this proves we’re only at the beginning of our fairy tale.”

Notes

heeeeyeyyyy guys :D

so I thought it would be fun to write the epilogue in Mike's POV as the entire story was in Amara's POV. I hope you guys are content with this ending, because I had the feeling a lot of you weren't content with the ending of the last chapter XD but here it is.

I won't waste too much energy on writing this note, because in a few hours I will post another note saying everything I still wants to say to you. I hope you guys will stick around for that note, it would mean a lot to me :)

I love you

xxx

Nicky