azrael-psyche

Chapter I: A Dream of Me

The group turned to one another not believing at what they saw on the charts. Sure it was pretty inevitable. But who wants to turn to disappointment anyway? The rock group Mescaline just started booming into success after their last three debut singles and their first single was a total success. But something just happened that they started going down and losing all credit. The first to be affected was the bassist Sade. He was always very particular about financial matters not only in the band but everything else. Although this isn’t very recognizable, Sade always has a reputation of passion and deviance. His witty smiles and seductive grins along with the sleek dark outlook never fail to captivate the audience. His bass playing has a low melodic tone that just seems to take their breath away. Next in this is Ravie, the sweet delicate drummer of the band. He is the youngest and obviously the most childlike. Perky and upbeat, his drums always catchy and gives life to the music. And his smile can easily melt anyone’s heart. Sometimes the people think he is the reason why the band has a close reputation because his character can bring the goodness out of anybody despite the differences of the members. The person concerned most is Psyche, the leader and guitarist of the group. Always upright and sensible, he was the one who put up the band and it’s major themes. He is also in-charge of the band’s affairs like song composition, lyricist and design. That’s why no one can resist his charisma in his creating abilities. His works and his passion never fail to allure everybody including the members. The last member is known as Dream and is the vocalist of Mescaline. Not much is known about him and he hides his past so very well. But Psyche has no mistake in choosing him. Although silent and introverted, Dream carries a powerful voice that captivates the audience more and enhances Psyche’s songs. All this composes the band of Mescaline. An enigmatic band whose deviance, enigma and androgynous beauty leaves their spectators breathless. Unfortunately their incapacity to produce fresh music left the audience hanging therefore turning them down. The band just can’t seem to pinpoint the reason for this. And this was starting to get really irritating.

"Dropped-out again?! It’s the second time this week! The next thing we’ll know is that they’re booting us out in the recording studio!" Sade complained walking around back and forth the studio. They were supposed to have their practice for their next single but since they heard the news, they haven’t got the stamina to do anything.

"Please Sade, will you calm down? I’m sure it’s only a temporary fix." Pleaded the petite drummer but even his charm can’t do anything about Sade’s anger.

"What now oh great leader? What now mister I’m-too-cool-to-realize-everything’s falling apart? What now huh?" Sade taunted Psyche as he sat calmly smoking his cigarette not minding Sade’s complains.

"Please Sade! You know that’s not right." Cried Ravie.

" It’s okay Ravie. One does have the right to tell that truth." Psyche said coolly.

"But Psyche…" Ravie complained.

"You know he’s right Psyche we are falling apart pretty bad." Dream suddenly interrupts while he gazes outside the window.

"Look even the great porcelain doll Dream agrees!" teased Sade. He always has a habit of teasing others sarcastically and it gets more when he’s mad.

"Oh Yeah…" sighed Psyche brushing his hair backwards.

"Uh! You people are hopeless! Let me know when you reached sanity and would like to climb out of this rat hole. Maybe then you’ll get a life!" Sade said irritatingly immediately leaving the room banging the door behind him.

"Sadie wait!" Ravie said following along behind him hoping to catch-up.

Now the only one’s left in the room are Dream and Psyche. They were still contemplating in silence until it was broken.

"So…" Dream started still staring at the window.

"So…"

"What now?"

"Hmm… I guess you’re deliberately copying my expressions which is my usual hobby."

"Okay, okay! I admit Mescaline hasn’t done very well. So we’re a little dry, it will pass on." But Dream only glared at him a little more.

"Okay so we’re dehydrated! There I admit it. Damn! Do you know how hard it is for me to set things a side so we can find a solution?"

"Yes I know but I’m sure your plan of surprising Ravie and Sade isn’t as exiting as you thought."

"I don’t know Dream! My mind keeps on screaming at me to move my ass but nothing happens. I guess I’m being pathetic again."

"Psyche, No one’s really pathetic. Sure they can be sad or hurt or afraid but that doesn’t mean you yourself is pathetic."

"I don’t know dream, I just don’t know."

With that, Dream left Psyche to wander in his own thoughts leaving him in the dark array of the studio. Contemplating on what the other members said.

"No one’s pathetic from the inside…"

After a few minutes, Psyche didn’t realize he had fallen asleep. The next thing he noticed is that he was back at his parents’ home for a reunion. Everyone greeted him gladly but the happy welcome soon came to an end.

"Hello! Psyche isn’t it?" His mother greeted him

"Welcome back son! So how was your life so far? Made any progress." His father added next.

"Mother… Father…. I…." Psyche stammered as he desperately tried to say something.

"What Psyche, cat got your tongue?" A voice from behind said to him. Then he realized it was his former girlfriend. He didn’t really like her or anything it’s just that his parents forced them to be together because they though it was good for him. But he didn’t like it at all.

"Linesy! You’re here too?"

"But of course darling! Don’t think I’d miss out on the greatest event of your life?"

"Let’s see deary… after you realized that you’re grades aren’t as high as we expected it to be and that we fixed you up with Linesy here, you ran away from home and lived in a dormitory. You decided to form a band leading you to other brash people like you. You succeeded for a moment and now you’re going down because you realize you aren’t as great as you though you are and you shouldn’t have disobeyed us. Is that correct?" His mother told him.

"No! That can’t be! You’re wrong! I mean…how did you know? You’ re not supposed to!" Psyche head began to ache, as he was getting very confused.

"Parents know everything. It was easy for us to find that out. Now come back to us and we have plans for you." His father told him.

"But I can’t leave the band they need me!"

"Who says you can’t? They don’t need such an insignificant person such as you. Besides if you really cherish your band, you would’ve done something to make you stayed on top. Face it Psyche! Mescaline is going down." Linesy added.

"No… it can’t be! The band’s not going down! They still need me!"

"No they don’t! You’re just a burden to them! Now come with us!"

The world suddenly spins around Psyche as he began to see his family transform into shadowy monster. He felt himself slowly drifting away like being pulled by the shadowy creatures down to the ground.

"No! Please Stop! It’s not true! Nooooo!!!….."

"Psyche? Psyche please wake up!" The next thing he knew he was lying on the couch with Ravie gently shaking him to reality.

"What the…"

"Thank goodness you’re awake! Are you alright? You were screaming in your sleep." Ravie asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I’m fine. It was just a bad dream."

"Oh now I’m the bad one!" Dream said from behind.
"Of course I’m here! Who couldn’t ignore you from that racket your making." Dream teased.

"Sorry guys. I was just tired."

"Are you sure your alright? I mean do you want to talk about it?"

Psyche clutched Ravie’s shoulder in assurance.

"Don’t worry Ravie I’m gonna be fine and so will everything else. Now you go to rest and we’ll fix this first thing in tomorrows practice you’ll see."

"Okay!" Ravie said relieved as he skipped right out into the studio.

The minute Ravie left, Psyche also started walking out of the studio.

"So you’re going home too." Dream said as he passed by him.

"Where else could I go?"

"And where would that be? Home can be anywhere you know. I don’t think you fully understand that word ‘Home’."

"Home is where I get dressed, go to bed, write my crappy songs and think about how fucked-up my life is among anything else."

"Then I guess you really don’t know what it means."

"Shut-up Dream! I wanna go home."

"I’m sure you do." With that, Dream disappeared into the shadows leaving Psyche alone again as he mutters to himself the word ‘home’.

On his way to his apartment he knocked out an old gypsy. He realized he wasn’t paying much attention he decided to help the lady out.

"Are you okay lady?"

"I’m fine me boy."

"You should be more careful lady. By the way I’m sorry. I’m afraid I wasn’t looking."

"It’s alright deary. For people my age you don’t notice these things anymore and vice-versa."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean when you get old and withered, people don’t notice you anymore even how great you used to be. They just look at you the way you are now, a piece of hag. And when there’s nothing left with you but regret, you seem to cherish nothing but it."

"Is that so?"

"Since you helped me lad, I’ll give you a quick advice. Regret nothing. No matter how hard it is now, always remember things can be so much worse and they will be. So enjoy now and live to the fullest so that it would be less of a burden in the future. I wish I did."

"Okay, I will." But when Psyche turned to leave, he was pulled again.

"Heed my advice lad. I see great potential in you and you don’t want that wasting away. You are young and vibrant and utterly naīve. I envy you. For both our sake, don’t waste it. Besides you look darn handsome."

Psyche had a slacked face. But when he blinked, the woman just suddenly vanished. So he returned to his apartment full of broken thoughts. To his dismay, his nightmares about his family and his self-esteem kept on haunting him enough to avoid getting a good night’s rest. When he realized it was already 4:00 in the morning, he decided to take a walk since he couldn’t sleep at all. He decided to go to the park. It was utterly silent there since very few people were awake that time. He still kept on thinking what that dreams meant and how was he going to solve the band’s problem. Suddenly he saw something glowing from behind the bushes. He checked it out of curiosity. Suddenly he realized he wasn’t in the park anymore but in some kind of other dimension. He was startled when he stumbled onto something. He notices it was some kind of Amulet. He awed as it was utterly beautiful like nothing he’d ever seen. It was some kind of dark opal stone encrusted in pure silver lining with a chain to match.

"Do you like it deary?" Psyche was shocked to see the very same old gypsy he came across moments ago.

"Where am I? What am I doing here? Who are you? What do you want from me?" Psyche asked frantically.

"Oh all of you questions will be answered soon enough, dear boy. But first let me slip into something more comfortable." The moment the gypsy said that she transformed into a beautiful blonde young lady that just seems to be a little older than Psyche. Psyche just watched in shock to see this.

"Now I am ready to answer your questions. You are in a special world where I conjured especially for you. You are here because of your own desire to decide on your fate. I am the ancient sorceress Lachesis at your service and I will give you an offer you can’t refuse…"

Lachesis made some kind of wicked grin as Psyche nervously fingered the amulet anxious on what’s going to happen.

to be continued...

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