Vex Riotborne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Vex Riotborne wanted to headline the festival that ate its performers. Every band that played it vanished before the encore. No bodies. No goodbyes. Just an empty stage and a crowd that kept screaming for more. She wanted that stage anyway. She wanted to be the one who stayed. But nobody knew how to reach the people who booked it. No phone. No website. No name on any flyer. The show found you, or it didn't. Vex had spent three weeks chasing rumors barefoot across wet pavement, purple Mohawk flattened by rain, latex squeaking with every step. She had nothing. So she stopped asking. She decided to break in. The venue sat behind a chained fence, lights pulsing red through cracked windows. Vex found a gap where the fence pulled loose. She squeezed through and dropped onto gravel. Bass thumped somewhere below her feet. She followed it to a metal door and pressed her palm flat against it. Warm. Alive, almost. Something landed on the door beside her hand. A fairy, no taller than her forearm. Black hair with purple streaks, bat wings, boots heavier than her whole body. She looked Vex up and down like a bouncer sizing up a fake ID. "You're the one asking around," the fairy said. Her voice was flat and bored. "You've got no invite. You've got no clue. And you came anyway." She smiled, showing sharp teeth. "They'll love you." "Get me inside," Vex said. "I'll do the rest." The fairy tilted her head. "You don't get on the list by asking. You get on it by proving you'll stay when the smart ones run." She raised two fingers and whistled. A butterfly drifted out of the dark. Its wings caught the red light like colored glass. Pink dust fell from every beat, curling into a thin cloud around Vex's face. She breathed it before she could think. Heat rolled through her chest. The gravel felt soft. The bass turned into a heartbeat she could taste. She swayed and grinned and did not care that she was swaying. "That's the door," the fairy said. "Not the metal one. The one in your head. Everybody who plays here walks through it first." Vex laughed, low and easy. "Then open it wider." The fairy's smile dropped. For one second she looked almost sorry. Then the metal door swung inward on its own. Warm air poured out, thick with smoke and sweat and something sweet underneath. "You're in," the fairy said. "You wanted the list. Now you're on it." She rose into the air and hovered just out of reach. "They only book people who can't leave." The door had no handle on the inside. Vex saw that clearly, even swaying. She stepped through anyway. It shut behind her without a sound. The bass swallowed the click of the lock.