Rock and Roll All Night

Thriller Stories | Sep 23, 2011 | 8 min read
152 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Thriller Stories

Rock and Roll All Night

The haze in the club was so thick, Lucas hadn't at first been sure if it was from real cigarettes or one of those machines that manufactures it to fake atmosphere.  Looking beyond the hot stage lights at the peeling paint, cheap bar stools and even cheaper patrons, he doubted a dive like this would spring for an expensive prop like a smoke machine.  But a gig meant food and his band wasn't starving, but they could eat.  This wasn't their usual type of booking, but they hadn't had a decent show in a while. They were itching to perform. The marquee in front of this dive said they were open all night and needed a good rock band.  It had the appearance of any hole-in-the-wall bar, sad and rundown, except for some unfinished fencing surrounding the parking lot.  Lucas couldn't care less what it looked like.  The location was opportune and the timing seemed perfect, so they had pulled their van in and sealed the deal for the one night gig.

Hours later, on stage and ready to play, their new sound mixer signaled him from behind the mixing board that everything was ready.  Tank was new; he was a local they had just picked up, but so far, he had been working out fine.  Lucas picked up his guitar and nodded to Talon, his female lead singer and she turned on her mike.  Joker, his drummer, ran a quick riff on his skins and the packed crowd cheered wildly.  They had been waiting for Fang Byte to start for almost an hour and were overheated and liquored up.  The Hive, where they were playing tonight, looked like a favorite of the college and twenty-something crowd and the place was crammed with scantily clad daddy's- little-darlin's all clamoring to catch the eye of Fang Byte's handsome lead singer.  Lucas leaned over to Spyder, his bass player and hollered to be heard.

"Hungry, Spyder?  There sure is a nice variety tonight.  Blondes, brunettes, redheads.  Asians, Latinos, it's like a buffet out there."  He smiled widely, his head turned away from the crowd so that only the band could see the sharp, white teeth protrude down from his vampire's mouth.  Spyder too smiled, his lips adjusting to quickly cover his same pointy teeth.

Talon sauntered over.

"Now, boys.  Whatcha talking about?"

"Looking the menu over."

"Very funny, Spyder.  See anything you like, Lucas?"

"Yeah, actually.  Couple pretty little things in the front there.  Blonde in a green tank top and that brunette with the big earrings and red lipstick.  Nice neck."

"Yeah.  I see them.  They look like they're together too."

"Ok.  I'll let Tank know to keep ‘em liquored up.   Listen, we should start soon or we'll lose them all."  She smiled quickly, excitement at feeding soon causing her short, spiky teeth to glint in the bar lights.  She covered them before she turned and faced the crowd.  Lucas took the opportunity to gaze around the room.  Everyone was drinking, laughing, and showing no signs of leaving.  The house music blasted and no one was complaining.  Yeah, no one was going anywhere.  Talon always worried needlessly about the prospects, he thought to himself.

"Don't worry, Baby.  This place is already locked down tight.  Tank handled it."

Talon looked over at their new sound mixer and he waved.  She waved back.  He pointed at the throng of excited young bar patrons crushing the dance floor in front of the stage.  Mentally, Talon calculated when their last meal had been.  Oh, there had been gigs, but unfortunately, there had not been opportunity along with them.  It had been well over two months since their last meal.  And they were hungry.

Joker pounded on his drum kit and the crowd lost its mind again.  It was time.  She knew the drill and her part.  She returned to the stage, grabbed her mike stand and picked a guy out of the crowd.  Locking eyes with him, she gyrated suggestively against the stand.  Her leather mini slid up her thighs and the crowd got a peek at her black biker shorts underneath.   Lucas and Spyder took her cue and started playing hot licks on their guitar and bass.  Joker pounded out the riff to their first song and the set started.

Two hours later, they left the stage, leaving the crowd dripping with sweat and wiped out.  They had worked them up into a frenzy, and Lucas especially had worked on the pretty pair of girls he eyed earlier in front of the dance floor.  He winked and posed and strutted and by the time he left the riser, they were both waiting for him by the side, drinks in hand.  Booze had made them bold, as he knew it would.  Tank had done well, keeping them nicely liquored during the set, sending them drinks anonymously.  Lucas sauntered over to them.

"Hello, ladies.  Enjoying the show?"

The blonde one spoke up first.  "You guys were great, Lucas.  We're just loving it."  The brunette one didn't waste any time getting to the point.  "Is there some where we can go to be alone, Lucas?"

He couldn't believe his luck.  "Both of you?  I don't even know your names."

The brunette fluttered her eyelashes at him.  "I'm Julie.  My friend is Brianne.  We're kind of a package deal.  Is that too much for you to handle?"  She giggled and swept her long hair behind her shoulders, exposing her bare neck.  Lucas shuddered with  hunger. "Not at all.  The set's over and they'll be closing up soon here, I expect.  You ladies got time to hang around a bit?"

Brianne leaned over and leaned one hand on his arm.  "Of course, we can, Lucas.  Just don't make us wait too long, now."  And like her friend Julie, she also giggled and titled her head to the side.  Her hair slid to the side of her shoulders exposing to Lucas her creamy white neck and shoulders.  He could barely control the pang of craving and desire that flooded him, but he managed a nod. He turned and coolly strolled the length of the dance floor to the mixing board where Tank was wrapping cable.

"Live ones, huh Lucas?"

"You don't know the half of it, my friend." Lucas muttered under his breath.  "They're making it almost too easy."

"Best kind, Lucas.  Best kind.  And right on time too."  Tank gestured around the bar and Lucas noticed with astonishment that in the short time since the band had finished their set, the bar had all but cleared out.  Where it had been packed and pumping with drunk and disorderly college kids not more than twenty minutes ago, now the bar was nearly emptied out.  There were a couple stragglers lingering at the bar itself, and in the center of the room, plus a couple more were slow-dancing in a dazed way to the jukebox playing since Lucas' band left the stage.

"Wow, this place cleared out in a hurry, Tank?"

"Yeah.  Law around here is pretty serious about closing time."

"Well, no worries.  Got those two chickies lined up.  Thanks for keeping them well oiled for me.  You're gonna work out nice as the sound mixer, man.  Maybe there's a permanent gig in it for you.  I'll talk to the band."

"Cool.  We should wrap it up.  Place is really clearing out."

Talon signaled for him.  It was time.  Lucas took a quick head-count and figured maybe twelve people were left, not including the two ladies and him and the band.  He would have liked a few more people to leave before they began to feed, even though the five of them could easily take on all twelve.  Talon preferred a one-on-one approach, as did Joker.  But he and Spyder needed more than one prospect.  Two did quite nicely, thank you.  And Lucas liked them to be pretty.

Tank jabbed him and he turned to see the slow dancers and a hook-up from the bar stagger out.  That left eight people, two behind the bar doing cleanup, two wiping down tables and four kids finishing drinks and stalling for time.  Lucas cast meaningful glances at Talon, Joker and Spyder and they each moved purposefully towards the exits.

Lucas noticed the table cleaners had disappeared.  He never saw them leave, nor had he heard any doors open or close.  He looked around but didn't see them anywhere.

"Lucas?  Did you forget about us?"  Lucas whirled around and Brianne and Julie were standing there, smiling suggestively.  Lucas wasn't used to people creeping up on him.  He was the one who did the creeping, not the other way around.  He was starting to get a really bad feeling about this place.  He craned his neck to look around the two girls for Talon or Spyder but the ladies were effectively blocking his way.

"No, of course not.  Just wrapping up a few things with my sound mixer, ladies.  How could I forget about you?"  Lucas winked and slipped his arm around the waist of the closest party-girl.  Despite her come-hither walk and talk, when he made contact with her, she shrank back from his touch.  He figured that was likely his first real clue that things were not what they seemed.  That and Talon's bloodcurdling scream.

He turned in the direction of the shriek in time to see her being skewered by a thick plank of wood by two of the bar patrons.  His mind barely registered this fact when he heard another anguished howl he recognized as Joker's.   He followed the sound and saw the two table cleaners who had disappeared earlier had reappeared and trapped Joker on the floor by the speaker riser.  A bartender he hadn't noticed before had impaled him with another of those spears of wood.

"Well, we didn't forget about you, Lucas."  Brianne had to yell to be heard above the screams of pain from his bandmates.  Lucas recognized Spyder's voice as the next of his friends to be felled.  He barely heard the other bar patrons as they came up behind him and helped Brianne and Julie restrain him.  It was the ones who had pretended to be drunk and slow dancing earlier.  They threw something over him and he felt the water, which he knew must be holy water, cascade down over his head.  He felt the burn of it as it trickled down his face and neck, leaving a bloody trail in its wake.  He wondered how he missed the signs.  How he missed the crucifixes, hanging down the necks of Brianne and Julie, now glinting in the bright bar lights.  How he missed all of it.   How they even knew Fang Byte was a band full of vampires in the first place.  It was the last thing he thought before the stake went through his heart.

*****

The next morning Henry Daniels backed his tow truck up to the white van abandoned in the parking lot of The Hive.  The Hive's owner had called it in.  Told Henry the van had been there over a month and no one had claimed it.  Henry looked the van over, inside and out.  It was funny to find it unlocked, keys in the ignition and all, and nothing even stolen.  There was no registration either.  Hard to believe it had been here a whole month like that.  But Henry did what he was told.  And Tank Masters owned The Hive and he was the Boss.  He called and said he had some chores for Henry and one of them was moving this old van from his bar parking lot.

Henry started hooking up the van.  As he did, he could see Tank was changing the marquee.  He guessed that was it for that band, Fang Byte.   Henry wasn't sure why.  Tank sure could find them, Henry thought, but they never lasted more than one night.  Henry watched Tank changing out the letters. Looked like The Hive was looking for another good rock band.  Henry knew it wouldn't take Tank too long.  He was pretty good at finding them.  Seemed like there was always one out there, somewhere.  Henry finished hooking up the van and dragged it out of the parking lot.  As he drove away, he could see the new marquee:  The Hive.  Open All Night.  Need a Good Rock Band – Inquire Within.  Henry stepped on the gas pedal.  He had to hurry back for his other chore.  The picket fence surrounding the property was missing posts again.

The End

Samantha Combs

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Reviews

Maureen Sep 29, 2011

Great twist to an all too familiar story. Wonderful!

Chanchal Sep 26, 2011

it's a cool story i agree with Geeta "you are getting better with each of your stories.. all the best".

Amit Sep 26, 2011

This is really an Interesting story. I enjoyed it. :)

Soniya Sep 25, 2011

Good work Samantha... I like your work.. your stories give a feel of realism..

Anikhet Sep 25, 2011

like your story..

Geeta Sep 25, 2011

good story.. you are getting better with each of your stories.. all the best.

Jagrit Sep 25, 2011

i like your story... light weight

Ruhaani Sep 23, 2011

nicely penned down.... :)

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