Page 7 of The Devil and His Sparrow

Nahla stood on her tiptoes to peer over the heads of the people in front of us, trying to see how close we were to the entrance. I was glad she was momentarily distracted, because her words struck something deep inside me. I swallowed hard and looked down at the ridiculous outfit that I wore to this ridiculous concert. A tightness wound through my stomach and up my throat.

Inner desires.

Things I wanted.

I closed my eyes, and despite the thunder of voices and sound all around me, all I could hear was my mother’s voice.

You want to play piano again? How could you even ask that of me? Do you not understand what hearing or seeing that would mean for me? The memories it would bring up? Do you think of no one but yourself, Iyla?

I looked down at my band t-shirt, and the unease that had already crept inside me pressed in harder. Unleashing my inner desires was … dangerous.

So I stomped on any semblance of those wishes just as Nahla and I finally made it to the gate to have our tickets checked.

A bald man dressed in a crisp button-up shirt and dress slacks took ours. When he scanned them, his eyebrows shot up, and he smiled at Nahla. “Wow! Looks like you are the 100th patron to be scanned in.” He passed a finger between her and I. “Is it just you two in your party?”

Nahla and I nodded. The man was clearly excited about scanning our tickets, which made me wonder if we’d just won something. I’d never been to a concert before, but I figured we were about to get a free t-shirt or something.

He clapped his hands and cheered, “Amazing! As a prize for being the 100th ticket scanned, you two get VIP passes to meet the band and hang out after the show. Come around to the rear entrance after it’s over, okay?”

I slowly took the pass, glancing between my ecstatic friend and the shiny black card. On one side of the card, rose stencils surrounded a deep red snake curled around the “I” in “VIP,” and the other side had a red devil head with horns. The wariness brewing inside me grew as Nahla continued her happy dance. She was clearly over the moon, and she’d brought me out here for a night of fun as any friend would do with my situation. I was apprehensive about all of this, especially given the name of the group and the look of their fans, but Nahla … She wanted this.

I glanced at the rectangle in my hand again. The little red head on the card taunted me.

Are you going to ruin your friend’s fun like a selfish brat?

Or are you going to put on a smile and pretend to have a blast for her sake?

With a resolved nod, I plastered on a grin and held my pass up to smack it against hers in cheers. “Look at us! You’ll get to meet your favorite band tonight.”

She screamed a joyous cry and kissed the card. “This is the greatest day of my life!”

I hooked my arm with hers and listened to her rave about the band and their lore with so much enthusiasm that my own nerves began to melt away. This may not have been my scene, I may have been hella uncomfortable showing off this much of my body, and I might’ve feared my mom somehow finding out I was here. But this was Nahla’s night. She’d gone out of her way to include me and cheer me up after a hard day. So I wouldn’t take this away from her.

Plus, it might be kind of fun going to a concert and meeting a real band.

“So they’re supposed to be demons?” I asked as we finally made it to the floor.

We had front row floor tickets. Nahla had initially wanted to try to touch one of the band members from here, but now that we had VIP passes, she wanted to do much more than just brush hands.

She nodded. “Their costumes are top-notch. They seriously look like real demons. Or at least, what I think they’d look like if demons were real. Anyway, all their songs are about sex, letting your desires win, not being held down by the world, and badass shit like that.”

“That’s definitely … something,” I said with a laugh.

The sky overhead grew navy as the sun set, and the cheering in the open stadium made the ground beneath my feet shake. I looked around at everyone, watching their faces light up with excitement as they stared at the stage, waiting for their idols to appear.

Even though I wasn’t familiar with the group or all that comfortable, the energy in the air was infectious. I found myself grinning, chanting the band’s name with everyone else, and laughing with Nahla as the crowd jostled us around a bit.

The lights in the stadium suddenly went out, and it momentarily took the noise of the crowd with it.

Until everyone realized what the loss of lighting meant.

A dull, thrumming of guitar strings and a beat of drums shook the stadium, and a flash of red lights briefly lit up the silhouettes of five people on stage.

Screams and chants of different names flooded the air, and my heart thundered with another string of beats from guitars, pounding of drums, and a flash of red lights. Then it went quiet again.

The music stopped.

The crowd hushed.

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