𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚜 // 𝚊𝚡𝚕 𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚎 [𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎]

IX: The Little Got More and More

Thank you to @Rockaholic1991 who voted on the last chapter. It means a lot! 

I'm not entirely sure how phones worked back then, but hopefully this'll do. Hope you enjoy this chapter, this is where the action truly begins! 😏

Izzy POV

He'd turned home during the recording break, the burning need for a high pulsing in his veins. God, it ashamed him how he survived on the stuff, but no matter his feelings, they didn't help stop the deadly dance. 

His hand trembled in anticipation as he laid out the powder in front of him, already feeling the teasing beginnings of a high from the residue on his hand as he wiped it above his lip to get rid of the evidence. 

Izzy knew, every time, that this could be the last. But, every time, the fix required more, and every time he had to give in. Thoughts of everything he wanted a release from swirled around his mind; from that damn beautiful singer that broke his heart every time to how even those who followed them to every show they'd done on the Strip barely acknowledged his existence. 

As Izzy inhaled the white substance into his system, the thoughts began to blur into the familiar feeling of ecstasy, but even as they did so, a feeling of nausea and dizziness also enveloped him. Head cleared of thoughts, it began to ache dully as the room span around him. As he stood up, holding the edge of the table for support, the room seemed to fall to the side, sending him crashing towards the table as everything faded into one, half-coherent thought:

Maybe this time was finally the last straw.

Axl POV

The minuted ticked by as they sat in the studio, annoyance building ever-stronger inside Axl as Izzy approached half an hour of lateness, even added to the fifteen minutes' lateness of the other four, who had all returned at about the same time. Finally, after clock-watching for what felt like an era, he spoke up. "Where the hell is Stradlin?"

"His apartment block has a phone, right? Why don't we ring that? Maybe he got held up somehow," Steven suggested, ever the optimist. Forcing himself not to snap at the cheerful drummer, Axl nodded, "I guess that could work, I mean I don't know how else to find out where the heck he's gotten to without dragging our own butts around LA."

"I'll go round to the phone; if I sit here any longer I'm going to go mad," Slash offered in agreement, getting up and progressing halfway into the corridor before he's finished speaking. Duff got up at the same time. "I'll come as well, gotta stretch these legs."

"Yeah, you giraffe," Steven joked, tapping his drumsticks together absentmindedly.

"If you call me that one more time, Adler -"

"TO THE PHONE!" Slash interjected, half-dragging Duff out of the room.

Arriving down the corridor at the phone on the wall, Slash pulled it off of the hook and dialled the number he, luckily, vaguely remembered from a previous occasion - *cough* half-drunken prank calling *cough* - waiting for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" The voice, he recalled, belonged to Izzy's neighbour, Kurt, "- Dave, shut up! Someone's on the phone - sorry about that, who is it?"

"Slash, friend of your neighbour Izzy?"

"Oh, yeah, hi. What's up?"

"Have you seen him in the last hour or so? He's late to rehearsals and we were wondering where he's gotten to."

Kurt's voice faded slightly as he presumably turned and another voice could be heard in the background, "Dave, was it Izzy we saw earlier going upstairs? - Yeah, black hair, right? - That's him - Yeah, we saw him go upstairs, about an hour, hour and a half ago. You want us to knock?"

"If it wouldn't inconvenience you too much, yeah."

"I'll be back in a minute."

Slash put the phone down and turned to Duff. "That was Kurt who picked up, he and Dave saw Izzy earlier so they're going to go knock, then ring back."

"Cool. Wonder what he's up to?" Duff's eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.

They waited for a few minutes until the phone rang again and Slash answered to a frantic-sounding Kurt. "You gotta come down here," he told him. "He didn't answer the door, but it wasn't locked so I poked my head around the corner and... I don't know what happened, but I think he's passed out, right next to a table and I think he's hit his head. It doesn't look good."

Slash cursed under his breath. "We'll be there," he told Kurt, and hung up.

"What happened?" Duff asked, concern written on his face.

"I don't know exactly, but Izzy's door wasn't locked so Kurt went in and he's passed out or something, apparently it looks like he's hit his head on the table. We need to get there as soon as we can."

"God," Duff muttered. "And here we were complaining about him being tardy..."

As they spoke, they were speed-walking down the corridor.  As they reached the studio, Axl stood up. "What took so long?"

"Don't be like that, something's happened," Duff told him as Steven approached the doorway. 

"I was on the phone to Kurt - you know, his neighbour? - and he went to check, the door wasn't locked so he locked inside, and Izzy's out cold, Kurt thinks it seems he hit his head on the table somehow. We need to get the hell over there, basically," Slash informed the others.

Axl POV

Axl cursed, berating himself for being so annoyed towards Izzy's lateness. "Let's go, then," he said, grabbing his jacket.

"Let's just hope he's okay."

Did you get the Nirvana reference? I know they were in Seattle, but I needed names and there you go... *wink* Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! 

PS. Yes, I know I'm kinda evil, but it'll all work out... eventually. 😏