Musical Angel

The Devil You Know

It was officially Wednesday, the last two days felt a lot longer to Corey considering what had happened. He was hoping that today would be better and when he showed up for school it seemed like it would be. Laney, Kin, and Kon seemed to have come to terms with his identity and Trina almost seemed to be avoiding him, likely because of Abaddon.

Nothing really happened in school, a few more people talked to him then normal but that was about it. When he saw Nick in the halls he'd smile, he even winked once, but they never really got a chance to talk. After school he was on his way home with the rest of the band so they could practice in the garage.

As they were walking they got stopped on the sidewalk when someone stood in front of them. Kin and Kon gasped and spoke at the same time, "The Newmans!"

Corey looked at their gender swapped doppelgangers and he rolled his eyes, he didn't want to deal with them. Corey wanted to just leave but Carrie spoke before he could move, "How did you end up opening for the Midnight Musicians?"

Corey shrugged, "I don't see why that's any concern of yours."

They all looked a bit surprised, the Newmans expected him to brag or maybe try to insult them. Kim glared at him, "How could a band as bad as yours open for them, we're obviously better."

"Right, and that's why you ended up sitting in the audience?"

Konnie glared at him, "What?"

"No, really, I mean apparently your band is better so logically you ended up just watching the show with the audience. I mean I'll admit that, yes, I did get a little lucky because I saw that they were looking for a band to open for them almost immediately but they still could have said no."

Larry looked slightly nervous, "Uh, you probably did something crazy to get them to let you play."

"No, I went to meet them, showed them the song we played at the concert, and they said yes."

Carrie seemed to be getting angry now, "There's no way you could ever be better then us."

Corey laughed a little and the Newmans looked shocked, "You have no idea who you're talking to."

Carrie crossed her arms, "I know exactly who I'm talking to, a loser."

Corey shook his head, "Let me put this in terms you can understand, I'm not the happy-go-lucky idiot I've been pretending to be."

Carrie laughed, "Yeah right, you're the same lame guy you've always been."

Corey laughed a little but it was almost menacing, "Do you really think I give a damn about anything you say? Truth is I don't think of you as competition, I never did, and this whole conversation is a pitiful attempt at intimidating us."

The Newmans looked completely stunned before they glared at him, Corey just smirked before walking past them. Laney, Kin, and Kon quickly followed him and Laney spoke, "Core, what was that?"

Corey shrugged, "I got tired of them trying to mess with us, I'm just making sure they know they can't fuck with us anymore."

Kin spoke, "But won't they be mad now?"

"Probably, but I'm not too worried about it."

Kon spoke, "Why, they're scary when they're mad."

"I fought God, created demons, broke out of hell, and have walked among humans for centuries. A few teenage girls can't scare me after literally suffering the full wrath of God, unless they can cause earthquakes with a single thought I'm sure I can handle them."

Laney stared at him for a minute, "Okay when you put it like that I guess they're not that bad."

Corey smirked, "I'm glad you see the big picture, now let's go to the garage so we can practice."

The three looked at each other and shrugged before walking to the garage with Corey, the fallen angel opened the garage door and they walked inside. Laney spoke, "So aside from practicing the new song what are we going to do?"

Corey thought for a second, "Well if we want to play somewhere I know there's a band festival coming up. Otherwise we can start a YouTube channel and maybe start recording if we're familiar enough with the song that we can."

Laney stared at him, "How long have you known about the band festival?"

"Since Monday, but with the concert and then everything that happened after that I forgot to talk to you about it."

Kon spoke, "The band festival sounds fun, when is it?"

"On Friday, it starts at nine and each band plays one song, as far as I know bands from neighboring towns are going to play there too. Bands can sell merchandise as long as they get it cleared and there's at least three people managing the booth at all times."

Kin spoke, "So we probably can't sell merchandise because we don't have anyone to do that."

"I could ask a few of my demons, I know they'd be happy to help."

Laney looked suspicious, "What demons?"

"Abbadon, Lilith, maybe Azazel if he's in a good mood and doesn't have to interact with a bunch of people. If Azazel doesn't want to do it I can find another demon, usually we'd ask Kate and Allie but they'll probably want to watch the show."

Kin spoke, "Well we know Abbadon but who are Lilith and Azazel?"

"Lilith is one of the older demons and she's probably the most social demon too, Azazel pretty old too but he doesn't talk much."

Laney spoke, "Oh yeah, a super social demon and one that doesn't like people, that'll end well."

Corey didn't look amused, "You seem to forget that I literally rule Hell, if they get out of line I could send them back to Hell, I could even kill them. I mean I'm not going to unless they do something really bad but they wouldn't dare defy me, let alone when I'm so close by."

Kon spoke, "But how do we sign up?"

Corey shrugged, "It's pretty simple, mayor Mellow's hosting it so if we call him he'll sign us up, I told him I'd call if we wanted to play."

Laney stared at him, "Seriously Core, when did you do all of that?"

"Like I said, on Monday, but I never found a good time to tell you about it."

Kin spoke, "Well once we sign up we just need to practice, right?"

Corey nodded, "Pretty much, I can talk to my demons tonight and see who'll help."

Laney spoke, "Okay, then let's start practicing."

They all agreed and began practicing, the whole time Corey felt like something was watching them. He looked around every so often to see if he was right but never found anything so he was sure he was being paranoid.