Stay With Me

29

"You fucking idiot!" screamed Euronymous as he shoved Dead to the ground. "You can't just lose your damn temper like that every time you get upset about something! If you had just fucking talked to her you would have known what we were doing!"

Dead listened as Euronymous continued to scream, not bothering to get up from the ground as the rain covered him in mud.

"She wanted you to think we were just doing tours," continued the guitarist, inching closer to him. "This whole fucking thing was going to end in your wedding once we got to Romania, but you completely fucked that all up!"

He wanted to argue, to fight back and yell at Euronymous; to blame anyone but himself for pushing her so far out of his reach. How could he? Euronymous hadn't sent her back, he didn't do anything except try and help her. So why did he want to push all of the blame on him?

Because of the hell he put you through. You want him to be the cause of this simply so you can finally stand up to him.

It made sense. With all the torment Euronymous had put him through in the past it made sense why he would automatically blame the guitarist for the love of his life being taken away from him. Risking a glance up at the guitarist, Dead sobbed.

"Wh...what do I do?" he cried out.

Euronymous glared daggers at the blond, wanting so badly to punch him. "Only thing you can do is wait. You want her back? Then you need to get to her the hard way and man the fuck up."

"But...but I..."

"I don't care what you want! You fucked up and now you're going to have to pay for it! Either you can wait and find her in her time, or you can shut the fuck up and move on."

"No! I won't be with anyone else. I'll wait as long as I need to if it means getting her back."

"Get the fuck off the ground. We need to seriously start getting our shit together."

"We can talk inside."

~

"You should have told us you were leaving," scolded a tall, older male.

Vanessa trembled as she fought back another wave of sobs. "I couldn't risk anyone coming after me, Roy."

"What was so important? Why would you take so many risks and not tell a damned soul? We've been good to you haven't we? Or have I done something to make you think you couldn't trust me?"

"No! You and Spencer were always like family to me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I honestly wasn't planning on coming back."

"Then why did you push the emergency return?"

Vanessa couldn't bring herself to answer, each time her mouth opened to speak it only felt like a weight was being pressed against her chest. Her head fell into her hands as the cries she fought so hard to contain broke free. How was she supposed to explain why she was here? How could she tell them what she had done?

"Surely it can't be that bad," Roy comforted. "It will be alright, my dear, you'll see."

Struggling to catch her breath Vanessa turned to Roy. "I...I need a computer. Please, don't ask why just get me a computer."

Roy hesitated, skeptical for a moment before walking over to his desk. Picking up the laptop he turned back to her.

"What year was it when you left, Vanessa?" he questioned.

"2012. Why do you ask?"

Setting the computer down in front of her, Roy took her hand. "My dear, it's now 2015. I don't know where you ran off to, but time has moved on without you."

"That shouldn't be possible! I designed the machine to completely stop everything here so nothing changed. No one was supposed to know I was gone!"

"I see. You're not the first to try and create that design. There have been quite a few who have attempted it but have failed. I'm sorry to say that time has continued and you are now twenty-four years old. We realized after almost a week that something wasn't right so Spencer and myself went to your house to see what was going on. When we went into the basement we found your machine very much active. We looked at the log and knew immediately that you had left us. Thankfully we were able to transport it here on the off chance you did return."

"Why bring it here?"

"I wanted to know when you came back. More importantly I wanted to make sure you returned safe. I don't know why you left, and frankly it's not important. You do what you need to do, just tell me if you need my help. As for your machine, I'm sorry to say, it is non-functional at the moment. We will be attempting to repair it but in its current condition it may take some time."

Vanessa nodded. "Thank you. I'll let you know my next step as soon as I know."

Nodding once, Roy left the room. Vanessa ran her hand across the laptop before opening it.

Please be alive...please...please...

MAYHEM TO BEGIN U.S. TOUR!

VOCALIST ANNOUNCES TOUR OF ALL 50 STATES IN HIS ATTEMPT TO

SEARCH FOR THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN WHO HE LET GO YEARS AGO WITH

AFTER PARTY TO FOLLOW EACH SHOW! ACCESS GRANTED TO ALL

WHO ATTEND THE SHOW!

He's alive!

Vanessa continued reading the articles, seeing just how much Mayhem had changed since she had been there. All of them were still alive. Her heart pounded in excitement as she read multiple interviews with Dead, each one bringing up the mysterious woman that had been mentioned. He seemed to keep the details to himself, only saying that the woman was someone he had let go over a small misunderstanding and that he wasn't sure where she was now or if she even wanted to see him again.

He's looking for me?

Looking through the tour dates, Vanessa's heart jumped in excitement as she saw that the date for her state was only a month away.

Securing her ticket for the upcoming show, Vanessa quickly closed the computer before making her way out of the room.

"I found you once, I'll find you again."