Two Souls: Into the Fire # 161

warning … adult content

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At the studio, Terry was already there, adjusting his sound boards and mics, and his drums. R. J. was there, too, looking like he’d just woke up. Steve parked around back, and he and Ghost lugged in their things.

“Hey, guys, we made it,” Steve said.

Ghost put down what he was carrying and went in search of coffee, in the small break room. R. J. came in for a coffee, too.

“Hey, Ghost, how’s it going?”

“Going good, R. J., now that I have this.” Ghost smiled, as he poured himself a cup.

R. J. nodded in agreement.

“Did Terry give you the list of songs?” Ghost asked.

“Yeah, and I practiced the older ones, and learned the new ones from that demo y’all did. It’s weird how we all do this, don’t ‘cha think? I mean, y’all don’t read or write music, but Terry and I can pick up exactly what y’all want for us to do with no problem,” R. J. said.

Ghost shrugged, “That’s ’cause y’all are good at it. And, we’ve been doing it for a long time, so we know how to work together.”

“Yeah, it’s easier with y’all up front. It’s not as easy with Zach and Calvin, though. They got some crazy songs, and it’s taking me awhile to get used to them.”

Ghost smiled. “Well, get ready for some more crazy, ’cause when Kinsey and Terry get back from their vacation, we’re gonna all be playing some, at the same time.” Ghost thought a minute, then said, “Except, I don’t know how Terry’s gonna play a show, and be a guest at the same time…” He was getting confused, now.

“What? All at the same time?” R. J. asked.

“Yeah, for our welcome home show. We all already planned it. I guess Steve will figure it all out…I hope,” Ghost said.

“I don’t know, man,” R. J. said, “sounds pretty crazy, to me.”

Just then, Steve came into the break room. “Y’all gonna drink coffee and chit-chat all day? We got work to do…c’mon.”

Ghost giggled, then said, “Yes sir, boss.”

R. J. sputtered his mouthful of coffee out, at that.

They did come out to the other room and pretended bowing down to Steve and Terry, still laughing and saying, “We’re here, boss…we got it, boss.”

Steve and Terry exchanged a look. “Juveniles…” Steve said. “C’mon, get serious, now,” he said.

They all took up their instruments, and Terry turned on the recorder. Ghost adjusted the stand up mic in front of him, and they began. They ran through the first song, then Terry did the playback. It sounded good, but he thought they could do it a little better. They went through it again, and again he made some adjustments. After going through it again, he mixed the best parts of all three times together, to make one that sounded good to them all.

“One down, and how many more?” R. J. asked.

Steve began to calculate. “Well, thirteen more, if we do them one time each, which is unlikely, so…if like this one, we do each three times…times thirteen…maybe 39 more times all together?”

Terry was nodding, “Sounds about right.”

Ghost sighed. “It’s a lot of singing.” He hoped his voice would hold out, but he had his doubts.

“Yeah, but if we have to we can split ’em up…do some tomorrow,” Steve said. “I know you’re wanting to get out of here as soon as you can, Terry, but these have to be right. We plan on selling the CDs.”

“I know, Steve, and we’re gonna get ’em done, however long it takes,” Terry said.

They regrouped, and began the second song. It took just as long as the first, but they kept on working on them. Everyone was still learning them, so there were stops along the way to fine tune them, too. Close to three hours later, Steve said, “Okay, let’s take a break.”

“We’ve got about half of them like you want, Steve,” Terry said. “We can stop now, or do more after lunch, your call.”

“Ghost, how’s your throat? Can you do some more?” Steve asked.

Ghost drank some water, and cleared his throat. “Uh, I can try, but I can feel it getting scratchy.”

“All right, then, Steve. We’ll break for lunch. Don’t you have a few songs that you do the majority of the singing on?” asked Terry.

Steve nodded, “Yeah, we could do those, so Ghost can rest his voice awhile. How’s that sound?” He looked over to see what Ghost thought about it.

Ghost shrugged, not wanting to use his voice, if he didn’t have to.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve asked.

Ghost mouthed the words, “It means we’ll do it that way.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Well, Terry, you heard him…or not…”

“Yeah, tell ya the truth, I’m tired. Let’s do a couple more, then do the rest in the morning. That ought to do it,” Terry said. “Now, I’m ordering pizza. Y’all grab a drink from the fridge, and chill for awhile.

Steve put his guitar down and found himself a chair to lean back in, and propped up his feet on a table. Ghost and R. J. headed for the break room for sodas. Terry was using his phone, so went outside for a change of scenery, and some cool air. As he stood in front of the record shop, he saw Kinsey come out of the Yew.

Kinsey waved, and walked on over to say hi. “Y’all recording today?” he asked.

“Yep, we’re on a lunch break, right now. It’s going fine, but slow. We may do the last bits tomorrow, because everyone’s getting tired, and Ghost’s voice is wearing out,” Terry said.

Steve had come outside, now, and heard the last part of the conversation. “Yeah, Ghost is fixin’ to get pissy…I can already tell,” he said.

Kinsey laughed. “Well, nobody said it was easy.”

“I know,” Steve said. “It’s fun, but a whole lot of work.”

“I hear ya,” Kinsey said. “I feel the same about the club…and that’s why I’m going on vacation.”

Ghost and R. J. came outside, then, and Ghost said silently, “Hi, Kinsey, I can’t talk.”

Kinsey smiled. “I see…don’t want to wear it out, huh?”

Ghost nodded. Just then the pizza delivery guy came speeding up to the record store, screeching to a stop, almost running down Ghost, who’d been standing just off the sidewalk, in the street.

He jumped out of the way, just in time, but bumped into R. J., and they both went down, spilling their cokes all over.

“Hey, watch where ya going,” Steve yelled, as the guy got out of his car.

The guy sneered. “Thirty minutes or less…gotta hurry…shouldn’t be standing in the street.”

“Fuck thirty minutes or less,” Steve said, as he came toward the guy.

“Hey, here’s ya pizzas…need the money…got more deliveries,” the guy said.

Terry had gone inside to get the money for the pizza, right before, so missed the altercation. Kinsey hollered in the door, to him, “Hey, Terry, the pizza’s here, and Steve’s yelling at him. He almost ran over Ghost.”

Terry hurried to the door, money in hand. “Here’s your money, dude, now take off,” he said.

The guy did, but shot them all the finger, as he left.

Ghost and R. J. were still on the ground, laughing hysterically at the situation. Terry just shook his head, and took the pizzas inside. “Ya wanna eat, get your asses up off the sidewalk,” he said. He, Kinsey, and Steve went inside. Ghost and R. J. finally got control of their laughing fit, and went inside, too. Grabbing their share of the food, they retreated to the break room, to…as Steve put it…chit-chat some more.

Terry and Kinsey were eating over by the counter, talking vacation. Steve felt like the odd man out. He didn’t know which crazy group to join…the immature young ones, or the old farts club. Neither appealed to him, so he went and found a folding chair over by the bargain bin. There he ate in peace.

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Next part coming soon!

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

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This is a work of “fan fiction” based on the novel, “Lost Souls” by Poppy Z. Brite. All credit for the original characters, places, and some backstory mentions, belong to Ms. Brite and her publishing affiliates. Only newly introduced characters, places, and original elements of this story are entirely from my imagination. Character descriptions are a blend of the original book descriptions and my interpretation of them.

All songs included in this work will be solely owned by the original performers/writers and will be credited. Creative license is taken in including them in this story.

No harm is intended toward author, musicians, or people and situations to whom there may be a resemblance.

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The content herein is rated by me as being at the high end of MA (Mature Audience). It includes strong language, violence, sexual themes, including same sex pairings, religious themes, and fantasy horror.