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Part 56
publish date:
2026-04-13 13:20:06
Latest chapter
Blunt Pain Part 59
Blunt PainThe first venue was worse than Calum had promised. The stage was barely raised. The monitors crackled. The lighting rig flickered like it might die at any moment. The crowd didn’t care. Not yet. They wore their own clothes, because the label wasn’t spending a cent more on them than they had to. It was just how it worked. Axl didn’t care. He preferred being comfortable.The room smelled faintly of stale beer and hot dust, the kind of place where the sound bounced instead of settled. It wasn’t the best venue, but Axl also knew it wasn’t the worst.Axl stood just behind the curtain, guitar already strapped over his shoulder. He emptied the water bottle in his hand and cleared his throat. Jack paced in a tight line behind the drum kit, muttering to himself about the shitty venue. Rihon rolled his shoulders, loosening his hands. Leon leaned against the wall. His violin was in his hands.They’d argued about it. Rihon and Jack had voted against Leon adding his own flair. Axl loved
Blunt Pain Part 58
NorthNorth stood at the back of the venue, half-hidden in the shadow. He’d seen a small write-up in the newspaper. Axl’s name had jumped out at him immediately. He’d driven hours to be here and he was glad he’d left Charlotte at home. This was no place for a woman.The lights cut across the stage in hard white lines, and for a split second, Axl stood alone in the glow before the first note even hit. The crowd around him exploded. Something in his chest tightened. It was so intense that he lifted a hand to his chest. The noise was overwhelming, but it wasn’t the sound that unsettled him. It was the certainty that this was exactly where Axl belonged.Axl sat down at the piano first. Not the guitar. There was no swagger on stage, no rehearsed moves. North smiled at that. Axl would never change. His fingers touched the keys and the noise in the room softened into anticipation. When he started singing, it wasn’t for the audience. It was for himself. North could tell the difference. He’d w
Blunt Pain Part 57
Blunt PainThe rehearsal room smelled like sawdust, sweat, and old cables. The air felt heavy and stale, thick with heat trapped between concrete walls and humming amplifiers, the kind of room that swallowed sound and nerves in equal measure.Axl stood in the centre of the studio. It wasn’t lavish, just practical. Bare bulbs buzzed faintly overhead, casting dull shadows over scuffed floors and taped-down cables that crisscrossed like battle lines. His guitar hung low against his hip while Leon adjusted the height of his violin stand near the wall.Jack was already behind the drum kit, spinning a stick through his fingers like he needed something to do with his hands before his nerves swallowed him whole. He tried to look relaxed, but his eyes betrayed him. They darted toward the door once, then to Axl, then back to the snare.Rihon sat on the edge of an amp, bass balanced across his knees, quietly plucking a slow line. Nobody spoke. The silence pressed against Axl’s ears harder than a
Blunt Pain Part 56
AspenThe house was large, comfortably furnished, and beautiful. Warm afternoon light spilled through tall windows, softening the clean lines of the furniture and catching in the polished wood floors. She was nervous since Axl told her the whole band would be living there so they could record their songs in the basement studio. Axl carried their luggage inside, and three guys got to their feet in the living room as she stood there, uncertain of what to do. The low hum of voices and faint music drifting from somewhere deeper in the house made it feel lived-in already.“Hey, I’m Rihon, I play bass guitar and do back-up vocals.” He was a head shorter than Axl, with unruly light brown hair and brown eyes. He looked like a guitarist—tattoos on his arms and a stud through his eyebrow.“I’m the resident drummer, Jack, and dare I say the hot one of the band.” His grin had her smiling; his confidence wasn’t overbearing, and he wasn’t lying. He was good-looking, not like Axl, but then again, no
Blunt Pain Part 55
AxlHe still felt high from the previous day. They had another meeting with Calum Phillips today, and he had rolled around the previous night, unable to sleep. His body felt restless, charged with nervous energy, as if the sound from yesterday’s stage was still echoing beneath his skin. Aspen slept through everything, and at three a.m., he finally got up, realizing he wouldn’t be able to sleep, and pulled his clothes on.He drove his car the few miles it took to get to the beach and took his shoes off. The water was cold, but his mind was a million miles away. The sand was damp beneath his feet, the air heavy with salt and early-morning mist, and the world felt strangely quiet for a city that never truly slept. He blinked away the welled-up tears and shoved his hands in his pockets. He had no idea what Calum was going to offer them, but they’d been told that there would be an offer. This was his dream, and he felt so many emotions at once that, for a split second, he couldn’t even bre
Blunt Pain Part 54
AxlThey’d been in Los Angeles for two weeks, sharing a motel room. His appointment with the music agent, Ralph Lawson, had gone well. He’d invited Axl to a music workshop, almost like a mass audition. It was organized by Calum Phillips, Ralph’s boss. The man was a musical genius when it came to signing new talent, putting bands together, and Axl felt extremely lucky to have been invited. Aspen was sitting in the second row, along with a host of other people.Stagehands were running around, yelling at each other about lights and the acoustics. Axl was in front of the stage with a mass of other musicians, all vying for the chance to be heard by Calum Phillips. His eyes found Aspen, and she gave him a bright smile and a thumbs-up sign. He gave her a smile and turned his attention back to the forms in front of him. He’d brought his own sheet music, but they were given five songs they could choose from to perform. Every person would get one minute to sing, and that was all you got to imp
Blunt Pain Part 23
NorthAxl slid into the front passenger seat of North’s Jaguar and flexed his right hand. The dull ache in his knuckles pulsed with every movement, a quiet reminder of how quickly everything had spiraled out of control. North pulled away from the station, and Merit sat quietly in the back. He glanc
Blunt Pain Part 22
On Sunday, Aspen had picked Merit up and gone with her to her house to get clothes. It didn’t take long before Aspen dropped her off again. He didn’t mind having Merit there. She surprised him when she helped him cook dinner, and she fed Peyton, too—almost like they had fallen into a quiet, familia
Blunt Pain Part 21
AxlHe closed his car door softly and unlocked the door to his trailer. He carried the shopping bag to his room where Merit was still asleep. He was glad. He hadn’t wanted her to wake up alone. He moved back to the kitchen and started making coffee.He was in two minds; he couldn’t just take her ho
Blunt Pain Part 20
MeritThe chilly wind whipped her hair about her face, but she didn’t bother trying to tuck it behind her ear. Her arms were hugging herself, trying to keep warm as she stumbled down the street. The cocktail dress she was wearing did nothing to maintain body heat. The thin fabric clung to her skin,
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