“Where the hell am I?”

Mercuria opened her eyes to found herself in a stair in the middle of a black void, surrounded by millions of stars. The steps descended into the darkness and ascended to the top of a tower whose bottom couldn’t be seen. She decided to walk up.

Even though she could see how she was getting closer, the ascension seemed endless. On the way up she saw smaller towers with giant drums and inactive mechanical monkeys that waited for a command to awaken. After she passed them, the machines activated and began to hit the instruments, and a high pitch voice joined them soon after.

I see the clouds in the distance

I feel the rain against my skin

I hear the lightning

The thunders

The wind

And the beat of my heart

A guitar took part in the song, presenting itself with riff composed by a mix of low and high notes, convoking thunder and lightning with every strum.

Thunder and lightning in the skies

Excitement through my veins

Running into my brain

And so I rise

The voice extended the last word, turning into a powerful howl.

Standing in the eye of the storm

With the wrath of the divine

At the edge of the line

Extended is my right arm

As she ascended, the sound made stronger, until she reached the top and saw the figure that was playing, or more accurately, figures. The guitarist was a tall skeleton with long curly hair that wore a black top hat, a denim jacket with fringes, a T-shirt depicting Kiala, and grey trousers, lacking any kind of footwear; while the singer was a smaller skeleton that grew from his back, like a tumor. His face was adorned by a horseshoe mustache as yellow as the sun, the same as his mane, surrounded by a red bandana; and wore a white tank top and round blue sunglasses.

The roar of thunder and lightning

At the beat of my heart

The beat

The beat

The beat of my heart

As the pair continued to play, Mercuria found herself moving one of her feet and starting to bang her head, ending in a crude display of the emotions she was feeling at that moment, at the mercy of that glorious mix of sounds, raising one of her arms and showing the sign of the horns.

Standing in the eye of the storm

With the wrath of the divine

At the edge of the line

Extended is my right arm

The beauty of the chaos

The rush of my blood

My safety’s betrayal

An emotional flood

The singer stopped and let the guitarist take the spotlight with a guitar solo, leaving a small silence after he finished.

Thunder

Lightning

And the beat

The beat

The beat

The beat

The beat of my heart

Once again, the smaller skeleton held the last word as long as he could, singing gradually in higher notes, and the guitar closed with a series of chords.

As the song ended, the guitarist laid her eyes onto the pair, enchanted and intrigued, and clapped her hands. The tall skeleton bowed, much to the protest of the other one, and greeted Mercuria.

"Hey, welcome girl. You’ve left an impression around there"

Mercuria continued bewitched at the sight of the beings that stood in front of her, finally speaking their names.

"You…you’re Ronnie and Lennie, two Gods of Rock. You’re real"

"It took you some time to answer"- Said Ronnie, the smaller of the two brothers and God of Singers and Thunder- "Of course we’re fucking real!"

"Hey, don’t be such a dick to her!" - Shouted Lennie, the God of Lightning and Guitarists- "She hasn’t experienced something like this before!"

"I’ll be whatever the fuck I want to be!"

"An asshole for what I can see!"

"You don’t have eyes, douchebag. You know what? Go fuck yourself"

The brothers began to argue with each other, completely forgetting about their gest and complaining about their flaws and sharing a body, especially terrible when one of them began to snore at night. The discussion could have continued indefinitely, with both demonstrating being masters of that painful art, if Mercuria hadn’t draw their attention after a series of attempts and finally surpassing her complex, asking where she was. She had a long day and wasn’t in the mood for standing there watching them after nearly dying.

“Well”- Started saying Lennie- Humans have different names for this place, as well as the gods, but all personal favourite is The Stream, and inside of it is where we are now, our Tower in the Storm. You see, The Stream contains the domains of the different gods, and it’s created from the general subconscious.

As he was speaking, he raised one of his hands to the sky, pointing at the stars.

“Every star up there is an idea, burning with all the power of creativity, claiming to be freed into the material world and amaze. We, gods, were born from these, and grow with them”

“Gods, you really made it sound gay as fuck”- Said Ronnie to his brother, who insulted him- “How about you cut the crap and talk about why she’s here, huh?

“He’s got a point”- Said Mercuria.

“Okay. Take a seat”- As he finished his words, Lennie moved their body to a sofa and sat there, while the woman accommodated in another one, in front of them- “Wanna drink something?”

"Just water"

They clicked their fingers at unison and a small refrigerator moved to the side of their seat. The God of Lightning opened it and took a bottle of water and two Grütsgrards, one of which he passed to the other god.

"Try not to pour it on my favourite jacket"

"Don’t worry, bro"

The sight of the brothers drinking their beer was priceless, being able to observe the liquid move between their bones and disappearing somewhere along the way, hidden by the clothes. She immediately remembered Glam and her comment at Rosaleón’s house about the beverage, roughly holding an indiscreet laugh. She wondered what was happening in the real world as she was there, and also to herself if she was in a place fuelled by dreams.

"Um…before we talk about why I’m here, what’s happening in the real world? And how are my friends?"

Funny, she thought, she just knew them for some days and already thought of them as her friends, embarked together in her travel for a purpose. Or it was just to fulfil her ego? Either way, the Crazy Train pointed her to those two, who joined her by their own reasons, and felt some kind of connection to them, realer than some of her past relations.

“Your friends are okay, continuing the journey and taking care of you since you lost consciousness. The only thing here is your mind”- Explained Lennie as his brother shared one of his opinions.

“You found good people to help you. You should take care of them, or you could end up regretting it”

“I see”- Said Mercuria, recognizing the wisdom in Ronnie’s voice.

“Let’s get back to the reason you’re here”- Spoke Lennie through his teeth- “You’re embarked in a dangerous journey, and you may not succeed, but up ‘til now you’ve shown that you’re capable of getting through”

“You really talk a lot for someone without lips”- Interrupted Ronnie- “What he’s trying to say is that you can kick Belzerax’s fucking ass and we want to help you beat the living shit outta him”

As any other person, Mercuria was surprised by being offered help from two divinities, not knowing how to properly answer to such honour.

“Wow…Thanks…a lot. It's a great honour…your divineness”

“And stop being afraid of talking, your voice is fine! - The God of Thunder’s reproach didn’t show the slightest apex of mercy- “You sliced a fucking dragon’s balls, something pretty brutal. Start gaining some confidence, dammit!

The woman’s eyes pointed to the ground. Lennie was right, and she was ashamed of her weakness, but she couldn’t fall into self-pity, it was time to be better. She raised her head, reminding herself the reasons she had to be proud.

“That’s more like it”

Lennie took his guitar, a Gibson L-5 with several skeletons painted on it, and gave a music sheet to Mercuria.

“I’m going to teach you a riff that will allow you to use our powers, throwing a storm against whoever you want. Watch and learn”

She slowly mimicked his moves and listened to his advice whenever she failed, keeping in one part until she made it good enough to start another, while time flew and her hand began to hurt. After an hour, Mercuria could make an approximated sound that still needed to be polished, nevertheless, and took the paper on her hand.

“Well, time to go kiddo”- Exposed Ronnie.

“And how do I go back”

“Hit your heels three times”

“Very funny”

“Just close your eyes and focus on returning to your body”- Explained the skeletal guitarist to her.

“Okay then, sounds easy”- With her eyes closed, she said farewell to the pair of gods.

“This is not a goodbye kid”- Said Ronnie, followed by Lennie- “We’ll meet again. See you later”