"Everything is ready for tonight," Melody said to herself after setting up her entire bedroom, "Oh God! I'm so excited! Aren't you excited, Mozart?" She asked her tabby cat, who was asleep in a little chair by the window, "Well, I guess you're not as excited about it as I am."
The room was so big and full of Monster Mash mugs, photos, framed T-shirts, and souvenirs that it looked like a museum, and Melody was proud of it. She even had a bedspread and towels with the faces of the boys on them.
There were six posters on the wall, one for each boy.
"This is it. I need to breathe and relax," and she did.
Tonight, Melody wouldn't be alone reading fanfics on her phone, nor studying lying in bed with her feet up barely paying attention to whatever she was reading, it wasn't even a night of feeling the boys embracing her while she blew her ears listening to their songs in bed and much less was it a night of private self-defence classes that her mother paid for.
No...
Tonight, Melody and Jade would watch a concert live.
A gift for her best friend, she could say.
Melody's relationship with the band coincided almost perfectly with her darkest hour to the point where she couldn't possibly imagine what her life would be like if she hadn't been introduced to Monster Mash.
That's why she did this favour for Jade; because she knew she was going through a bad time too.
She had seen the look Jade had when she first saw her.
It was the look in Melody's own reflection before Monster Mash.
She had saved someone, or so she liked to think.
"Time to get ready," Melody told herself, running to the bathroom.
She needed to look good for tonight, even though she wasn't going out.
It would have been great to go see the guys on stage, but a livestream was the best option since the tickets sold out in two minutes and the streaming service's premier pass was way cheaper.
It was a shame, since Melody lived only an hour drive from the big city, specifically the stadium, where the boys would perform for their last concert of the tour. Beach Seaty was always the luckiest city in Transylv Island, the most beautiful and with the best climate, the favourite daughter of the Gods, her grandfather used to say.
It took Melody forty minutes to get ready, but finally, she looked in the mirror and loved what she saw.
It was ridiculous that she had dressed up in a black dress and high heels and even straightened her crimson curls just for this television concert, but despite her mother's constant eye-rolls, Melody made sure to look as elegant and presentable as possible for the most important night of her life.
Even Jade was surprised when she arrived an hour before the concert started.
"And your dad knows you came, right?" Melody asked Jade as she let her into her big, luxurious house filled with expensive pieces of art.
"Something like that," Jade said, "Let's say 'sneak out' is a proper word."
"Those are two words," said Melody, running a hand over the white piano at the foot of the stairs.
"I actually fell from the second floor and landed on Dad's car," Jade replied as they headed to the kitchen.
While they were making popcorn in the microwave, Jade started talking about how happy she was and how much she had been looking forward to this night.
Jade was unrecognisable now, much happier than when Melody first met her sixteen days ago.
Jade was now a Masher to the core, dressed in a white Monster Mash T-shirt Melody had gifted her and a purple skirt.
Yes. Melody had helped someone become a better person.
And Melody would wait until the end of the concert to give her new best friend the biggest news ever: She had managed to obtain, thanks to her father's influence, tickets to Monster Mash's charity event that would take place that Saturday at the Hallow Inn!
"Why are you smiling so much?" Jade asked as Melody emptied the popcorn into the bowl.
"I'm sure you're going to pass out by the end of the night." Melody replied, "And I'm also happy that today I didn't have to see the angry blonde that Mum pays to teach me self-defence. She is so rude."
They both went to Melody's bedroom and accessed the live stream with the Premier Pass code, and after waiting half an hour and finishing the bowl of popcorn, the show began with a bang...
This was the moment...
Melody was so nervous when the BOOMS of the song started and the pyrotechnics went off louder than the screams of an entire stadium full of Mashers.
The Monster Mash boys jumped one by one from platforms beneath the stage to the best of 'Monster In Love' and wow! From the beginning, the show was quite a spectacle!
The dancing and vocals were amazing. The stage simulated a haunted castle and the boys wore black and white outfits with highlights of their characteristic colour.
It was like watching a recreation of the music video but in neon shades.
Melody's enamoured eyes were fixed on these six jolly, sweaty boys dressed in outrageous outfits singing their hearts out on a stage packed with screens displaying Halloween-ish images.
It was so epic.
The second song was 'Black Magic Nights' and boy was it quite a show! Green mist surrounded the guys and plenty of neon lights as well. There were flames erupting from torches at the edge of the stage with every beat of the song, and dancers dressed as sexy witches dancing around a huge cauldron.
'Howl At The Moon' was the next song, one of Melody's favourites, suggestive and lustful, with very danceable Latin pop vibes. And boy did the boys know how to live up to the sensuality of the lyrics! They danced almost like elite strippers, moving their hips and touching their bodies. This was Alex's song, he was in his element, flirting with some fans with his eyes and even pretending that he was going to take off his shirt.
The next song was 'Brainless' and although the show wasn't that spectacular, the voices were! The guys sang at the top of their lungs amidst neon tombstones, green and purple fog, and dancers dressed as zombies. Frank's voice was strong, but Finn's? He was born to sing pop-rock, period!
'Poltergeist' was performed incredibly on a stage of blueish purple lights and huge screens displaying static. Some household objects floated around the boys, and it really looked like an invisible force was moving them because no wires could be seen anywhere. It was as impressive as the drumbeats, elegantly chaotic, and Zeth and Finn's vocals were like two forces of nature from start to finish.
By the time they started singing 'Haunted Forest' in a stage now transformed into a gloomy neon forest, Melody was already hyperventilating, hence why Jade decided to open the window to get some air.
After that song, the stage went from being neon to pastel, giving way to the most emotional part of the night.
The next song was 'Rise Like A Kraken' which was the song that actually made Melody go from a depressed bud to a colourful flower. It was one of their best songs. Even Melody's mum praised the instrumentation, inspirational lyrics and Finn's raspy, crying-out vocal sounds and powerful vocal range. She literally said that there was no one in the world other than Finn who could sing the final part of that song, even comparing it to Aerosmith's 'Dream On' which was honestly one hell of a song! And boy did the stage reminded Melody of that old Titanic movie! It looked like the bottom of the sea with those blue lights and all those treasure props and huge sunken ship. In fact, there was a video that went viral of the boys singing the Titanic song for a female bodyguard on their team and this was just as epic.
The next song was 'Bad Wolf' and it was a masterpiece of a power ballad. The theatrical notes were in place, the singing was too emotional, it sounded mature and the sound of wolves howling in the background added a certain nostalgia and even sadness to the melody. Alex always cried when singing this song, and it was beautiful how all the boys hugged him when he finished.
The next song lifted the spirits quite a bit, it was 'Frozen Heart' and was beautifully performed, as danceable as the electropop of its genre and as sincere as its lyrics. The entire stage was white and blue, and at the end, Everett snapped his fingers and snow fell upon the Mashers in the stadium. It was beautiful.
And what about 'Boogeyman' and those incredible effects where the shadows came to life? And that church-style choir in the background? That deafening applause? Wow! It was quite an experience!
The next song was 'Victor Frankenstein' which was the first song Melody heard from the boys, so it meant so much to her that it almost made her cry. The stage looked like a mad scientist's lab, with a green thunderstorm on the screens and many flashes of white lights around the guys.
When the guys sang 'Spread My Wings' it was simply fun and amazing. Finn's whistle notes left Melody speechless, and the way the stage went from a fancy vampire dinner to a disastrous college party with Draco flying around the stage tied to a harness singing like a legitimate smiling bat was the funniest and most iconic thing in the world.
The next song was 'Black Cat' and the entire stage had turned silver with screens simulating broken mirrors, and the next song was also cat themed: 'Nine Lives' from their latest album. It had a military sound, the dancing was impressive, with Draco showing off his parkour moves and Zeth nailing those cheerleading acrobatics, perfectly coordinated with the dancers dressed in tiger-print jumpsuits.
'Pit Full Of Vipers' was a pop-rock song that made even the most demure Masher dance, the music was rebellious and challenging, and the whole stage was now green with dancers dressed in scaled jumpsuits.
'Hunter In Disguise' was equally iconic not only because of the boys' vocal power, but also because of the thousand acrobats dressed as super spies who flipped in the air with Draco and Zeth. It was like one of the Cirque du Soleil shows that Melody's mum loved so much! And it was even more amazing to see this same type of show but with the song 'I'm Just A Clown' in a fake black and white circus to a loud rock beat with clown acrobats!
After this song, everything took a more sinister and terrifying turn that started with the song 'Exorcist' and wow! Just wow! Pyrotechnic torches, red lights and pentagrams on the screens behind them, it was so creepy and edgy!
After finishing this song, the boys sang 'Evil Rise' in an equally terrifying setting simulating a destroyed apartment, with dancers dressed as possessed people who contorted in downright terrifying ways.
And when the song was over, the first beats of 'I've Seen The Darkness' made Melody's skin crawl.
"OH MY GAWD!" Melody screamed, startling Jade.
The fireworks, the screams of thousands of fans, the TV turned up to full volume.
This was the most exciting moment in her entire life!
"Look! Look! I can't believe it! They're going to sing that song!" Melody started shaking Jade violently.
"I'm getting dizzy."
"Oops, sorry. I got carried away," Melody laughed awkwardly, "God! I'm going to faint! Blow some air at me!"
"With what?" Jade asked, quickly grabbing a magazine from the night table, fanning her friend.
Melody was no longer on this existential plane, she no longer existed as a person.
Her body was here, but her soul was in that stadium with the guys.
She felt whole, with her eyes fixed on the screen while Zeth stood in front of his friends, centre stage and with a cocky smile, while pyrotechnic torches flamed by his sides.
He looked so confident, somewhat elegant while adjusting his headset microphone. Since the beginning of the band, they always wore those, to dance freely and to make sure their voices were the focal point during performances.
"Beach Seaty!" Zeth shouted and the audience responded with frantic screams. His tanned skin glittered like gold under the warm, yellowish lights that illuminated him. He was just perfect. "Make some noise!"
There were frantic screams, drum beats, an electric guitar nailing it.
The backing music stopped, and then Zeth began singing...
"I've seen the darkness! I have been BETRAAAAAYED!" Zeth threw a fist up into the air, and pyrotechnics went off around him with the BOOM of the song. There was silence, darkness, the crowd went wild during this break. The music kicked back in, the lights returned in a flash. "I got my scars... Learned from the PAAAAAIN!" That high note was amazing, a D5, and his raspy voice was full-power. Starting a song so loud and strong was impressive, and a very high bar for the upcoming fourth album. "I've seen the darkness! I have seen the FLAAAAMES! I died and rose up from the deeeeeead..." He finished and stepped back, motioning to Draco, who with a childish walk stood at the centre of the stage while the lights flashed cherry red.
The entire stadium was singing in unison.
"I... Have... Seen... The... Flames..." The voices of thousands of Mashers echoed throughout the vast venue, and then Draco began to sing.
"I woke up in a co-oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-offin..." Draco began to sing, his voice soft and melodious, somewhat rebellious. Then he took a long breath and sang louder, "Screee-eh-eh-Eh-Eh-eeaming! Let me ooooout..."
The lights on the stage danced and turned a turquoise shade of blue.
Finn stepped forward, took a very, very long breath, and sang with the power of a rock star...
"Now I feel like a... Mo-oh-Oh-OH-ONSTEEEER! RAAAAWR!" Finn was letting himself go, bending backwards, closing his eyes like a visual testament to his passion for the music, going up and up until he hit an impressive sustained D6 whistle note, "I'm not FEELING HUMAAAN!" He spread his arms when he finished his part, with a huge piranha-toothed grin on his face, waiting for the audience to scream...
But a dead silent crowd was all he got. There were only a few almost inaudible screams in the crowd, and someone coughing.
Finn had performed this song like it was a #1 hit on Billboard, because it more or less was, #13 actually, and yet, nothing.
It was horribly awkward.
Finn looked upset, sad. He started walking towards the back of the stage, but Zeth ran after him.
Just then the lights danced and turned electric green.
Frank began singing his part...
"I was awakened by darkness! It made me stronger and wiser!" Frank looked over his shoulder at Zeth, who was now holding Finn by the shoulders, encouraging him and looking him straight in the eyes, probably urging him to get back to the front of the stage. Finn seemed to refuse to believe what Zeth was saying to him, though. "Hey everyone! Help me with something please. Repeat after me... Finn, come back! Finn, come back!"
Zeth looked surprised, Finn too.
"Finn, come back! Finn, come back!" It was amazing how the whole crowd shouted.
Finn smiled slightly, wiping a tear, walking over to Frank, patting him on the shoulder.
Finn thanked Frank with a nod.
Frank nodded back and then, with one hand up, continued singing.
"I was in pain but my wounds were healing fast. Was I deeeeeead?"
The lights turned purple, and Alex began to sing...
"I trusted people in the past! And got sta-a-a-abbed! In the back! Fancy..." Singing his verse in his deep, masculine voice, Alex ran a hand through his brown hair, which was as dripping in sweat. "I was revived just to take revenge on my... Murderous frieeeeends!"
The lights turned white as snow.
From among clouds of dry ice, Everett stepped forward, tall, imposing and expressionless.
"I've seen the darkness! I have been BETRAAAAAYED!" His voice became louder and louder, as if it were an opera show until he hit a perfectly sustained, chesty D5. Everett reached out for Finn's hand, holding it tightly, raising it into the air, "I got my scars... Learned from the paaaaain!"
Zeth took centre stage, winked at a person in the audience, took a long breath, and...
"I've seen the darkness! I have seen the FLAAAAMES! I died and rose up from the deeeeeead..."
The stage once again erupted in lights, pyrotechnics and the whole stadium sang.
"I... Have... Seen... The... Flames..." The voices in unison of more than five thousand people were deafening.
"I woke up in a coffin... Let me oooooout..." Draco backflipped, landed and smiled, waving at the audience. "Hit it, Finn!"
"Now I feel like a... MONSTEEEER!" Finn belted, more emotional than before, high on life, "I'm not FEELING HUMAAAN!"
"Oh my Sparks! That was crazy!" Frank told the audience, "Did you hear that? Finn just nailed it!"
"Everybody! Scream for Finn!" Draco shouted at the top of his lungs. The crowd went wild, shouting Finn's name.
"Thank you so much, everyone," Finn said to both the audience and his friends, "This means a lot to me. Now... Hit it Draco!"
"I saw myself in a mirror! But the reflection was not mine!" Draco sang, bouncing on the stage's trampoline, "I had to roar to be heard... I took a chance... My heart couldn't beeeeeear! Hey-yeah!"
"I've seen the darkness!" With one hand raised, Frank showed effort to hit a D5, and even the veins in his neck popped. "I have been BETRAAAAAYED!" Frank stood next to Finn, putting his bionic arm around his shoulders, locking eyes while singing, "I got my scars... Learned from the paaaaain! Hit it, Alex!"
"I've seen the darkness! I have seen the FLAAAAMES!" Alex sang a perfect D5, flexing his biceps, and with a quick look, he told Finn to do the same. Finn did it, with a nervous laugh. The crowd screamed, went crazy, and then Alex continued singing. "I had a heart attack..."
"OOOOUCH!" Finn hit a high note.
"Died but rose up from the deeeeead..." Alex finished. "Come on everyone! Sing!"
"I... Have..." The whole stadium sang in unison
And then the boys began dancing.
Frank was a little clumsy at coordinating his feet with the other guys.
Draco was living his best life, bouncing and spinning around.
Alex swayed his hips, with his hands rubbing his body.
Finn was the most focused on not missing a beat or making a mistake.
Zeth was in his element, intoxicated by the screams of the crowd.
And Everett? He was surprisingly agile, moving his hands and legs as if he were fighting with swords more than dancing.
"Come on! Sing!" Draco shouted, jumping all over the catwalk.
"Seen... The... Flames..." Everyone in the stadium had their hands up, moving from side to side.
"Woke up in a coffin!" Draco sang and backflipped. "Hit it, Zeth!"
"I WAS REVIVED! I had to AVENGE! My dark demise!" Zeth sang loud and strong.
"'Cause I'm not a monster!" Draco sang.
"BUT NEEDED REVEEEEEEENGE!" Finn sang, louder than before.
"You and I, Seamons!" Zeth said, putting his arm around Finn, walking down the catwalk with the rest of the group behind them.
"I have seen the... I have seen the... I have SEEN THE FLA-AMES!" Finn and Zeth ended the song singing in unison, both punching the air amidst flames coming out of the stage.
And then came the frantic sound of an entire stadium screaming.
It was so loud that Melody had to turn down the volume on the TV.
"Tell me the concert won't end soon," Jade said and Melody shrugged.
"I don't know. They always sing thirty songs and I think they've sung twenty so far. Not sure. Maybe they've sung less? It feels like we started ten minutes ago!" Melody fanned herself with one hand. She was sweating. "God! It's been an amazing night. I can't believe I almost met the boys."
Jade looked at her strangely.
"Wait, you almost met them? Why? When? You didn't tell me that!"
"Oh it's just that..." Melody rubbed her arm, "My dad, you know he has a TV show, right? The Opera House?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, before his accident, Frank went with Draco and Zeth to the auditions," Melody said, "Draco and Zeth were put in one group and Frank in a different one even though they all auditioned as soloists. It didn't help much because both groups were quickly eliminated."
"I didn't know that," Jade covered her mouth, completely in shock.
Oh! Melody couldn't wait to tell Jade about the event on Saturday at the Hallow Inn! God! Jade and Melody would finally meet their idols!
"Girls!" Melody's mum knocked on the door, "Girls! I'm going to post my next article! I won't be available so I hope you don't need anything!"
"We're fine, Mum. We won't bother you." Melody replied.
"Okay. Your brother is at the airport. He will arrive soon. Don't go to sleep late and remember not to open the window. I don't want Mozart to get lost again."
Jade and Melody looked at each other with eyes full of terror, turning to look at the open window.
"The cat was with us?" Jade asked.
"Yes, the cat was with us." Melody replied.
"I don't think we'll finish watching the concert," Jade whispered, covering her mouth.