It all started once upon a time, about a decade and several plus years ago, when Trix had met Tone-E, back then just known as Ant. He was a sixteen-year-old loner, kinda nerdy, kinda pissed off looking, and she, well?she was the twenty-something-looking blonde, who was actually past half-a-century old---bubbly, goofy, and grungy but fashionable. She was fresh off the Island, again, too, after one of her many brief stints there. The Elders always embraced the wayward daughter of Scathach, and they were actually starting to get used to not hearing from her for years at a time.

Their meeting was poignant. It happened in 1991 when she?d gotten lost in some Californian ?burbs and found herself stuck in a cul-de-sac, and there he was, sitting on a curb and watching the other kids play some basketball. They?d all turned when she approached, a few snickering at her disheveled appearance, another couple jabbing each other with elbows (?look at her?talk to her!?), but Ant just kind of glanced up and made an unimpressed face. That?s why she went to him, she supposed.


"Hey, kid. Do ya?uh?do ya know where I can find this street? Um?man, what the hell?s the name of it? It?s the one with, the, uh the rec-urd store on it? Small, Black, an? Circular? ?Cha dig??

?I?m not a kid. I?m sixteen, lady. And no, I don?t. You might want to find out the name of the street. That usually helps.?

?And I?m not a lady, kid.?

?That?s great. Who the Hell are you, again??

?Trixie. Hey, uh, what?re you doing right now? I could use a tour guide??

It was a brief introduction, followed by a stare-down. She must have won, too, since he did end up getting up off that curb. Why? Well, the world may never know. But from there, a partnership was born. Ant was the first person she ever told about her ?condition? outside of the girls on the Island. He was her immortal support system, and she was his ticket into the wonderful world of music. She got him his first trumpet, and then his first bass. She was the one who picked him up the first time he fell in a mosh-pit. She was also the one who pretended to be his guardian at a tattoo parlor in LA.

Six years passed, and that bond between them only got stronger. After year number two, they?d started adopting young misfits like themselves to join their motley crew. Regal, Mikey as his mom dubbed him, was the first addition. He made a pretty close number two in Trixie?s line of friendship, because if Tone-E was the slightly older brother figure, then Reegz was definitely the younger one. He was the lead singer in their first band, The No Goods, and he was the one who brought the other core members of the now tighter than a duck?s ass group together. Skeeny was good old number four, followed by Andy X and Osh?Tosh. The six of them were content to be the six of them, and Trixie was more than happy to be the lone chica in the squad. She had plenty of badass sisters and enough womanly drama from the few femmes she wooed at the time. The No Goods became the Threesome Gone Awry, but even after recruiting Smell Good (Jay) as their new hot-shot bassist, they weren?t having much luck really breaking out.

In the summer of 1997, Threesome Gone Awry decided that after just two years of being an official band, they needed a serious change. First off, Reegz finally admitted he sucked as a frontman and stepped down. Then, Tone-E?s good friend Rocky, who was slowly being pulled into the N.G. family (they?d still kept the No Good title for their posse?call it sentimental), had stepped up to the plate as manager for the freshly reconstructed Act Naturally which now featured Trixie on drums, Tone-E, Skeeny, and Osh?Tosh holding up the brass, Smell Good on rhythm guitar, Reegz on lead guitar, and Smell Good stuck on bass. That, of course, only left one severe void to be filled: vocals. So, auditions were held. After two weeks of agony and false glimmers of hope, their prayers were answered.

Brant had answered the ad.

He was a little young, just eighteen, which made some of the guys wary, but they still couldn?t deny that he had it. He had that potential star power. His voice, though by far and away not the most amazing you?d ever find, could still hook you. It was unprocessed, but full of natural talent. He could move with a mic, he had confidence, and he was good-looking in a totally un-put-together way. He was it. And Trix was, well?enthralled.

Exactly three days later, Brant and Trixie outted themselves to the band. Tone-E seemed unimpressed, the rest were only mildly shocked. Well, except for Bermuda (who, although he didn?t play any instruments, was pretty much part of the band). He was baffled that he?d missed it. But then, with all the stuff she?d seen that guy take, it was no wonder, really.

Anyway, after that, things were peaceful. Relatively. It?d taken a bunch of fights to get Brant to tell the rest of the guys, and now that the two were an ?official? couple, they took on new pressures. Trixie resented the fact that the other guys somehow thought it was now her duty to check in with Brant all the time, and Brant, being the not even nineteen-years-old lead-singer of a band, was resenting the fact that he had settled so quickly. But, Tone-E and Trixie were okay, again. And still, despite the growing number of mini-tiffs between them, Trixie and Brant kept trying. Their passion, dare say it, their love, even kept it afloat, until?

The sit-down. All the other bandies and bff?s had dealt with it before. It was time to lay Trixie?s secret out there, because to be a true member of the N.G.C., you had to be in the know. And once you did know, you protected that secret with your goddamned life.

She hadn?t told him. She didn?t want to tell him now, even, but she had to. There had been more than a couple close-calls when he?d almost found out prematurely?her fast healing scratches, he nearly came over on several of her ?bad nights?, and he even once walked in on her drinking some fresh pig?s blood. That one had been awkward.

But why hadn?t she divulged this information sooner, you ask? She was supposedly in love with him, right? So how could she keep such a big thing from him?

Flashback, about seventy years, back before she met the boys, and back before she became a Scathachian. She?d kept herself isolated then, after she?d been cursed, but after growing too lonely from people-watching, she finally made a move on a man who?d caught her eye. She?d ached for the courtship, and when he finally took her as his, she fell hard, because, fuck, she needed to feel connected to something again. Anything. Maybe it wasn?t the most genuine of love, but she built herself up on it.

And she told him, because she needed to tell someone aloud. It was during a moment of intimacy, when she whispered it to him from her place in his arms. Of course, he thought her mad, but when she insisted?when she showed him how her body could mend tears in her flesh back together faster than was deemed normal?well, he didn?t exactly take it well. He sprung out of the bed, shoving her away like the touch of her skin would taint him, and launched into hysterical finger-pointing and name-calling. Witch. Demon. Monster. He looked repulsed, like he might bathe himself for days to be rid of her scent. He looked terrified. He had no sympathy for the girl cowering and sobbing in his sheets. He even went so far as to run out of the room to get a candle, which he brandished at her. While she wasn?t Frankenstein, the gesture hurt enough to get her to run out of the house with only those bed-sheets to protect her.

And sure, she?d had another lover since that one, but her girlfriend hadn?t been so mortal herself. Her dreading this moment was pretty understandable.

But, it happened. Tone-E sat to her right, Reegz to her left, and the three of them faced the rest. The other boys who knew, meaning everyone but Brant, Bermuda, and Smell Good, sat in the back of the gathering. She didn't look at him for the entire time she talked about what she was. Smell Good asked a couple questions, thinking she was lying. Bermuda demanded a demonstration. She obliged. She didn?t glance up to see Brant?s reaction, though. Tone-E told her later that he?d been straight-faced the whole time?he hadn?t made one fucking expression. Not even when she slit down the back of her arm with a fingernail and held it out to them as it healed up.

After the ?show?, Tone-E, Reegz, and Andy X all made sure to let the three know that if they breathed a word of this to anyone outside the group, they were dead, and then that was that. The whole thing didn't taken more than twenty minutes, and at the end of it, they were told that if they couldn?t handle it, they could get out. They all kept their place, so she even dared to take that as a good sign.

The room cleared. He didn't come to her immediately, but that was forgiveable. Of course, she'd have liked it more if he had run to her afterwards and told her that it was alright, but she couldn't have her way all the time. So, she went off to her room and she waited. He didn?t show up that night, either, and she figured that too was reasonable.

Yet, the next day, at rehearsal, when he brushed her off as he entered the room, then later treated her as he would any of the rest of them, she knew it had happened. The beginning of the end.