My girlfriend, Nina, was a huge rap and R&B fan. She had hundreds of vinyls in our room with music posters covering every square inch of the walls. There wasn’t a thing she didn’t know about rap—past or present. Some nights when I asked her to go out with me, she would decline. She preferred to stay home, listening to new albums or watching documentaries of her favorite artists. It was her dream to be like them.
On car-rides she would be itching to connect to the speakers, playing songs and turning to get my reaction every few seconds. When I showed even the slightest hint of a smile, her eyes would light up.
The mumble rappers she played gave me headaches, though. Their auto tuned voices and poor lyrics were a turnoff for me. Even so, when I saw how excited she was about Travis Scott coming to Houston, I knew I had to surprise her with tickets. I worked my ass off, taking double shifts and working overtime to save up enough money for two tickets. Seeing her reaction to the tickets made it all worth it. She must’ve sat there for five minutes, eyes wide in disbelief.
When the day for the concert finally came around, she woke up extra early. It was 5am when I heard rummaging and plastic hangers clicking together from the closet. Sunlight crept in from the blinds, casting shadows in horizontal slits into our room. I rolled over, seeing the silhouette of Nina with clothes laid out on the carpet floor. She was looking down at three outfits, pacing back and forth as if it were a life and death decision.
“Nina,” I murmured, “what are you doing?”
She spun around to face me, arms crossed as if it were obvious. “What are you doing?” She asked.
“I’m trying to get some sleep.”
“There are already people in line to get in,” she said, nudging me awake.
“The gates open in 5 hours,” I said, looking at my phone. “Travis doesn’t even start until 9pm.”
She tapped her feet on the floor. Her green eyes were in constant motion like the wings of a hummingbird. She had this way of passing her impatience onto me.
“…Fine, I’ll get ready,” I said.
We left our house when we finished getting ready and arrived at NRG Park. There was only one entrance in and out, with a meandering line of people longer than the Mississippi River. It took hours of waiting in the blazing sun before we got inside—only to see more lines. There were huge lines for the bathrooms, Ferris wheels, food trucks, and the merchandise shop. Nina clung onto me like a magnet, urging me to get on the Ferris wheel and tugging at me to get some food. She thanked me about thirty times in total for bringing her.
Most of the time leading up to 9pm was spent waiting in lines. Nina and I had a final conversation before the concert began. We were sitting on a bench. She squirted ketchup onto her twelve-dollar hotdog.
“How are you liking th—”
“You think Travis will let me get a picture?” She said, biting down on her hotdog. She realized she cut me off. “I’m… sorry… I’m… just so… excited,” she said with a mouthful.
“I’m glad you are. As for the picture with Travis, uhh…” I looked out at the thousands of people. “…Maybe next time?”
Her eyes widened. “You’ll take me out again a next time?”
“Sure, but we’re going to my favorite artists’ concert.”
“Arctic Monkeys?” She asked with a smile. “I don’t mind!”
“…I just thought of the perfect plan,” I said with a smirk.
“What?”
“I’ll put you on my shoulders and you’ll take a selfie with Travis in the background.”
She grinned wider than she ever has and quickly finished her meal. Once we cleaned up, we headed to our space in the crowd.
The sun was setting when Travis Scott finally came out to sing. The background he was standing in front of looked like a mountain with glowing red lights. There was a huge gaping hole where he would perform on a platform with fire shooting up into the sky. The crowd roared.
I tried putting Nina on my shoulders, but people were rushing to the front for a better view. They would’ve knocked her down.
Nina and I were near the center of the bustling crowd. With the collective body warmth of thousands of people, it felt hotter than a boiling pot of water being in there. Nina clutched my bicep as the crowd surged.
“Let’s go, please,” she whispered in my ear as random objects were being thrown overhead. She never did well in claustrophobic environments and this got a lot more crowded than she expected.
We tried pushing against the incoming barrage of people, but it was as useless as fighting a current.
People smelt of alcohol. They fought one another over the littlest of contact, forming mosh pits that ended with bodies piled on top of each other like a football game. People yelled for help. I clutched Nina, our bodies shaking with fear.
“Ravi, get us out of here, please.” Nina cried out from behind as I guided her. People were closing in on us, leaving little to no room.
“I’m trying!” I said. “Stay close—” My heart sank to my stomach as I felt her grip loosen.
I turned around, glancing at panicking faces. Their panic was nothing compared to mine. I didn’t care about the scared little children or the terrified adults. I only wanted to find Nina.
“Nina!” I yelled, pushing people aside while they punched and kicked. I must’ve formed a few mosh pits myself.
Out of nowhere, I got shoved from behind.
People trampled over my body like I was a speck of dirt beneath a stampede. There was so much weight on me that I struggled to breathe, gasping for air as if I were in space without a suit. The worst part was not that I lost Nina, or that I was about to die. The worst part was that Travis Scott kept singing with his auto-tuned voice as people chanted for him to stop. There was no way he couldn’t hear. I nearly went deaf from it.
“Nina,” I murmured, looking up at the sky through a tiny gap in the bodies stacked atop of me. My eyes slowly blinked shut and I passed out.
I had the strangest, most vivid dream when I was unconscious. I dreamt that I phased beneath the ground, looking up at the chaos as if I were underwater. I was looking at my body from the third person. An astral projection? I thought.
I drifted down to a solid surface. A solid surface that was nothing but darkness. What the hell? I thought. It looked as though I was walking through the sky—but I wasn’t, the sky was above me, along with thousands of people shouting in muffled voices.
Looking around, I saw there was nothing but emptiness for miles. I walked with my head facing the ceiling, hoping to find an exit, and praying to see just a glimpse of Nina.
My prayer got answered when I laid eyes on a mutilated corpse… Nina’s corpse. The arms she once held me with were twisted and snapped in half with bare bone sticking out. People stepped on her, not caring, only worrying about the blood stain they got on their white sneakers. It was as if she was a mere inconvenience to them.
I melted down to my knees, letting out ugly cries with snot and tears trickling down into the void beneath me. The ambulance couldn’t even get to her.
“Psst,” I heard a deep, raspy voice behind me.
I turned, seeing nothing, at first, but when I squinted my eyes, I saw a light in the distance.
“Come,” the voice said.
I stood up, walking towards the light out of curiosity. There appeared to be a table set up with papers neatly piled in a stack. A candle illuminated the torso of someone sitting on a chair behind the table. The closer I got, the more I realized this was wrong. Walking to the light… I thought, Am I dead?
I walked closer, nearly throwing up as that… that thing came into view.
It was a… a thing with a distorted face and curling horns extending out of its head. With boney fingers, it signaled at the empty seat across from it. “Have a seat, Ravi.”
“Wh-Why?” I stammered.
“Wouldn’t you like to have a conversation?” It said, trying to sound as professional as its raspy voice allowed.
“Get… Get me out of here. Now!”
“Where’s the fun in that, buddy? You should learn from Nina.”
“…What?” That was the only word I could say. My blood boiled in my veins, listening to the way it said her name.
It smirked, holding up a contract signed with a bloody finger. The heading of the contract said: Eternal Wealth and Fame. Even long after you die. “Have a seat, Ravi.”
Its eyebrow—or what resembled an eyebrow shot up in confusion. It faced the ceiling. I followed the gaze. Up in the real world, my body was being carried away by the ambulance.
“Nevermind,” it said, shaking its head. It snapped its slender fingers.
That’s when the dream ended.
***
With hazy eyes, I found myself staring up at some blinding lights. Mechanical beeping echoed throughout the white room. There were white, soft covers over me. As my heart raced, the mechanical beeping grew faster. “Where am I?” I yelled out.
“You’re okay now,” said a woman’s voice to my left. I turned to see a nurse, wearing earbuds and bringing in a tray with jello and popsicles. “Brought ya a snack.” She placed the tray on a table next to my bed.
“W-What happened? How’d I get here?” I sat up in the hospital bed, my whole body aching as I did so.
“You shouldn’t do that. Relax,” she said, taking off her earbuds. “The ambulance brought you in from that concert, along with a lot of others.”
“Do you…” I thought of Nina’s mutilated corpse, tears forming in my eyes. “…Do you know if a woman named Nina was brought in?”
“I’m sorry, sir.” She checked the monitor for my vitals. “I don’t know.”
Without giving her a reply, I turned to the floor-to-ceiling windows in front of me. The night sky was full of millions of stars, twinkling eagerly. I stared in between the stars into the darkness that they stood no chance against.
If that dream I had was true, I thought, Nina would be…
…I peeked over the bed, looking down at the freshly waxed tile floor. My reflection stared back at me and, for a second, I could’ve sworn I saw the floor ripple like water. In order to reach that place she was in, I would have to give myself to that abomination.
“Nina,” I murmured, “I’ll find you.”
***
I never did find Nina. I spent countless hours in my hospital bed, staring down at the floor and talking to myself. I hoped she could see me and hear all I had to say. When I wasn’t doing that, I searched the internet for answers. I browsed through satanic forums and YouTube theories about what happened at the concert, but none had an answer to what I saw in my dream that night. Whatever abomination I saw, it seemed to be a music label exclusive.
Days passed, my nurse and I got close. She was there to comfort me when the pain of losing Nina became unbearable. In her free time, we would play UNO and other card games. One day, she walked in with earbuds, bobbing her head to whatever beat she was listening to.
“You look happy,” I said, struggling to sit up in my bed.
She smiled, placing a tray with broth and ginger ale on my table. She took off an earbud and asked, “What was that?”
“What’s got you in a good mood?” I asked.
“Two things: One, I got a promotion…”
“I’m glad to hear it!” I said.
“…Two, this new up-and-coming artist.” She handed me her earbuds. I stuck them into my ears. I didn’t know what I was listening to at first. It sounded like waves crashing onto land.
“This is what you were bobbing your head to?” I chuckled.
“That’s just the intro. Keep listening,” she said.
The sound of waves dwindled, and a rap beat built up. The heavy kicks, snares, and melody had me bobbing my head as well. The artist started singing in an auto-tuned voice about a long-lost lover. My jaw dropped. Though it was heavily distorted, I recognized the voice to be Nina’s.