He got up and he found Bells and they're backstage right now, and Bells is trying to stop his bleeding and Rex is snarling at her about it and everything is fine.
Everything isfine.
We barrel through the stage right wing. Cables, flight cases, a knocked-over light tree. A stagehand stumbles past us going the other direction, face white, walkie crackling with overlapping panicked voices.
"Hey!" I grab his arm. "Did you see our lead singer? White hair, white jacket, probably still wearing a fucking bunny mask?"
The stagehand shakes his head, wild-eyed. "Everyone's evacuating. Fire department's?—"
I'm already past him.
The corridor backstage is chaos. Crew members rushing for exits. Equipment carts abandoned mid-roll. The smoke has thinned here—the fire was contained to the stage, the rig, the backdrop—but the emergency lights paint everything in that pulsing red that makes it hard to think.
"Dressing room," Phoenix says behind me. "If Rex is hurt, he'd go somewhere private. Somewhere he can get his mask…"
"Go."
We run.
Our dressing room door is closed. I grab the handle, yank it open, and the fluorescent overhead flickers on automatically.
Empty.
The garment bags are still hanging where we left them. Phoenix's snack tray still on the table. Rex's half-finished dragonfruit shake sitting exactly where he set it down an hour ago.
No Rex. No Bells.
And Rex's mask, the real one, ishere,not on.
Oh gods. Everything is NOT fine.
"Fuck," Phoenix breathes. "Okay. Okay, maybe they went to?—"
"Check every room," I say. "Every fucking room in this building."
We split. I take the left corridor, Phoenix takes the right. I'm kicking doors open, scaring the shit out of crew members huddled in closets, scanning every concrete box of a room for white hair or a black mask oranything.
Greenroom.
Empty.
Storage.
Empty.
Second dressing room, the one assigned to the opening act.
Empty.
Tech booth.
The fire panel is lit up like a Christmas tree. Someone left their coffee mug. No Bells. No Rex.
I'm back in the main corridor when Phoenix's voice reaches me. Not a shout this time.
"Raf."
Quiet.