So funny how we can get our inspiration for story from anyplace. I was watching a YouTube documentary about a 15 year old kid in England who disappeared and I thought of the excerpt I wrote above for some reason.
In the real case, this kid was a happy, clean cut kid from a Christian background, yet was into heavy metal and mysteriously took a train to London. He was never heard from again and nobody knows why he never told anyone where he was going. The police still have no details about what actually happened but internet sleuths were quick to offer some interesting ideas.
One in particular caught my attention. Someone suggested that perhaps the kid went to London to see one of his favorite rock bands without telling his parents, choosing to be punished afterwards, rather than miss the show.
So that's where some ideas sprang to my mind...
The idea I had was for a satanic cult (headed by lead singer of a heavy metal band) to lure young fans for sacrifice (through their various outlets such as local record shops or whatever). The sacrifices would be a way to appease Satan, in return for fame and fortune (kind of like a deal with the devil thing -- A different sort of take on Robert Johnson but you get the idea), and one way they trapped their victims was to offer kids back stage tickets to see the show (along with a parent).
They would select those clean cut kids whose parents would disapprove of the band and wouldn't allow their kid to go, but because the kids idolized the bands, they would go anyway without telling the parents.
Those offering the tickets might even plant the idea that it was worth not telling anyone about it and just allow themselves to be grounded for a week if they could see their idols for one night -- it was worth it.
My imagination went wild and I concocted a slew of interesting characters, including a corrupt cop who solves the murders of the kids that have been sacrificed and gone missing but careful to divert the blame elsewhere while establishing credibility as a talented investigator and moves up the ranks to detective, protecting the cult even further... An owner of a local record shop that would befriend the various young customers, hoping to lure a small number of them in the trap.
The protagonist would be the young boy's genius brother (sort of a modern day Encyclopedia Brown) who solves the case and exposes the cult. I mean these are just some rough ideas but really does demonstrate how the germ of an idea can come from just about anywhere