Bad Romance(Book 6)

Chapter 9-Beginnings

"Tour doit changer avec le temps...je dois changer...ou mourir..."

March 30th...the beginning of Artifact 2

"And this is the other part of the contract. It's all written as you requested. With some clauses also added for your protection.", said Irving as he handed Anka another huge pile of papers.

"Jesus, are we trying to adopt a child or release an album here? Fucking hell!", said Anka in frustration as she started looking at the pile of papers.

Shannon was sitting next to her, looking equally annoyed. He always hated contracts, they were a complete nuisance. Especially label contracts. They seemed to be an endless pile of clauses and fine print.

"At the rate these things are piling up I'm gonna start smoking again.", said Anka, looking at Babu who was documenting the whole thing as requested.

"It's the way big labels work. You know that...", said Irving nearly folding the other papers.

"No, I don't. I never worked for a big label. I think this is complete bullshit. I can't wait for this one year contract to finish, so that we can actually do things the right way. It's gonna be a hell of a beautiful mess.", said Anka.

"We have to hurry up, we have the VyRT session in an hour.", noticed Babu as he glanced at the big grandfather clock in Irving's office.

Anka was already briefed by Tanya regarding the contract and the terms Virgin Media has imposed to her and Thirty Seconds to Mars. The rights for the album belonged to the band, but most of the profit for taking this huge risk was going to the label.

In the eventuality the tour was a complete disaster, they even included a clause in which the band had to cover the costs of travelling, venues, crew paychecks, and merchandise. It was a terrible deal for them, but Anka was well aware of the power she had in the music industry.

So far they did a tease of the album on social media and they've received a great amount of positive responses. Anka decided to go straight on for the element of surprise. Despite her hiatus on social media, she knew a lot of people needed closure after Jared's sudden death.

Everyone needed closure. It wasn't just the Echelon. It was closure for them as well. The only concern that Anka had at the minute was the fact that whenever she tried to play one of the band's songs she burst into tears. They lacked focus and practice and the fact that Jared's signature stood there stronger than ever made things even harder.

"I don't fucking know how we are gonna pull this tour off...", said Anka as they we're heading back to the Lab.

Shannon shared the same concerns as Anka. It wasn't like she was unable to sing. Anka had a strong, powerful voice. The only thing blocking it was the pain. The pain that she felt was beyond any level that anyone could possibly imagine.

"It's gonna be alright...", said Shannon.

"You think? I can't even sing the songs without bursting into tears. You know that...", said Anka as she fidgeted a packet of cigarettes in between her fingers.

When they arrived to The Lab they found Tomo and Dai were already in chat, warming up the atmosphere.

"Are we ready to roll this?", asked Anka as she took a seat in front of the camera.

"Yeah, the response so far is massive. It's about three thousand people in VyRT and the numbers rise by the minute. And we have been online only for half an hour. They're also asking if there's gonna be any live performance...", said Emma coldly as she looked at Anka.