The Masked Singer

[Chapter Sixty One]

Chapter Sixty-One

The blurry stage lights in front of me go dark. I think it's the production team salvaging the situation, but there's an overpowering smell of perfume and warmth which bring me a sense of comfort. Ava wraps her arm around my shoulder and hugs me to her chest.

"It's going to be alright Sienna, I'll fix everything!" she whispers into my ear.

Ava leads me off the stage and to the side wings where people are madly rushing around trying to figure out what went wrong and how they are going to fix the situation. I'm still stunned by the events and the reaction of the crowd.

"What are you doing?" Alex demands, "She needs to be on stage performing." I hear the sound of his fiery voice swirl through my mind as he comes storming out of nowhere and over to us. His usual playful features are long gone. Instead, his jaw is locked into a hard position and his eyebrows almost knot together in rage. I wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

"She was frozen on stage, Alex. I couldn't leave her on the stage. What else did you want me to do? Because I really doubt she was going to burst into song and dance to revive the situation," she yells out in defence. Her arms are tightly wrapped around my body as she hugs me to her chest like a protective mother over her young.

"It's going to be alright," she whispers to me again in a soothing voice, "I'll find out what's happened and I'll make sure everything is fixed and smooth sailing. The person responsible for this stunt will not get away with their foal actions."

Her arms leave my body and a different pair of hands clutch either side of my shoulders and readjust my body so that I turn to face them. I'm forced to focus my gaze on their face and pay attention to the person standing in front of me.

"I need you to do something for me," he whispers, "Can you do that for me?"

"I, uh," I mumble.

"I want you to get out there and sing for me, for them." He points to the crowd who is still cheering out loudly. Their words are mixed and it's hard to hear what they are saying. But I dread the idea of unscrambling their words and finding the true origin of their shouts

"But?" I shake my dazed head.

"If you don't go out there and put the performance of your life on, they're going to hit you harder with questions and demand answers. Do not let them break you down Sienna, you can do this." His voice is so powerful, demanding and yet honest.

The power of his words snaps something inside of me and the fogginess plaguing my mind begins to clear and the old feisty Sienna reappears and the scared little girl submerges into her shadow.

"I won't let them break me. But who changed the audio?"

"Let's figure this out later. But get yourself on stage and start performing."

"Why should I do that anymore, they don't care about the music I make, but rather the way I appear to the world. Who I'm supposedly dating, what I'm wearing or what awesomely cool thing I'm doing. What if this is the ticket I need to end my career? What if I want it to end?" I ask.

"Listen up kitten, the world doesn't revolve around you. Suck it up and get yourself out there and start performing. You have no excuse to feel sorry for yourself. They gave you the fame you desperately wanted and not it's time to pay your dues."

"But?" I have nothing else to come back after that powerful speech.

"It's the hard truth, and you needed to hear it."

Ava reappears with a small smile on her face, "I've talked to the man who does the audio and he's going to start from the third song," she explains.

"Do you think I should continue?" I ask her.

"Yes." She nods her head, "If you were to quit and run away from this problem, then we would be faced with more negative reviews. We can always do sympathetic reports to salvage the identity problem. I'm not sure how much damage control we'd have to do if you walked out of the performance this early," Ava honestly says.

"Okay. We'll start from the third song like nothing happened, alert everyone from the production crew and the dancers."

The crew scramble away in a hurry to spread the news about the change in plan. The audio change their music and inform the band, and the stage manager needs to get into contact with the lighting guy to change that as well. The only hard part is getting back on the stage and pretending that nothing happened.

I pull on my calm and composed look before accepting a fresh microphone from one of the stage crew members. They count me in on three and the lighting changes and the backing audio and band start. I really have to push myself into getting my legs to start moving, but somehow they do.

The stage lights provide the warmth I need to storm onto the stage and the beat of the music the courage to start singing words to a song I know off the top of my head. This time around, the words fall out of my mouth with a feisty, serious undertone rather than the funky up tone you'd hear in popular songs.

I walk to the front centre of the stage and prepare myself to continue singing as the backup dancers catch up to me. I can see the atmosphere for the audience has changed and it's sending me a better vibe, but I'm still determined.

"Say you don't know me, did you give me the chance?

Say I didn't try, did you give me the opportunity?

Say it's not worth it, are you prepared to defend?

Because I came to fight, and I came to win," I sing.

Instead of joining in with the dance moves like Alex and I spent hours practicing and revising, I stand move in-between the dancers and move to my own beat, to my own dance moves.

"You're not going to take what I love,

You're not going to see my cry,

You're not going to break me down.

Because I came to fight, and I came to win." I pump my fist in the air energetically.

This time I'm on a mission to create something worth remembering for the right reasons, not because I dated someone famous or because I wear designer clothing and travel by security guards in fancy cars to fancy places most people would dream about saying or going to. But I am going to try my best because nobody is forgotten, not really.

And that's the truth.