The Cabin

Chapter 27

"Nearly there, everyone!" Priscilla encouraged as she cut the music. They had been at it for hours, cleaning up the choreography for Do It. Everyone was sweating and out of breath, tired, and in need of a break. Mel groaned and sat on the floor, letting her head hang back and rolling her eyes irritably.

"It's just Geri that's not getting in," Mel grumbled, completely fed up with going over the same choreography for hours. "Why can't she keep working on it and the rest of us take a break?"

"Is not!" Geri snapped with frustration. She knew she wasn't the best dancer, but she did feel as though she was keeping up with the routine just fine.

Victoria rolled her eyes and looked over at Melanie, expecting her to step in. Melanie was normally the peacemaker, quick to get between Mel and Geri to keep things from escalating. But Melanie didn't seem to be paying attention. She was bent forward, holding herself up with her hands on her knees, and she was staring blankly at the floor as she tried to catch her breath.

Melanie was exhausted. Rehearsals were taxing, but she had simultaneously been fighting to focus all day. She felt as though her mind was slipping and being pulled in multiple directions. There were moments throughout the day where she felt completely disconnected, like she wasn't fully in control. There were a few periods where she had completely blacked out. Her body had kept going, but she wasn't at all cognizant of what she was doing.

She had also experienced strange mood swings, overcome with intense feelings of rage toward everyone. She had managed to keep the feelings to herself, not allowing herself to explode, but it was getting harder as the day wore on.

Then, there were the voices.

"You're not good enough."

"They're all so much better than you."

"You're a fraud."

They were getting more and more frequent and increasingly more vicious and Melanie was having difficulty ignoring them. They weren't new thoughts. She'd had them from the day they'd signed with Virgin Records. In that moment, she had broken into a cold sweat as she had signed her contract, immediately feeling like she was an imposter. She was certain she was going to look up at their new management to find them all looking at her as though she shouldn't be there, convinced they were only interested in the other girls. But if any of the management didn't want her there, they didn't make it apparent. When the girls had all finished signing their contracts, there were handshakes and smiles and champagne.

Since that day, Melanie had waited for the ball to drop. She would do everything she could to try to make herself fit the part, but she never felt fully deserving of the fame and privilege she'd been given.

"Melanie?" Priscilla asked.

Melanie froze and looked around. She was standing next to Robert, who had one hand on her hip and was holding her hand with the other. Melanie's heart immediately began to race. She had no idea how she had moved from one place to the other, nor how much time she had lost. Clearly, she had been rehearsing, but she couldn't remember anything after Priscilla had last stopped them.

The others hadn't realized anything was wrong with her until Robert had noticed she had stopped dancing and he looked to Priscilla for help. Normally, in that particular section of the choreography, the girls were to place one hand on their dancer's face and lean against them, where they were then pulled to the side to lean against their partner. Melanie had started off fine, but her hand had slowly dropped away from Robert's face and she stopped moving. Robert had leaned to the side and noticed Melanie's body resisting as he tried to pull her along with him. At first, he had thought she'd forgotten the choreography, but he quickly noticed she didn't seem to be present.