Quinn has always been an ambitious girl.
She did her best in school, getting only the best grades, and did many extracurricular activities growing up, all because she had one goal in her mind: to get into NYU's journalism program.
There wasn't a time when she wasn't dreaming of becoming a journalist, and a top tier one! So doing everything in her power to make her biggest dream come true was as natural to her as breathing.
Well... Her biggest dream was to meet her favorite person in the whole wide world, and talk with him, and dance with him, and share a hug with him... But that was not possible, of course. And never will be.
For this year it will be ten years since that awful day when Michael Jackson took his last breath.
She always got sad thinking about it... He meant so much to her - and still does!
His music was her companion trough tick and thin. There for her when she was bursting from happiness, and there for her when she was in the depths of despair. There for her when she was alone and had no one to turn to - he was there.
To her it was no secret, his music was the reason she was still alive, and able to now breathe the fresh spring air.
It pained her that she will never get to hear him sing live and see him perform, and that chances of him hugging her were really zero now.
But she felt greater pain thinking about how he will not laugh ever again, not be there to experience life with his children whom he loved more than anything else in the world, see them grow up into amazing humans they are becoming, at least not in physical form.
That he will never again write one of his breathtaingly beautiful songs again.
Her heart broke over and over again every time she thought of this. But she's a strong girl. So she will keep living with this pain, no matter how hard it gets. She will keep on living and spreading his legacy. She knew what she wanted to do, what she needed to do.
She will become a journalist.
She will become the best one.
She will become so influential in the journaling world, that she will finally be able to implement what should've been implemented years ago.
Burn. All. The. Tabloids.
SHE will destroy them.
So they don't destroy anyone else again...
The way they destroyed Mike.
And he put up a great fight. He was persistent, he was not giving up, never giving up! Always graceful no matter what untrue headlines were thrown at him. No matter what false allegations were made... He always remained true to himself, a graceful swan among those who do not even deserve to be called humans.
Quinn often wondered how did he manage to be so strong, where did he find the strength. Just, how? He was and always will be her biggest inspiration.
She was now in her final year of university, and soon she will finally be free to spread her wings and fly towards the direction she wants to, not towards the direction others demand her to go.
University wasn't easy at all, but she knew that was one of the things she had to conquer to be closer to her dream, so she did her best. There were days when she had hardly any energy, but she reminded herself this was bigger than her. And so she pushed. As hard as she could.
She was so caught up in studying and finishing her assignments, that she purposefully ignored thinking about a dream she had.
She usually doesn't have very interesting dreams - just mundane boring everyday stuff. And most of the times, she doesn't even remember them! But on the first day of her last semester at uni, she had an unusually vivid dream.
She found it so curious that upon waking up, she grabbed the pen and the notebook that she keeps under her bed (in case she gets a sudden idea during the night) and scribbled down the dream quickly.
"Michael told me he is still alive" was what she scribbled.
As she emailed the last assignment to the toughest professor she has, she suddenly remembered the dream she had. But she was too tired to think about it now. She will finally think about the dream tomorrow, when she wakes up.
She stood up from her desk and started going towards her wardrobe to change into her pyjamas. But halfway there she realized she was too tired for that, sat down on bed and quickly slipped into peaceful sleep and another vivid dream.
She was laying on a grass field, it was sunny so she kept her eyes closed. She enjoyed the feeling of warm Sun touching her skin, and the sweet smell of wildflowers mixed with salty ocean air.
All of a sudden, she felt someone lay down next to her, but she didn't have to open her eyes to know who it is. She felt his calm presence.
Q: "Hey Mike."
M: "Hey Quinn. Thanks for coming to visit me. I am so awfully alone... I used to think I was alone before, but now... I'm really really alone."
Q: "How are you alone? I thought... The pain goes away when you die?"
M: "I don't know what happens when you die. But I certainly do hope you are right. Living can be so tough, if eternity is hard too.. Oooh I don't wanna even think about it."
Q: "But... Mike, how do you not know what's it like? You... Died? You died and it was all over the news, the whole world cried for weeks, myself included. How could you not know?"
M: "Oh girl, I didn't die."
Q: "What do you mean 'you didn't die'? I don't understand"
The wind started blowing harder, though it was summer so the wind was warm. With it, it brought the sound of ocean waves hitting the beach. There was a particularly strong one that crashed before the last one disappeared into the salty water.
M: "I didn't... Die. But I had to disappear. And now I am so awfully lonely."
Q: "You had to disappear? From whom? Why?"
M: "Oh girl, I cannot tell you! I cannot tell anyone. It's my secret that I'll have to take to grave with me. But I am just so awfully lonely and I hate it! Will you come visit me?"
Q: "I wish you could tell me... Then we could figure it out, you wouldn't need to be away and lonely!"
M: "No. There is nothing to figure out, this is the way things are. But promise me you'll come visit me! Please, promise!"
Q: "Of course I want to visit you Mike! Of course I would visit you. I just don't know where you are. Where are you?"
M: "All you need to do is open your eyes, Quinn. Everything's there, all the qclues. Just follow them and you will find me."
And with a swift swish sound, he was gone. Only now did Quinn open her eyes, just to make sure he really was gone.
She looked at the grass next to her, she could see the outline where his body used to be. The sweet smell of his perfume was still lingering in the air. How was she going to find him? What clues was he talking about?
All of a sudden she saw a black fedora hat on the grass next to her.
"Oh Mike, you left your hat!" she thought.
"Follow the clues, Quinn." his voice echoed in her brain.
She was awake, it was still dark outside.
What was this dream? Michael telling her he was alive... Again? What does this mean? She was probably just overworked and tired, so she had a dream about things she wanted the most - him still being here and alive.
She got up, drank a glass of water, changed into her pyjamas and went back to bed. This time, not dreaming about anything.
When she woke up in the morning, the dream was still lingering at the back of her mind - but it was just a dream, nothing more...
She decided to go to the market place and buy some food because her fridge was nearly empty. She got dressed, put her hair in a bun - the wind was blowing unusally strong today and she didn't want hair to blow in her face.
She lived in an old building with high ceilings and massive doors that weighted so much that she had to use both hands to open them.
As she left the bulding, the wind was so strong she almost fell! Once she regained her balance and turned d to walk down the steps in front of the buikding, all of a sudden the wind stopped. Not even a breeze. She looked around curious, but thankfuk that it stopped. Until she looked at the stone steps in front of her.
On the step below her feet, there was a black fedora hat.