"It's cool, chill. It will go away if I ignore it."
"You have been saying that for three months, Angel. But, it has not gone away. It's not cool and you should not ignore it."
Angel groans and rolls onto her stomach picking up the letter and reading over it again.
I have a bad feeling you have been lying to me...
What does it mean? There are some real freaks out there. "We should really go to the police and I don't think you should be touching that," her manager, Jona says. Angel groans again and throws the letter in the air, rolling back onto her back and watching it flutter down to the floor like a drunk butterfly. "Over a letter?" she asks. "No! Over three letters!" Jona says frazzled. He is always frazzled. He snatches the two other letters she had been sent off his desk.
"You said you would die for me. But you lied to me!" he reads the first one out then looks at her with those big frazzled eyes, she shrugs. "You said you would take a bullet for me, but you lied!" he reads the next letter and looks at her again. Still frazzled. "Hey!" Angel says sitting up and looking at Jona then standing and grabbing all three letters placing them next to each other. "You said you would die for me, but you lied to me. You said you would take a bullet for me, but you lied to me. I have a real bad feeling you have been lying to me..." she reads them pinching her lip in thought.
"They connect! Your stalker is sending you one long message in pieces! Do you get it now? We need to go to the police!"
"Shhh, Jona, Mommy is working."
"Are you trying to decipher it? Do you think you know who sent it?"
"I have no fucking clue who sent it. But, I will tell you one thing," Angel says holding up the letters with a smile, Jona smiles too, "This has the makings of a really good song!" she declares Jona's smile drops and he snatches the letters from her. "You are not writing a song from letters by your stalker, Angel! You need to take this seriously!"
"I take songwriting very seriously, Jona."
"Angel, you are my worst client. You know that?"
"You have a client who throws his piss on his audience," Angel deadpans. "Ok, I will give you that. But, you really are hard to work with. You think life is one big party. You take nothing seriously and now someone wants you dead and your only revelation is to write a song using their words. You are exhausting!" Jona says falling into his chair, he's balding too and Angel thinks she might be responsible for that. "I am twenty-four with a bucket load of cash from standing on a stage and screeching into a microphone. I have a tattoo of a penguin on my ass - at what point did you ever think I was responsible?" Angle asks.
"I never did but, Angel, this is serious stuff. We need to go to the police."
"We are not going to the police."
"Then we need to get you a bodyguard."
"I have two bodyguards."
"No. Those are friends who look like bodyguards. They have had no training. We need a real bodyguard."
"Hey, Jake and Paul are good guys and they know the art of karate."
"From video games, Angel. Videogames!"
Angel sighs then sits down on Jona's lap kissing the bald spot on the top of his head. "You need to chill. No police. No bodyguard. We will just ignore it and it will go away," Angle says. "This is innaproorate, Angle. Get off my lap and you can't just ignore it and hope it goes away," Jona says trying to push her off him. "But it works with everything else. It's a solid response to something I don't want to deal with. Ignore it - it's no longer a problem. Now," she says standing, "I have sound check and then a show, maybe a night of hard drinking after so put those letters in the shredder and let's pretend like this never happened," she says picking up her bag and walking out of his office.
She is late for soundcheck, to be fair she is late for everything so no one moans at her. She takes her vodka and Red Bull that her assistant will keep at a steady flow and then walks into the stadium. Her breath hitches at the sight, it always does. It will hold sixty thousand people tonight and it still feels like a bit of a dream. She had grown up in LA and both her parents are musicians, she keeps their identity secret. She wants to make her own name and not piggyback off their success. She got herself here without using any of their connections but if her fans found out who her parents are they would strip her of any credit and lay her success down as a trust fund baby that had success given to her on a silver platter. No one knows, not even Jona. Her parents had the common sense to not only keep their relationship out of the public eye but her existence too. Naturally, she followed in her parent's footsteps though. She takes a deep breath and makes her way to the stage taking front and center as her band mess around on their instruments.
She looks out at the thousands of empty seats. All those people who are already queuing up outside the stadium are coming here just to see her. It's a good feeling. She loves the attention, but she loves seeing people getting lost in her songs more - they hold very personal moments for a lot of people. She feels a little bad too though, her parents have begged for years for her to let them come to one of her concerts but she is not willing to take that chance. Maybe one day when she stops caring what people think of her. She frowns when she sees a man with a hoodie pulled down hiding his face in the top bleachers. This is a closed set. Who is that? Fear flutters in her stomach at the thought of him possibly being the author of those letters she received. He is sitting so still and starting her dead on. He is too far for her to make out what he looks like and with the hoody covering his head, she can't make out even if he has hair.
"Lia," she calls her assistant over. "This is a closed set. Why is there a man up there?" she asks. Lia looks up at where she is pointing and then frowns. "What man?" she asks. Angel turns to look up at where the man was sitting but he had disappeared. That makes her feel a little uneasy. She downs her drink and takes the fresh one from Lia. "Where are Jake and Paul?" she asks. "They are in the green room playing video games," Lia says. Of fucking course they are. "Tell them to come out here. Fucking bitch ass bodyguards" she mumbles downing half her drink. Lia scurries off to refill her drink and try and coax those idiots away from their video game.
"Ready, Angel?"
"Fucking ready, Axe!" she shouts holding up her glass and grinning at her drummer. He taps them out and then she starts her set, her voice making the crowd outside roar with excitement.
Hours later, at least ten drinks down and still no fucking sign of her good-for-nothing bodyguards she is dressed and ready for her concert to start. The chanting from the crowd now filling the stadium is vibrating in her chest and pumping adrenaline through her body. She loves the rush as it makes the tips of her fingers tingle. When she walked to the back of the stage her breathing labors and she has to take a second to get her mind right. She has never been a shy girl and being in the spotlight does not make her feel out of place but still, standing alone in front of a crowd of sixty thousand people screaming her name is enough to make anyone a little nervous. She also can't get the image of the hooded man out of her mind. He gave her the creeps and it leaves goosebumps on her skin. Maybe she should take this whole stalker thing a little more seriously.
She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes the thoughts out of her head, choosing to down her drink rather. Pretending like it's not happening has always worked for her in the past. Lia hands her a fresh drink now in a plastic cup - she will tell anyone who asks that it's water. They all know it's not - they will cheer anyway. "Ready?" Jona asks coming up beside her. He is a good manager, he has lots of clients but always seems to show up at her shows. "Yeah," she says kissing him on his bald patch and running onto the stage as he bats her away.
It's weird. She loves the thrill, the roaring and screaming. She loves the attention and how she seems to be in control of every single person in the crowd but it feels like a dream. As if she is floating above the stage. She gives it her all and her shows are always extravagant. Some say it's because she is high - she's not, she's just a born entertainer. She grew up in this world and saw what drugs stole from struggling and successful artists so she steered clear of that shit. Alcohol? Not so much. But, she has built up a tolerance for it. The crowd are rockers. They're here for drugs, sex, and rock 'n roll so that's what she sells them.
Her eyes keep wandering to the section she had seen the hooded man, relieved when she does not see him then drops a few notes when he appears halfway through her set. He just stands, hands in his pockets and his face hidden by the shadows of his hoody. Those around him are singing and jumping around to her music but he stands - frozen like a statue. It freaks her out a little. She forces herself to look away and concentrate on the rest of the crowd but when she sings her last song drenched in sweat from running around on this mammoth stage her eyes wander up and her heart freezes. He is gone, and although she had hoped he would disappear now that he has - she feels a little exposed. She pushes through and finishes her last song, waves at the crowd, and runs off with a smile plastered on her face like nothing is wrong.
"Where are those bodyguards?" she asks Lia as she stops backstage while hands descend on her to pull off her mic box and whatever shit they shove on her. "I have no idea. They came out earlier but I haven't seen them in a while, sorry," Lia says almost tearful. "It's ok, it's not your fault they are idiots. My car ready?" she asks. "Yeah, ready and waiting," Lia says as Angel follows her. It's her own fault that she has been left exposed. Her parents always had tight security and it made her feel claustrophobic having those bodyguards hovering around all the time so she has made sure she had minimal security. Now she kind of wishes she had listened to everyone instead of hiring the two worst bodyguards in history.
Lia hops into the car first and Angle goes to follow but someone walks past her, bumping her into the side of the car. She snaps her head around just in time to see the back of the hooded man disappear into the shadows. When she looks down she sees a letter laying on the floor by her feet and her blood runs cold. She bends and snatches the letter up then jumps into the car and locks the door. Searching the shadows for the hooded man as her car drives off. She opens the letter and bites her lip.
It felt like love at first sight, you have been chosen...
She folds the letter up and grabs her phone. She will not admit it but that was too close for comfort. She does not think that man is playing games with her. His last letters were dropped off at Jona's office but this time he not only came to her show he found his way so close to her he managed to touch her. She shivers at the thought. "What nightclub do you want to go to?" Lia asks. "No nightclub, just home," Angel whispers then sends a text to Jona.
No police, but I will take a new bodyguard.