Despite Evie's paranoia, Kevin had seen something in Kimberly's blue eyes - a look he had seen before in his own reflection.
Kevin had written his part of ‘I'm Not Feeling Okay’ with that same look in his eyes years ago, long before joining Sixth Octave. It was an incomplete song, merely a verse - poetry because he didn't have music and didn't know how to play instruments.
Then came the opportunity to be in Sixth Octave, but it was more of a nightmare than a joy.
Then Finn showed up in the alley of the strip club, and all the pieces fell into place.
The song was incomplete because his destiny was incomplete.
Kevin had been told that art was the easiest way to starve, that he would never be a famous singer because he didn't know how to play instruments nor had any musical knowledge.
So he learned everything about how to sing, took singing classes with the money he made from a secret job, aside from the strip club, and auditioned to be part of Sixth Octave, and now he was part of Monster Mash.
He was proof that those who persevere achieve, and now he was famous.
Zeth and Frank, and even Everett, taught him how to sing better and belt without yelling, because oh! These guys were really shouty and belted throughout almost every song! But that was the fun of the band. If they had the potential, it would be a shame to waste it, right?
Alex taught him to dance to complex routines, even Draco did, although he did so reluctantly. Kevin had always admired BTS and their amazing, impossible choreographies. God! So artistic! He never knew he’d be able to do that! And now he could, although Monster Mash was more sensual than artistic but, like Draco said... Semantics.
And Finn taught him to be brave on stage. Kevin used to be so afraid of ruining the harmonies of the group, but Finn showed him that it was not just about singing, but rather being mentally in synch with the other guys to shine and move through the song as one. Here, no one was above the other. Even Zeth, the irrefutable leader, was on the same level of importance as the rest on stage.
Oh yeah! This was what a band should be like!
And now that he had found his voice with the boys, many verses that he had written over the years became parts of songs.
Now the melody of Kevin's life had rhythm, and his voice had ears to listen to it, and that's what this angry blonde was missing.
Ears to listen to her melody.
Kevin had faith that he could make her change her mind, so he took a long breath, hoping not to become her next victim, and slid the glass door of his room open.
"Make yourself... Home?" Kevin was surprised to see a bed-shaped ice sculpture where his bed used to be and a note on it.
I broke bed by accident. I replaced it with mine. I think ice will make you tougher.
With love: Everett.
PS: I wrote ‘with love’ because I panicked.
"This room is definitely yours," Kimberly chuckled. Upon entering and seeing all the mirrors and glass in here, Kimberly began her planning. She could break one and threaten him with a shard.
"You can come here whenever you want," Kevin said. As soon as he offered her a smile, she smiled at him involuntarily.
That never failed.
Some said an eye for an eye, but Kevin always said a smile for a smile
"Why am I here?" The blonde crossed her arms. "I want answers, now."
"I think it's time to get to know each other a little," Kevin said, "Tell me about yourself."
"I don't want to." She replied with an annoyed tone.
"Come on, tell me what makes you proud."
“Fine! Let’s see...” she scratched her head thoughtfully, “When I was eighteen, I became linked to several international criminal organizations and participated in missions both domestically and abroad working as a double agent.” She told Kevin, who seemed a bit surprised about her answer, “During one of my missions, I was given the task of operating within a Chinese American crime gang who enjoyed an explosive success for their experiments on humans and ruthless elimination of their competition, and I made sure to shut down their operations. That’s when Vanessa Helsee saw my potential and turned me into her secret weapon. I became her personal assistant, but switch assistant for assassin. She even displaced her own son to give me the job actually.”
“It seems that being a hunter makes you proud.” He said without a trace of resentment or fear. Maybe he was acting. There was no way he was taking this lightly. “Why don't you tell me a little about that?"
“Sure, I'll tell you how I've killed Lycans, Madmen, Spectres, Watermen, Vampires, Sparkmen, Demons, Yeti, Witches... Sure!” she grunted, “You don't have the stomach to talk about what makes me who I am.”
"I highly doubt that being a murderer is who you are, maybe it's just a part of you, but it's not your everything... How about you tell me who hurt you so much?" Kevin asked her as he sat down on his new ice bed. Everett really owed him a new one, a normal one, "You can tell me. Talking solves everything, even the pains of the soul."
"I was raised to be strong, so I don't need this." She looked away, flipping her blonde hair.
"I think you do." Kevin again offered a sincere smile, and the blonde, after sighing perhaps a little annoyed, relaxed her arms and began to speak.
"To my mother, I was always an experiment. She wasn't even my mother to begin with, but Evie and I liked to think it was the case." She shook her head, "Why am I telling you this? You're not even paying me to talk about me!"
"Money is not everything, only ninety percent." He laughed a little, and she seemed to laugh briefly with him, then she looked at him with dull blue eyes.
"Just give me the girl to blackmail Zeth or tell him to tell me where Evalon is, and I'll leave without a fight." She said tiredly.
“If we do that, we will put a lot of people at risk. Don't be selfish.” He said, shifting a little. The bed was literally ice, and his buttocks were already numb.
“Am I selfish for wanting to live my life?” she half-shut her eyes. She would come out of this one victorious, so, it was time for some mind games, “Were you selfish for following your dreams, Visbal? Because that is just what I am doing.”
"You are selfish because you don't care who you hurt, only how much you get paid for it.”
“Oh yeah, I bet you wanted to be famous just for the sake of it,” she laughed sarcastically, “You wouldn’t do it for free would you?”
“You can get out of this. It just takes a little work and effort." Kevin ignored her mind games and tried to sound as sincere as he felt. "Destiny always has a plan for everyone. You just have to walk in that direction." Kevin stood up and approached her, but she took two steps back. "Maybe you think you're alone. But you have me, and if you behave, all of us will be there for you. I'm here to listen and..."
"Don't lie. It's surely a manipulation technique.” The blonde began to walk towards the bed, contemplating whether to sit down or not, but in the end, she didn't.
"It's not. I am only offering you a chance to redeem yourself, there is always someone there for that, someone special who..."
“It must be easy for you to be heard, but if you weren't famous, muscular and handsome, no one would even see you or listen to you.” She said with a mocking smile, "A fact is a fact. Your fans love you for being on the spotlight, but would they love you if you were no one? It is the Boyband syndrome, just give them girls someone handsome to look up to and they instantly fall in love."
“That is not true.”
“Really? Zeth is the leader slash bad boy, Everett is the shy one, Draco is the young one, Frank is the older brother, Alex is the heart throb, Finn is the cute one... But who are you?” she chuckled, “Mr. Smiles?” she looked him up and down. “The one no one asked for?”
“I am just trying to be a good example for...”
“Really? With your track record, I gotta say, I’d never want my teenage daughter to idolize you,” she laughed, loud, “Oh boy! Tell me, how many people idolized you before being ‘exemplary’ Visbal? It is only because you are famous now. Take that away and what are you? You were nothing before Monster Mash.”
"Yeah, I wasn't famous before but..." He looked around anxiously. Yeah, she was making him doubt himself, “Maybe...”
"Well, you are now openly famous, per say. But you were famous in the shadows before, were you not?" Kimberly laughed loudly, and he widened his eyes, shaking his head fearfully. Oh yeah! That was his weak spot! "Because I investigated all of you, Visbal." She approached menacingly but with an elegant, sexy hip movement, and he took some steps back. Her voice was so calm and collected, very smooth, but had a mocking hint, "Your life on stage is the same, only now you sing. And your life in front of the cameras? How about that? Did someone idolize you back then? Does Alex know why you and him never met at the strip club? Does Alex know that you proposed to Glitter Joe that he be your replacement when you were out for... Work?"
“How do you know that?" Kevin was terrified, she could see it in his grey eyes. How predictable!
"I was at the club the night Monster Mash filmed their stupid music video, Kevin. I talked to Glitter Joe," Kimberly winked, “I was also on the roof when Anton and his friends cornered you in the alley and you yelled that your mother had cancer. I've always been there, watching everyone. I know each and every single one of you better than Jade."
"Leave Jade out of this." He clenched his fists.
“Jade, right... People like you don't notice people like her in real life. It's just her pheromones."
"What if I tell you it's not true?" Kevin asked in a low voice, "That thing you said, that people like me would never notice Jade... Do you think people like me think we are superior?"
"A strong lioness will always look for a lion of her level. She would never look at weak, conformist or sick males. For them, there are weak, conformist or sick females." Kimberly ran her hand through her hair like a diva, "I would never look at anyone who isn't on my level, women are selective, it's in our nature. But men? All of you want the best girl in the room, but only settle for lesser girls because you know that only the strongest lion will get the impossible girl."
"And you think you’re an impossible?" Kevin was starting to get angry. Good! Hot headed meant easy to manipulate.
"I am. And you too," she began to circle around him, "You and your friends are the strongest lions, why settle for a scrawny lioness if you can have... Oh! I forgot!" She laughed, "It's just that guys like you sometimes hang out with weaklings for fun. One night and it's over, that feeds a male’s ego, doesn't it, Visbal? You are a man, and you had many, many women before being in this band. But how many of them do you still talk to?"
"All of them," he took his phone out of his pocket, showing her several chats, too many, "And they were co-workers, friends later. I never did it out of ego."
"Oh no! You did it for money, I know that," Kimberly bit her lip, putting her hands on Kevin's chest, "To pay for your singing lessons, right?"
"You want to make me believe I'm the bad guy, but I'm not. I know where I stand," he took a step back, "And you know what I think?"
"Enlighten me, handsome." She said seductively, blinking a lot.
"I think the one who pretends to be bad... Is you." Kevin was too calm. He was facing a murderer, confronting her, without even flinching or stuttering. Perhaps because he didn't know what she was capable of, or maybe he did and he wasn't afraid. It was admirable. Not even Zeth had balls this size. "You want to use my past against me because you don't want me to know anything about yours. You want to use my relationships against me because you no longer have anyone. You want to use my past job against me because you're ashamed of yours. And you want me to doubt myself, because you doubt yourself all the time. Enough with the mind games. You only spin me around so that I can't see what I already know about you at this point."
"You don't know anything about me," Again, she didn't look at him, but she hugged herself like Kevin did on nights when giving up seemed easier than working on his impossible dreams.
"Has anyone ever given you a hug?" He asked, and she seemed to startle, as if she had been told that she was about to die.
“It's dumb to want a hug.”
“But it's dumber to reject it.” He opened his arms wide but she, with a nervous laugh, shook her head, raising a hand to tell him not to get close.
"I'm still not interested. And you don't know me. I am a worse person than you think. I am a liar, manipulative, selfish, a killer...”
“And you are broken.”
“Nothing lasts forever." She replied quickly.
"You know no one wants you here, right?" He asked, more amused than she expected.
"If you didn't want me here, then why did you bring me against my will?" she sounded offended.
"To give you a second chance." He had this smile... She hated it so much for being so warm and comforting.
"I will always be a killer, and I will never be what you want me to be. At least now my life has direction.”
"And your direction is towards Evalon." He crossed his arms and looked at her as if she were joking.
"Technically," she looked him up and down, "But what does someone like you know about me? Nothing. You're just a guy who smiles to hide his pain. That trick is old, and it doesn't fool me."
"And playing the tough girl to scare everyone away is even older, teen drama cliché," he winked, "Jade may have been a weak lioness, but she became stronger physically and mentally. Isn't she now the impossible one? You said it, not me... Now tell me, you are already strong, you know how to kill and kick ass, but is that genuine strength? Do you think you're stronger than Jade for being a one-woman army?"
“Pretty much,” She bit her lip, “And I am hot.”
"You're not the impossible lioness," Kevin shook his head, "Excuse me for what I'm going to say, but you're just a cat who knows how to scratch."
She gasped. How could he?!
"And what are you then, Visbal? A cat in a lion's costume?"
"No. I am the sum of my mistakes, my virtues, my past and my present, and that is why I always walk towards the future," he put a hand on her shoulder, "Every day is a new day, but if you're still stuck in the past, looking down on everyone... Let's say that it doesn't do you any good to kick other people's ladders so that they stay under you, at the end of the day, you will still not go up."
"And you're going to teach me how to go up?” she looked him up and down again, with her arms crossed and a hint of fear in that mocking gaze, “You? The former stripper? The former porn star? You are going to tell me what I should do to get out of my hole? Did you get out of yours?" She gasped, and looked up at him, "Wait... Yes you did."
"My stripper and porn past isn't a hole, those are my roots," Kevin said, patting her shoulder, "Just like your hunter past. You and I have more in common than you think. Stories of abuse, of pain, of death, of crying and anger, but if we don't work on it, it will swallow us whole. We can't change our story, but we can change someone else's and walk into the future away from all that trauma."
"You don't know what I suffered." She grunted.
"But you know what I did," Kevin nodded, "We were victims, past tense. We were warriors, you and I, survivors. But all that is already behind us. Now we have been reborn, with a new life and story ahead of us. Will we let that go by living in painful memories? Or will we overcome them together to finally have our dawn?"
“Sounds like a cheesy pop song,” she nodded, rubbing her forehead, “But I must give you some credit. I’ve heard that you donate lots of your income to domestic abuse centres, shelters, helplines. Yeah, I’ve investigated you," Kimberly said. She lowered her gaze, unable to look him in the eyes, "I'm stupid. You're a hero now, and I'm just...”
"You can be a hero now," Kevin professed a hand, and hoped dearly she would shake it, "The boys and I help so many people, from charities to Mashers. Oh yeah! You won't believe how much an idol and music can save lives. You can save more lives than you took if you join us, clean the blood from your hands... Plus, the pay is really good! Zeth rocks that bodyguard salary!” He and she laughed together.
She took his hand, shaking it a little. That was surprising!
"Thank you for... Whatever this was," the blonde said, "I think you guys have a nice community here."
"It's not a community," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders, "It’s a family. And you can be a part of it now."
Then there were footsteps, the sound of stiletto boots, and Kevin and Kimberly looked up.
"You can break my legs,” Evie said, entering the room. “But I will continue walking in your direction, behind you, taking care of you, sis."
"Did you just quote Rubinstein, or are you just being philosophical?" Kimberly looked at her sister with half-shut eyes.
"Could you stop being so defensive?" Evie grunted. "I thought we were over this!"
"I am not," Kimberly took two steps closer to Evie, who didn't seem the least bit afraid, “You left me behind. You never looked for me, you never cared. What kind of a ‘sister’ are you?”
“You think I never searched for you?” Asked Evie, “Really? Because as far as I knew, you died when the Hunter Academy collapsed.”
“I survived worse things.” Kimberly pushed Evie, “I am not going to fight you, I want to stay and be more than the monster they made me... But you and I? We are not out of the woods yet.”
Kevin had to do something to avoid a fight. He didn't want to be powerless again in a situation like this.
"Hey, Evie,” he cleared his throat, “Why don't you bring Kimberly into the studio? So she can watch us shoot the video!"
"I think it's a bad idea," Jade said, standing in the doorway with Kevin’s doll in her hands, as if hypnotized by the coffin-shaped box, "Don't be too trusting, Kevs."
"I think I'd better stay here with Evie, to be a hostage. It’s fashionable," Kimberly said, but Evie shook her head.
"I think you can come with us, Jade and I, to guard the boys while they shoot the video. It can help you see how teamwork works here." Evie eyed Jade over her shoulder. "But we will be cautions. Jade, tell Blackfox to join us..."
"No need to," Blackfox appeared from behind a mirror near the window, making them all jump in fright. "Zeth asked me to watch everything from afar, and here I am."
“Ooohhh, is there something going on between Mr. Right and the Ken Doll?” Kimberly wiggled her eyebrows, “I can sense a bit of bromance here, an alpha for an alpha.”
“This will be harder than I thought,” Evie said, taking Jade’s doll from her, checking the box, “Special edition?”
“Yeah,” Jade said, looking up to see Kevin joking with Kim, and she was laughing as if they were best friends, “But not as special as Kevs here.”