by Nigel May
When Nova grabbed Charlie and waltzed him towards the dance floor to shake her ample curves to Iggy Azalea, the two drag queens in tow, Georgia found herself alone with Aaron and Addison, as Jacob requested that Sarah join him to talk shop with the two execs. Georgia directed her conversation to Aaron as Addison listened in.
‘So, you were due to dance with my friend, Mitzi? The reason I’m here is to try and find out what happened to her. I have to hope that she’s still alive.’
‘It’s all very tragic,’ said Aaron, a little unsure about what to say. ‘I didn’t know her or Foster but what’s happened to them is just crazy. Have you uncovered anything?’
‘Maybe, but I’m not any closer to actually finding her.’ For a second Georgia’s voice cracked as she fought to hold back the tears that had begun to form. Her momentary sadness was noted by both Aaron and Addison. Addison reached out and touched Georgia on the arm in an attempt to uplift her spirits.
‘Sorry, it must be the drink. I shouldn’t touch anything with gin in it, as it’s bound to get me maudlin, but when I think about poor Mitzi and the fact that she might be lying somewhere, dead in a ditch …’ Georgia knew this was neither the time nor the place but, drink or otherwise, something was prompting her to consider every conceivable outcome to Mitzi’s disappearance, including the worst case scenario. She guessed it was meeting Aaron.
Right on cue, a line of tears began to slide its way down her cheeks. Georgia dabbed at them with her hand, causing her eyeliner to smudge. It was Addison who reacted.
‘Okay, smudgy eye alert, girlfriend to the rescue. It looks like somebody’s taken an inking block to your face. You are coming with me, right now.’ Her words fired out with supersonic speed as she linked her arm through Georgia’s. ‘Restrooms this way. Nova will not want tears at her party. Aaron, you go shake your money-maker on the dance floor with Nova and les girls and see if you can bag yourself a spot on Super Nova. And tell Charlie that I’m going to fix poor Georgia’s makeup. It’s time for some girl-on-girl serious restoration work.’
Leaving a confused Aaron to work his way to the dance floor, Addison scuttled Georgia off to the ladies. Once they were inside, she hugged her. ‘Are you okay?’
From the outburst of tears that followed it was obvious that Georgia wasn’t. Unable to stop herself, Georgia let every pent up emotion she’d been feeling about Mitzi’s disappearance pour out to Addison. It felt cathartic to let it spill out to a fellow female, especially one of her own age. Even if it was somebody she’d only met five minutes earlier. In some ways that made it so much easier.
It was half an hour before the women left the ladies’ room, Georgia’s make up reapplied to its former glory. The sight that greeted them was Nova trying to teach Aaron how to twerk on the dance floor to Nicky Minaj and Charlie being given a lesson in the finer details of how to flounce a catwalk by the two drag queens. Perhaps the drinks were stronger than Georgia realised. Perhaps stronger than anyone did.
Forty-Four
She was alone again, the room quiet and soulless. Were her eyes finally becoming accustomed to the darkness? Perhaps they were. She could make out a wall. Her feet remained tied at the ankles. Her hands and mouth had been bound again too, her captor only allowing her a minimal window of opportunity after her ‘piece to camera’ to eat her food. Mustering as much strength as she could, she shuffled her backside across the floor to try and work out the dimensions of the room she was in. It took no more than three or four shuffles to find herself up against a wall. It was equally as hard and cold as the floor underneath her.
With the little strength that remained in her body given her bound state, she shuffled back to what she assumed was the centre of the room. She could hear the sound of her own breathing becoming more laboured as she did so. There were stone stairs in front of her; that was for sure. She had seen her detainer, still no more distinguishable than a silhouette, using the stairs to exit the room.
The only other thing she could see was a bucket, maybe a metre or so in front of her. She had already witnessed what this was for. Her underwear and clothing were pulled roughly down as she was made to squat over it. It was the ultimate degradation. Despite her captor emptying it, the stench of what had been still coated her nostrils. It was an odour that she suspected she would never forget. One that mingled with the stench of approaching death that crept over the room.
Her mind, more focused than it had been in days, attempted to think about moments that had meant so much to her throughout her life. Nuggets of hope to try and give her strength. The love she had for the man who had disappeared alongside her, where to and why she still had no notion. The rhythmic highs of their bodies, moving as one, both inside the bedroom for their own beautiful pleasure and in other more public arenas for the entertainment of others. Two bodies, two minds, two hearts together. She remembered the moment they had first met, the initial spark that had ignited between them. The skipping of her heartbeat as she first ran her fingers through his hair, across his body. Would she ever feel it again? Hear his voice or those of her closest friends? Was this a prison that she would ever escape?
Forty-Five
As the celebration for Super Nova’s ratings wound to an end, only a party of five remained, sitting at one of the booths in the club. Charlie sat with his arm around Georgia’s shoulder, her head resting against his neck. She was tired and the evening, despite its fun moments, had been a draining one. She needed to head to Mexico, to try and fit together the next piece of the Mitzi puzzle. Every second counted and her inner core was wracked with guilt that she had spent an evening even vaguely enjoying herself while her best friend’s existence still remained a mystery. If it hadn’t been for Nova’s insistence that the party was also a welcome home celebration for Charlie she would have asked that they be excused from attending.
Aaron had enjoyed his evening. The Hollywood madness was all new to him and he was revelling in the delirium of it all. Plus he had to admit that having Addison sitting on one side of him and Sarah, who had only just managed to escape work duties with the execs, on the other was doing wonders for his ego. They were both fine looking women.
Charlie hadn’t exactly been oblivious to Addison and Sarah himself, and he knew they’d been checking him out – why wouldn’t they? He picked up the last bottle of Cristal on the table, popped the cork and poured it into their glasses.
‘One for the road … one for Mitzi?’
Silence fell across the table as they all raised their glasses.
‘She’d have rocked tonight,’ said Georgia. She could think of nothing she’d rather have less than another glass of champagne but given the toast, it would have seemed wrong to decline. ‘She would have been the first on that dance floor and the last off it.’
‘And she would have been twerking like a loony, no doubt,’ said Charlie.
‘I’m sorry I never met her,’ stated Aaron. ‘I think we would have hit it off.’
‘I’m sorry too,’ said Sarah, a little awkward at the conversation, as was Addison. They both raised their glasses.
Charlie began to laugh. ‘And she would have loved that dreadful Cher impersonator. I think Mum reckons I thought it was the real thing but I’m not that stupid.’
He turned to Georgia. ‘Do you remember when Mitzi managed to blag us into that mental after party for some TV show Cher was on. You, me and Mitz. There were loads of celebs there, no Cher sadly, so I was gutted, but Mitzi was determined to dance with as many of them as possible.’
Georgia began to giggle as the memory of that night flooded back. ‘She was on a mission. One fuelled by cocktails. Didn’t she say she wouldn’t go home until she’d managed to bump and grind with at least five soap stars, three boyband members and one actor she’d seen at the cinema.’
‘Yep, that’s right, and she managed every one!’ laughed Charlie. ‘She was moving around that dance floor with stealth-like precision. Resistance was futile.’
‘Nobody was safe and
nobody could say no.’ Just the mere thought made Georgia grin from ear to ear.
‘And didn’t she end up taking one of them home?’
‘Well, let’s just say that the next time she saw him appearing in a cinematic love scene she was very much been there done that.’
‘Just one of many nights of Mitzi madness,’ said Charlie. He raised his glass again in toast. ‘To Mitzi.’
The five of them clinked glasses.
‘And here’s to hopefully many more,’ said Georgia. She tried to make her words as upbeat as possible. From the look of the others’ faces she wasn’t sure she had managed.
Forty-Six
Aaron could feel the beads of sweat running down his back as he pulled the studio door shut behind him. He liked to think of himself as a man. A dude. A daredevil. Someone who would happily bungee jump off a bridge, swim with sharks, hike through snake-infested jungles if need be. And he’d do it all with adrenaline running through his veins as opposed to fear. But the last hour of his life had been one of the scariest he had ever experienced. He had literally felt his knees tremble with terror from the moment the team of people judging him had introduced themselves.
At least a few of them seemed familiar. He recognised most of them from the party two nights ago. Industry players with both the money and the kudos to rocket his career in a whole new direction should they decide that he was right for the part. One of them was Jacob Chevalier, whom Aaron had spent time speaking to at the Super Nova bash.
Not that Aaron was still that sure about what the part was. He’d learnt some lines as instructed by Addison, and he felt he’d put as much emotion into them as he could. He was hardly Tom Hardy when it came to perfect delivery and sure, there had been a few stumbles here and there, but at least he could relate to what he was saying. The character was a cheeky UK crime-fighter type who seemed to investigate his cases by interviewing as many scantily clad female suspects and witnesses as possible, pumping them for information in his own irresistible way. Aaron just imagined he was chatting up one of the women at his local pub back in Cornwall. He wasn’t sure if it had worked but the other people in the casting room seemed happy. Especially a middle-aged woman sitting to Jacob’s left hand side whose sharp intake of appreciative breath when Aaron removed his shirt as instructed was loud enough to reduce the men around her to laugh at her delight. Aaron figured that was a good sign and had winked at her accordingly. The blushing of her skin showed her approval.
But Aaron couldn’t have been more pleased when the casting came to an end. Jacob shook his hand, as did the others and said they would be in touch. Who was Aaron to believe otherwise?
‘How did it go then?’ The voice was Addison’s, who was waiting outside the room.
‘Terrifying. But good, I think. I remembered my words and flexed my muscles accordingly.’ Aaron gave his best comedy strongman pose to demonstrate his physique to Addison.
‘Very impressive. Were they smiling at the end? That’s always a good sign if they actually smile. If you flunk an audition the faces are normally longer than an Oscars’ acceptance speech.’
‘They smiled, so maybe I did well. We’ll see. But I could murder a beer after putting myself through that.’
‘Well then, that’s exactly what you shall have,’ beamed Addison. ‘My instructions are to make sure you get to and from the audition and to make sure that your every whim is catered for. So if you want beer, then a beer it shall be.’
‘My every whim, eh?’ Aaron smothered his sentence with suggestion, a fact not unnoticed or rebuffed by Addison.
‘Yes, “your every whim” were the words said to me. I remember thinking at the time how thorough you have to be in this job. That a good assistant should always be prepared to go above and beyond.’
Aaron curled his lips. Now if that wasn’t a green light he must be colour blind.
‘Mind if we swing back to the hotel first then, so that I can get changed and showered? I’m a little sweaty after all that fear.’
‘Of course …’
Less than thirty minutes later, Aaron found himself naked in his hotel suite shower being soaped up by an equally naked Addison. He couldn’t help but think how convenient it was that Los Angeles hotels seemed to have shower cubicles that were big enough for two. Aaron was loving the delights that LA offered. All of them. And as Addison bent herself over in front of him and pulled her pussy lips apart giving him perfect access to her clitoris, he took full advantage and slid his cock into her. Aaron heard his second female gasp of the day. But this was one performance he would never need a script for. He knew the part inside out.
While Addison’s squeals of exultation heightened as Aaron rocked her to orgasm, Aaron’s phone, discarded onto the bed, beeped, signalling another missed call. It was one of six within the last few hours. One was from Rachel, his agent. The other five were from Tanya.
Victoria feared that her life was spiralling out of control. Painkillers, anti-depressants, cake … every one an enemy, but foes that she couldn’t stop. As she looked in the bathroom mirror, the reflection that stared back at her was not her own. Her face seemed lifeless; her skin grey, fine lines appearing deeper than they had been just a few short weeks ago. Her hair, normally sunshine blonde and abundant in TV-ad vitality now just clung to her face, drooping and unloved.
But it was her eyes that scared Victoria the most. The whites of her eyes, once so glacial and pure, now were streaked with tired veins of red. If she had been back home in New Orleans, her parents would have thought she was possessed by some voodoo spirit from the mysterious underbelly of the city.
The mirror began to steam as she stared at her reflection, caused by the water pouring into the bath behind her. An icing of bubbles swirled across the surface. Victoria turned to look at them and for a few seconds she was lost in thought, trying to see shapes in the froth. As soon as the shapes formed, they disappeared again, merging into something else as the bubbles continued their migration.
‘Is my bath ready, Mummy?’ It was Leo who spoke, naked and excited, peering over at the writhing mass of suds before him.
Turning the taps off Victoria bent down to pick up her son and went to place him in the bath. At the age of six she didn’t really need to but after everything that had happened recently a vulnerable Victoria was taking every possible chance to hold her offspring close to her. She couldn’t let them slip away.
Her side exploded with pain; one that she had become used to over the last few days but one that still caused her to recoil in agony. She was due another painkiller. She let go of Leo as the pain took hold and the young boy fell from her grasp, one foot dipping into the water and the rest of his body falling outside of the bath. He landed on the floor, the thud of his arrival accompanied by a scream of slasher movie proportions. The volume of his cries even drowned out the stabbing of pain that perforated Victoria’s body.
The cries also brought Scott running to the bathroom. ‘What the hell has happened?’
Seeing Leo on the floor he immediately bent down to comfort the naked boy. Victoria remained silent and just stared on, horrified by what was happening, unable to move or speak.
‘On my God, we need to phone an ambulance, now. Look at Leo’s foot.’
Victoria did so. It was poppy red and the skin burnt and angry where it had spent time submerged. Just for a second but enough for blisters to already appear to pinprick the surface of the skin. Leo screamed in agony as his father picked him up and held him in his arms.
‘What the fuck happened, Victoria?’ He would never normally swear in front of the children but the words fell from his lips without consideration. ‘Did you check the temperature of the water? It’s boiling hot for Christ’s sake. You could have scalded the poor boy to death.’
It was true, she could have. Had it not been for the pang of agony in her side she would have placed Leo’s entire body straight into the water. Water that would have given him untold burns. How had she let this happen? B
ecome so out of control? Why was her body letting her down, causing her such pain, causing her to fail as a mother?
‘I’ll phone an ambulance.’ It was Chloe who spoke, standing in the doorway of the bathroom, holding Lexi’s hand as the shocked girl looked on.
Victoria watched as Chloe and her daughter moved out of sight; as her husband looked directly at her and hissed, ‘What kind of mother are you, for God’s sake?’ and then left the room, with a still crying and traumatised Leo gripped in his arms.
What kind of mother was she? Fear consumed her as she tried unsuccessfully to answer her own thoughts.
Forty-Seven
Not many things in life had rattled Jacob over the years. Not being picked first for the school soccer team, not being heralded as ‘most likely to succeed’ in his high school year book, being the first person shot on a company paintballing day out. The occasions had been few and far between. But there had always been a solution. If he wasn’t picked first then he would play harder, even dirtier, to make sure that he was first choice next time. As for the year book doubters, well, his millions had proved them wrong. And paintballing? An accidental trigger happy spray of fire sent after his ‘death’ in the direction of the person who shot him had made him feel much better. No, there was always a solution.
But unlike many of the partygoers at the Super Nova ratings celebration, Jacob’s evening had not been totally joyful. In fact, something he had seen, heard and been told had irked him greatly and for once he wasn’t that sure how to deal with it. It was a feeling that Jacob wasn’t used to and one he did not intend to live with for a second longer than necessary.
‘I seriously thought somebody had spiked my drinks at Nova’s bash and I was suffering from some kind of post party hallucinogenic freakiness. So I did just see that, then?’ Georgia asked Charlie, more than a little confused as she pulled the car into the car park of their Tijuana hotel. ‘I did just see a zebra? In Mexico? In the middle of a busy city?’