Chapter 26 – How to Catch Bad Luck

 Sometimes to win, you've got to sin, 

Don't mean I'm not a believer.

... and major Tom, will sing along.

Yeah, they still say I'm a dreamer.

“I’d be lying if I said yes.” I’d managed to stay put and not tackle Megan to the ground. She’s a girl after all. “Now what do you want?”

She just smiled casually. Innocently. Like she had nothing to do with all those hate mails and prank calls. Besides that, Megan had changed a bit. She was pretty thinner than I remembered. Her eyes were hollow. Just one look and I knew she’s losing it.

“You know the answer to that,” she replied, making a sad face. “I’ve been here for you all along, Leon. I’ve always been here! Carrying your things, sorting out your clothes, cleaning up your mess. I’ve done everything! Everything… hoping you’ll notice me someday—the one who’s always been there for you,” she ranted, in the brink of tears.

I looked around. Surely by now, Moira had already called security. Looked like no help was coming. Whatever Nate was planning better work.

“But no!!!” Megan went on. “You pick some slut over me!”

I dunno what happened. What she said triggered the obliterate-button inside my brain. Next thing I knew, I’d already snagged her arms. She was fighting back. I didn’t mind. At that moment, I could think of a hundred ways to torture her.

“You want the truth?” I growled through my teeth, keeping my voice low. “All of those things you said? They’re all in your head. So stop this. You’re sick. But Moira’s going to get the best help for you. You’re gonna get better.”

Her eyes widened. Somehow fearful. Practically telling her that she’s crazy might not be one of my best ideas. So I sighed and let her go. Then she started crying. And that made me feel guilty and sorry for her. I cursed at myself and approached her, thinking maybe I could somehow make her stop crying. But before I could get close enough, she reached into her jacket pocket for an army knife. She pointed it to me, backing away.

“No,” she sobbed, shaking her head. “I won’t get better. This thing… It-it won’t go away.”

“Megan,” I carefully took one step to her. “Put the knife down.”

Taking a deep breath, she pointed the tip of the knife on her throat. “Don’t! Or I’ll do it!” she warned. “No matter what I do, it ends up like this. What’s wrong with me? Maybe it’s better if I didn’t exist.”

She sounded like she totally meant it. The wild look in her eyes told me the same. I stood frozen. I hated her. Like a lot. But it wasn’t like I asked her to die. No. Anything but that.

“We can talk about this,” I offered in my most convincing tone, cautiously inching my way towards her. “Just put—“

Quickly, I made for the knife in her hand. When I saw it on the floor, I kicked it away. The knife slid into the gap at the bottom of the locked door of the storage room. I caught Megan as she tried to get it back. She struggled at first but after a while, the thrashing stopped though she kept crying silently.

“It’s okay, Megan,” I whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Megan didn’t say a thing. But she nodded. That was when the security started to arrive. There were four of them—tall huge beefy dudes in black shirts. As if they weren’t intimidating enough by themselves, they carried one long gun each. Show offs. Who did they think they were going to arrest? Chuck Norris?

Megan squirmed. I stepped in front of her, nodding at the guards to stop. They were scaring her. The last thing I wanted was her running off again. It’d be a lot easier if Moira was here.

“Easy now, guys,” I said to the security men. “Where’s Moira?”

The red-haired guy with the goatee answered. “She went out to call the mental—I mean some people.” He eyed on Megan. “We’ll take care of her.”

Megan began crying really hard again. And this time, she kept shaking her head so I volunteered to stay with her. The guards kept insisting though that she’s their responsibility and that I should head back to the conference, yada yada yada. I refused. And that was when they started to drag Megan away. All the while, she kept crying and screaming, “Let me go! Let me go!” and I couldn’t bear to look at her anymore. It was painful to watch.

They barely reached the back exit when Megan had successfully head butted the guy holding her. The other three guys were too startled they didn’t even have the chance to grab her before she bolted into the conference hall then to the main hallway. I ran after her. So did the guards.

As I reached the stage, Chuck was in the middle of telling the audience all about football and making poses for a great pass. I made a run for the door, dragging Chuck with me. The commotion got the crowd restless. For the meantime, it’d be up to Reed and Ricky to entertain them. Quickly, Megan got into one of the elevators. The guards took the other one.

“What the hell, man!” Chuck complained. “I was showing the crowd my moves.”

“Megan’s here,” I said and he immediately knew that it was an emergency.

“Ugh. I’m starting to hate this Megan.”

I shoved him in front of me. We raced for the elevator. Just our luck, the door shut before we got there. I looked around. The elevator light stopped at the fourteenth floor—the top floor. We were at the ninth. We had to get there and fast.

As my eyes landed on the stairs, Chuck gave me a look and groaned, “Not the stairs, please. Oh, not the stairs!” like I was asking him to climb Mt. Everest while doing a hopscotch.

“Stairs or I’ll take back your drum set?”

“I love stairs!” he ran up the first flight. “I’ve been meaning to do more cardio anyway.”

We were already on the eleventh floor when I remembered the phone in my pocket. I took it out and pressed it on my ear. My brother was still waiting.

“Nate, you there?” I panted. “Megan’s escaped. What’s the brilliant plan?”

“What?” Nate shouted at me. “Why’d you let her? I already did as much as lead her to you and call the blasted security while you’re on it, Leon. How bloody stupid could you be? Must I always do everything?”

“I had her! But then your security came and scared her off!” I was yelling at him too. “Now who’s stupid?” After answering me a grunt, I hang up on him.

I knew listening to him was a bad idea.

Chuck and I were both huffing as we reached the fourteenth floor. The hallways were bare and unlit. The rows of ten or so rooms served either as offices for the staff or spaces used in workshops for hopefuls who wanted to try their luck in Hollywood.

Moira mentioned a couple of times that Megan started here. Not five hours passed and she was let off. The shortest record for any talent scouted for Sonnet. Must be hard for her.

I saw last of the guards shuffle to the emergency stairs leading to the rooftop. Chuck rolled his eyes when I started to follow them.

“Now what do we do?” I asked him, breathing heavily while climbing the stairs, which I hated since it was the kind of stairs where you can see what’s underneath. And now I was being reminded that we were about hundreds of feet off the ground. I could literally see it.

Chuck just stared at me stupidly. “You’re asking me?” he grumbled. “Are you out of your mind? Thinking’s usually Nate’s job. Not mine. If I do the thinking, d’you think we’d still be alive today?”

“You’re right. Must be the acrophobia,” I breathed out and hurried up the steps.

Confused, Chuck looked around. “Very funny. There are no spiders here.”

The stairs seemed to be moving. So were the walls and the ground way down beneath us. In what seemed like ages, we finally reached the door with the EXIT sign. I virtually lunged at it. Solid ground was what I need or I’d pretty much throw up.

And Megan was there, her back against the waist-high railing. The guards were almost on her, except that she kept backing away. She looked terrified as she glanced over her shoulder to see how high we were. But she seemed to be more scared of the people in front of her. At first, she was hesitant. I just knew she’d jump as she held onto the ledge. But I couldn’t do anything. She was out of my reach. Just like that, she was gone.

My brain was in scrambles as we were escorted out of the building. The reporters swarmed towards us, bombarding us questions that I couldn’t even comprehend. The security kept them at a distance but it won’t stop them for long. All that ruckus was overwhelming. Chuck looked just as dazed as me. And for the first time he wasn’t grinning for the cameras. Police sirens drowned whatever the reporters were trying to ask us and that was all I could hear. The yellow tapes surrounding the front of the building were all I could see.

The police interrogation, the trip to the hospital, the meeting with the company bosses; they were all a blur to me. I was so lost in thought that I only noticed I hadn’t slept all night when it was getting light outside.

Megan was dead. I couldn’t help but think that maybe I had something to do with that. I wanted her to come to me. And that was why she came there.

My cell phone rang who knew how many times. But I didn’t move a muscle to pick it up. I just… listened. I was scared. No, terrified to talk about it to anyone. I couldn’t bring myself to put it in words. I won’t be able to answer if they asked me how I feel. Because then I’d have to accept that everything was real and I didn’t want it to be.

Someone kept banging on my door. I didn’t make a move to open it. I didn’t think I had the energy or the courage. It was like I’d been standing on the edge of the rooftop where Megan stood. Any wrong move and I’d fall straight to insanity. For hours, I mulled over thoughts that didn’t make any sense to me. They were just words that made me numb.

Finally, my door flung open. Reed came first with a serious look on his face. Behind him Chuck had this big freaky grin. All the while though, he looked distracted, staring into space. Only Ricky was himself—nervous and shaky.

“Nate called,” Reed started. “He said your Dad’s in the hospital. You need to go home now.”

It took a while before I figured out what he said to me. I blinked twice. “Why? What happened?”

After jumping off the bed, I began pacing the room, snatching the first shirt I found in the closet. Sidetracked, I threw the shirt on and pulled up the pair of denims lying about.

I noticed that the guys were carrying their own backpacks. Ricky cleared his throat.

“We’re going with you,” he told me, looking away.

“No. Stay here,” I insisted, grabbing my own knapsack. “The people have to know that the band’s still intact even after the… uh… accident.”

They didn’t move until I found my sneakers and was ready to go. I knew those looks. They were hiding something from me. But there wasn’t time for interrogation right now. No way I’d waste time talking them into staying. Together we got into a cab and headed for the airport. The whole trip was silent. It was a miracle.

Not until we reached the airport did I get a whiff of what was really happening. I kept getting curious looks from the other passengers from the ticket line to the business class seats. A few of them seemed to recognize me. Unbelievably, no one chased us or tried to get an autograph. They just stared.

The accident was all over the media. I was sure of it. As the plane took off, the guys kept nudging Ricky to speak up. I had a vague idea why.

 “Let me guess,” I started, taking my headphones off. “The TV people want to make it look like I coaxed Megan into jumping off that building. And now our recording contract, our should’ve-been careers and the whole Sonnet Records are in jeopardy. In short, we’re dead.”

Ricky gave me a hesitant look, his pale long fingers tapping on the corner of his laptop. “Yes… yes and yes,” he admitted.

“Plus, people are making it look like Moira’s neglected the girl,” Chuck added simply. “It’s stupid because she was like twenty-five.”

“Twenty-one,” Reed corrected glaring at him.

That didn’t put Chuck off. “And your cover’s totally blown, man. Probably by now, Sarah knows about your secret identity. You’ve gotta explain everything to her, remember? That is if Matt hasn’t made the first move already.”

“Shut up, Chuck,” Reed and Ricky said at exactly the same time.

“Just sayin’,” he murmured, zipping his mouth close.

I rummaged inside my bag for my phone. When I turned it on, eight of the nineteen missed calls were from Sarah. The others were from Nate, Jobs, Moira and Becky. I couldn’t decide if I should be relieved or sorry for not being able to get their calls. If it wasn’t for Dad, I won’t think of going back home. For the first time in my life, I wanted to run away from everything. Be alone. Cease to exist.

I thought of Sarah. That it won’t be too long before I see her again. I missed her. So much. At the same time, just the inevitable possibility of meeting her scared me. I was scared to have to explain myself. I was scared that she’d hate me. Scared that everything I did led to this catastrophe. For once, thinking about Sarah didn’t make my burden any better.

I came to wonder if any of the people on this plane were as problematic as me. Or was this landslide of problems intended only for me? Was my bad luck rubbing off on people around me? Come to think of it, maybe that was the case.

“It’s that messed up, huh?” I muttered mostly to myself.

I knew the answer but I just had to ask. Nothing could make it better.

The guys could only exchange looks and spend the rest of the flight in silence.

~~~~~~~~~

At last! An update. Next one's in 5 days. And while you're waiting, please check out my other stories :) Thanks so much. Later!

Not myself now,

~shim :)