

### Bring That Noize!!

By

Jacob Hart  
Copyright 2010 Jacob Hart  
Smashwords Edition

Chapter 1: From The Grave

The constant, annoying buzzing sound broke my slumber. I rolled over and grunted, slamming my fist down on the snooze button. I stared at the ceiling. My eyes were feeling a little dry and covered with eye boogers. I got lost in a trance watching my ceiling fan spin around and around again, almost putting me back to rest. Then that damn alarm clock went off once more.

"Ugh." I moaned, rolling out of my bed. I moaned the entire distance of my hallway, until I reached the bathroom. Decorated in a fine 'ducks in a pond' type theme, the bathroom looked fun and homey, but almost out of place compared to the rest of the household decorations and furniture. Small rubber ducks scattered across the room. Powder blue wallpaper with bright yellow ducks swimming in a darkish-blue pond covered the walls.

If anyone were to stop and think, their first thought is probably, "Must be a married man." Well, not exactly in my case. This whole feminine duck décor was an entire theme on sale in some catalogue I picked up somewhere. It was the cheapest in the whole set, and I figured it would lighten up the previous dull, white-painted look. So no, I am not obsessed with ducks, either.

I sat my rotten cheeks down on the cushioned toilet seat and scratched my head. After my business was dealt with, I positioned myself in front of the mirror. A faint, slap sound echoed in the bowl-like sink just before I turned it on. I examined myself closely in the mirror again. A little piece of my flesh fell from my face. My right eye barely had any skin left around it, and sort of protruded my eye outwards. The center of my face was scarred with past stitches that I used to have. My hair remained intact, but uncomfortably frail and straight. The skin that was left on my face and whole body was a dull, pale olive green. My teeth were still lightly-tinted yellow, and I was missing my left canine. I glanced down at the skin in the sink and grabbed my toothpaste and brush, trying to ignore it as much as possible. I took one last close look in the mirror, nothing too serious.

My name is Jimmy Norton, and I am an undead, United States citizen. That isn't some cliché statement hinting that I have some rare skin eating disorder and I was trying to make a joke about it. I am a full-blooded member of the living dead, straight from the grave, and the only one of my kind that I know of. Right now, people reading this may be scratching their head going, "How the hell is he speaking proper English? Shouldn't he be begging for brains?" For those people, I say, thanks for being racist, but let me provide a background story before you continue being stereotypical.

I started attending a technical college fresh out of high school, and went for a Bachelor's degree in biology. My best friend and I were aspiring veterinarians. We weren't big animal lovers, but it had good money involved in it, and it was easier than working on humans. Both of us became good acquaintances with a professor of ours named Dr. Moody. I sadly died my senior year of college, at the young age of twenty one, by an unexpected heart failure. It was rather odd, because I never had any past medical issues. I died by complete randomness. After about two mourning weeks, Dr. Moody fetched some crazy idea to try to revive me. The old genius intoxicated and knocked out some drifter and convinced my best friend, Emilio Hall, to dig up my corpse and bring it to his multi-million dollar, underground laboratory. Countless hours of swapping fresh organs with my dead ones went by and I was alive again. In some medical miracle, I was conscious and my brain was still working properly. It took me a long time to become content and accept my awkward, undead appearance. Now it has been three years since I was reanimated, and nothing much has changed.

Nobody really cared in Cleveland, Ohio. No one really cared I was a living dead person. I wasn't on the cover of Time magazine or shot into popularity being a biological phenomenon. However, I could sense the negligent, nervousness when I was around people. They would stare, or point, and as soon as I would look at them, their eyes would quickly glance away. I got fired as an intern at a vet clinic because people were afraid I would devour their precious pets.

My longtime girlfriend of four years dumped me. I guess all that bullshit about "No matter what happens, we will always be together." wasn't all too true. After she broke my heart, I felt like a monster. No girl would ever want to be with a one hundred and eighty-nine pound hunk of rotting flesh. Then, I met a certain woman who was the most confusing woman on the entire planet. I have no idea whether she is my girlfriend, or just a friend, or what, but she is one lovely human being. Anyways, I picked up this job at a local casino called, La Chouette, which means 'The Great' in French. They were the only place that would hire me, because they had a mandatory uniform that required a plain, white mask, which would cover up my atrocious looking face. I ended up getting an apartment with a random roommate, and that's where we are today. Undead, best friends, girls, and no one cares.

The smell of a delicious breakfast entered my nose, and my mouth started salivating. My senses were still working, and the bacon smelled so good. I followed the lingering scent downstairs, and found Scott Moon, my three month long roommate, cooking his excellent breakfast.

Mr. Scott Moon was a half-African American and half-Latino individual. He had a short, shagged afro, big glasses, and stubby beard that connected with his sideburns and went around his mouth. He had a knack for fashion, but he wasn't a metro sexual. He usually sported a band tee that was one size too small on his very thin frame, or he would wear a brightly-colored flannel with the sleeves pulled up. Occasionally he would wear a Cleveland Indians' flat bill hat or a beanie. Scott was a columnist for a local topic magazine. It was more like a blog magazine. Scott wrote about popular culture subjects like music, fashion, and movies. He earned a little bit above minimum wage and always had enough to pay rent. Scott had a fantastic personality. He was defiantly a character, and loved to party and have a good time. He joked around and acted cocky, but was one of my favorite friends to be around. He had a way to make anyone smile. Scott was also a womanizer. He could get any woman he set his eyes on, which was a trait of his that I was envious of. Scotty also loved his weed.

"Good morning, handsome." He jokingly said to me when I walked in the kitchen. He made a fidgety motion with his hands above his head. I mimicked him and felt that my hair was a mess. Scott snickered and turned back around towards the stove. I took a seat on one of our barstools that were placed around a nice kitchen island. They weren't exactly comfortable, but cheap.

"Would you like your eggs sunny-side up?" Scott called back to me.

"I don't want eggs." I answered him in the middle of a yawn. Scott looked back at me and shook his head.

"Your loss then." He said. The pan sizzled and grease popped and crackled. Scott grabbed a plate and flipped ten, succulent bacon strips on it. He slid the plate across the counter and I let it cool.

I thought the whole undead craving human flesh thing was completely ridiculous. I am still the same person I was three years ago except for my ugly looks. I still had my boring, cautious personality, and I was still a polite person. I still loved my bacon. It was everyone else who changed.

Scott sat down on the opposite side of the island and his plate was stacked with food. Four large eggs and too many bacon strips to count. For a thin guy, he loved to eat and could shovel food in his mouth quicker than anyone I have ever seen. He blamed it on the marijuana.

"You work today?" I asked him, trying to start up a morning conversation.

"No, my next article isn't due until next week. What about you?" He asked me. Scott grabbed the edge of an egg with his fingertips and tore off a chunk of it with his teeth. I shook my head and took a small bite from the tip of a slice of bacon.

"Not until tomorrow. So, you're free?" I asked him after chewing up the bacon. He nodded, stuffing the leftover egg in his mouth. Then he shrugged as if to ask why.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to come see Emilio with me at the hospital." I suggested. Scott gulped down the rest of the egg and picked up another one.

"Yeah, sure. Judy isn't coming over until later tonight anyways." He smiled with his lips spotted with egg whites.

"Judy is staying?" I asked in a skeptical tone. He winked at me and we shared a laugh together.

"Emilio is in the hospital?" He asked me. I nodded slowly. I thought he knew that. I explained to Scott how Emilio's current girlfriend hit him in the back of the head with a flower vase, just because he wouldn't take out the trash. We all hated his girlfriend, not because she was a total bitch, but because she was always trying to get Emilio and me to part ways. She said she was embarrassed to have a boyfriend that was best friends with a freak. The funny part was, Emilio has told me plenty of times that he doesn't want to be with her, but he is scared to break up with her in fear of getting his testicles removed one night or something. Scott and I laughed at our best friend's problem and finished up our meal.

"Wait one second." Scott requested me to do. We were just about to leave the house. Scott hurried down to his room, and about twenty minutes later he came back up the stairs in a lackadaisical manner. He looked at me with heavy eyelids and a quirky smile. He had on his favorite MGMT shirt, skinny jeans, and a blue pair of Air Jordan's. He put on his Cleveland cap very carefully, and pushed open the screen door. I grabbed the keys to our beat down Nissan Sentra and chased after my baked roommate.

We casually walked into First Medical hospital and approached a blonde lady sitting behind a desk. The clerk noticed me and gave me a disgusted look, but quickly flashed a fake smile just before we reached the desk.

"We're looking for Emilio Hall, please." I said to the woman. My kind manners brought a real smile to the young girl's face. I could tell it was a relief action, since I didn't come up to the counter and try to eat her. Her gentle eyes wandered around Scott, who was leaning up against the counter with an unlit cigarette in between his mouth. I gave him a dirty look and he grinned, and then put the cigarette back in his pocket.

"Third floor, room three fifty-one." The woman said with a whiny voice.

"Thank you very much, sweetheart." Scott spoke up leaning more with his elbows on the counter. The girl blushed and giggled. I grabbed Scott's collar and drug him off towards the elevator. He stumbled and smacked my hand from his shirt. He pointed at me and his eyebrows rose up. The rule Scott had, was that you could never ever, ever ruin his game. If he was locked into working something with a girl, he insisted that you do not interfere. I waved my hands in apology as we walked into the elevator.

"This is a hospital man, would you show some decency?" I asked him after the metal doors closed.

"Dude, hospital, funeral home, cancer kid's birthday, the game can be played anywhere." He chuckled. I couldn't express how much disgust I had with that last statement. I stared at him and he broke the silence with a giggle. I couldn't help smirking.

The heavy, metal doors slid open and the air smelled like bedpan piss and mopped, soapy floors. We counted out loud the numbers to the rooms and finally found three-hundred and fifty-one. Before we could grab the handle to the door, Emilio's girlfriend, Stacy, threw the door open from the inside.

"What are you two doing here?" She scorned us. Scott saluted and got in an army attention stance, trying to enrage Stacy more. It worked and she shoved him.

"We want to see Emilio." I said to her. I said it loudly so that if Emilio was awake, he would hear me.

"Emilio is currently resting, and I'm sure he wouldn't want to be disturbed by the likes of you two. So just--"

"Let them in Stacy." Emilio spoke up in the background. Angry, Stacy obeyed and stepped aside with her arms folded, rolling her eyes.

Emilio sat on the edge of his bed. His dark brown, straight hair was victim of bed head. He had lightly, tanned skin, and wore a green Cleveland State University shirt and a pair of jeans that sagged a little. He stood up and stuck out his hand. Scott turned it away and gave him a hug instead. I shook his hand and pulled him close to me.

"Are you seriously going to stay with her after all that?" I whispered in his ear. Emilio sighed and shrugged his shoulders. His brown eyes glanced nervously at his unhappy, controlling girlfriend. Emilio's parents were also in the room, standing by the window. They stayed quiet, but I knew they accepted me. Emilio looked into my eyes long and hard and breathed in deeply. He nodded to me and started walking out of the room. Scott and I followed him.

"Where are you going?" Stacy demanded an answer, stepping in front of us.

"I'm checking out. The guys are here, and obviously they came to pick me up." Emilio responded. I didn't know if he was going to keep the relationship with her. I crossed my fingers behind my back and hoped for the best.

"You're supposed to be taking me out to eat with me and my friends." She said in a snobby voice. Instantly, Emilio walked right past her and Scott gave me a shocked look, his mouth forming a circle. We quickly followed behind Emilio, who was storming down the hallway.

"Emilio Robert Hall!" Stacy yelled behind us.

"You stop right there!" She started chasing us, and our movement got faster. Eventually we were power walking down the smelly hall.

"Are you listening to me?!" Stacy yelled again. She was close behind and we all hopped into the elevator that opened right on time. We were all clustered in the small space and Emilio was behind Scott and I. Stacy came towards us like a charging bull and planted her foot in front of the metal doors, stopping them from closing.

"Emilio, what on earth are you doing?" She bellowed. Scott looked back at Emilio.

"Yeah Emilio, what are you doing?" Scott taunted Stacy. I started laughing and boldly, Emilio said, "We're over." Stacy's jaw dropped and she took her foot away from the door. The elevator closed slowly and right before it shut all the way, Emilio flipped her off. It was the most beautiful break-up I have ever seen.

Emilio checked out of his room, and Scott got the blonde clerk's number. We drove back to our beaten down house. When we entered the living room, we all sat together on the one couch that was in the room. There was a weird silence in the air, because no one had anything to say. We were all amazed at what just took place.

"That was awesome." Scott finally spoke up. In unison, we all burst into laughter.

"What are you going to do now?" I asked Emilio. He sat there for a minute and started rubbing his chin. He looked at Scott, then back over at me.

"Party?" He inclined loudly. Scott smiled at Emilio then they both looked at me. They both had the biggest beams on their faces, quietly trying to convince me to agree.

"Fine." I finally succumbed to the pressure. Scott and Emilio high-fived each other and cheered loudly. Scott sprinted down to his room and came back up with his laptop. He and Emilio quickly started making invites on Facebook. They were criticizing and praising different, attractive girls that they were friends with. I slowly paced up to my room. I needed a shower and to get ready. I was trying to look my best for the girls that were coming. I don't know why though. My chances were slim to none in hooking up with a girl in the first place.

I turned on the water for my shower and observed myself in the mirror again. My greenish body was pudgy and littered with grotesque scars. I could imagine a sexy brunette vomiting over the sight. It was morally depressing. I wasn't like Scott, because I didn't see women as sex slaves. I wanted a good relationship unlike most guys my age. I noticed that I forgot to call Kimi and tell her about the party, so I hurried into the shower and came right back out.

I came downstairs wrapped in a towel. I walked past Scott who was still on his laptop, and Emilio who was stocking beer in our refrigerator. I pulled on a pair of slender blue jeans and my newly purchased Gorillaz shirt.

The stove clock ticked to fifteen minutes until nine and our first guests rang the door bell. Two gorgeous blondes stood on our patio, both matching in skin-tight, short, black dresses. One had her light blonde hair in a ponytail, the other wore hers down. Scott peeked through the blinds of the door.

"Go get my laptop and the speakers from my room." Scott told me what to do.

"And?" I asked. I felt like a child just learning how to tie his shoes. I wasn't much of a partier.

"And plug the laptop into the speakers and play songs from my iTunes." He finished up. I went to the living room and pushed the couch alongside the wall, making enough room for the speakers and a little dance floor. I set up a small card table and then walked down to Scott's room as he let our first guests into the house. I could hear the hallowed voice of Emilio welcoming them in. There must've been more guests outside than those two girls because I heard about six women introduce themselves.

Scott's room was a mother's worse nightmare. Clothes scattered everywhere, bongs set up like trophies, typed-computer papers were tossed around, Xbox games thrown onto dressers, and the whole room lingered with the scent of freshly smoked pot. I buried my nose in my shirt before I started to have a coughing fit. Two large, black speakers sat in the corner of the room beside a guitar. I tried pulling both speakers at once, but they were too heavy.

I buried my arms underneath one speaker and lifted. With a little heave-ho, I fitted the speaker comfortably in my arms. I stomped up the stairs and kicked the door open. I started shuffling to the living room, and I passed the two blondes that I saw standing outside. The one with her hair down looked at me seductively. I wondered how much she had to drink already. The one with the ponytail gave me a nasty look. Her nose was crinkled, mouth gaping open, and eyebrows in a confused pose. I ignored the whore with the ponytail and smiled back at the cute blonde. I tried to sell how strong I was by acting like the speakers were super heavy. She giggled and winked. Maybe my bad luck had finally ended.

I accidently bumped into a couple of more people, and finally reached the card table. I set the heavy speaker down beside it and grabbed the laptop that was on the couch and plugged it into the speaker. I turned around and noticed that all the beautiful, stunning women were multiplying. We went from about six to twenty-six, all of them laughing and talking amongst each other in between sips of their Smirnoff.

I made a quick rush to Scott's room and grabbed the last speaker. I heaved it up the stairs as fast as I could and moved past groups of women. Emilio, somehow, got a hold these club-like lights and different colors of lights skimmed across the made up dance floor. I set up the final speaker and opened up Scott's iTunes. The bass of the speaker kicked in and rumbled the room as a mainstream hip hop song played. A blend of blondes, brunettes, and redheads all rushed on the homemade dance floor. I rested my hands by my side and stood behind the card table. I don't know what it was, but I felt like this was a comfortable position at the party. I thought it was entertaining watching these drunk girls dance.

I felt a strong grasp on my shoulder and I turned my head. Emilio leaned on me with a beer in his hand.

"This is just incredible!" He yelled over the loud music. I laughed and nodded.

"Who are all these girls?" I asked my best friend loudly. He shrugged and winked. He offered me a drink and I agreed to have one. I watched Emilio walk over the fridge. I felt a faint tap on my back and I turned around. And there she was.

Kimi Keys stood behind me with her arms folded softly, giving me a soothing smile. Her teeth were polished white and her hair was black and grew a little past her shoulders. She was short and skinny. She had these amazing oriental, green eyes and she had a cute button nose. Her bottom lip was pierced and tonight, she wore a flamboyant summer dress that was mixed in bright yellow and cyan colors. For as confusing as she was, she was the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on.

I returned a light smile, but she instantly frowned back. I raised an eyebrow then remembered that I forgot to call her.

"Look." I started putting my open hands out in front of me.

"Scott and I picked up Emilio who just dumped his girlfriend, and then they came up with the idea for this party. Then one thing led to another and..."

"It's fine Jimmy." She said loudly. She said it in a content tone, as if she wasn't mad or happy. She was gazing across the crowd of women we had piled in our house. She eyed them down like a lion would their prey. She looked down and then back up at me smiling. I lost what I was trying to say and just stared at her. She then furrowed her brows and looked at the laptop.

"What are you listening to?" She said in a disgusted voice. Kimi hated all things popular, whether it would be music, or fashion, or even people. She especially hated the type of girls that were at this party. The girls that poured on make-up and wore revealing clothing, I could sense her disapproval.

"I thought you would be playing Little Dragon or something." She said.

"Well it is a party, not a peaceful get together." I jokingly said.

"Why are you sitting back here anyways?" She asked, eyeing me up head to toe. Kimi was kind of controlling, which was very odd. I wasn't her boyfriend, nor did I even know whether she liked me or not. Sometimes she would make it seem like she was into me, and then the next second, she would flip out and leave. If we were an actual relationship, we would be considered off and on every day.

"I don't know really. I guess I'm just controlling the music." I said.

"Kind of like a DJ."

Kimi giggled and called me a dork. This was the side of Kimi that I enjoyed. The hip hop song ended and a sad, slow country song took its place. I quickly turned around towards the computer and clicked the next button. Another dance intended song came on, and all the women started dancing again. I looked up from the laptop screen and saw Scott leaning against two girls. He nodded at me and smiled. Emilio must've got distracted on the way to or from the fridge because he was deep in a conversation with a girl. I noticed that we were the only three guys in the house. Technically, there were only two guys here, because I wasn't playing the game.

A honey blonde haired girl wearing sunglasses came up to me and tapped on the screen to get me attention. I looked up at her, trying not to stutter and sound like an idiot. She stood there chewing bubblegum without her mouth closed and twisting her hair with her fingers.

"Hey, can you play a Lil' Wayne song, please?" She said in a drunken, bratty voice. I threw my arm out to the side pretending to keep Kimi from lunging at this girl. I nodded my head and the girl walked away, swinging her hips on every step. I surfed through the playlist and clicked on her request. The song blared through the speakers and the girl in sunglasses gave me a thumb up and started dancing again.

I turned back around towards Kimi, who was eyeing down the girl in the sunglasses. If the room wasn't so dark, I would say that Kimi's face was probably red.

"I wouldn't waste my time with any girls here." I said to her, trying to make her less angry. She hummed to herself and looked back up at me. Her eyes went soft and she grinned.

"So if you are being the DJ, then why don't you play that music you are into?" Kimi asked me. I scratched my head at her question.

"You know Hardcore and dubstop." Kimi added. I started laughing to myself and she gave me a dirty look.

"Hardstyle and dubstep." I corrected her. She rolled her eyes.

"Kimi, these girls don't listen to anything that isn't on their car radio." I said. She lightened up and giggled. Her softness grew hard again.

"Did you invite any of them?" She interrogated me. This was the side of Kimi I could do without. I shook my head no.

"Like I said, I wouldn't waste my time." I said. She went back to the Kimi I like and smiled at me with her white, perfect teeth. As we shared a good moment together, one of the acts in the drunken circus walked up to me. I could hear the drunken bimbo behind me clearing her throat rudely. I spun around and saw that it was ponytail's friend, the one girl out of a hundred that smiled at a zombie.

"Hey!" She yelled in my face. She was leaning on the card table in a seductive pose. Her dress swung down a little too much and her cleavage was staring at me. She tried smiling, but made some weird face that resembled a donkey chewing grass.

"Are you the DJ?" She yelled in my face again. I nodded slowly, making sure she could pick up on body language. She giggled.

"You're funny man. I think you're cute." She sounded out. She talked so slowly it was like she thought I was deaf. I guess there is a one letter difference between deaf and dead.

"Do you want to request a song?" I suggested politely. She giggled more and leaned over too much. The card table went up on two legs and I quickly helped her posture up.

"Just play something I can dance to." She said. I shrugged and clicked on a random song. The drunken girl made a woo sound and tried dancing. Ponytail came out of nowhere and grabbed her friend's collar and started dragging her off into the kitchen. I noticed that the whole sea of women was now leaving the house and Scott Moon was walking my way. His pants were unzipped and his shirt was off, exposing his tattoos.

"What's going on?" I asked him, pausing the music.

"I'm calling it quits man, I'm exhausted. Thanks for being the DJ, you didn't have to." He said.

"I kind of liked it." I said.

"Cool. Just stop the music and turn off the laptop. We'll clean this mess up tomorrow." Scott said. He let out a big sigh and started walking back towards his room. I looked around for Emilio, but he was nowhere to be seen. He was probably upstairs with that one girl anyways. That was always Emilio's style when he drank. He would drink and enjoy the night, and then the next second, he gets lost somewhere, somehow. I turned back towards Kimi, but she must've left before I noticed. That was Kimi's style, in one second, out the next.

I obeyed my roommate's request and turned off the laptop. I picked up the beer that I set on the card table and jiggled it around. It still had some left at the bottom, so I downed it quickly. I went up the stairs and into my room, passing two girls puking in my duck decorated bathroom.

I thought about the party while lying down. For some reason, I loved standing behind that card table, being the DJ. Even though I wasn't in the spotlight of the party, I felt like I was in control of the fun factor. I was the one making those girls dance.

Right before I fell asleep, my bedroom door crept open. I sat up a tad and someone jumped on me. That drunken blonde girl that was flirting with me, managed to sneak upstairs and into my room.

"Hey!" She blubbered in my face. Startled, I stayed speechless. I acted like this woman was a T-Rex and if I remained still and silent, she would think I wasn't there and move on with her life.

"Hey!" She repeated herself. My approach didn't work.

"What are you doing?" I asked her. She giggled and slopped on my neck. I grabbed her head and pulled it away.

"I'm showing the cute DJ a good time." She said and continued to suck on my neck. I don't know what it was, but I let go. I let this chick do whatever she wanted with me. After a short time of sex, I rolled over and closed my eyes. I hoped I wouldn't regret it.
Chapter 2: Night After Night

While I was dreaming, I met my parents again. They died when I was eight years old and now lived in heaven. My dad had long, slicked back, gray hair and wore thick aviator sunglasses. He had a rough, gray beard and had on a nicely tailored white tuxedo. He looked like the gambler he was on earth. My mom was tan and had on a white dress that went to her ankles. Wrinkles crossed back and forth along her face and she had a yellow daffodil in her long gray hair. When I was sleeping, I had random encounters with them, but this time, I relived the first conversation I had with them from when I first died.

"So son, how is Emilio doing?" My mom kindly asked me. She never asked about me, but I knew she cared. She was always curious about previous people she knew of, and I was her only outlet for information from earth.

"I don't mom, I'm dead." I reminded her.

"Did Rocky die?" She asked. Rocky was our dog.

"Yeah, he died when I was thirteen." I answered.

"Do you keep in touch with the Morgan family?"

"No."

"What about Craig and his family?"

"No."

After a twenty minute question and answer session with my mother, I decided to change the conversation around. I looked over at my father, who was packing a carton of cigarettes with the palm of his hand.

"How's heaven dad?" I asked him.

"They could use a casino here." He muttered. I hesitated for a minute, then tried to get something more out of him.

"Did you get to meet Jesus?" I asked him.

"Yeah." He shortly responded.

"Well how was it?" I asked him excited.

"It was actually pretty incredible." He chuckled. I got a big smile on my face.

"Well, what was it like? Did he tell you the meaning of life? The secret to world peace? What about the answer to world hunger?" I kept feeding him questions. My dad put a lone cigarette between his lips.

"We played poker and smoked a cigar." He said. My mouth went dry and a blank look came across my face. I just stared at my dad as he casually lit the end of the cigarette.

"God gave me a nice camera." My mom spoke up, trying to turn my attention away. Heaven wasn't at all what I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, it was calm and relaxing, but kind of dull. It was all white, with some gold and a couple of good sights of the blue sky. No one had wings, which was an answer I wanted to know.

"Where are everyone's wings?" I asked the both of them. My mom softly looked over at my dad.

"Mine are right here." My dad stretched out his arms and out came a glorious pair of white wings. They were bigger than my whole body and glowing. I looked behind me and mimicked my dad's motion, but nothing happened.

"Where's mine?" I asked with disappointment. I thought I had to go through some initiation to get them. My dad gave me a stern look beneath his shades. My mom looked down and wiped away a tear in her eye. I looked back and forth at them with worrying eyes.

"You won't be here for long son." My dad said in a calm tone. His voice was raspy. I gave a confused look and my mom gave me a hug. Before I knew it, darkness came, cold, pitch black darkness, like being in a pit that never ended. The next sight I saw was a wrinkly old man saying, "Jim? Jim? Are you alive?"

I woke up in a cold sweat. Not that I thought my vision was a nightmare, but trust me, it was eerie. The sunlight snuck through the open window covered by a lime green and white curtain. My eyes were sensitive to the light and I felt blind. I shaded the bright sunlight with my hand and took a quick peek at the clock. It was the middle of the day. After getting comfortable again, I felt a stir in between the sheets. I completely forgot about sleeping with that drunken idiot, and now I was going to live through that awkward conversation after an awkward one night stand. I thought about creeping out of bed to try to avoid her, but before I could, a warm hand fell on my chest. Her fingers started rubbing my chest gently. I prepared myself for a blood-curdling scream once she realized what she hooked up with last night.

"Jimmy." A modest voice came through the sheets. It was different than the alcohol induced slander I was used to.

"Jimmy?" The voice asked my name. I felt like I had heard that voice before. I threw the sheets off the mystery girl, and Kimi laid there cuddled next to me. She was smiling at me, naked. I scooted off the bed and stood there trying not to look at her breasts. Kimi and I have never had sex, so I wondered who I slept with last night.

"Kimi." I called out to her. She propped herself on her elbow and looked at me.

"Did we have sex last night?" I asked her.

"No!" She shouted. She hurried up and bundled herself in the sheets.

"Are you serious?" She questioned me. I looked bewildered, still trying to remember what happened last night.

"I slept with someone last night, and I didn't think it was you." I said under my breath.

"Blond hair?" She said like a brat. I nodded my head. Kimi shot up out of the bed with the sheets still wrapped around her. She put on her clothes and went to say something, then stuck her nose in the air and walked out of the bedroom and slammed the door. I waited a minute or two and put on some clothes, then tried to catch up to her. I walked past the bathroom and heard sobbing. I put my ear next to it, and I could hear Kimi mumbling something to herself.

"Kimi." I said softly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." I said, trying to listen to a response. She made a cute sniffling sound and opened the door.

"I hate your ducks." She said, and latched her arms around me still in the sheet. I could feel the wetness of her tears against my chest. Our breaths became synchronized and it felt like we were one person.

Our moment was cut short by a loud slam of our front door. Footsteps pounded against our tiled kitchen floor, and then I heard someone plop down on our couch. Kimi and I looked at each other, then she went back into the bedroom and I climbed down the stairs to investigate the noise.

I found Emilio sitting on our couch with a devastated look in his eyes. Dark circles encompassed around his eyes and he was biting his cheek. He was sitting there staring at our television that was turned off and after a couple of more steps and a better look, I noticed that he was completely naked with a newspaper covering his genitals.

"Emilio, why are you naked?" I asked him. He didn't say a single word, he just kept staring at the black screen. I came all the way down the stairs and stepped in front of him. He looked up at me, his eyes drooped where his dark circles were.

"I have no idea." He quietly said. I thought I was the zombie.

"Where'd you disappear to last night?" I asked him. He stopped biting his teeth and I could tell he was trying to remember. Emilio told me the story about last night. Apparently, a girl with blue hair convinced him to go to her house and stay the night. While they were getting intimate, she told him she was into kinky foreplay. Emilio was turned on and told her he didn't mind. She tied him to the bed, and the rest is history.

"There was a donkey there, dude. And I have no idea what she did with it." He finished his tale. I tried not to laugh, feeling kind of bad for my best friend. Every time Emilio would drink, he always found some way to go off on some crazy adventure. During our college years, it got really dangerous after he lit a barn on fire and woke up in a roadside ditch in his underwear. I was usually Emilio's babysitter when he drank, but last night, I was too enthused at being the DJ to not care about him.

"The next time you drink, don't leave this house." I said to him. He looked up at me and got up, holding the newspaper against his privates. I followed him up the stairs to say goodbye to Kimi before I went off to work. When I entered my bedroom, she was gone. That was classic Kimi, leaving me without saying goodbye.

I put on my work attire which was a plain black tuxedo and black, dress shoes. I felt handsome for being undead, but I had to wear the mask to cover up my ugly identity. I liked the mask for some odd reason. Probably because, when I wore it, nobody noticed me. I didn't get the usual nervous glances when I put on this mask. I was just another employee to everyone else.

The casino looked out of place. A huge open lot with a big, majestic fountain in front of lit steps, and huge golden lettering above the doorway spelling the name of the casino. I guess it was weird because, it was placed right in the middle of a ghetto. My dad would've loved it here, though.

I entered the main entrance and moved into the employee only area. I punched in my card and my manager instantly gave me orders. My job was much simpler than being an animal doctor, all I had to do was push around a heavy metal cart and deliver overly-sized meals to overly-sized people. Nothing ever excited happened though, just the same thing every single day.

I knocked on a door and a plump man opened it. He was licking his fingers that had a red sauce on them.

"About damn time!" He angrily yelled. He grabbed the large tray like a fat kid.

"I apologize, sir." I said softly, trying not to punch this disrespectful bastard in the face.

"You're damn right you're sorry! I've been up here starving!" He yelled at me more, still licking his fingers. I kept silent and he slammed the door in my face, almost hitting the end of my mask. I dealt with these people every day, so I just ignored it and went back to work. I pushed the cart onto the next room.

I remember before I died, I always wanted a job that was entertaining. A job that would never get boring and one that I would love to do. It was more of a fascination that I became obsessed with. I wanted to live a nocturnal lifestyle, up all night, sleep all day. I wanted to be famous. Obviously things didn't work out, and I was stuck pushing this stupid cart around and feeding dickheads for a living. I wondered if being a vet was my true calling in life.

Tired of wheeling the cart around door to door, I thought it was time for a quick smoke. However, my manager caught me just before I could sneak out. I tried telling her that I was taking out the trash, but she demanded I got up to the fifth floor and deliver a chicken dinner. I carted the giant, delicious smelling chicken up to the fifth floor. I got in front of a door and the smell must've woken the man in the room because he opened it up before I could knock. He wriggled his nose and licked his chops like he was plotting on how he would devour this chicken. He slipped me twenty dollars and smiled. I tipped my head in pleasure. I loved fat people that were nice, they always thought that they were obliged to pay the man delivering their meal.

I moved down the hall and to another room. I double knocked on the door and a hefty man came out. He was puffing on a black and mild and gave me a cold look.

"Did you come up here to tell me to put it out?" He asked me in a deep voice. He pointed at his cigar and I shook my head without saying anything.

"Good." He boasted, trying to intimidate me like a silverback gorilla. I heard a woman's voice call out his name and he grabbed a plate from the cart and winked at me.

"No more interruptions, and don't rat me out." He said in a quieter voice, almost whispering, and then he gave me a fifty dollar bill. I felt like I was being bribed, but I took the money anyway and didn't tell on him.

As soon as I got to the employee area again, my manager gave me two stuffed trash bags and told me to take them out to the dumpster. To me, it was a pardon to take a quick smoke. I grabbed the two trash bags and put them over my shoulders. I went outside and threw them into the dumpster and leaned my back against it. I took out a pack of cigarettes and placed one in my mouth and lit the end of it. The sun was slightly suppressed beneath the tall skyscrapers. The sky glowed pink and yellow from the reflection of the white clouds and the yellow sun. Dusk was the right word to describe it, but I felt like I wasn't at work that long. I took a long drag of my cigarette and pondered stupid thoughts in my head. I wondered if Scott would be home, or if Emilio was ok, or if Kimi was waiting on me back in my bed.

My boring thoughts came to a sudden halt when a woman's scream echoed across the air. It was a cry for help and I flicked my cigarette on the pavement and went to check it out. I followed the scream until I came across an alley between two huge apartment complexes.

A younger looking man had an even younger looking woman pinned against the wall. Her blouse was torn apart on the pavement, and her bra barely dangled along her shoulder. The man looked like a Grease impersonator. His hair was slicked back, he had a leather jacket on, and was chewing a toothpick. He had his hand stuffed in her skirt and his other hand yanked her hair. She screamed and clawed and scratched, but the man kept strong. I wasn't very brave and thought about just walking away like nothing was happening, but I couldn't. I crept up behind the man. He didn't notice my presence, and stayed focused on his victim. I stood up behind him and took a swing. My hand hit against his head and he stumbled sideways caught off guard. The effort freed the woman and she took cover beside a trash dumpster. The man glanced at me and started sprinting away.

"He's got my money! He's got my money!" The woman was yelling at me. With my lion heart still going strong, I chased after the man. He parted off the street and into another alley, I followed closely behind him. Turn after turn, the man was trying to confuse me, but I never lost my trail. Eventually a fence stood in the way of the running man. He jumped on it and started climbing up, but I grabbed his pants and drug him down. He came crashing down on the pavement by my feet and I proceeded to strike him in the face. Blood started coming out of his nose.

"Ok! Okay! OK!" He yelled.

"I'm done man, sorry! Take the money!" He begged me. I stopped punching him and he stuck his shaky hand in his pocket and pulled out a stack of twenty dollar bills. I let him go and he ran off. I went back to the terrified woman and handed her the money.

"Here you go ma'am." I politely said like a hero. The distressed woman took the money and gave me a hug, still sobbing.

"Thank you so much." She wept. I felt like Cleveland's Superman. My moment, however, abruptly ended. The woman grabbed my mask with both hands and slowly lifted it up. Her eyes struck fear and I could almost see her heart plunge in her stomach. Her mouth opened wide and a louder screech from before came out. She turned around and ran around a corner.

I stood motionless, looking down at my mask. Nothing destroyed someone's self-esteem more than getting that reaction every time you decide to show your face in public. When you look like me, it becomes natural, but nevertheless, it was hurtful.

I fit another cigarette in my mouth and hung my head. I noticed that the moon had replaced the sun in the sky, and the night replaced the daylight. I wanted to cut the bitching short from my manager, so I decided to pick up my dead feet and walk back to my wonderful job. My eyes set on the blank, dark asphalt, then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A white light sprang to life right beside me and reflected on the road, it cut off for a short second, and then clicked back on. I thought someone was trying to reach to me with morose code. I looked up to find my calling.

The Reason's DJs.

Non-stop party music twenty four seven.

10.24 FM

DJs Wanted.

I felt inspired more than interested and I stood staring at the sign. I kept re-reading the last line. The letters were in black, but the part I kept reading was in a crimson red, grabbing my attention. Last night replayed in my head, and I remembered the warm feeling controlling the music was for me. I got good sex out of it from somebody, and the more I thought about it, the more I loved the moment. Not the sex, but the mere part of playing the fun factor of the party. I made a bunch of gorgeous women dance for me just by playing a song. I stood there and debated about going in, until something supernatural came across me and pushed me towards the door. I pulled it open and walked in.

Brown carpeting, old paintings, the wall was painted lilac yellow, and a grandfather clock sat on my right. The air reeked of smoke and old people. If anything, I thought I read the sign wrong and mistook an elderly home for a DJ business. A colored man sat on the other side of a desk. He was scrolling through a magazine and he had on a plain white tee. I approached the desk slowly.

"Excuse me." I said to the man. He ignored me and flipped through the magazine.

"Excuse me?" I repeated myself. I talked a little bit louder, thinking that maybe the man was hearing handicapped. He looked up at me then back down to his magazine.

"Can I help you?" He said in a feminine accent.

"I saw the sign out front." I started. Before I could finish talking, the man reached in a drawer and pulled out a blue piece of paper and placed it on the desk. He slid it over to me and continued reading his magazine. He pointed to three chairs sitting against a wall.

"Sit over there and fill that application out, okay?" He directed me. I nodded, even though he wasn't looking. The application was surprisingly short and dull. I filled it out in a fast pace, but I came across a question I didn't know how to answer.

The question asked if I had ever been a DJ before. I didn't know whether to write in yes or no, because I didn't know if last night would count. In sake of time, I scratched in yes and slid the paper across the desk towards the man. He sighed rudely and closed his magazine and looked at the paper.

"Alright now green boy, I have to ask you a few questions, okay?" He said in his voice.

"Sure." I responded confidently. I thought this was my way out of that damned casino.

"What kind of amps and speakers to you carry?" The man asked. I froze and stared at him blankly. A few moments of silence went by and the man looked up at me with his eyebrows raised.

"You know man, your speakers and stuff? What are they?" He asked loudly. I was flustered and had no idea what to say. He slammed the papers on the desk.

"Are you playing me right now?" He asked angrily. I quickly shook my head. He waited for me to say something.

"Did you lie on your application green boy?" He interrogated me.

"No. I mean, well." I stuttered.

"Spit it out green boy!" The man yelled.

"I was a DJ once." I hurried up and said. The man furrowed his eyebrows.

"Are you kidding me man? Once?"

"Yeah." I solemnly said.

"Green boy, we don't hire cats that have only DJ'ed once. What would make you think we would do something so stupid?" He raised his voice again. I stayed speechless. I felt so low, and stupid. First my hero of Cleveland attempt failed, now my attempt at being a DJ failed.

"Plus you ugly as hell man, get on out of here green boy." The man pointed towards the door. He mumbled something to himself and opened his magazine back up.

Disappointment settled in the pit of my stomach. This wasn't a sign for a possible discovery, it was just a sign that I wasn't fit to do anything fun in my life anymore. I shuffled back to my real job, the one I was destined to have the rest of my life.

When I got back, no one noticed how long I have been gone. As soon as I entered the employee area, my manager gave me the same orders as before. Eventually the clock ticked eleven and I punched my card out.

I walked into a lonely, quiet house. I checked every room from Scott's marijuana-stench room to my lovely duck bathroom. Not even a small house fly buzzed in the house. I decided to go to bed and try to sleep away the devastation. I was distraught, tired, and frustrated. I started up the steps, but then I heard a loud thud against the poor exterior of our house. I stood for a second to see if I could hear more. Without warning, Scott kicked open the screen door to the kitchen.

"Hey! Hey! Go home!" He yelled outside to someone. I heard another thud.

"Damn it! Go home!" He yelled more. Another thud hit our house. I heard a woman's voice yell back at him from outside, then another thud.

"I'm calling the police!" Scott called out. Something hit Scott in the chest and he got enraged. He ran to his room and came back out with a wooden baseball bat. I decided not to get involved in the situation Scott most likely put himself in. I finished climbing the steps, and threw myself in my bed. The conflict downstairs kept my eyelids from closing. The woman's voice finally entered the inside of our house still yelling. Finally, the yelling morphed into an explosive moaning sound. I eventually dozed off, hoping I would pay my parents a visit again.

A worrying feeling swept over me and forced me back awake. I didn't dream this time, but I felt worried about something else. A cardinal chirped outside my window, and the house was quiet except for the sound of television show. I looked over at my clock, but it somehow got unplugged. I fell out of bed and hurried down the steps.

Emilio sat in the middle of the couch, laughing along with the canned laughter from some sitcom. He saw me fly down the steps and looked over.

"Hey Jimmy." He greeted me.

"What time is it?" I quickly asked him. He looked down at the cable box.

"Almost three." He said, and then continued laughing at the show. I flung myself on the couch next to him and put my head in my hands. I started rubbing my face. Emilio nudged me and I looked back up at him. His eyes went still, and his face spelled concerned.

"Everything." I mumbled. This was Emilio's way of getting me to tell him my problems. I couldn't resist opening up to him.

"Yesterday I went to this DJ studio down from the casino. For some reason I have this obsession with controlling the music again like I did at the party. I thought I did good, and they just stomped my dreams into the ground. Now I missed my shift again at work and I'm probably going to get fired." I explained to Emilio. He went silent and turned off the television. Then he put his arm around me and shook me.

"You're not completely hopeless." He said. I figured he was going to go on about how I still have close friends and what not. I looked back at him. A piece of flesh loomed over my right eye and a slapped it back in place. I shrugged, already trying to respond to his comforting. Emilio reached over to a glass end table by the side of the couch and grabbed Scott's cell phone.

"This guy named The Reason called you last night while you were sleeping." He said, holding the phone up to my face. I used Scott's cell phone on the application because I didn't have one of my own.

"Call him back." Emilio requested. I grabbed the phone from his hands and pressed the recent calls button. It was true, The Reason's office did call last night. I hesitated and my hairline started working up a sweat.

"Here take some liquid courage." Scott entered the living room. He must've overheard my struggle from the kitchen. Scott handed me a concoction of alcohol and I gulped it down my throat. Enclosing my lips around my fist trying to fight back the drink, I hit the call button and put the phone up to my hear. A couple of rings later, and a familiar voice answered.

"The Reason's DJs, Lance speaking." The other end of the phone said. It was that feminine asshole from yesterday.

"Hello, this is Jim Norton. I'm returning your call." I said back.

The voice stuttered a little bit, "I don't see any paper work on you."

"Green boy." I said distastefully.

"Oh yeah!" The voice rang out.

"You're in luck green boy, The Reason just so happens to take interest in you." He said. I didn't respond because I was completely shocked. I thought maybe hope wasn't completely lost. Lance told me to come down to the station tomorrow and do an interview with The Reason. I humbly agreed to do so, and the conversation ended. I had a way in now. I hung up and cracked a smile. Emilio and Scott hugged me, and we rejoiced for a minute or two.

The day went by so fast. Emilio and I relaxed and watched television. I worked all the time, so I almost forgot how joyful it was to just sit back on the sofa and shoot the breeze with a best friend. Scott went back to his room and the smoke of his blunt, or bowl, or bong, leaked out into the kitchen. The same woman that was yelling and throwing stuff at our house was now shacked up in his room. That was Scott for you, the guy was a lady killer.

"That's unbelievable." I said to Emilio.

"What is?" He asked me, before taking a sip of beer.

"Scott. Last night, that woman was throwing shit at our house, cussing at him, telling him he was worthless and she hated him and now she is currently in his room, most likely whispering sweets in his ear." I went on. Emilio smiled lightly and continued drinking.

"So are you nervous?" Emilio asked, changing the conversation around.

"About what?" I inclined. Emilio set the beer can down on the end table.

"About being a DJ." He said quietly. I shrugged and told him I guess so. Emilio slapped my back.

"I got a good feeling about this." He said softly. Emilio was the type of guy you could trust when he told you he had a feeling about something. Whether it was good or bad, he was usually right.

"I can help you if you need it." He said reassuringly. I nodded and smiled. I told him I would keep that in mind. Our attention got pulled away by a brown haired woman crashing out of Scott's room and up the stairs. Her eyelids were half-closed and she stumbled around the kitchen. We could hear Scott's muffled voice coming from the basement.

"No, screw you Scott!" She shouted down the steps. Her long hair was in her peach face. She had on a black, tight shirt and a pair of brown flip-flops on. Scott finally ran upstairs with his shirt off, ink was spotted around his dark skin.

"Baby!" He yelled in between coughs.

"No! No! I'm sick of it Scott Moon! I'm done!" She slapped his chest.

"You know you don't want to do this, Ashley." Scott spoke up. The girl turned around to us in the heat of the moment.

"Your friend is such a disgusting pig! You know that?" She yelled. Emilio and I stayed quiet. Scott smiled behind her and gave us a comedic shrug of the shoulders.

"It's Judy!" She whipped back around towards him. She turned into a cheetah and bolted out the screen door, grabbing her purse on the way out. Once the door slammed shut, Emilio and I started laughing. Scott turned to us and grinned, flipping us a middle finger.

"I'm bad with names." He jokingly said. Scott made another drink and joined us on the couch, sitting in between Emilio and I. He reeked of marijuana.

"Are you two getting into anything tonight?" Scott asked both of us.

I shook my head and said, "Nothing for me, I got fired." Emilio said no after me. Scott bounced his head up and down.

"I got you. I say we just chill tonight, the three amigos." Scott said. I was relieved that they didn't want to have another party. After three months, I considered Scott more of a good friend than a roommate now. Other than his infectious way of getting any girl he wanted, he was a cool, relaxing guy that always supported me.

Hours went by of pointless, meaningless conversations. We would stay quiet for about twenty minutes until someone brought up something stupid. Eventually, late in the afternoon, we shifted over to the kitchen island and were ready to play a game of poker.

"You guys want to smoke?" Scott asked us. Emilio and I looked at each other, then back to Scott and told him we didn't care. Scott ran down to his room and came back up with three neatly rolled joints. An hour passed and we were floating on cloud nine, playing steady hands of the card game.

"Who would win in a fight, a zombie or a robot?" Emilio said, giggling through the whole sentence. I had distaste for the word zombie, because I always thought of a mindless, unintelligent corpse groaning and eating human flesh. I preferred the term, reanimated corpse, or something like that. It sounded professional and smart, like something a scientist would define me as.

"Zombie, hands down." I said, defending my own kind. I was mad at myself for being a hypocrite by saying that racist word.

"Are you serious dude?" Emilio shouted, jumping up from his stool and leaning over the counter. His face was inches away from mine.

"Robots would destroy zombies!" He yelled. He started laughing hysterically, and I saw Scott give him an odd look. Scott wasn't used to smoking with people that didn't know how to control themselves.

"My kind is tough, we never give up. I don't see robots pulling themselves out of the grave." I stated. Emilio whistled and shook his head.

"Ok, so if I was a robot, you really think you could beat me?" He asked like a jerk.

"Of course." I stood strongly by my statement.

"I would blow your head off!" He yelled louder.

"I would bite right through you." I countered. Emilio laughed more at my argument. I don't know why he was being such a skeptic.

"Zombies don't eat metal. C'mon man, you of all people should know that." Emilio answered. He was unfortunately right, I wouldn't eat metal.

"I would pour a cup of water on you!" I tried yelling over his obnoxious laughing. He laughed more, and Scott told him to shut up. Emilio quieted down and squinted at him.

"It depends on the fight." Scott said humbly. Emilio and I just looked at him.

"It could be a boxing match, or an MMA fight, or staring contest, a thumb wrestling war, a dancing competition, or even a DJ duel." Scott explained. My eyes got foggy and my eyelids grew so heavy. Scott and Emilio looked hazy, and the smoke in the room grew thick on body. I passed out.

Scott's face appeared and in my peripheral, I could tell it was a cloudy day in Cleveland. We were outside of our house, the for-sale sign was still planted in the front lawn. Towering industrial buildings shadowed our home and the both of us.

Scott says, "To be honest, you seem like a cool dude."

I say, "Thank you, Mr. Moon." And took a drag of my cigarette.

"Please, call me Scott." He said.

Then he continued, "Hopefully we can be considered friends rather than just roommates. I heard people that are just roommates normally don't get along." He slid his foot along the green grass that was still damp with the previous days' rain.

I say, "If you're willing to be associated with the undead, then yes, I'll be your friend."

Scott chuckled and says, "In that case, let's make it last." We engaged palms, symbolizing our agreement of friendship. Scott turned his head, staring at the tip-top of the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame.

"This is going to be a long, great friendship, Jimmy." He said.

A staggering number of thumps vibrated my stool, instantly waking me up. I looked around as if I had no idea where I was. There was no sign of Emilio or Scott, but music was blaring from downstairs. I climbed down the creaky, wooden steps and into Scott's room.

Scott's walls were decorated with newspaper and magazine clippings he wrote that got praise from his readers. He was sitting at his messy desk, pounding away on his laptop. He was wearing a red flannel and a bright orange toboggan that only covered the top of his head, and smoke was pouring from his mouth. The music was coming from the big speakers we used for the party. The track playing was a Hardstyle song, different than anything Scott usually listened to. Scott clicked off the stereo and looked back at me.

"I'm digging this techno stuff man." He jested. I grinned and leaned over to see his clock. I must've slept all night, because it was time to go to The Reason's place. As soon as I thought of going back to that station, I started sweating and my heart was beating quickly. Scott went back to typing, and I got ready to meet my destiny.

I was dressed in a baby blue, button-up dress shirt, khakis, a khaki-colored tie, and an old pair of brown Doc Martins. I walked down the alley past my old job, and around the corner to The Reason's office. I pulled the front door open and walked in. A cowbell that was tied to the other side of the handle made a jingle and Lance, the feminine ass, looked up at. He didn't have a rude expression on his face this time. He silently pointed to the chairs, and I sat down in the middle one. The inside of the building still had that old folk smell.

A couple of ticks on the clock went by, and Lance looked back up at me.

"Last door on the right green boy." He said. I couldn't help smiling, and moved past the desk and down the lone hallway that was behind Lance. I made it farther than the first time I walked in here.

"If you try to eat Mr. Reason, you'll regret it!" Lance shouted without looking at me. I stopped and shook the insult off. I was an undead man, not a cannibal, there is a difference. I walked further down the hall and turned to the right. There was no door, just a wall. I scratched my head and looked over at Lance, who wasn't paying any attention. I tapped the wall lightly, and the wall slid open.

The room was gigantic. It was a studio, bigger than the front lobby. I wondered how on earth they managed to camouflage this room so well. The walls shimmered in, what looked like, diamonds. A sound booth was enclosed in brown-tinted glass. Guitars, drums, and keyboards were standing beside a giant, circular microphone. The dimly lit portion of the room blinked with red and green lights coming out of a giant music producing board you only see in movies and music videos. A huge computer monitor sat on a small desk, little scribbles and grids were already on them. Silver, bronze, and golden plaques decorated the room. I took a close look at one, and saw that they were awards.

The sound of a door shutting startled me and I turned my attention towards it. A tall, broad shouldered, black man stood in front of the giant computer monitor. He had a little, bushy strip of facial hair growing from under his lip down to the bottom of his chin. He had on unnecessary sunglasses and wore an expensive white tuxedo. His head was shaved, and he looked important.

His deep voice bounced against the walls, "Follow me green boy."

I guess green boy was my alias in this place. It was better than the hideous gasps I usually received as a name. I followed the man to a wide, open, white room. I was still astonished about how big this place truly was.

This room was perfectly white, kind of like what heaven appeared to be. The man shut the door behind me and started walking towards the other side of a white desk. He offered me a seat, and I sat down. He slumped down across from me and picked up a blue piece of paper that I thought was probably my application. He skimmed it over and set it down.

"You've DJ'ed before?" He asked me in his deep tone.

"No." I said uncomfortably. This man was more intimidating than the idiot working the front desk.

"So you lied?" He questioned me more.

"Well, not exactly." I started to explain the same story I told Lance.

"See, I was a DJ at a house party one time, and I really enjoyed it. That's why I came here, because I want to learn—"

"That's an honest answer." The man interrupted me. He picked up the application and crumpled it up into a ball and tossed it in a white trash can.

"You gave up your job as a casino caterer to be a DJ?" He questioned me more. That sounded better than telling him I got fired.

"Pretty much." I answered. He nodded and tilted back his white office chair.

"Why? Why do you want to become a DJ?" He asked. I hesitated for a moment, trying to collect the right response.

"I liked being in control of the music, I guess." I shortly answered him. He nodded, making it seem like he wanted more out of me.

"I want to make people dance." I said truthfully.

"You like making people dance? Making them forget about their everyday problems and stress by playing a tune they can all get down to?" The man inquired. I nodded in agreement. He was in my head, it felt like he knew me. He picked up a white pen and began chewing on it.

"I said that about ten years ago. I was your age." He said in between bites.

"Now look where I am." He added. The Reason stood up and paced around the room, still chewing his pen.

"Being a DJ can be a rough task. No matter what kind of song you play, there will be someone unhappy." He said without looking up. I animated a puzzled face on my reanimated one.

"You play a hip-hop song, and one person in the crowd is a rock addict. That's your one person that is unhappy." He went on. It made perfect sense in a simplistic way.

"What do I do about that?" I asked him, trying to learn more. The man smirked at me and pulled his sunglasses above his head, looking at me in the eyes.

"Make your own beats, your own songs, and then the only people in your audience are your fan." He advised.

"I have to make my own music before you hire me?" I asked in a confused way. He pulled the shades back over his eyes and walked towards the back of the room, and examined a lone, golden plaque hanging above his head.

"I never said that." He said modestly.

"Every DJ to ever come through this place sat in that same chair as you. They filled out that same blue paper and I gave them this same talk. Now they are playing their own shows and making music and being popular."

I fidgeted a little in excitement. Cold chills were running back and forth along my spine. He turned back around and walked towards his desk again.

"I see an unusual potential in you, but you have to start somewhere." He stated boldly. I lowered down in my seat, afraid that he was going to turn me away.

"I'm going to hire you. You're going to work for a few clubs and bars around here, and when the time is right, I'll tell you when to start exploring your own creativity. You have to become used to making people happy first."

I found the silence after his monologue to be my turn to speak. I had a lot of questions racing in my brain.

"What songs do I play? What equipment will I need?" I began the barrage.

"Do you have a laptop?" He asked me.

"Yes." I thought that Scott wouldn't mind if I used is.

"Download a lot of songs from the Billboard, and as far as your equipment goes, Lance will take care of you." He walked behind me and towards the door.

"Now get out of here green boy, my broadcast time is almost on." He said harshly. I followed his orders, but before I could leave the studio door, he called out green boy again. I turned around and he pointed at my outfit.

"Lose the cubicle clothes. You're a DJ, not a high school teacher." He said. I walked out the door into the hallway and Lance was already standing there to meet me. Lance waved for me to follow him. We walked out a back door that led to a rundown, putrid alley. An old, rusted truck rumbled in front of the door and Lance pointed to two large speakers that were sprinkled in paint chips. We lifted both of them in the bed of the truck and got in.

I directed Lance to where I lived. He didn't say one word the whole drive. We pulled up to my tiny, two bedroom house. Lance reached over my lap and yanked the glove box open. He pulled out a long, manila envelope and handed it me.

"The details of your job are in there. Your schedule, locations, and everything is in it. The Reason will mail you more information once you complete that list." Lance explained. I went to open it, but Lance stopped me. He looked like he was in a hurry to get back. I got out and grabbed the two speakers. Lance drove off without letting me ask another question.

And there I was, holding my life in my hand. But nothing much changed, other than another addition to the list of what I know so far; Undead, best friends, girls, DJing, and still no one cared.
Chapter 3: Shuffle A Dream

My dad pushed his thick aviators up to the bridge of his nose. He stood there, speechless. My mom hung her head in the background. She refused to talk in fear of getting choked up. Her sleek, white dress barely grazed the tip of a cloud, and her new camera, the one God gave her, hung heavily around her neck.

My father grasped me by the shoulder, like the classic cinema stories where there is an emotional father-to-son speech.

"Let's be real here." He started, already ruining the movie magic.

"Son, I know me and your mother haven't always been in your life, but we do want the best for you." He guided me away from my mother's sensitive hearing and bent down to whisper in my ear.

"You know you're not going to make enough money to survive on." He whispered.

"You know your mother would be disappointed if she saw her own son on the streets begging for small change." My dad patted my shoulder.

"Now," He said in his regular volume.

"We want you to live successfully. We want you to start a family, get a good job, go back to school, and raise children. If you stick to this crazy dream of yours, you're going to be miserable."

I stepped back from his grasp.

"Now wait a second." I interrupted my dad's realism.

"If you're such the supportive parents you say you are, then why don't you let me chase my dream? Aren't all parents supposed to encourage their kids to be who they want to be?" I pointed out his flaws, trying to make him sound like a bad parent. My dad had divine pride when it came to parenting when I was a kid, so I knew this would sting him.

"Jimmy, we want you to chase your dreams, but we are worried for you." My mom stepped in for my dad.

"I would give up anything to watch you accomplish your goals, but I don't want you to fail." She started crying like she knew she would. I had a soft spot for her concern.

"Just let me take a chance." I pleaded. My dad pulled out a pack of cigarettes and stuck one in his mouth.

"You really want to be a DJ?" He questioned my dreams.

"A superstar DJ." I smiled.

"Well make sure you keep your feet on the ground when you reach for the stars." He said while lighting his smoke.

"You can't reach for the stars unless you jump." I asserted.

I woke up in between Scott and Emilio, both passed out. The airline stewardess was giving away the ever popular airline dinner. The dinner that made you sweat opening the seal, and rewarded your efforts by tasting like sewage. A baby cried in the back of the plane, probably because his or her mother was giving a guy a first class ticket to the mile high club.

It was now three, four, five, or a thousand months later. I didn't really know, because I lost track of time. We were in route to the LAX airport in Los Angeles, California. The journey to this point was well worth the struggle. Scott, Emilio, and I were on our way to meet one of The Reason's friends, who was a big time music producer, manager, agent, and the owner of Elite D Records. Elite D Records was a multi-million dollar record company that signed talents that were professionals with music producing computer software programs such as, FL Studio and Appleton. That's right, they signed DJ's that masterminded their own tracks, and now I was going to be a part of that group. I was the only new signee. That's what this trip was for, so that I can go and meet this big time owner to finish the contract he proposed to me a couple of days ago. This was my dream finally coming true. However, it wasn't the easiest time I have ever had, in fact, I rejoined my own abyss.

The envelope Lance gave me had a schedule of dates, times, and locations where I was to DJ. The clubs and bars weren't anything spectacular. They brought in a mediocre crowd and about half of them would actually dance, but it was a good start.

Scott joined me on every outing. He would stand by me, keeping me company and helped me find the right song selections. He was also scouting for beautiful, drunk women like an eagle scouting for rodents. Every morning after a gig, Scott snuggled with a different girl, sometimes even two. Such a damn lady killer he was, and of course, I never came home with a girl.

Emilio sat at our home when we would go out. He was trying to avoid his drinking habits and being in such an environment would attract him into drinking too much. I usually came home to him sitting in the same spot on the couch, watching television. I felt kind of bad for him, but I respected him for it.

After three weeks of going club to club and bar to bar, The Reason sent me another envelope. I expected some kind of pay, because I was only getting roughly one hundred to two hundred bucks an outing, which barely covered my rent. Instead, it had a CD in it labeled 'FL Studio', and a couple of other CD's with an odd logo taped on them entitled 'Green boy's samples'. A little sticky note was stuck in between the FL Studio case and it said, "You know what to do." In all honesty, and to my displeasure, I had no idea what to do. I was outraged and flustered, so I gave up on the rest of the schedule and drank for two straight days. I finally decided to quit pouting and try to figure out this FL Studio thing.

Luckily for me, Emilio used to be friends with these nerds from college that used to play around with programs like FL Studio, and he used to play the keyboard in high school. Emilio sat me down and showed me the ropes to the program. We first took a listen to the samples, and worked our way slowly through the confusing process. The studio looked way to complex to understand for me, and even Emilio scratched his head a couple of times. Eventually though, like the genius he is, he got the hang of it, and we started breezing through the learning process. He showed me how to use the drum set application, how to tighten the snare, place notes into the grid, smooth out the bass, and everything in between. He was like my little Yoda.

Day after day we would sit down and make a small sound. Those small sounds turned into an annoying noise, but that annoying noise transformed into actual music. It was like the metamorphosis of an ugly caterpillar to a beautiful, bass-filled butterfly.

In between the rest of the schedule, Emilio and I would sit in a dark room with his keyboard and create samples ourselves. Scott would sometimes come in and listen as he wrote an article for his job. Emilio showed me how to play the keyboard briefly, and I felt like I was totally prepared to create music myself. I started producing hardstyle and dubstep tracks with Emilio. We were addicted to the electronic music scene.

The Reason sent me another envelope in the mail that contained a short message and two thousand dollars. The note card read, "I'm sure people around the world would like to hear what you've done so far."

The next day, I made a YouTube and Sound Cloud account. I gave the tracks I produced stupid, little titles that just sounded cool to me. Then I bumped into a slight problem.

"Hey guys, what should my name be?" I called upstairs from Scott's room. Both of them didn't respond, until a good minute or two of thinking.

"I don't know. What about 'DJ Xombie' with an X?" Scott yelled back down.

"That's stupid!" I exclaimed.

"People should get the idea that I am a DJ, I don't need to insult their intelligence by putting my job title in my name."

"You need an interesting gimmick. I've seen these DJs from Holland that wears these cool costumes. You need a name that will let you wear a cool costume." Emilio commented while coming down the stairs.

"Dress up like a teacher or a scientist or something. What about the Zombie Scientist?" Emilio added to the dumb alias list. I shook my head.

"Professor Zombie?" He added another stupid name. I shook my head again. Emilio snapped his fingers and smiled at me.

"Professor X." He declared. I gave him a stern stare, and then nodded my head. I wasn't in love with the name, but I knew I couldn't come up with a better one. The name was official and I began uploading song after song until I pretty much had an entire album for free online.

I woke one morning and checked the two accounts. I found that my tracks were an instant hit with the population of electronic music lovers. Over a million hits with a couple of my songs, and close to a million hits with the others. We were all shocked and amazed, but had no idea how to react. I was more confused than satisfied. I almost thought I was just dreaming and this fast success was not real.

The Reason reassured the realness of my recent fame though. He called me one night and told me about how famous DJs were tweeting and sharing my tracks. He said that they were praising me, but he could sense a little jealousy in each of their posts. Then he told the overwhelming news about my move to L.A to meet Mr. Sonny Mouse from Elite D Records. He told me about his friendship with Mr. Mouse and how he wanted to sign me immediately to his label.

So that was it. This was everything I had ever wanted. Finally, I was going to be famous. But all good things must come after sacrifices, and I had to say goodbye to a special girl.

Kimi was standing under our small Ginkgo tree, plucking its leaves when Lance dropped me off. She looked so peaceful and delicate. She noticed me and smiled, her mouth filled with shiny, white teeth. Kimi skipped over to me and handed me one leaf. It was bright yellow with a tiny bit of green at the bottom near the stem.

"I picked this one for you." She said innocently. Her hair flew eloquently in the Cleveland breeze.

"But it's dead." I said to her sadly.

"It might look that way, but if you look near the bottom, it still has some life to it." She said under her breath. I felt like it was a bad time to tell her the news about The Reason hiring me.

Kimi came to the house one night after an assignment I had at a club. Scott had a really cute, drunk girl tattooed to his side as they stumbled in our kitchen. I followed closely behind them. Kimi sat on our couch, and she turned her head to the door with tired eyes. Surprised by her visit, I didn't know what exactly to say. I kept silent and sat next to her. She stretched her legs over my lap.

"Where were you at?" She investigated.

"Oh...I was just out with Scott." I stuttered. She gave me a dirty look.

"Where?" She questioned more.

"The grocery store." I said, biting my lip. Kimi shot up.

"You went to the grocery store?" She pressured me to tell the truth, squinting her eyes at me.

"Yeah." I kept lying.

"Why are you so sweaty then? Why are you dressed up? Why does Scott have a girl under his arm? You're lying Jimmy Norton!" She went into a frenzy. For some reason, her eyes watered up, I thought she was just squinting too hard.

"I was at a club." I said under a long sigh.

"It isn't what you think though." I quickly added.

"I quit the casino and I'm employed as a DJ now. I was at a club being a DJ, playing music for people. Scott joined me to keep me company, and you know how he is with women." I tried coaxing her. She still kept her head down. Kimi hated clubs because she always claimed clubs were for the "drunken sluts looking for attention". And now she was upset because I was working at one. I was encouraging Kimi's most hated people to have fun.

"You confuse me, Jimmy. You confuse me so much." Her voice cracked. I guess now the tables have turned. A light tear stream rolled down her cheek. I stood up and placed my hands softly on her shoulders. She shrugged them off and pushed me away.

"You want to be a DJ so you can sleep with all those girls!" She shouted.

"Don't say that." I whispered.

"You became a DJ because that house party gave you hope of being wanted by girls Jimmy! You're a DJ so you can get that one random hook-up like you did before!"

Kimi stormed off and pushed open the door. I let her go because it wasn't worth trying to calm an angry Kimi Keys. I didn't want to let her go because I wanted to tell her how wrong she was.

Within the months of my rising stardom on the two sharing networks, Kimi never came by anymore. Though I was ecstatic about my success, something felt missing in my heart, and I knew it was her. She was the only person that listened more than Emilio. She used to always come over and sleep in my bed to make me feel less alone at night, but now she wasn't there to help anymore. My bed never felt so cold.

I had my entire luggage packed, along with the equipment I needed except for the heavy speakers. It took a matter of two seconds to convince Emilio to join me in L.A. I couldn't go without him anyways, that would be like a samurai without his sword. I said my goodbye to Scott, which started out like any goodbye, but then it flipped upside down. Scott was overcome by tears and clutched me to his chest.

"You're the best friend I have ever had." He sobbed.

"I know I have only been your roommate for a couple of months, but it was the best couple of months I have ever had. I'm going to miss you and I hope you never forget me." He wailed more. His tears soaked my shoulder and he still smelled like marijuana. I said I would miss him too and started heading for the taxi, but then I stopped. I stopped because it wasn't right to leave one of my best friends behind. So I turned around.

"Do you have anything important to do around here?" I asked him with a smile on my face. Scott wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"I got fired, so no. I will probably move to Akron and try to find a job." He said between sobs.

"Save the time, and come with us." I commanded. I could feel the warmth of relief and excitement in Scott's heart.

"You're serious?" He asked. He did that awkward giggle people do when they are crying and excited at the same time.

"Dead serious." I punned. Scott rushed into the house and came out with three suitcases that were already fully packed.

"Wait, you packed already?" I questioned him. He gave me a shitty grin.

"Landlord was kicking us out today anyways. I didn't bother to tell you." He said laughing.

We jammed the last bit of belongings in the trunk of the taxi and Emilio and Scott jumped in the back seat. As I was about to join them, I noticed Kimi picking the Ginkgo leaves again. I approached her cautiously, but she looked calm. She gave me a tiny smile and put her chin down. She outstretched her arm to me with her fist closed. In her small hand, was another yellow leaf with a green tint to the bottom of it. I took it and gently took her hand in my own.

"I'm leaving for L.A." I announced in a whisper.

"I know." She said softly. She latched onto me, squeezing me tight. Once again, I felt like we were one person. She finally let go and looked up at me with her precious oriental, green eyes.

"I don't want you to leave on a bad note." She whispered. She tip-toed up and kissed my dry, dead lips, the wetness from her lips brought life to my own. I stood there speechless. Kimi didn't have to say anything anymore. She spoke what she felt with that kiss. I tried to choke up an apology, but she hushed me.

The plane touched the ground and bumped against the runway. Scott and Emilio woke up and stretched and yawned. The pilot gave us the go ahead to unbuckle our safety belts and take our carry-on luggage out of the top compartment in an orderly fashion. A flight attendant opened the plane door and we were free to leave.

The LAX was huge and complicated, especially for someone that has never been in an airport. We finally found where our suitcases were. None of us carried much, about five suitcases filled with clothes and other junk. Scott and I left most our stuff in Cleveland, so it could get auctioned to some lucky person. This included Scott's speakers and typewriter. I hoped whoever got his stuff liked the smell of pot. Scott somehow passed through security with three marijuana seeds. It was quite amusing how the security officials completely overlooked the three little seeds in his hand. Scott even said before we left, that if the airport were to confiscate the seeds, it was Los Angeles and it would be no challenge to find some type of weed. Emilio brought his keyboard and I brought Scott's laptop and the software The Reason mailed to me. That was really the only thing we needed.

We pulled the suitcases and our belongings to the escalator. As we were going down, a tightly dressed man stood in the midst of bustling feet holding a poster board. Scribbled on the board with black marker were our names. Emilio's name had an 'e' that replaced the 'i' after the 'm'.

"They spelled my name wrong." Emilio spoke up. While we stepped off the escalator, the chauffer kindly greeted us.

"Mr. Norton, Mr. Moon, Mr. Hall?" He asked our names politely.

"That would be us." Scott answered him. I nodded.

"I am Mark Huff. I am your personal chauffer." He said. Mark had a Swedish accent and was incredibly polite.

"Look at that Jimmy. You get your own driver." Scott jokingly said nudging me.

"And you haven't even signed a contract." Emilio mumbled. I smiled at both of them, still thinking I was in a dream. Scott returned a smile of his own, but Emilio frowned. I was too caught up in the moment to care.

Mark helped us with our luggage and we followed him out into the parking lot. He walked up to an astonishing, polished, white limo and started stuffing the trunk with our suitcases.

"This is ours?" I said shocked. Scott, Emilio, and I just stood there, our jaws touching the ground. Mark the chauffer continued packing our suitcases.

"Of course." He called back to us.

"Courtesy of Mr. Mouse himself."

Scott grabbed the back of my neck and spun me around. He was beaming ear-to-ear. He ran to the limo like a kid getting a new bike for his birthday. He was more excited than I was.

"Unbelievable." Emilio said under his breath.

"I am eager to see what happens after I sign this contract." I added. I thought he was happy with my success and the fortune I was already receiving. We all climbed in the back of the beauty. There was room for at least twenty more people. Mark shut the door and got into the driver's seat. The electronic, black blind went down slowly and Mark looked back at us.

"You'll find the refrigerator is stocked with the most expensive champagne and wine from Arizona." He called back to us.

"Any preference on music, sir?" He asked me. I dug into my little carry-on bag and pulled out a CD that had ten tracks of my latest works burned into it. I handed it to Mark and music played through the speakers.

"Can I make a toast?" Emilio spoke up. I looked at Scott then back to Emilio. He grabbed three glass goblets and we poured some champagne in it. Emilio cleared his throat and patted down his light brown hair, then looked at me with soft eyes.

"Jimmy, I've known you for ten years, and it has been a great ten years calling you my best friend. I am so proud of you, and I am more than thankful for you to bring me and Scott on, what is going to be, a great journey. I believe that one day you will be on the highest level. You're going to succeed and be incredibly famous and happy."

He choked up a little bit, the pitch of his voice cracked.

"I believe this because I believe in you. You're the toughest man I know, and I am so proud that you accomplished your dream. I love you dude."

We all touched our glasses together and drank. I patted Emilio's back as he dried his eye with his shirt. Scott poured another glass for us.

"My turn." Scott said. Emilio pressed back in his seat and him and I perked our ears up to listen to Scott.

"Jimmy, I'm glad that we can finally call each other best friends now. I'm glad that you took me and Emilio with you. I can't thank you enough for everything man. You're the first person to actually consider me a friend. Emilio said it all, we are proud, and we love you."

We clicked our glasses together again and took a swig of the fine champagne.

"Without you guys, I wouldn't be here right now." I started my little emotional open up.

"Emilio, thanks for pulling me out of the grave and helping me rise to this point. Scott, thanks for keeping me company when we would go out. This is the least I could do for you both. And I couldn't be fun unless my two best friends were there to enjoy it with me. This is going to be an eventful future and you two are going to take every step with me."

"Hell yeah we are!" Scott chimed in. At this point, he was chugging the champagne straight out of the bottle. Emilio reached across me and grabbed the bottle.

"You idiot! You have to be sober when we meet Mr. Mouse!"

We all enjoyed a laugh before Mark called back to us.

He called out, "Almost there, sir!"

The limo pulled off the side of the road. Mark opened our door to let us out. I looked at the building we were parked in front of. It was about six stories tall and not that wide. The entrance was decorated with a gorgeous fountain and neatly trimmed hedges. Big, golden letters were hung above two revolving doors that spelled, Elite D.

Mark told us we could leave our luggage in the trunk and that he would be waiting outside for us after my meeting. I pushed into the revolving doors and a doorman stood there. He had on a red, velvet vest and a dorky looking hat on. He hung our jackets and coats up on an old fashion looking hanger. We walked to the front desk, where a middle-aged, short blonde haired woman sat, writing something in her agenda. She looked up and quickly rose to her feet, extending her hand. I politely shook it.

"Hello Mr. Norton, I am Mr. Mouse's assistant, Rebecca." She introduced herself. It was a lot better of a greeting than the last desk assistant I first met.

"Hello Rebecca." Scott said smoothly. Emilio nudged him hard. Rebecca punched in an intercom and made an announcement to Mr. Mouse that I had arrived. The other end of the intercom box directed her to take me up to his office. She told us to follow her, and so we did.

Rebecca led us down a hall that had lamps attached to walls and portraits of famous musicians. A freshly scrubbed, silver elevator opened as one of those dorky doormen sat on a little stool by the elevator's buttons. I couldn't make fun of them too much because I was one of them a couple of months ago. Rebecca told the man to take us up to the sixth floor. An electronic song replaced the classic elevator music.

"Maybe one day your songs will play through elevators." Scott whispered to me, then he smiled at Rebecca seductively. Emilio nudged him again. She just hummed and ignored Scott. The doors slid open again and we stepped out. Rebecca led us down another hallway and in front of two wide, wooden doors. She pushed them both open and we walked in the room. It was bigger than I expected, which I should have known. Nicely made, Persian rugs patted the unusual yellow and baby-blue carpet. Hordes of golden and platinum records covered every inch of the wall. In the middle of the room, was a walnut desk, so large, four people could of sat at it. Three chairs were placed in front of the desk and a leather office chair was behind the desk. A black man sat in the middle of the three chairs and a neatly pampered white guy sat across from him.

The white man had slicked blonde hair and a stubby five o'clock shadow. He looked about forty and he had on a black business suit with a yellow and blue tie that matched the carpet. He had a thick cigar in his mouth that was unlit.

The black man stood up when we entered and turned around. It was The Reason, still sporting his thick sunglasses and goatee. The white guy stood up after The Reason and glided in front of the desk. I felt underdressed for this occasion in my tight graphic tee and skinny jeans.

"Jimmy Norton." The white man boldly stated my name.

"Or shall I say, Professor X." He chuckled. His voice sounded uncomfortably professional. He requested me to take a seat and I walked towards the middle one. He halted my two friends.

"If you gentleman wouldn't mind, The Reason and I would like to speak with Mr. Norton privately." He said to them.

"But there are three chairs!" Scott protested. Emilio nudged Scott once more. He whispered something in his ear and Rebecca showed them out. Scott yelled, "Good luck Jimmy!" right before The Reason closed the two doors. The man calmly walked to the right wall and flipped the switch that activated an air vent in the ceiling. It quietly rumbled. He took a lighter and flicked it until a tiny flame lit the end of his cigar. He puffed it once or twice and the smoke climbed up into the vent.

"The man that couldn't stay dead." The man snickered.

"The man that worked a dead end job in some greasy casino in Cleveland, Ohio, only to turn his life around in a short amount of time and is now sitting in the seat that millions of people would kill for."

He sucked on his cigar again and said, "The undead man that gave everything up to become a musician. A musician in the electronic arts, nonetheless, I got to say Mr. Norton, I'm scratching my head. What possessed you to make such a brash decision?"

"Well—" I spoke up.

"Wait. I've heard it." The man interrupted my turn to speak.

"Something about you was a DJ for a house party and it inspired you to somehow enter Mr. Reason's office."

"Genius, man. Simply genius." He added.

"It really isn't that much of a Cinderella story."I politely said.

"That's the beauty of it!" The man raised his voice to quiet mine.

"It isn't to you." He winked at me. The praise I was getting was heartwarming, a complete three-sixty from sitting in The Reason's all-white office, sweating bullets.

"You come out of the grave unnoticed; only to sweep the crazy Dutch in Holland off their feet with your hardstyle music, and you took over America and the UK with your dubstep tracks. Seems like a Cinderella story to me, Jim."

I gave a confused look at Mr. Mouse.

"You have no clue what you have done so far do you?" He said sternly. I shook my head slowly.

"You shook the electronic music world, man. Everyone can't get enough of you. Every time I get on Twitter, your name always pops up. 'Professor X is amazing'." He air-quoted.

"Even the top artists in the nation are talking about you! They want remixes and collaborations, and you haven't even sold one stinking record. You haven't made one penny off your own music and people love you. You haven't even signed a contract, and yet, the other record companies are envying you!"

He finally settled down and took another puff of his cigar, blowing the smoke up towards the air vent. He set the cigar down on the edge of the desk.

"The Reason and I just got done discussing my offer to you." He said. He walked back behind his desk and pulled out a drawer. He set a stack of papers on the desk and slid them over to me.

"You put your signature in ink on this paper, and I promise you will achieve super stardom." The man said to me. I hated reading long, boring, technical writing. So I wanted to squeeze the whole contract and their offer out of the man, Sonny Mouse.

"No disrespect Mr. Mouse." I began.

"Please call me Sonny." He quickly said.

"Sonny." I started again, correcting myself.

"I hate reading this kind of writing. Could you please, in words, state your offer?" I inclined.

"Elite D is offering you, and only you, fifty percent of the revenue made from your record sales and live shows, plus a signing bonus of two million dollars. We will do all the hard work of booking your shows, creating your records, and any other personal assistance you need."

"Why only me?" I said. I was suspicious about his honesty.

"Because you're going to be our biggest name and I know it. Trust me, Jim, there is no fine print, we would be stupid to dick over someone that could come back from death." He said solemnly. It was a hook, line, and sinker. I was sold as soon as I walked into the office. I wanted to pick up the pen and sign my name on the dotted line, but I still felt had questions.

"Where will I be living?" I asked Sonny.

"The Reason has kindly provided you with a nice suite north of here."

"Will I pay for it?"

"About two hundred thousand a year, but that is small change compared to what you will be receiving. When you're on the road, touring, we will cover all expenses on your hotels and travel." He explained. I bit my bottom lip and thought of more questions. I was still uneasy because I felt like I was going to be thrown all these riches and then the next moment, I would get screwed over and broke.

"Jim." The Reason finally spoke up.

"Remember when I told you I had a good feeling about you?" He asked me. I nodded.

"You gave up everything and trusted me and look how far that got you. Trust me again and sign that paper. I grant you my word that Mr. Mouse is true to his. The only thing you have to give is cooperation, and you have nothing to lose here."

I trusted The Reason over the mysterious, unknown Sonny Mouse. I looked back at the paper and tapped my foot.

"My two friends, can they stick with me the whole way?" I asked Sonny, not looking up.

"Of course." He answered. I put my elbows on the table and looked at him. He had the cigar back in his mouth.

"There is a girl named Kimi Keys," I began.

"Wire her half of my signing bonus. Give the rest to charity or something." I finished. Sonny raised his eyebrows and shrugged. I picked up the pen and signed the last page where the dotted line was. Sonny shook my hand and The Reason followed.

"You're not going to regret this." Sonny said. The Reason actually cracked a smile. He shook my hand a little bit too hard and the piece of flesh from my right eye dangled over my eyesight. I quickly put it back in place before they noticed.

I met up with Sonny and Emilio in the lounge we came in. I was followed by Sonny and The Reason.

"How'd it go?" Scott asked me. I grinned at the both of them.

"Great. I think you guys are in for a surprise." I said mysteriously.

"The Reason will show you guys your new home. Mark will drive you." Sonny spoke up behind me.

The Reason, Emilio, Scott, and I entered the back of the limo, as Mark started it up. Scott started drinking the champagne from the bottle again and The Reason stared at him. The limo started moving and we were off to see our new suite.

"How much did he offer you?" Emilio asked me. He looked unsettled.

"A lot." The Reason answered for me shortly.

"I've been in this business for a long time, and in the ten years I've known Sonny, I've never seen him offer anyone that kind of deal." He added. Scott beamed and jiggled the bottle around watching the alcohol swirl against the green glass. Emilio sat back and folded his arms, looking down at the ground.

The limo stopped in front of two metal gates, Mark said something in an intercom box and the gates swung open. We drove up slowly in front of a hotel looking building and three men in matching uniforms came out and grabbed our luggage. We went up an elevator about ten stories, and then The Reason punched in password on an electronic lock. The door made a clank sound and he pushed it open.

We all three made gasping sounds and looked around the room. Floor-to-ceiling windows had a great view of the city. An eloquent chandelier hung from the ceiling, and the kitchen was bigger than our living room in Cleveland. A couch curved all the way around a wide coffee table and a fifty-two inch flat screen television sat in front of it. All three of us had king-sized beds in different rooms, and even our bathroom was furnished in diamonds.

"Who else lives here?" I asked The Reason as we all took in the moment.

"About thirty other people in this whole building, on this floor though, just you guys." He chuckled. I asked him about the other doors I saw on this floor down the hall from our room.

"Well one is your personal closet, another holds a hot tub, and the other is just a den." He answered me.

Everything I was just given in the last two hours was so overwhelming. I almost wanted to breakdown and cry with wails of joy. I wanted to rub it in my parents' faces, but still, with this whole empire I know had, I still missed Kimi.

She was still on the back of my mind. I missed her, and I kept hopping she would pop in and see all this wonderful stuff I had. I wanted to see her beautiful smile again, and those eyes. The Reason told me to get some rest, and said my first studio session was tomorrow morning. Scott passed out on the couch after The Reason left, and Emilio walked out on our new balcony. I followed him out.

Emilio leaned against the railing and stared at the orange night lights the lit up the streets. From up here, the city didn't look so bad, it looked promising. Emilio's eyes wandered around the scene.

"What're you thinking about?" I joined him. I was trying to stop him from over thinking, he seemed to think too much lately.

"I don't know why I didn't take my chance." He calmly said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, staring at him. His hair fluttered in the cool, L.A breeze.

"I could have done the same thing you're doing. I could've made it this far, too." He harshly commented. I felt the tension in the air.

"I didn't know." He continued.

"I didn't know that I could do the same exact thing."

"I don't understand." I interfered.

"I wonder what would of happened if I didn't dig you up." He bickered. By that statement, I got defended.

"But I appreciate everything you have done for me, dude. You're like my brother, and I don't understand where all this jealousy is coming from. I credit you with all my success." I tried calming him down. He looked at me and grinned.

"I guess I am jealous." He admitted. I told him not to be. I wrapped my arms around him and we hugged. It was moments like this I cherished with Emilio because we rarely showed brotherly love sober. However, I would be lieing if I said I wasn't cautious about his jealousy.

I climbed in my large king-sized bed. It was extremely comfortable, but it felt empty. I knew why, but I tried not to think about her. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

"How's Emilio?" My mom questioned me.

"He is doing ok, just a little bit jealous of all this success. He will get over it." I answered her.

"How is L.A?" My father asked behind my mom. He was taking a drag from another cigarette.

"Different." I said truthfully.

"Be careful there." He said earnestly.

"There are a lot of crooked people in Los Angeles."

Someone was shaking me out of my slumber. I peeled my eyelids back and it was The Reason standing beside my bed. It was early in the morning. I got up and took a shower and put my usual apparel on. Scott was still passed out cold on the couch, and Emilio was enjoying the sunrise on the balcony. I wandered if he stayed there all night. I asked him to come to the studio with me and he agreed. Mark the chauffer greeted us outside with The Reason, and we left. I could get used to these constant limo rides.

Instead of me meeting Sonny in his office, he met me in the lobby, then led Emilio and I to the studio downstairs. The studio was large and replicated the studio I saw back in The Reason's place. A big producing board, a large computer with FL Studio and Appleton already installed on it, and a mix of different types of keyboards were set up around the space. Two men already sat in the studio when we entered.

"This is Will and Fred." Sonny introduced them.

"They are wizards with keyboards and the bass guitar."

Sonny wished us luck and left. I didn't want to sound rude by dismissing Fred and Will, so I used their help as much as I could. It felt right at home for Emilio and I as he went to work. We had Will give us sound samples on the keyboard, and Fred played a little bit of the bass guitar. Within a couple of hours, we had created three, full-length tracks, two dubstep and one hardstyle. I liked to mix my talents up a bit with the two genres. Sonny came back and reviewed our work that we had so far. Of course, he loved them. He wasn't much of a critic, and he just praised me. I noticed Emilio frowning.

"I couldn't of done it without my right hand man." I pointed at Emilio trying to give him some credit.

This process would be an ongoing cycle for another three weeks. Long hours were spent in the studio until my first self-titled album was finally ready to be released. Sonny praised me again, but this time, for how fast I worked in creating the songs. He told me he was surprised about how short of time it took me to make the album with each song sounding better than the previous one.

"Now this is where the real fame begins." He said smiling, patting me on the back.
Chapter 4: Love For The Zombie

I sat patiently in the studio waiting for Sonny to come back in and give me the important news he so desperately wanted to tell me. Emilio and Scott came with me and they were messing around with the instruments. I was surfing through the internet on the large computer monitor. I found a couple of articles giving details about my record deal and debut album's release date. They used such vague descriptions. I went to my old YouTube and Sound Cloud accounts and scrolled through some of the comments that were being posted. Sonny was right, I was getting praise from all around the world. Some Dutchmen claimed me to be the savior of hardstyle music, and dubstep fans titled me a messiah. A couple of months ago, I was just an ugly nobody pushing around a metal cart for a living. I'd be lying though if I said I didn't enjoy the praise, in fact, I secretly adored it. I loved seeing my name on the tips of everyone's tongue.

Rebecca came through the door first, followed by The Reason and Sonny Mouse. All of them had beaming, shining smiles. Emilio immediately stopped playing around with the keys of a keyboard, but Scot kept pressing on them until Emilio nudged him. It was funny how Emilio was like Scott's babysitter.

"Great news, Mr. Norton!" Sonny boasted in a cheerful voice.

"Rebecca just got done booking your first live performance." Sonny said. He looked proud with his hands on his hips.

"You're first live show is going to be right here in L.A. You're the headline act at a clothing festival." Rebecca announced like a game show host. I asked her when it would be, and she told me it would be this weekend. Sonny told me not to worry though, he had everything planned out already. Sonny snapped his fingers and two cute blonde girls walked in holding an outfit on hangers and a banner.

"This is what you'll be wearing for every live show you do from here on out. I think you will like the gimmick." Sonny said. A long, sleek white scientist coat with thin, black dress pants hung on a hanger in front of me. A golden nametag was stamped on the upper right pocket of the lab coat and it said, Professor X, in red, block letters. A pair of white, high-top Chuck Taylor's and a pair of glasses that had a thick, black frame around them were my accessories. I went speechless and just smile and nodded. Even though I didn't like Professor X at first, I think I could get used to it.

"What's on the banner?" I pointed to the scroll that one of the blondes was leaning against the wall. Sonny explained to me that it was my new logo and album cover design. Rebecca reached over the blonde girl and revealed the banner. A picture of a zombie's upper body and face stood slightly to the left. He was dressed in my new live attire, and was staring down towards the bottom left corner. His face was treacherous. His skin was torn around his mouth, showing his whole bottom jaw with flesh sticking in between his teeth. His eyes had no pupils and his hair was sticking out at random spots. It was a general look for someone of my kind.

"I like it." I lied. Sonny clasped his hands together and laughed. His laugh was giddy and dollar signs seemed to sparkle in his eyes.

"How do I do live performances?" I asked. I felt embarrassed asking that question. It was a good thing I didn't blush anymore. Sonny stopped his early celebration and stared at me. The Reason spoke up for him and asked me if I knew how to use a mixer or table. I shook my head. I could sense the anxiety in Sonny's body language. He started pacing around and rubbing his forehead.

"Don't worry about it. I got it handled." He finally said after working up a sweat.

It was a bright, sunny day in Los Angeles. The sun was high in the sky and warm. Our banister radiated the warmth against my cold hand. Smoke arose from my mouth and disappeared in the slight breeze. The sky was cloudless, a rare occasion for me since I came from a city like Cleveland. I examined the flyer I was holding, with my cigarette held tightly in my fingers. It had a beautiful brunette model on the cover dressed in unordinary clothing. She wore a dress made of bird feathers and had two yellow strips of paint across her cheeks. Professor X was in bold to the right of the girl. I was shocked to see my name in bold rather than the other artists that were performing.

I didn't know if I was excited or anxious. I was excited for the fact that it was my first live show ever, the first of many. I was anxious about how the people were going to react to me. I don't know if I was ready for the people to see my face yet. At this point, I wish I would of included a mask in my attire. The mask I wore for my old job was the most comfortable thing I have ever worn.

The balcony door slid open and Scott leaned next to me against the banister. Water still dripped from his short hair, and he wore a lone towel around his waist.

"You ready for tonight, superstar?" Scott patted my back. My best friends' personalities were completely opposite now. Back in Cleveland, before I even got this fame, Scott and Emilio had the same view of life and had fun with it. They both were outgoing and literally optimistic about everything. Now, Scott was still himself, but Emilio was pretty backwards and quiet. Maybe it was because this was the best time of Scott's life and Emilio was jealous that he could have been in my shoes. I thought about being swapped in Emilio's perspective, then I decided not to stress about it. I knew both of them had to be happy.

'I'm nervous." I admitted to Scott. He looked at me funny and asked why. I didn't answer him.

"This is your night man." Scott said, starting a potential pep-talk. I found it pointless to describe my thoughts and feelings to someone who didn't understand what I was going through.

"What about the girls?" I asked Scott. I shocked myself with my own question. I wondered why in the hell did I ask that question. My mind went into a sprint, jumping from one thought to another. I thought of that drunk girl from the party. The way she made me feel wanted. Maybe it wasn't her that made me feel that way, but the sex in general. Before I died, I never used girls for sex, but I was so addicted to the imagination. Then I thought about Kimi yelling at me.

"You're a DJ so you can get that one random hook-up!" The words Kimi yelled at me still bounced along my mind. I thought I became a DJ to prove to everyone that they can be whatever they want to be. I thought I became a DJ because I thought the lifestyle looked fun and it was a dream of mine. Maybe Kimi was right, and I became a DJ to get with women.

"What about the girls?" Scott finally broke my thoughts.

"You think they will be appalled by me? You think they will hook up with me tonight?" I couldn't believe myself. I couldn't believe the questions I was asking. Why did I care so much?

Scott gave me devilish grin and said, "They shouldn't be appalled by you. Play it smooth and you won't be able to get the ladies off you."

"That's easy for you to say." I said harshly. I felt Emilio, jealous.

"You're famous now man!" He cheered.

"Look at this way, they aren't coming to see me or Emilio, they are coming to see you."

The man made a good point. I let him now by hugging him, even if he was only in a towel.

"Now go get a shower you smelly ass zombie." Scott joked. I flipped him off and shared a laugh with him.

I took a quick shower and put on a pair of sweatpants. I walked down the hall and opened the door to my personal closet. I had never been it before since I was too lazy and normally threw on my old clothes from Cleveland. When I opened the door, I was amazed. The closet stretched almost as far the hallway. Individual sets of clothing were each stacked properly in their own space. Graphic and band shirts hung on a silver bar, leather jackets and coats hung on the opposite side, jeans were stacked in four separate drawers, and ten pairs of Chuck Taylor's were color-coded in the corner. Ball caps and flat bills filled the top shelf above the shirts. I surfed through all the clothes as if I was shopping for Christmas. I finally stopped tempting myself, and grabbed the live show attire for tonight.

Emilio sat quietly on the couch watching the flat screen television, while Scott was in the kitchen talking on the phone with someone. We were all waiting for The Reason and Mark the chauffer to come and get us. Since they were going to be here at any moment, I decided to join Emilio on the couch.

"You ready for tonight?" I asked him in a light voice. He nodded slowly without saying anything. I asked him if anything was on his mind, and this time, he shook his head, still not saying a word. I decided not to pester him anymore and watched some animal show on the T.V. The Reason came through the front door and asked if we were ready to go. I never heard him sound so excited.

The car ride was short, about ten minutes. When we approached the lot where the festival was being held, traffic became thick. A crowd of people walked towards the festival along the sidewalks. They all started noticing the limo and pointed at it. Scott pounded the black blind and Mark let it down. Scott told him to open the sunroof, and Mark obeyed. Scott shoved himself through the small opening in the roof and cheered the crowd on. They hollered back and raised their fists in the air. I heard Scott's muffled voice ask something, and the crowd responded positively. He came back down and smiled at me.

"They want you dude." He said to me. I shook my head. Scott kept influencing me to go out there, and I finally agreed. I hesitantly stuck my head up through the sunroof. The response was different than any other response I had received for showing my face to a crowd of people. They all yelled and screamed for joy, instead of fear. Their cheering turned the attention of other people to the limo. One guy yelled through the line of traffic and stuck his hand out. I smiled and gave him a high-five. I waved trying to expose my relief. Opposite of the movies, it was enjoying to see humans running to a zombie. I started shaking hands like I was the president of the United States.

"Let's have a good time, tonight!" I yelled over the crowd, trying to hype them up. They all cheered louder and I crawled back through the opening and back down in the limo. Scott patted my back and him and I laughed. Emilio stayed quiet.

"I wonder how they knew what I looked like." I said. Emilio tapped my shoulder and pointed diagonally across the street. I put my face up to the dark-tinted window and looked to where he was pointing. A huge banner was pinned up against an open space on a brick building. It was similar to the old LeBron James poster that hung by the Q. It had the same picture of the girl dressed in the feathers, but on the left side of her was the logo Sonny had made for me. In big, block, bold, red letters spelled my name, Professor X.

The limo stopped just short of the city's limit, in front of a toll booth. A fat, security guard came to Mark's window and Mark handed him a small, yellow card. The fat guard took it and held up the number five with his fingers then nodded. He went into his small both and came out with five lanyards with plastic cards attached to the end of them. Mark rolled the blind down and handed out the plastic cards. We put them around our necks and the red and white bar holding our limo up lifted. Mark parked in a sectioned off parking lot and let us out.

When I got out, the scene outside was busy. Men wearing black uniforms were pushing large speakers on carts and carrying weird looking equipment to the stage. We were behind the stage, a couple of yards away from it. I squinted towards the sun, as it was starting to set. A guy dressed in a brown, tweed jacket and a checkered fedora was pointing left and right as he was walking towards me. He stopped in front of me and extended his hand.

"Pleasure to finally see the man himself." He chuckled. I shook his hand.

"I'm DJ MadMob." He finally introduced himself. We had a short conversation about how this was his tenth year performing at this festival and he said he has never seen so much buzz that was floating around for this event before. He told me that this was the biggest crowd he has ever witnessed. Someone called his name and he wished me good luck and walked away.

The Reason directed me to follow him. Scott was fishing out the bottles of alcohol from the limo, then quickly caught up with us. Emilio followed behind me, dragging his feet. The Reason led us in front of a luxurious bus. Sonny stepped out of it and gave me a hug. He asked if I was ready and I nodded my head quickly.

"I got a surprise for you." Sonny whispered. He told my three escorts to wait outside and I followed him inside the bus. A long-haired black woman handed me a pair of Chucks. I looked closely at them and saw that my logo was printed on both sides of the shoe.

"No way." I said in disbelieve.

"Custom made for you, my friend." Sonny stated. I put on the shoes and walked out the bus showing them off to Scott and Emilio. Emilio mumbled something and Scott was biting the top of the cork in the champagne bottle.

An announcer's voice echoed throughout the air. A loud burst of applauding followed and electronic music started playing. It was a slow vibe of electro. Sonny waved for us to follow him. Guys in tight, yellow t-shirts with the word, Staff, printed on the back led us to the side of the stage.

The man in the tweed jacket I met early was playing. He was turning knobs and pushing buttons, bouncing his head the whole time. However, the attention of the audience was focused on beautiful models stomping down a runway. Some people in the crowd were dancing, and some were just tapping their foot. I was hoping that I could make everyone dance.

Model after model strutted back and forth along the runway. The announcer was naming the aliases of each girl and the clothing they represented. DJ MadMob looked unfazed and kept playing his music. I was surprised that he was so into the beat with all the girls walking past him.

"Damn!" Scott exclaimed. He started making a thrusting motion with his hips. Emilio nudged him like always and I asked Sonny if the fashion show would resume when I get on stage. Sonny shook his head, concentrated on the women. I asked for advice on playing live. Sonny just told me to fake it and act like I was doing something. It wasn't the answer I wanted, but there was no choice now.

The sun had finally set and the last model made her move down the runway, flashed her dress, and then turned back up. The tweed suited DJ waved to the crowd and they gave him a mediocre applause. He walked past us and wished me good luck. The guys in black uniforms rushed on the stage and pushed the DJ booth up the runway. Sonny's little army of workers set up more lights and equipment, as if I needed them. They tested the speakers and the lights on the stage went out. A blend of orange, blue, and purple streamed along the audience.

"The announcer should call your name by now." Sonny said to me. He sounded impatient. The announcer was on the opposite side of the stage puffing a cigarette and talking on his cell phone.

"I'll go out there!" Scott yelled as he ran up on the stage. I tried calling his name to come back but he continued his rush. He went over and yanked the microphone out of the original announcer's hand.

"Are you all ready for Professor X?!" Scott shouted in the microphone. Feedback rang into the speakers, but the crowd roared. Beach balls inflated and bounced amongst the people. Glow sticks fired up, too. Emilio tried going after Scott, but instantly got stage-fright when he heard the rumble of the audience. Sonny pushed me up on stage and I snuck through the darkness and went behind the booth. I got on the laptop and was ready to play the first song.

"Are you ready to rage?!" Scott shouted again in the microphone. The crowd grew louder. Girls hopped up on their boyfriend's shoulders.

"Give it up for my undead dude, Professor X!" Scott called out. He sounded like a legit announcer. The flashes from cameras scattered all across the audience. My knees wobbled and my hands felt sweaty. I started the first song and the crowd settled down, trying to listen to my work.

The song was a little over three minutes long, and had a cropped out dialogue from a cheap zombie flick in the beginning. A little melody started after the dialogue and then a voice came through the speakers and said, "Professor X!" In a dark, deep voice, like the devil himself was calling my name.

Then the bass dropped, and it dropped hard. I remember what Sonny told me to do and started twisting knobs and pushed buttons. The crowd was going into a frenzy. People were surfing along the group, some were flailing their arms in the air. Girls that were on their boyfriends' shoulders flashed the stage. A small mosh pit formed as sweaty and shirtless men were shoving each other around. I felt like I started a second L.A riot.

The first song weaved straight into the next song. The second track started of with another slow vibe made from a keyboard. Mediocre thumps from the bass sounded a rhythm in the background of the keyboard. The crowd was at my control and slowed the crazy pace down.

It was amazing how music could subject a person's emotions. It was more amazing that I was controlling these people's emotions. It all started off with just admiring the ability to make people dance. Now, I was actually in the driver's seat of the audience's individual feelings. A warm sensation of euphoria raced through my veins. I started getting into the vibe as the song picked up. I rocked my head back and forth, waiting for my masterful beat to drop and make everyone's head spin. The bass dropped and I jumped in the air with my hands still on the mixer. I stomped my feet on the ground and my glasses slid down the bridge of my nose. I noticed Emilio was right beside me, dancing and smiling. Scott was in front of my booth with the microphone in his hand. He was going nuts, pounding his feet and moving in a weird manner, getting the crowd more fired up.

The beauty of the whole scene was breathtaking. People scattered as far as the eye could see, all dancing and cheering for me. Up to this point, I was under appreciating everything I had done so far. I was so unsure about this fame, but now, I have never been so ecstatic and proud in my life. I felt like I was figuratively on top of the world. I started laughing to myself in an excited fashion. I kept my composure from crying and pointed to the crowd. Almost all of them threw their hands in the air. I glanced to my right and Sonny was giving me two thumbs up. The Reason was even dancing. All the models were dancing in between the gate and the stage. I could've sworn I saw the staff guards dancing, too. Scott ran back beside me from the front of the stage. He put his arm around me and whispered something I couldn't hear in my ear.

Two hours later, and the last song finished its course. I went to the front of the booth and took my final bow. I clapped in a way that meant that I thanked the crowd for coming to see me. They just kept applauding me, giving me a loud ovation. I was the happiest undead person in the world. I exited the stage where Sonny greeted me with open arms.

"That was better than I expected!" He shouted in joy. The Reason smiled at me and shook my hand, telling me congratulations. I looked back and noticed that Scott and Emilio weren't following me. I leaned back to see if they were still on stage. They were both talking to girls in the front row. I slowly crept up behind them, trying not to draw the attention of the crowd. I touched both of their shoulders, leaning myself on them.

"That was the shit!" Scott complimented me. He gave me a big bear hug, picking me up off my feet. Emilio grinned shyly. Six girls were lined up across from us. Two were blonde and the other four had brown hair. All of them were extremely good looking, and of course, all of them were intoxicated. One of the brunettes latched onto me. She whispered something in my ear that I couldn't make out. I invited them back to our place for the night to celebrate the successful evening. All six of them agreed without thinking twice.

I met up with Sonny and he gave me directions to take tomorrow off and come to the studio the next day to finish scheduling my soon-to-be tour. He congratulated me again and I walked back to the limo. All three of us had two girls under our arms. I had the brunette that latched onto me after the show. We all shared stories and laughs and the girls seemed to get more into us every minute.

When we got back to the suite, Scott put in a CD that I put my tracks on. Music blared throughout the room and liquor began to be poured into glasses. Three of the girls stripped until they were in their bras and panties and nothing more. They stood up on our wrap around couch and were all sexy dancing. Scott slapped one of the girls on the ass and took a big swig out of a liquor bottle. The brunette girl I was with pulled me into my bedroom. She started unbuttoning her top while I sat at the edge of the bed.

I started thinking of Kimi for some reason, and looked at my feet.

"Look, I don't think I can do—" I started saying. The girl hushed me with her finger and brushed under my chin pulling my mouth to hers. She took off her top, exposing her breasts. She gently touched the side of my face and started kissing my neck. Someone started pounding on my door and they kicked it open. Scott stood there in a wrestling stance with a bottle of liquor in his hand.

"Jimmy, this is the best thing I have ever been a part of!" He drunkenly announced. One of the blondes tackled him and another one closed the door. The girl wasn't startled by my drunk friend and continued her kissing. She pushed me back on the bed and mounted me, putting her lips on my chest. She kept smooching until she reached my belly button. I heard my pants start to unzip and she pulled them down to my ankles. I put my hands behind my head and closed my eyes, accidently falling asleep.

Kimi stood there by the floor-to-ceiling window in my bedroom. She had a look a disgust in her eyes and she was twirling the end of her black hair.

"You became a DJ to get that one random hook up." She whispered to me.

"That isn't true!" I yelled at her.

"I told you and I was right, Jim, now look where you are. Sleeping with your random hook up."

"But Kimi..." I hesitated. I was caught with my pants down.

"You became a DJ to get that one random hook up." She repeated herself in a soft whisper again.

"Don't say that Kimi. That isn't true, Because—" I stopped talking for a moment. She raised her eyebrows at me.

"Because I..." I tried finishing my statement. She gracefully brushed my cheek with her soft, warm hand.

"I love..." I continued. Kimi hushed me and smiled, tip-toeing up to my ear.

"You disappoint me, Jim." She whispered.

Chapter 5: Take Me To The Mountain

I went to Sonny's office to discuss the tour dates, and to get my mind off of what had happened after the show. My whole day off I debated whether I should act happy that I got laid, or if I should be disappointed in myself for my actions. I decided that I was unhappy, and spent the day pouting in my room. I felt like I had been dishonest to Kimi, even though I knew it was a dream, I couldn't stop hearing her words.

Sonny slid an envelope across his walnut desk. I unsealed it and pulled out a thin sheet of paper. It was a check for fifty thousand dollars. I questioned Sonny about the pay because I thought the concert was a free show. He chuckled and said that the festival committee still had to pay us.

He shuffled though some more papers on his desk and pulled out a paper-clipped pile. He threw the packet at me and I examined it closely. It was a list of shows and their date and times. I counted about thirty two shows listed. The locations mostly involved the United States, European countries, and Canada. There was one odd show that was randomly picked for Tokyo, Japan. Looking at each specific show, it was actually an easy tour to follow. The first show was in New York, and the last would back in Los Angeles. In general, I was making a trip around the world.

"I'm sure you are satisfied with this schedule?" Sonny broke my study. I kept my eyes on the paper, looking at each one. Then I noticed that there wasn't a single show scheduled in Ohio.

"There is no hometown show?" I asked him.

"Sorry Jimmy." Sonny began. He got up from his chair and looked out the window.

"We tried but to no avail. Every arena was booked and it just didn't fit." He explained. Looking at each date again, it was an eight month tour. Eight months I would be away from Kimi.

"I'm satisfied." I lied. Sonny walked back to his desk.

"Your album drops in two weeks. I know your tour doesn't start for another six, but you may be asked to do some interviews." He told me. I asked him what that meant, and he simply said that I needed to promote the album by attending talk shows and do interviews for magazines and radio stations.

Anyone else in my shoes would have been extremely happy, but I couldn't muster up enough energy to smile. I have been booked for a long time even before this tour, trying to succeed in fame, and now I was selling my life away for another eternity. Now I finally made it this far, but I just wanted to go back to Cleveland and relax. At this point, I wish Emilio was in my shoes.

"Is something wrong?" Sonny asked, noticing my unsettlement.

"No, I think I can do this." I lied again. He called me his boy and chuckled.

When I got to my new home, I could sense the boredom in the room. Emilio sat quietly on the couch flipping through the channels on the television, and Scott was sitting at the kitchen counter playing Solitaire on his laptop. I walked into the room and Scott's eyes lit up.

"Hey man! How'd it go?" He asked me excitedly. Emilio seemed oblivious to my entrance and kept flipping through the channels. I handed Scott the papers Sonny sent me home with, explaining to him the tour that was about to take place and how our lives would be constantly busy. He still acted enthused, defiantly more amped about it than I was. He described how he always wanted to visit Holland and did a little dance to show his amusement.

I went into my bedroom and fell back on my bed. The words from the dream were like a constant, bad reminder.

"You disappoint me."

It was sad that those were the last words I would ever hear from Kimi. I wished that an event would happen and would bring us back together again. I wished something would happen where I could see her again. I was so exhausted from thinking too much. I was so overwhelemed with all this new information about how drastically my life was going to change. I decided to close my eyes, hoping that I could sleep the stress away.

Kimi stood underneath the towering Ginkgo tree again. She stood under a thick limb, plucking yellow leaves from the stem. Her long hair was flowing perfectly in the cool breeze. Her warm scent entered my nose. She smelled like rose petals that had been dipped in honey. I started walking towards her, my footsteps crunched down on brown, dried-up leaves that had fallen from some tree, somewhere. The sound made her turn towards me and she smiled her perfect, white teeth that reflected the setting sun. She had on thick, red lipstick. I stopped just a couple of inches away from her. Her pretty green eyes observed the leaf that was in her hand.

"If you looked near the bottom, it still has life to it." She said quietly. She placed the leaf on my chest as I folded my cold, dead hand around hers. I took the leaf and looked at the bottom. The whole leaf was yellow, but of course, near the stem was tinted with a faint color of green, almost matching my skin color. She took the leaf from me and softly kissed the top of it. Red crisps from her red lipstick imprinted the yellow color.

"You wanted this, Jimmy." She said in a whisper.

"This is what you wanted."

She turned around and started walking towards the setting sun.

"Kimi wait!" I yelled. I tried moving but I felt paralyzed. It felt as though something was holding me back. I felt pairs of hands grabbing onto me. When I glanced behind me, a horde of overly-made up women latched onto me. They pulled me down to the ground and started tearing me limb from limb.

The last I saw of Kimi was her walking into the sunset, eventually disappearing behind the bright light.

The album released and exceeded everyone's expectations. Over one million copies sold in a matter of days, and it didn't stop there. It sat high on the Billboard and was the highest electronic album to be on the list. In mere hours, after reports were made on the album's success, I got calls from prestigious magazines and famous talk show representatives. Sonny booked interview after interview, and he booked me for photo shoot, too. The Rolling Stone and Complex magazine wanted me to be on their next cover. Within weeks, I was the top DJ in the world, and Professor X was, again, on the tips of tongues. Famous pop stars, rappers, and even rock stars were asking me to remix their songs or to do collaboration pieces with them. I accepted a couple requests and stayed busy until we left for the first show of the 'Laboratory' tour.

Instead of celebrating my reign as king of the electronic world, I sat and worked on new tracks. I let everyone else celebrate for me.

Sonny hosted a luxurious record release party a week before the tour's beginning. Many people from the media came and chatted amongst themselves, while trying to get stories on me. All of them were dressed in expensive suits and dresses, sipping on their sparkling champagne. Scott and Emilio came with me, and it was the first time I think Scott ever wore a tuxedo. He kept fidgeting and loosening his tie.

"I'm so uncomfortable!" He complained. A famous, beautiful news anchor waltzed past us holding a shiny wine bottle in one hand and a half-empty wine glass in the other. Scott nudged me and cracked a sadistic smile. He jokingly made steps behind her until she turned around, catching him off guard. He scratched the back of his head and tried to act like he wasn't up to anything. She looked at him head to toe and started giggling. She grabbed his tuxedo jacket and pulled him away from us. He looked back at us, making a pumping motion with his arm.

"I'm going to the studio." I said while watching Scott get lucky once again. Emilio shrugged and followed me. We snuck past the intoxicated Sonny Mouse and made our way down the steps. We got into the studio and I pulled off my wealthy jacket and started going to work. Emilio sat quietly behind him, I asked for his help, and he acted like I was his mother asking for him to do the dishes. I was growing bitter of his recent change. He was supposed to be my best friend, but acted like we were just work affiliates.

We worked at an intense pace. Even though Emilio worked in a sluggish pace, we were still producing tracks quickly. All the new songs were to be used at my live shows. I could of easily played songs from the new album, but I wanted to pay it forward to the fans that attended my shows. I wanted to give them their money's worth. At the night's end, a security guard came into the studio and he told us he was closing up.

The next morning, I was sitting on the couch with Emilio watching some cartoons. We were unsurprised to see Scott coming out of his slumber with the news anchor by his side. He took a seat by us and she started for the exit.

"Wait, Elizabeth!" Scott called to her. She turned around. I was stunned he actually remembered her name.

"I'll call you tomorrow." Scott said, winking to her. She smiled back to him and then waved us goodbye.

"You remembered her name?" I asked him after she left. Scott started getting giddy.

"That chick is different, man." He placed his hand on my knee.

"This morning, she woke me up with a perfectly rolled blunt. I think I'm in love."

We both shared a friendly laugh, but Emilio never even smirked. It still felt great to enjoy a laugh with one of my best friends. It made me think of the calm, funny times in Cleveland. With the thick, busy schedule my life was surrounded by, I forgot how it felt to laugh.

"I love you guys." I said in the midst of my chuckle. It was like nothing to Scott and he said it right back. Emilio, however, remained silent.

The first show in New York went great, like I expected it to go. There were a lot of great household names in the electronic world there. I was unsurprised that my name was headlining the show. After the second best DJ got done with his set, the crowd filled with hipster, techno freaks applauded his show, then they all joined in a chant. The chant was for Professor X, and after minutes of non-stop chanting, Scott went on the stage. He did the same announcing from the festival in L.A. The crowd burst into screaming cheers when I came on the stage. I calmly played the track list.

As the track list continued, I watched the crowd dance and go nuts. I got a warm feeling in my stomach. In this moment, I felt like I had proven Kimi wrong. This was why I became a DJ, to make people have fun and forget about their troubles with my music. I felt a small tear forming in my eye, but I fought it off.

After the show, the crowd gave me an enormous ovation. Emilio whispered something in Scott's ear and pointed down at a group of girls in the front row. Scott surprisingly shook his head and put his arm over me. Emilio backed away from us and rolled his eyes at Scott's action. Scott and I took a bow and exited the stage.

When we hopped off the stage, the news anchor greeted Scott. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug. Maybe Scott was serious. It was a weird thought that the biggest womanizer I knew was actually in love. Sonny came up to me and praised me for another awesome performance.

The next few weeks were endless. Night after night, show after show, it was all so tiring. However, after each stint, I had a feeling of accomplishment. That feeling is what drove me forward, watching thousands of dancing, happy people. It was like my own little drug. Emilio was still jealous, and avoided Scott and I except for the day of a concert.

I was playing at a huge hardstyle festival in Amsterdam named Qlimax. A lot of successful, Dutch DJs performed there, and it was a popular show. The Dutch fans were awesome. They were crazy, and supportive, showing their love and appreciation for all of the artists, including Professor X. I was the only American performing, but the fans, even the DJs, accepted me as one of their own. It was an important show, because I had never played a set that had strictly hardstyle mixes in it. I was prepared to show my talents of the hardstyle arts to the capitol of hardstyle music.

Qlimax was different than any other festival I had ever been to. It was an odd combination of a gothic setting with a wonderful light show. The laser light show going on behind the DJ's booth was incredible, and perfectly in sync with each song. Pyrotechnic flames burst on the stage, pumping the crowd up even more. An undead DJ was a perfect fit for this atmosphere. A dark, deep voice called out Professor X and I popped up behind the DJ table. Scott was intimidated by the setting and crazed fans, so he stayed backstage with Emilio.

The reaction to my track list was a positive reinforcement. The fans shuffled and danced to every single one of my songs. The sharp, green laser lights bounced amongst the crowd to each beat. I could almost feel the warmth from the flames that were now bursting again in the background. My set ended and the crowd embraced me greatly. I gazed upon the mass of people and made a heart with my hands. They all returned the symbol with satisfaction. I couldn't wait to come back here next year.

After the show, Sonny insisted that we all go out to a club and celebrate my fantastic debut in Holland. He offered that he would pay for us. I was worn out and exhausted from constantly being busy, so I declined his kindness. However, Scott was classic Scott, and convinced me to go.

"Come on man, how often do you get to kick it back with your friends?" He said. I finally accepted Sonny's offer.

The club was insane. It was larger than any club in Cleveland, and a lot more wilder. Sonny, Scott, Emilio, and I were lined up at the bar. Sonny was buying drinks like he promised.

"Why are you being so courteous?" I asked Sonny.

"What do you mean? Am I not always courteous to you?" He slyly grinned. I picked up my drink. It had an unhealthy stench of pure alcohol. It burned my nostrils smelling it. I took a sip of it and couldn't help smacking my lips together. The alcohol burned down my throat and uncomfortably sat in my stomach.

"This is my treat for you doing an excellent job so far. You really surprised me you know?" Sonny said, leaning against the bar, watching a group of big-breasted girls dancing. Scott and Emilio were pounding down shots. Scott was his usual self, but Emilio drank with depression. They would lift the shot glass to their lips and down the dark liquor. Then, they would slam the glass on the counter as the bartender would fill them up again. Before Emilio could down his umpteenth shot, I grabbed his arm and motioned him to slow it down.

"I'm fine!" He scolded me, ripping his arm away from my grip. I ignored his ignorant outburst and turned back to Sonny.

"I thought you expected me to be this successful?" I finally answered Sonny's question with one of my own.

"Well yeah, I did. But I figured you would be like a one-trick pony."

"One-trick pony?" I questioned him. I kind of felt like I was being led into one big lie, and this was all just Sonny playing some marketing bet that he had against me.

"One hit wonder is a better metaphor." He moved his attention away from the girls on the dance floor.

"I had a feeling that you would come out with that one song that everyone love. It would be like the number one dance song, and then eventually, no one would recognize you anymore." He explained and reassured that all of this fame was not a lie. I took another swig of my drink.

"You proved me wrong." He continued.

"It takes years to become an expert in this kind of music. You're the first person I have ever seen that mastered it in such short time."

I slowly nodded, taking another burning drink.

"The best part is you don't slack on any song. Every song you have ever created is a one-hit wonder."

Two blondes went up to Scott and Emilio. The two girls were intoxicated and started flirting with both of them. I started getting nervous about Emilio. He seemed to be enjoying himself for once, but I knew it was because he was wasted. He grabbed one of the girl's tit, and she playfully laughed and drug him out to the dance floor. He disappeared in the crowd of sweating, dancing people.

Scott on the other hand declined the one girl's offer to go on the dance floor. She shrugged and went on her way. He slid down the bar until he was right beside me.

"This is my last trip with you guys." Sonny spoke up again.

"You're not going to join us for the rest of the tour?" I worried. I felt comfortable when someone like Sonny or The Reason was accompanying us.

"I have a lot of work to do back at the office. I couldn't miss up on the opportunity to come back to Holland, though. I like to call it my on-the-job vacation." He answered me.

"Come back? You've been here before?" I asked a stupid question. He told me he has been here with previous talents he signed back in the day. I had no idea that there were other artists signed on the same label, and asked him about it. Sonny explained that including me, there were four artists under his contract. He put his drink to his mouth and emptied the remaining liquor that sat under the ice cubes. He moved the cubes around the glass and peaked with one eye at the bottom of the glass, trying to find any leftover residue that was hiding from him.

"It's a rough business, Jim." Sonny said while still peering into the glass.

"I crushed a lot of people's dreams, but that's the business. Even though I didn't want to, I am happy I did. I'm happy with the artists I have now, especially you." He continued.

"So I guess I'm sticking around then?" I asked him, and finished down my drink. It was a smartass question, I was just trying to lighten the mood. Sonny laughed and patted my back.

"I don't think I'm going to be giving you, your walking papers anytime soon." He jested.

I sat my empty glass on the bar, I tapped Scott on the shoulder and pointed towards the door. I yawned, trying to show him how tired I was, and that I wanted to leave. Scott told me he would be right behind me. His pupils were large and his coordination were slightly off when he tried hopping off the barstool. We said our goodbye to Sonny and roamed the dance floor trying to find our drunken friend.

No sight of him anywhere. I felt like we were behind enemy lines, searching for a fallen paratrooper. The way we weaved in and out of the people dancing was humorous. We couldn't find him at all, and I started getting nervous. We bumped into the blonde girl that was trying to seduce Scott earlier. I quickly grabbed her, and she almost fell down.

"Our friend was with your friend. Where are they now?" I quickly said. A drunk, foreign girl is every English-speaking Americans' worst nightmare. She giggled and winked at Scott who was behind me.

"Our friend." I slowly repeated myself. My hand pointed back and forth between Scott and I.

"Your friend." I pointed at her, poking her chest just above her cleavage.

"Where are they?" I said even slower.

"Oh!" They girl shouted out.

"You mean Anna?" Her thick Dutch accent mixed with alcohol would probably give a hieroglyphic translator a cold sweat. I asked her again where they went. She hesistated and looked back at Scott, winking again at him. I shook her attention towards me and raised my brows.

"She took that one boy to our place." She admitted. We ditched the drunk girl and rushed outside. There was a pay-for-parking lot that was guarded by a skinny security guard sitting in the toll booth. We approached the window and the guard was busy, making a jerking motion with his arms.

"Excuse me." I said in a low tone. The man ignored us, he was facing away from us, reading something.

"Hey!" Scott rudely yelled behind me. The guard jumped and quickly turned around. His pants were unbuckled, unbuttoned, and unzipped. Then I realized he wasn't reading. A porn magazine sat wide open on the desk. He scolded us and asked what we wanted. We told him we were looking for our friend and described him and the girl he was with.

"Oh yeah, they came through here. They were really drunk." He said along with an awkward snicker.

"Do you know where they went?" I quickly asked the guard. He shook his head. I asked if they had taken a cab or a bus.

"No, they drove." He answered.

"Shit! What? Why didn't you stop them?" Scott shouted. The security guard stayed quiet and graciously looked over at his magazine.

"Hey wait." The skinny man started. Our hopes got up again. Maybe Emilio was smart this time around.

"Aren't you Professor S?" The man asked me. Our hopes when sailing down and I corrected the man on my proper name.

"My son loves you." He smiled. I just stared at him with an open mouth.

"Will you make an autograph for him?" He kindly asked me. I started shaking my head at first, then thought that maybe this security guard was just so stupid he thought that the girl drove but she really didn't. I agreed to sign an autograph. The skinny man looked back and forth, trying to find something I could right on. He turned around and picked up the porn magazine and slid it across the counter. On top of it was a black marker. I kept staring at him.

"He's thirteen, his name is Dusty." The man said in an excited voice. I hesitantly picked up the marker and scribbled something unreadable on top of a girl's breast.

Scott and I started walking back to the club, to see if Emilio returned. Scott's cell phone went off and he looked at the caller ID. He raised the phone to his ear and handed to me.

"It's for you." He said in a cautious tone. I raised an eyebrow and took the phone from him.

"Hello?" I answered the cell.

"Jimmy." A female voice answered. It was a familiar voice, belonging to someone I had forgotten about.

"Kimi?" I asked.

"Jim, something bad has happened." Kimi returned. I was happy to hear her voice again, but I was stunned by it.

"Emilio, something bad happened to him!" She cried frantically.

"What happened?" I nervously shouted. Scott gave me a worried expression.

"Hello?" A different voice came through the other line. Puzzled I looked at the phone.

"Who's this?" I asked the mystery person.

"It's Sonny." The man replied.

"I was heading back to the hotel, and I got halted up by a car accident." He went on. My mouth became dry, and I looked at Scott who was now wondering what was going on.

"And?" I asked quickly, returning to the conversation.

"I looked up ahead and saw a body laying in the road." Sonny's voice became somber.

"And?" I said again.

"It was Emilio." He answered me. My heart sank, and the muscles in my face twitched.

"And?"

"Jim, man...I don't know what to say." Sonny's voice grew more depressing.

"And damn it! And what happened?" I screamed in the phone. Tears were ready to be released. Scott's eyes grew wet at the sight of mine.

"He's dead. Emilio is dead."
Chapter 6: No Love

It was true, Emilio was killed on impact after the vehicle he was in met head on with a truck. The truck was going about twenty five while Emilio's drunken hook up was going about fifty. Both were killed on impact, both were no wearing safety belts, and both were way over the legal blood alcohol limit.

Scott and I met Sonny at the scene of the accident. My best friend was wrapped in a black body bag. Honestly, I didn't know how to react. I haven't had this superior feeling of devastation since my parents passed away. I was bottled up with mixed emotions. Sadness and anger controlled me the most as I stood behind the yellow caution tape staring at the bag lying in the middle of the street.

"You fucking idiot!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. My voice broke and tears ran down my face. I started spitting and slobbering every time I yelled.

"What were you thinking?!" I yelled more.

"You dumbass!"

The black bag stayed motionless. People were crowding around and staring at me. They were snapping photos of me. I was prepared to kill someone if they asked for an autograph. I ripped the tape with my hands, but Scott grabbed me and held me in his arms. I lost it at that point. My face buried in Scott's chest, whimpering.

We had to go to the hospital and fill out his information. They had to let his family know of his death. I was finished crying, I couldn't cry anymore actually, I think all my sadness was gone. Sonny met us in the lobby of the hospital as we were leaving. He gave me a gentle hug.

"The rest your tour is canceled." He whispered in my ear.

"Go back to Cleveland and take a break. When you feel up to starting again, you know where I'll be."

Scott and I returned to Cleveland. It felt nice to finally be back. I wished for an event to happen to bring me back here, but I never wished for this. When we got to the airport, we had a cab pick us up and take us to our old home.

The house had been foreclosed since we left. Apparently the landlord couldn't keep up on the costs since we moved to Los Angeles. The windows were boarded up and the door was wrapped around in a chain. Scott went to the tiny shed behind our house and came out with bolt cutters. He cut the chain and we went inside. It looked exactly the same way as we left it. Scott's room was still trashed and my ducks were untouched.

"How long are we going to squat in here Jimmy?" Scott shouted from the kitchen. I just sat on our old couch, staring off into space.

"I'm not sure." I solemnly answered him. Scott announced to me that Emilio's funeral was on Friday. I wasn't shocked about Emilio's passing; I was more shocked that I didn't care anymore.

Kimi came over a couple of hours later. I embraced her in my arms, while Scott was sound asleep in his room. She told me she was going to be staying here with me until I decided to leave again. It was late at night, and Kimi was cuddled up next to me in my once-familiar bed. In a time like this, Kimi was the only thing that made me happy.

"I missed you." She whispered, looking up at me with those stunning eyes.

"I missed you, too." I said back. I brushed her hair with my hand.

"I'm sorry about Emilio." Kimi adjusted her head on my chest.

"It's ok. Things happen, I've accepted that."

"How is Los Angeles?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not much different than here, but my place is really nice."

"Are you going to ever tell me stories about it?" She asked in a playful tone. I told her story after story, describing everything I had seen. Most of the stories involved Scott, which I found funny. After my last story about the club, Kimi got on top of me. I got lost in her eyes again.

"Did you sleep with anyone?" She asked in an instigating way.

"No." I whispered.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you."

She blushed and leaned down. She kissed my lips. Her tongue barely grazed the tip of mine. She did it again and then rolled off of me. My first night back in Cleveland was everything I had hoped for and I closed my eyes.

My dad stood off in the distance trying to fix my mom's camera. My mom told me it accidently slid off her neck and fell through the clouds, shattering into pieces as it hit the earth. God picked it back up and gave it to her, telling her to be more careful next time. She bombarded me with her irrelevant questions.

"How is the Myers family?" she began.

"I don't know, I haven't talked to them since I was nine."

"What about Karen and Doug?"

I shrugged.

"Nick and Samantha?"

I shrugged again.

"How is Emilio?" She finally asked.

"He died." I muttered.

"That's a shame." My mom pleasantly replied.

"Damn shame!" My dad called from the distance, and he started walking towards us.

"He was a fine young man." He continued.

"Hey, have you guys seen him around here?" I asked both of them. I wondered if I would start seeing Emilio now in heaven like I was seeing my parents.

"I don't think so." My mom said, thinking to herself. I sighed.

"Don't worry about it though. Heaven is over populating right now, he is probably just waiting in line." My dad jokingly said.

"What do you plan on doing while you on vacation?" My mom finally asked another good question. I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't want to mention anything about Kimi, in fear that I might get barraged with another assortment of stupid questions.

"You should make a trip to Dr. Moody's house. I heard he is very sick." My mom suggested. It instantly clicked an idea in my head, and I was going to try to get my best friend back.

Emilio's funeral was a close-casket. His body and face were too messed up to show to the mourners. His family lined up in front of the casket, all sobbing and crying. Scott was in front of me in the line of mourners. He hugged Emilio's mom and shook Mr. Hall's hand. Emilio's mom was bawling. I walked up to her and put on my best act. Mrs. Hall gave me an angry look.

"You." She mumbled under her wheezing breaths.

"You did this!" She kept yelling over and over and again. She came at me like a cage fighter throwing wild, looping scratches and slaps. Mr. Hall grabbed his wife, stopping her tantrum. She got down on her knees and cried harder. The family and people in the crowd all knelt down beside her trying to comfort her. A quick blast of depression from that situation entered my mind. I never felt so unwanted.

I sat outside on our steps leading up to the front door. I had my head in my hands. I was unsure whether raising Emilio from the dead was such a good idea anymore, because right now, I wish I would have been left alone in my grave. I felt the skirmish of footsteps against the concrete and a pat on my back.

"Kimi?" I asked the darkness of my palms.

"You alright man?" Scott's voice answered back. I lifted my head and sighed. Scott was dressed in a tight, pea coat and a gray hood over his head. He was smoking a blunt, the drug that he hadn't touched since he met that news anchor.

"Yeah, I think so." I said back to him.

"You still got me, I'm always here." He tried comforting me. We both sat in silence for a couple of minutes.

"I'm going to make a visit to someone." I finally broke the quietness.

"Who?" Scott asked. I got up from the steps and turned to him.

"I'm going to bring Emilio back."

Scott gave me a puzzled look and started saying something, but then he stopped in mid-thought. I started walking down the sidewalk towards a main intersection where I hoped to catch a taxi. It was time I finally met my creator once again.

Dr. Brent Moody was now seventy-one years old. He was Emilio's and my biology professor our sophomore year of college. We were his favorite and best students. We became closely acquainted with him and made trips to his home on the outskirts of Cleveland for a drink of wine and an always pleasant conversation.

Dr. Moody was one of the smartest guys I have ever met. He was intelligent about a variety of topics, but he was a genius when it came to the human body and mind. He had become obsessed in resurrection and bringing life to whatever was dead. Which is how I became the monster I am today.

Moody had a laboratory that he built in the basement of his house. When he wasn't teaching or spending time with his wife, he was always in his lab. He never let anyone go down to the lab until Emilio and I came in his life. I remember the first time we ever stepped foot in that place. He had an assortment of embalming and hospital tools. Somehow, the crazy bastard managed to get his hands on expensive machines that could only be found in a hospital. Unfortuantly, that wasn't the weirdest part about his lab. Dr. Moody had a creepy collection of animals. He had frogs, birds, cats, dogs, rodents, fish, and even monkeys. He would take a random critter and feed it some sort of poison that would kill it, then that's where he went to work. He would take parts of one animal and put it in the deceased one. He was successful in every attempt at reviving the dead animal and he was so delicate that he never had to transplant a brain. He never wanted to reveal his work to the public, though. He always said that with one revived specimen, there would have to be at least one sacrifice. That always limited his work to strictly animals, until I came along.

I stood in front of Dr. Moody's red brick house trying to convince myself to go up to the door and knock. I was nervous he wouldn't remember me. I urged myself to go up and knock. The door creaked open and it was dead-bolted on the other side with a tight chain. A fragile faced, gray haired woman stood in the crack of the door.

"Hello." I said smiling.

"What do you want?" The woman said in a rush.

"Does Dr. Moody still live here?"

"No." She looked down and told me that he had passed away. I spoke my apologies, but an old, cracked voice sprung to life in the background.

"Who is it Margret?" The voice called out. The woman slammed the door in my face and I could hear the voices still humming from the inside. After a couple of seconds, I heard the dead bolt slide off and the woman welcomed me in. She apologized for her actions and pointed me to where Dr. Moody was.

I walked into a room that had a distinct old person smell looming the air. It reminded me of The Reason's place. A grandfather clock clicked away in the corner of the room and bookshelves that held dusty novels and medical textbooks leaned against the walls. A crippled, small statured man sat in the middle of the room in a wheelchair. He had on a large sweater that hung from his old bones and a purple and blue quilt covering his legs. His usually wild, gray afro was now replaced with a liver-spotted scalp. He spun the wheelchair around and smiled.

"Jimmy Norton." He said happily. I couldn't help smiling back at him. His smile lit the room. It was probably the happiest he has been in quite sometime. He lifted his arms and his hands trembled up my arm. He examined it and the poked my stomach.

"Still doing well I see." He finally said after his study. He rolled over to a small end table and tried picking up a tea kettle. I walked over and took the kettle from his hands before he spilled it.

"Please, have a drink and stay awhile." He pleaded me. I nodded and poured a light cup of tea for me and him. I put his cup on his lap and he eased his fingers around it.

"How have you been my old friend?" He asked in a desperate voice.

"I've been alright, doc, what about you?"

"Been better I must say." He said truthfully.

"What brings you back to old Dr. Moody's house?" He changed the topic.

"I was just in town and decided to make an appearance." I lied to him. He looked back down at his cup of tea. His body was hunched over awkwardly.

"How is Emilio? You two are still close friends I presume?" He said sadly. I slightly winced at the question, catching Dr. Moody's attention again. He stared into my eyes.

"Did something happen?" He finally asked me like he already knew the answer.

"Well doc, Emilio died in a car accident while we were in Amsterdam." I answered. Dr. Moody quickly glanced back down at his tea. He said he was sorry to hear the unfortunate news before taking a weak sip of his drink. Dr. Moody asked me all about what I was doing with my life. I explained to him how I was a famous musician now. He asked me what happened to being a veterinarian and I made up some lie about being fired.

"What did you really come for?" Dr. Moody finally asked.

"What?" I responded. I was confused at his question because I thought it might have been a case of Alzheimer's or something.

"You came for a reason, Jimmy." He said.

"I was just in town and just decided to make a quick visit." I repeated my lie again.

"You're going to use that again?" He questioned me. I had forgotten that Dr. Moody had the uncanny ability to read lies. He was too wise and saw right through me.

"Go on Jimmy, tell me what you really came for." He insisted.

"I came to talk about Emilio." I said truthfully.

"I wanted to know if you could perform the same miracle for him."

"I'm sorry, Jimmy." He whispered, and slowly sipped his drink again.

"I don't do that kind of work anymore." He looked at me with a sign of regret. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What do you mean?" I inclined. He took a deep breath.

"I'm too old anymore. I shut down my lab, because I got in trouble by the police a while ago." He lifted his quilt and showed me a black anklet wrapped tightly around his frail shin. I wondered about the truthfulness of that story, because the law has never stopped him before.

"There isn't anything you can do?" I probably sounded really desperate and needy. Dr. Moody barely set the tea cup back on the end table. His hands trembled so badly. He asked me if Emilio was in a car accident, and I answered yes.

"I used to know one man named Marco." He started.

"Marco studied in engineering and robotics at the same university I attended. We both became affiliated with the same line of work, but his creations were sinister and evil and we became the worst of rivals." Dr. Moody scratched the top of his head and pieces of dead skin fluttered on his quilt.

"I remember one time he took a bear that had been butchered by a hunter and mechanically fixed him back to life. He made the bear take revenge on the hunter." He continued.

"He could repair Emilio if you paid him enough, but if you really loved Emilio, you won't do it."

I rubbed my forehead and we both sat in silence again.

"Are you sure he is dead?" Dr. Moody asked, breaking my concentration. I glared at him with narrowed eyes again.

"Yes?" I said in a rude way. Dr. Moody hummed and tried nodding. His eyes wouldn't meet mine.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I instigated. Dr. Moody tried acting like he didn't head my question so I repeated it louder. He looked at me finally and took another deep breath.

"When we revived you," he began.

"We took a neurological image of your brain." He stopped his explanation.

"Go on." I forced him to continue.

"Everything was fine." He hesitated, acting like that was the end of his story.

"You're lying!" I yelled. Margret poked her head in the doorway and Dr. Moody waved her off.

"Everything looked fine, until we noticed your behavior. You probably don't remember but, you were constantly talking to yourself as if you were having a conversation with someone. I reported that you had a mild case of Schizophrenia."

"What does that mean?" I asked him.

"In your case, you may make hallucinations of people. Kind of like imaginary friends."

I stood up and walked towards the door.

"Wait!" Dr. Moody frigidly shouted. I gave him my attention and he begged me to take my seat again. I obeyed his request and sat again.

"I can't die with this guilty conscious in me."

I leaned in closer towards him, interested in what he is going to say.

"I needed a human subject to partake in my resurrection project. I wanted to know how far I could push the boundaries." Dr. Moody began explaining. My mind raced with anger. I knew where this was going, and I felt sick to my stomach. I kept my composure and started walking to the door again before I strangled him. This time, Dr. Moody let me walk off. I put my hand around the doorknob and stopped for a minute.

"How do I know what is real and what is not?" I asked him without looking his way.

"Has anyone recently came into your life since you were revived?" Dr. Moody asked. I kept quiet.

"You just got a roommate didn't you?"
Chapter 7: Telling Ghosts

I sat alone on a park bench underneath a tall Oak tree. It's amazing how fast the tables can turn and how much of a rollercoaster life really is. A couple of years ago, I was lying in my grave, enjoying a delicate piece of heaven. A couple of months ago, I had a large mass of people dancing to my music. A couple of hours ago, I was staring at my best friend's coffin and having an intellectual conversation with my imaginary friend. Just a couple of minutes ago, I was revealed that my whole life was just an old madman's experiment.

Time is everyone's blame for life, but it is the unpredictability of time that is truly our worst nightmare. You could be riding high in April, then shot down in May. I was an almost achieving veterinarian with a steady relationship and one, true best friend. In a flash, I was a living, breathing zombie in a confusing relationship with a confusing girl and I had an imaginary friend. I went being an animal doctor to a disc jockey. I crawled out a deep, dark abyss, only to be kicked back in.

As I sat on the bench, I began to contemplate what was real and what was just an illusion. Was this Oak tree just my mind's projection? Was all this success just a hallucination? Was my own rotting flesh nothing more than a figment of my imagination? Was I sound asleep in my grave and this was all just a little version of my afterlife?

I didn't feel like going back to the house. I was too scared of Scott, or scared of how I would react if I ever saw him again. I had wished of going back to this hellhole, but now that I was here, in Cleveland, I regret ever making the trip back. I wish I was still in L.A making music with my deceased, jealous friend and watching fans cheer me on.

After the sun set behind the old buildings, I decided to rent a hotel room to sleep in for the night. The room was much different than my usual hotel rooms. It was small and compacted with one bed, a dresser with three drawers, and an old T.V. I wasn't here for the over-chlorinated swimming pool, or whatever else. I was here to sleep. So I closed my eyes, and paid another visit to my parents.

"You looked troubled sweetheart." My mom said while brushing my hair back over my ears. She asked me what was wrong.

"Everything." I answered her shortly. I made a deep sigh.

"Oh honey, not everything is bad." My mom reassured me. I kept my head down, looking at my bare feet sinking in a cloud. Standing on the clouds was a sensation by itself.

"So you stumbled upon the truth? Who cares? You're still at a great peak in your life with this whole DJ thing." My father said while lighting a cigarette.

"It's harder than you think. I don't even know what's real anymore." I said.

"How am I supposed to live when I am pretty much out-of-touch with reality?"

The old man just stood there, taking drag after drag of his cigarette. He pulled his aviators off and stared at me with his thick, brown eyes.

"Everyone has obstacles to overcome. It's your job to face your own demons and dominate them." He pushed his fist into his palm.

"You should feel lucky, people would kill for the imagination you have."

I woke up to a bright and shining sun standing alone in a clear blue sky. I made my way back to the old house to confront Scott. I opened the front door and entered the kitchen where Scott normally would be cooking breakfast at this time. However, there wasn't a sign of him except for the classic stench of marijuana climbing up his steps. I walked in his room and lying on his bed was Scott and that news anchor, Elizabeth. She had her head on his chest and was gently running her index finger along his abdomen.

"Jimmy!" Scott shouted with a smile, looking over at me.

"Where'd you go last night?"

Another person sat up behind Elizabeth. It was a girl and she smiled that perfect, bright smile at me. It was Kimi.

"You son-of-a-bitch!" I said under my breath. Scott sat up from his bed and I rushed at him. Elizabeth screamed and slapped my back as Scott and I wrestled along the bed. Kimi ran out of the room when I pushed Scott down and raised my fist above his face. He quickly grabbed my wrist from punching him.

"What the fuck man?" Scott yelled from under me. I grabbed his throat and squeezed. Elizabeth kept screaming, trying to peel me off of Scott. Scott rolled me off of him and held down my arms.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He shouted in my face. Pinned and helpless, I started yelling insults and obscenities at him. He eventually got off of me and just stared at me. We were both breathing heavily.

"What's wrong with you?" Scott repeated himself between his deep breaths. I pointed at him.

"You're the worst imaginary friend I could ask for!" I yelled. Scott raised an eyebrow. I started leaving the room and I could hear him telling Elizabeth to stay put.

"Jimmy, what the hell is the matter with you?" Scott asked close behind me. He grabbed the back of my arm and I turned to him.

"You!" I yelled in his face.

"You're not real! Get out of my head and out of my life!"

"I'm not real?" Scott questioned me, pounding his finger on his chest.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"Dr. Moody told me all about you. You're just a made-up character in my mind." I explained angrily. I was still breathing heavy, and so was he. Scott pressed me up against the kitchen island.

"Dr. Moody said I wasn't real?" He questioned my story. I nodded. Scott grabbed my shirt and pulled me out the front door.

Scott forced me into a cab and we drove to a local rehab center where unfit drug abusers and mentally ill patients went to settle their differences with their demons. It was perfect place for both Scott and I. He drug me into the front doors and pushed towards the receptionist standing behind a glass window. I looked behind me at him.

"Go on!" He shouted, standing a couple of feet away from me. The people in the lobby were all staring.

"Tell her what you told me!"

"Can I help you?" The girl asked anxiously.

"Well you see," I began.

"I can't get this guy out of my head. He isn't real and he won't get out of my head. He is ruining my life." I pointed to Scott who was pacing back and forth.

"You probably can't see him because he is all a mirage. He isn't real!" I yelled behind me. Scott continued the pace frantically, whispering something to himself. The receptionist stared at me, which was odd because I was certain she was used to this kind of stuff by now.

"Sir." She spoke up.

"Look I know you think I'm crazy, but just trust me. He is right there behind me and he won't get out of my head. He is just a stupid illusion that won't leave me alone." I pleaded more.

"His name is Scott Moon and he is right there!" I yelled and pointed again at Scott. He still continued to pace.

"Please believe me." I said with my hands clasped together. I was almost on my knees.

"Sir." The receptionist said again.

"I can see him."

I looked at her with a bewildered face. Scott crept up behind me and grabbed the back of my collar, dragging me out the front door. He threw me on the sidewalk where I stumbled, then stood motionless. He outstretched his arms on both sides of his body.

"See?" He shouted.

"I'm real!" He shouted louder and pounded his chest. His eyebrows were slanted downwards.

"Now, would you explain to me what is going on?" He begged me. I started calming down and finally explained to him the situation that had happened at Dr. Moody's house. How I had a thin form of schizophrenia, how I couldn't bring Emilio back, and how I was a guinea pig for a sadistic experiment. I patted my chest pocket for my pack of smokes. I started packing it against my palm, while Scott calmly gathered his thoughts. He reached for the pack and I fished out two cigarettes. I lit mine then his as he took a quick drag.

"So, you're telling me I am just an imaginary friend?" He asked me in a calm tone. His voice started breaking off. I didn't have enough breath to answer him right away, so I nodded.

"You still think that?" He asked. I flicked away a bit of ash. The gray dust fluttered on top of my custom made Chucks that Sonny gave me. Staring down at my shoes made me think of Los Angeles and the happy moments I shared with Scott. I still found it astounishing how fast time flew by. We were all so close, such great friends. Now, one was dead, and the other was just a fraud sight in my mind. Scott still waited for an answer with his cigarette barely lit at the end. All I could do was shrug.

Scott turned away in a dramatic fashion and wiped his eyes. I have never seen him actually cry, not even when Emilio died, but now he was crying. He turned back around, tears glistened on his cheeks.

"You want to know something?" His voice cracked again.

"My whole life I never had anyone." He looked down at his sneakers then back up to me.

"I never had a family. My father died and my mom sent me away. I lost contact with my brother and sisters. I grew up in a rough neighborhood."

I took a steady hit of my cigarette, listening to Scott's sob story. I was never really into listening to soft speeches, but I had a spot in my heart for the ones I cared about. Whether he was just an illusion or not, he was my best friend.

"I never had friends." Scott continued.

"I didn't know a single person that I could consider my friend, and then you came along, Jimmy." Scott finally started settling down and took another quick smoke. I started saying something, but trailed off.

"You gave me life." He quickly said. Tears began to flow out of his eyes after that statement. Then he got angry.

"Now, you're telling me I am not real?!" He shouted in my face, his breath smelled like smoke and green tea.

"I've always been there for you! I'll always be there for you! Just don't leave me in the dust, I don't think I can live the lonely life again."

I stood silent, watching him break down. Without anything to say, I hugged him. It was the first action I could think of. Scott returned the favor and squeezed me closely to him. He buried his head in my shoulder and drained the last few tears away. We both ended the emotional moment and continued to smoke. There was a silence between us, until Scott looked back over to me.

"How do I prove to you that I am real?" He asked. I answered him with another shrug.

"Let's go pay Dr. Moody a visit. If you don't believe me, then I know you will believe him."

He made a good point, but, I did believe Scott. I believed Scott because I knew that my heart wanted to believe him. I just wanted everything to go back to normal. I wanted to be with my two best friends sitting around our kitchen debating on zombies and robots. I wanted to join the stage with them and watch people dance, too.

Scott and I stood on Dr. Moody's porch, waiting for Mrs. Moody to slightly creep the door open. Instead, the door completely opened up with Dr. Moody sitting in his wheelchair on the other side. I could sense regret in his eyes, along with surprise. It was almost like he was staring at a ghost. He waved us in and we joined him in his study room. He offered us a seat, but we both declined. I was still unsure if he saw Scott standing beside me.

"I'm surprised you came back." Dr. Moody said quietly.

"I came for more answers." I replied. Dr. Moody wheeled himself to the end table where the tea kettle still sat. He tried to pick up his cup that was sitting next to the kettle, but dropped it on the floor by his feet.

"What kind of answers?" He asked, looking down at the cup.

"Cut the shit, doc." Scott interfered. Dr. Moody turned his wheelchair towards us. He studied Scott head to toe and took another look at the smashed cup. He took one more glance at Scott.

"Do you see him?" I asked Dr. Moody.

"I see him." He finally answered. Scott grinned at me.

"That's all we wanted." Scott said, he started walking for the door.

"Wait." I said quietly to him. Dr. Moody looked at me and Scott turned back around.

"Why did you do it?" I asked my creator. Scott raised an eyebrow, but Dr. Moody knew exactly what I was asking.

"I went to Emilio's grave today." Dr. Moody began. I knew he was trying to avoid the question, but Scott and I still listened intently to him.

"The dirt by his grave was unusually soft..." He continued.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I found it rather odd that he was buried two weeks ago and it hasn't rained yet."

"Why'd you do it, doc?" I asked my question again. Dr. Moody put his head down and wheeled himself around. He went up to his window, and looked at the scenery outside. He wasn't going to answer me. We left Dr. Moody in that room alone, where regret would eventually take his life.

Scott and I returned back to our comfortable, old home. We sat beside each other on the couch. The day had been emotionally draining for the both of us. I looked down at my custom Chucks and wondered if my fans had forgotten about me. I wondered if the media was looking for the answer of my disappearance or if Sonny made a statement on my behalf. I wondered if anyone cared or if anyone missed me in the spotlight. I knew I missed it, and being here didn't help any. I wanted to be back in the studio and back on the stage being admired by thousands of dancing souls.

"I'm going back to L.A." I said to Scott.

"Care to join me?"

"Of course!" Scott said excitedly.

I got up from the couch and asked for Scott's cell phone. I called Sonny and told him we were coming back in the morning. Sonny was gracious of my announcement and told me that everyone missed me. My fans, the media, the staff, everyone missed me.

I started walking up the stairs to my room but stopped.

"I meant to ask you something." I said to Scott. Scott looked up at me and I took a short breath. I stared sternly at him. He patiently waited for my question without saying anything.

"Never mind." I finally said and I began walking up the rest of the steps. I was going to ask him about Kimi. It isn't everyday you come home to see the girl you want to be with lying in the same bed with your best friend. Scott knew I liked Kimi, or at least I thought he knew. I decided not to ask him about it though. I put him through enough already.

I walked in my room and peeled off my clothes. Kimi sat on the foot of the bed sobbing in her hands. The room was complete darkness except for a beam of moonlight peeping in from a split in the curtain. Kimi noticed my presence as I walked passed her again to shut my door. She sniffled and wiped her tears away with her finger. I pulled my comforter back and curled up in my bed, it would be the last time I ever slept here.

Kimi was sitting still. Her chin was tucked down and her hands covered over her ears. Her hair was a mess and she was shimmering, trying not to cry again. She looked oddly beautiful.

"I'm sorry." Kimi finally sputtered out.

"It wasn't what it looked like." She said, turning around to me. I sat up under the covers and rested the back of my head against the wall.

"I was just waiting for you to get home."

I petted my own hair and tongued the missing spot in my line of teeth. I really needed to get that fixed but, it was such a trademark look for me now.

"Do you believe me?" Kimi asked, crawling towards me on the bed.

"Did you do anything with him?" I asked her. She glanced over to the darkness.

"Well, it got kind of hot in there because of the smoke and Scott and Elizabeth, so I took my clothes off, but I promise that was it."

I felt around my right eye. The part of my face where the most dead skin has fallen off. It was a tender area to touch, but wasn't painful anymore. I could have it easily fixed by a doctor in L.A, but like the missing tooth, it became so original.

There was a small part of me that wished to be who I used to be a couple of years ago. My face was ripe with life. I was just starting to grow a beard. My hair looked lively and light brown, and my eyes had that inspiring twinkle in them. I was a handsome young man and if I wouldn't of had a girlfriend, I would've been a lady killer like the old Scott.

Kimi's eyes were staring into mine. Her breath felt like the soft breeze of L.A against my lips. Her nose was a small, hair length away from mine.

"You believe me, don't you?" Kimi whispered.

"No." Is what I wanted to say, but like Scott, I believed her because my heart wanted me to.

"Of course." I whispered back at her. She grinned and leaned in close to my lips.

"Kimi, wait." I whispered a little louder than before. She startled and then pulled her head back.

"I have something to tell you."

"Well, what is it?" She said, still grinning.

"I think I lo—" I began saying. Kimi hushed me and kissed my dried-up, dead lips. She pulled back the comforters and wrapped herself in them next to me. She rested her head on my chest and ran her finger along my scars. Her touch made me shiver.

Back then, I was worry free. I was a taken, handsome man with one best friend and a three point eight grade point average in college. I had a steady job, and earnest living, and I didn't care about too much. I didn't have a lot on my plate, just an everyday, normal guy living in Cleveland.

Now I had a full plate, and my stomach was full. I had a fan base to please, a dead friend, a best friend that I was trying to convince myself was real, and a lover that I was trying to believe that she didn't have a threesome with my best friend.

"I'm going back to L.A." I said out loud in the dark. Kimi's body twitched. She kept running her finger down my chest then back up to my neck.

"Why?" She asked.

"It is just time. I have a dream to fulfill and I can't do it here." I answered boldly. Kimi stopped rubbing me and left her hand on my chest and sighed.

"You're not happy here with me?" Kimi asked in a soft voice.

"I am, but why can't we be happy in L.A?" I asked back. Kimi had no answer. She hummed quietly to herself, trying to make herself fall asleep.

"I want you to come with me." I whispered. I brushed her hair. Her black hair reflected the moonlight.

"I can't." She barely said. She let out a long exhale and breathed in deepily.

"How come?" I asked. Kimi didn't answer me again. I closed my eyes, but this time, I didn't dream.

The beam of moonlight that slightly lit my window with white light, was now replaced with a bright beam of sunlight. When I woke up, Kimi was gone, as I expected.

I went downstairs and the scent from Scott's breakfast entered my nose. He was by the stove, shirtless, frying bacon and making eggs. I scooted out the bar stool and sat up near the kitchen island.

"I figured I would cook your favorite breakfast since this is our last morning, here." Scott called back to me. He opened up the dish cupboard and pulled out two dinner plates. He flipped two eggs on both plates and layered bacon on top of them. He pulled another bar stool up beside me and hopped on it. He shoved two whole bacon strips in his mouth and chewed heftily.

"I'm ready when you are." Scott said to me, after we both enjoyed our breakfast in peace.

We didn't bring anything from Los Angeles to Cleveland. I think we both knew we were going to be back to L.A before we knew it. We had no carry-on backpacks or large suitcases stuffed with clothes like our first trip. Instead, it was just us. I remembered how excited we were when we all three set out to Los Angeles. Now Scott and I acted like it was just another day in the office.

The cab rolled up to the front of the house and we both went outside. Scott entered the cab and I was right behind him, but I noticed Kimi walking down the sidewalk and stopped. I started walking towards her and gave Scott the one moment sign with my hand.

"So, you're really leaving me here?" Kimi frowned.

"You know where to find me." I said. She glided her foot towards me and barely kicked the concrete of the sidewalk. She kept her head down. I couldn't stand seeing her sad, so I lifted her chin and kissed her. For once, I was initiating the kiss. She put on a fake smile, and wished me good luck. Then she said something that caught me off-guard.

"I'll see you soon."

Startled, I politely nodded and Kimi gave me a kiss on the cheek. She turned around and walked back to wherever she came from. I stood and watched her. Scott rolled down his window and poked his head out.

"Were never going to come back?" He asked.

"Nope." I said, watching Kimi turn down a street.

"How do you know?" Scott asked.

I walked to our shed and grabbed our red gallon of gasoline we kept for our unused lawnmower. I walked back in our old home and poured a line of gasoline, all the way from Scott's room to my duck-covered bathroom. I lit a match before walking outside, and threw it on the smelly liquid. The house went ablaze and I entered my side of the cab.

For a quick second, Scott and I watched our old house burn. His marijuana plants, speakers, and papers along with my ducks, bed, and old casino uniform, were all up in flames. Jimmy Norton was now burning away in the fire. The handsome, society-owned Jimmy Norton that had a promising, unhappy career as an animal doctor was now up in flames.

Now it was just Professor X, the mild-mannered zombie with a knack for making people dance.
Chapter 8: B.F.N.D (Best Friends Never Die)

I was on another plane sitting by Scott, and Emilio was replaced with a middle-aged, brunette woman. She had on a professional looking outfit and was fiddling with an iPad. Scott and I had separate headphones on, listening to music. Scott was next to the window, enjoying the sky view of whatever state we were above.

My mouth was dry, so I pressed the service button over my head and waited. A young flight attendant was pushing a large metal cart about thirteen rows down the aisle. Watching her struggle through the aisle made me think of the casino I worked at. I saw an image of myself wearing the infamous white mask to cover up my ugly face. Now, I was exposing my ugliness to the world. I wish I would've burned down the casino as well.

I took off my headphones and heard the clanking of metal beside me. The uptight woman on my right turned her attention away from her iPad and up to the flight attendant. The blond haired stewardess flashed a bright smile at me and asked what I would like. I could have really gone for alcohol, but I didn't know if they served good drinks on an airplane, so I stuck with water.

The stewardess reached over the professional-looking woman who gave me a nervous glance. I took a quick sup of the drink and nodded to the blond.

"Hey, wait a second." The flight attendant said.

"Aren't you that one guy?"

"Yes, I am that one guy." I said sarcastically.

"Professor X." The professional brunette sitting beside me said under her breath. I gave her a cocky grin and lifted my cup of water as if to make a toast.

"Oh my goodness." The woman said, putting her iPad to her chest. She extended her hand and I slowly shook it.

"I thought you looked familiar." She added.

"Kind of hard to miss this face." I joked around. She returned a little, nervous giggle.

"My name is Theresa Washington, I am a music and pop culture columnist for the Weekly." She introduced herself.

"Do you mind if I get an interview with you?"

I looked over at Scott, who still had his headphones on and his eyes closed. I smiled at the woman and agreed to do an interview. The woman quickly pulled out the service tray and sat her iPad on it. She hastily slid her fingers along the screen. I took a small sip of water.

"So, Mr. X, thanks for taking the time to do this interview." The woman said to me smiling. I noticed the flight attendant talking to two other stewardesses, she was pointing at me. The group stared at me like they were star-struck and I waved at them. They quickly turned around and acted like nothing happened.

"I'm not busy or anything. It is my pleasure." I answered the woman. She giggled a bit and tapped on her iPad.

"You are obviously making waves in the music world, and your story is simply inspiring, going from a casino caterer to an overnight sensation." The woman knew the story. It kind of took me by surprise, but I guess that's what the media is there to do. I nodded humbly, but I could feel my ego swell.

"How did you ever come to know that you wanted to be a DJ?" She asked politely. I told her the story of The Reason's little radio station and the meeting with Sonny Mouse, along with everything in between.

"Recently, you canceled your tour just after three shows, why?"

"Some things in my life came up and were more important personal issues than my career." I answered. I failed to mention anything about Emilio, Kimi, or the discovery of my mental disorder. I didn't want to get into details about my sob story. The less I walk about it, the more I forgot.

The woman paused for a second and retraced her question and my answer in her head. She tapped the screen quickly.

"What's your plans for Los Angeles?" She asked. I told her that I would be going back into the studio to create more music and start working on the tour again. She asked me about a new album, if it was coming out soon or not. I kindly neglected her quest, but she went on.

"Do you know Travis Holster?" She asked. I didn't know if the question was off-the-record or for the interview.

"The famous pop star?" She added.

I knew Travis Holster. He was an award winning pop singer and had many number one hits. He was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch and sat high on his throne of the pop genre world. I knew of him because he wanted me to remix a famous song of his and I rejected to do it. I hated the song, and didn't care much for him.

"Sure." I laughed modestly.

"He made a statement about you during your hiatus. Did you ever hear about it or see it?" She asked shortly after I laughed.

"No." I said, sounding uninterested. I didn't really care what the attention whore had to say about me. She slid her fingers along the screen and tapped on it. She picked up the iPad and put it close to her face.

"He said, 'I think electronic music is garbage. It is nothing more than a bunch of computer nerds that wish they could make music, and making trashy songs that sound terrible.' What are your thoughts?"

"I don't feed trolls." I said smiling. The woman hurried up and typed that statement out. She was stirring a large pot of drama. I chuckled at my own comment.

"In all seriousness, he is kind of right. I mean I can't strum a guitar, bang a drum, or sing. However, who is to say what music really is. Obviously people like what I create, or we wouldn't be having this interview right now."

The woman didn't type a single word I said. She kept to my first comment instead of writing down my explanation. She was trying to cause confrontation between me and this bug. I wasn't the hugest fan of jealousy.

The pilot of the plane got on the intercom and announced that we were landing in five minutes. The woman turned her iPad off and slipped it in her small carry-on satchel. She turned to me and flashed a fake smile. She said thank you while gritting her teeth. I returned a fake gesture of my own, and made sure my smile was so wide, my missing tooth would show.

"Oh!" She yelped. She searched through her carry-on and pulled out a small business card and a pen. She handed my both of the items.

"Can I have your autograph?" She asked nicely.

"Yes, of course. To you?"

"No." She said quickly.

"It's for my son. He likes your music, for some reason. His name is Matthew."

"For some reason?" I questioned her middle sentence.

"No offense, but I'm not a fan of this whole electronic scene. It all sounds the same to me." She said. Her words sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I shrugged my shoulders and scribbled 'To Matthew' on the card.

"Every genre sound the same." Scott spoke up. He startled me and I stopped writing the autograph. I sat back and watch the argument that I was hoping would ensue.

"No it doesn't." The woman fired back.

"This electronic music just sounds like regurgitated shit played over and over again."

I was offended. I guess this is where looks can be deceiving. This woman looked like a nice, proper individual, and now she was exposed as a narrow-minded, loud-mouthed parasite. I should've told her to screw off after the Travis Holster question.

"Rap music has fast tempos, country has that acoustic sound, rock has an electric guitar, R&B has a piano, but every song sounds different in every genre in their own unique way. The same applies for electronic music." Scott replied humbly. He sounded like some ancient philosopher. It was one of the smartest things I have ever heard him say.

I remember Scott from our first trip to L.A. His diet consisted of weed, champagne, women, and cheeseburgers. He was obnoxious and at one point, I'd call him insane. Now here he is, calm and collected. I wondered if the old Scott burned down alongside Jimmy Norton in Cleveland.

The plane touched down and people felt a slight jerk. The woman rolled her eyes after Scott's theory. She just stared at us with her mouth wide open, the common look for someone that has just been defeated in a verbal discussion.

"And." I continued Scott's single-handed victory.

"It actually takes a lot of time and effort to make electronic music." I added to defeat her, 'regurgitated shit', phrase.

"Then why do you release songs so quickly then?" She lashed out. The plane stopped and the fight stewardesses were helping people get their luggage. The plane exit opened and people were free to leave.

"Because I have nothing better to do on my free time other than make music and do interviews with stupid bitches." I said. I threw the card on her lap. I started down the aisle with Scott right behind me. Without any luggage, it was easy to maneuver in the busy aisle-way. I wish I would of stuck around to see Mrs. Washington's reaction to the autograph.

It read, Dear Matthew: Your mother is a dumbass. Love, (my signature).

Scott and I walked down the corridor attached to the plane. It was always a good feeling to me when we would land somewhere new, and still, Los Angeles felt new to me. It reminded me of how excited all of us were when we first arrived.

Just before we got on an escalator, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see two teenagers looking nervously at me. They asked if I was willing to take a photo with them, and I agreed to do so. A random man snapped the photo, then he walked up to me and asked me for an autograph. Next thing I know, more people kept coming over to me until I had a large crowd standing around me. I did pictures after pictures, and wrote autographs after autographs and the crowd was still getting larger.

My hand started to cramp up and my eyes hurt from all the flashing bulbs. Scott tore through the crowd and grabbed my jacket, guiding me through the mass of fans. Luckily, none of them followed me, but I kind of wanted them to.

Standing at the bottom of the escalator was Mark. It was surprisingly nice to see him. He was my little symbol of fame and happiness. Mark was the best damn Swedish limo driver ever. He held a sign that said, 'Professor X' in big red letters.

Standing behind Mark were a couple of journalists and bloggers. Some of them held pads of paper and pens, some had voice recorders, and others had cameras mounted on their shoulders. Standing amongst them was Scott's girlfriend, Elizabeth. I wondered who she came for, me or Scott.

We stepped off the escalator and I was instantly bombarded. They were like vultures on a dead carcass.

"Mr. X, are you happy to be back in L.A?" One asked.

"Professor X, why did you cancel your shows?"

"Any thoughts on your debut album's success?"

"Did you hear about Travis Holster's comment?"

I knew that if I stuck around, I would have been eaten alive. Bystanders formed a big circle around the bustling media. They were taking pictures of me and cheering. Since I wasn't used to this exploitation yet, I wasn't annoyed like some celebrities would be. I politely waved to the crowd without answering the paparazzi. I looked back for Scott. He had Elizabeth by the hand and the other hand was placed on my back, pushing me through the crowd and out the doors. The paparazzi came after us, waiting for any sudden movement that could be used as an embarrassing moment.

Mark hurried around us and opened our limo door. All of us jumped in and as soon as Mark shut the door, the media dispersed like nothing had happened.

"To imagine I used to be one of those ants." Scott jokingly said while watching the media walk around in circles, waiting for their next victim. Elizabeth smiled awkwardly. I moved over by the electronic blind that separated Mark from the rest of us. I tapped on it and he rolled it down.

"How are you doing Mark?" I asked my chauffer. He chuckled a little and looked back at me.

"I'm doing well, sir, a pleasure to see you again." Mark answered me in a gentleman-like fashion. Scott shouted for Mark to drop Elizabeth off at her home. After that, Mark took us back to our suite. He told me he was ordered by Sonny to pick me up in morning. I told him that was fine and he drove off.

Scott and I entered our home, and it felt great. The whole place must have been cleaned top to bottom because it looked like the first day we had ever moved in. We threw ourselves on the wrap-around couch and tried to sleep away the jet lag. After a long moment of silence, my spine began to tingle.

Being back in this room made me think about the studio and the live shows. The lifestyle that everyone envied or praised was my addiction. All I could feel was the rush of the screaming fans, the sights of the magical lights, and the sweet sounds of my music blaring through extremely expensive speakers. It gave me such a high, that I blanked out the lows that were still in my mind. Emilio's death, Dr. Moody's betrayal, Kimi's confusing ways, all of it was just a clouded memory for me when I stepped foot on that stage.

"I can't sleep." I said out loud. Scott groaned.

"I'm so hyped up to get back at it again man." I continued. Scott sat up and rubbed his eyes. I looked at him and smiled.

"You look like you're excited." He chuckled. Since I was keeping Scott awake, he suggested that we sit in the hot tub for the first time. I had forgotten all about it, but it sounded really nice right now. I grabbed two glass goblets and two bottles of liquor and dipped in the hot tub. The soothing warm water calmed me down.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." I said to Scott. I bumped my glass next to his and we both took a gulp of our drinks.

"There is no need to apologize. Life can get awfully hazy sometimes." Scott answered me. He seemed so cool and relaxed. Scott was never the most book-smart person, but he was such a mental enlightener. He was wise beyond his years and always had the right thing to say. Maybe God took Emilio away just to show me that Scott was my true best friend.

"You're my true best friend." I accidently said my thoughts out loud. Scott raised an eyebrow at me and I took a drink.

"That's either the booze talking or you meant one of your best friends?" Scott inclined. I had a bib on and Scott was force-feeding me my own words. I stayed quiet and acted like I was taking a drink.

"Well, what did you mean?" Scott turned his shoulders to me as if he was intrigued. I could've easily explained myself, but I knew how close Scott was with Emilio. Even though I was in fret of his reaction, I stood by what I felt.

"When we moved in together, I thought of you as my best friend, rather than Emilio." I explained. Scott shook his head and grabbed his goblet.

"That's odd. Just last week I was just your imaginary friend." Scott said with bad intentions. The statement stung.

"Maybe I thought you were an imaginary friend because we were so close?" I tried to stump him. I tried to make it sound like I really meant it. Strangely enough, I did mean it. Scott ignored me, though. He set his goblet down and got out of the tub.

"You have no idea Scott!" I yelled at him, spinning around quickly. I picked up my glass and threw it as hard as I could towards the wall. It shattered into tiny shards of sharp pieces. I wasn't drunk off the alcohol, but I was drunk off of the pent-up anger I had in me. Scott jumped when the glass broke behind him. He turned around and clenched his fists.

"I'm not mad at you." I quickly said. I noticed Scott's hands open, and he tip-toed back to the hot tub. He sat on the edge of the tub and put his feet in the hot water.

"Emilio was my best friend, and then the dumbass got himself killed." I submerged my body into the tub, trying to keep relaxed.

"Best friends never die." Scott said. He was picking small pieces of glass out of the bottom of his foot.

"He died ever before he got in that wreck." I said. I hated talking about Emilio anymore because it just made me angry and frustrated. I just wanted to forget. I wanted to pretend he never existed. Scott gave me his divided attention, looking at me while plucking the glass out of his feet.

"When we were in Ohio," I began.

"Everything was right in the world. No problem at all." I rested the back of my head against the side of the tub.

"Then all this fame and everything came about." I continued.

"The minute we stepped foot on that plane, Emilio changed."

Scott was now fully intrigued and stopped messing around with his feet. He sat his hands behind him and leaned backwards.

"He told me he was jealous. He admitted to it. He was always babbling about how it should have been him and not me." I ranted. The warm water was now playing no part in relaxing me. I was only getting angrier and angrier the more I talked about him.

"But what about all the heart-to-heart moments we shared in the limo?" Scott asked.

"That was all bullshit!" I stood up and yelled.

"He didn't mean anything he said." I grabbed the bottle of liquor that had about one-fourth of alcohol left in it and took a big swig of it.

"You're my best friend. I am so proud of you, and I am more than thankful...blah blah blah." I mimicked Emilio's toast from our first limo ride.

"All lies, Scott. He secretly hated me. He wanted me to fail. He was out to get me." I suddenly went silent.

"Did you ever think that you were just paranoid about him because of your condition?" Scott asked the very question that was bouncing around in my head. I stayed speechless, trapped in my mind.

"This isn't about his jealousy is it?" Scott broke the silence again. He got out of the tub and wrapped a towel around his waist. He reached for the doorknob to the hallway.

"I have a feeling he had something to do with the experiment." I confessed. I looked over at Scott for a reaction. He stood still and nodded.

"Best friends never die, Jimmy."
Chapter 9: Past Shadows

Walking into Elite D records was a different feeling than the first time. It felt like another day at the office. However, it was an unexplainable, warm sense of acceptance as soon as Scott and I entered the decorated lobby. A large banner hung just above Rebecca's desk. It said, 'Welcome Home, Professor X!' Sonny, Fred, Rebecca, and Will all stood in the lobby, along with many other unrecognizable faces, people that I haven't seen since the cocktail party. In unison, they all applauded my entrance. My ego swelled like a balloon. Sonny was the first to shake my hand.

"Welcome back, Jimmy." Sonny said smiling. I nodded towards him and everyone else followed Sonny's action and shook my hand or gave me a hug. After the little reception, Sonny invited me back to his office.

He shut the two large, wooden doors behind us and walked to his desk. He pulled out his drawer and set a stack of papers on the desk. Unlike the first time, Scott was allowed to stay.

"I've got outstanding news for you, my friend." Sonny said as he flipped through the pages. I remained quiet, but I was smiling ear-to-ear. When a person like Sonny says he has good news, he means it. His eyebrows furrowed and then he went back through the pages.

"Here it is." He said. His smile was bigger than mine. He pulled two pages out of the stack and slid them across the desk. I nodded to Scott to read them for me. Scott's eyes lit up as he read the pages.

"You're invited to the MTV Video Music Awards." Scott said. I looked at him as if he just came out of the closet.

"You got nominated for Best New Artist." Scott announced.

"I got nominated?" I asked Sonny, shocked. He sat there with his hands folded, nodding his head and grinning.

"You are my first artist to get nominated." He said proudly. I was stunned, but I tried to not let it show. I was happy I couldn't blush anymore.

"Good, I deserve to be." I said. My ego was high in the sky right now.

"That's not the only part though." Sonny said standing up from his chair. He leaned himself against the desk with his knuckles.

"That invitation was in this pair of papers, which is your new tour information." He continued.

"Not only were you invited to attend, but you get to perform, too."

"Perform how?" I asked.

"You will be the DJ for the commercial breaks and intermissions at the show. You get to play your songs every time there is a break." Sonny explained. I proudly accepted the invitation and the gig. The exposure I would get could be substantial, even though I was already considered an A-list musician.

Sonny and I went over the tour dates. Two shows would be held in Los Angeles and Las Vegas before the VMA's. The rest of the tour was in the States. One show was scheduled to be in Cleveland.

"Cancel that show." I requested, putting my green finger next to the date. Sonny looked at me funny.

"I don't want to go back." I said under my breath.

"She can find me." I mumbled, looking back at Scott. He stared at me with a concerned look.

"Excuse me?" Sonny said, interrupting our brief exchange.

"I don't want to go back." I repeated myself. Sonny hesitantly scratched out the Cleveland date.

After the meeting, Scott and I walked down to the studio. Will and Fred were already there tweaking with the equipment and playing with the producer board. When I walked in, they both acted like soldiers and stood straight. I sat in front of my computer as if I never left.

I worked on track after track, trying to come up with new material, but something was missing. It was a strange feeling not having Emilio beside me. I ignored it and continued to create. Scott tried his hardest to mimic our deceased friend, but he was no Emilio.

I worked diligently in the studio until it was time for my first show back.

The homecoming show was at the same venue as my first ever live show. The streets were packed with a lot more people than before. Scott and I watched swarms of people walk down the sidewalks and across crosswalks. Traffic got heavier as we started getting closer to the field.

"Are you nervous?" Scott asked me. A little piece of the old Scott became relevant for a minute as he was uncorking a bottle of champagne with his teeth. I told him no. He nodded and licked his lips.

"Me too. It feels right being here."

I didn't respond to him. I was too busy looking at the people strolling down the street. Some of them were already drunk, some of them were dressed head to toe in crazy attires. Los Angeles loved me more than Cleveland did. The traffic went from slowly budging, to completely stopped. Mark slid down the electronic blind and told us about a fender-bender that was up the road. I told him to open the sunroof and Scott chuckled at my demand.

A cool, relaxing wind pressed against my rotting face. I looked around and noticed something that made me smile. It made the scars on my chest tingle. Hanging above the busy streets of Los Angeles, was a banner of yours truly. It was the same logo that Sonny made for me. Instead of the oddly-dressed model on the other end of the banner, it was just my logo and in small, red lettering was my stage name next to it. I pointed at it and yelled for Scott to look.

The interaction I had with Scott must've been overheard by the people because they were all staring and pointing. I politely waved at them on both sides of the street. The crowd circled around the limo, giving me high fives and more compliments. Some people were throwing demo tapes at me, and some were taking quick photos of me with their cell phones. I felt like a king.

Eventually the traffic started moving again, and the crowd dispersed slowly. They were still chanting my name and yelling about how awesome I was. My ego was still in flight.

The night crept up on the city as we pulled into the VIP parking area behind the stage. When Mark let me out, the air was loud with the volume of the already large crowd.

"You're not even on the stage and they're yelling for you." Scott said. He sounded like the jealous Emilio. I looked at him with a cocky smile. Sonny came up to us in a rush.

"Where the hell were you guys?" He yelled at Mark. I told Sonny to relax, sticking up for my chauffer. Sonny calmed down and then told me to hurry on the stage, that the crowd was waiting for me.

The darkness hid my stage presence as I made my move behind the DJ booth. Someone cued the spotlight on Scott, who was still my voice when I was Professor X.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" Scott announced in the microphone. He was standing at the foot of the stage. The crowd erupted and screamed so loud, the stage started shaking. Scott was overwhelmed and put the microphone by his side. He just overlooked the enormous crowd, grinning to himself. After a few moments of going speechless, the spotlight cut off of Scott and the only light now was the flashing bulbs of cameras. I clicked play on the first song. The crowd went ballistic again. Glow sticks lit up and some lighters flicked on. A small rhythm came in, followed by a faint melody in the background. Cliché hardstyle, but this was another dubstep song.

The crowd lifted their hands in the air like they were becoming one with God. I wondered what my parents were thinking. They weren't worshipping them, or God, they were worshipping me. Two orange lights ran across the audience. I saw screaming faces and some faces that had their eyes closed. They were really trying to become one with the music.

Then the bass dropped.

Many different colors of lights moved across the audience and some flickered to the rhythm. The mass amount of people were praising me by dancing. My backdrop came on and lit up red letters spelled out my name.

Scott was going crazy. He was dancing vigorously and screaming. His energy influenced me to start getting pumped up. I bounced my head along the air and stomped my feet.

Whether this was real or not, I loved every second of it. This was true happiness, and I did it for nothing more. I didn't do this for money, I did it to make other people happy.

People in the crowd were all smiles. They all danced and bumped and grinded, the scene was so wonderful with the darkness being pushed away by multi-colored glow sticks and the stage's lights.

At the end of the show, Scott joined me behind the table. He put his arm around me and had the biggest smile on his face. Scott was normally smiling, but this smile was different. I think it was the smile of true happiness.

As the last song finished, the crowd went nuts. We took our finals bows and watched the hundreds of thousands of people. Then I saw a beautiful girl among the hellacious crowd. Standing close to the stage, and in the midst of the wild herd of adoring fans, was a perfect-smiling beauty who instantly made my legs go numb and my heart beat fast.

Kimi Keys was that woman. It seemed like she had a glowing aura to her. She looked like a small, flourishing flower in the middle of an apocalypse. She cut her hair to be about just past her earlobes. My mouth grew dry and tasteless. I felt so over encumbered. Scott finally pulled me off the stage, the crowd still chanting my name.

"What more could I expect?" Sonny greeted me.

"That was an amazing comeback show." Sonny gave me a stern hug. We were all beside the limo, reminiscing about the show I just put on.

"Go get some rest. You got Vegas tomorrow." Sonny grinned and winked. I watched him walk back to his R.V, and a herd of paparazzi members gathered around me. They were howling questions at me, not even giving me a chance to answer.

"What was it like to do a live show again?"

"Well it was awesome for the most part. I felt very comfortable and—"

"Why did you come back to L.A?" An interviewer interrupted me. I stuttered for a second.

"I came back because—"

"I heard your house in Cleveland burned down. Do you have any comment?" Another reporter shouted out. I saw Kimi peeping her head over the parasites.

"Why did you cancel you last tour?"

"Did you hear about Travis Holster's comment?"

I quickly shoved one mosquito to the side and grabbed Kimi's wrist. I drug her in the limo and slammed the door. The paparazzi started scratching and tapping on the window until Mark drove off. Here was another example of role-reversal.

Kimi sat very close to me in the limo. Scott was drinking from the bottle again. I felt like there was an awkward silence in the air.

"Great show. Don't you think?" I broke the silence.

"Oh yes. Great show, Jimmy!" Kimi and Scott said in unison. They both uncomfortably became quiet, but didn't make single eye contact with one another. I really wish I had gotten my tooth fixed because I couldn't stop tonguing it.

"So Scott, are you and Elizabeth dating?" I tried breaking the silence again.

"Yeah man. It's weird right?" Scott laughed.

"Yes, they are." Kimi quickly said while Scott was laughing. She had her eyes fixed on him.

"What?" I asked Kimi, nudging her elbow.

"Nothing." She said innocently. Smiling at me with those perfect teeth and staring at me with her glorious green eyes.

"It is weird." I answered Scott. He took another drink then set it in between his legs. He stretched out his arms and sat back.

"Did you think it was different tonight without Emilio there?" Scott asked. My ears burned and my heart sped up. Kimi switched her attention from Scott to me.

"Not at all." I said snickering. I tried to cover up my anger.

"Not one bit?" Kimi asked me in a sincere tone.

"Not one bit." I said. Scott didn't say anything. I think he knew it was still a touchy subject.

Mark finally pulled up to our home, and I lead Kimi inside. When we entered the room, Kimi's eyes looked befuddled. I was in a hurry to fall asleep to try to make the most out of Vegas tomorrow.

Kimi and I got undressed and cuddled under the covers together. It was nice to have her in my arms once again. She buried her head in my shoulder.

"Why did you come find me?" I asked her.

"Because I'm happy with you." She said. It was odd listening to her open up.

"Plus I used to squat in your guys' house, and you burned it down. So I had to come find you." Said the most confusing woman on the planet.
Chapter 10: Robot Rock

"How's Emilio?" My asked excitingly. She was so happy I was paying her another visit.

"He's dead mom, remember?" I answered her chuckling. It was strangely amusing that Emilio's death was a comic relief for me now.

"Well, how's the whole BJ thing coming along?" My mother was still so innocently dumb.

"It's DJ." My father answered for me. He still sported his aviators and a tuxedo.

"How is it coming along, Jimmy?" My father asked me.

"I'm on tour. It's everything I have ever dreamed of." I said to him.

"I'm so proud of you!" My mom said to me. I kissed her cheek.

"Where are you going next?" My dad asked.

"Las Vegas." I said shortly. My dad slowly pulled off his aviators and grinned at me. His grin turned to a devilish beam, then he started laughing like a pedophile going to Disneyland. It was so diabolical, even my mom gave him a weird look.

When I woke up, Kimi was still in my arms. She was rarely around when I would wake up. Surprisingly, she was sound asleep. My ride for Vegas was going to be pulling up shortly, so I decided to leave her there, hoping she would be there when I returned. I trusted that she would stay.

The voyage to Vegas seemed long and boring. We took Sonny's tour bus, but there was no Sonny accompanying us this time. Beforehand, he told he had some important matters to attend to. I found it odd, but I imagined that the issue had something to do with me.

Scott remained on a couch in the tour bus with his headphones on almost the entire trip. I bounced around from surfing the internet to watching pointless television shows on a small T.V mounted on a clear glass end table. I was mostly rooting through carious music blog websites finding articles about me.

Once-devoted fans and narrow-minded individuals posted many hateful opinions on my music. They called me a sellout just because the word got out that I would be at the VMA's. Somehow, they already heard that I was working on a new song with a very popular pop singer. I only had one record and thirty-two songs to my name, and I was already a sellout. When people are jealous, they go far lengths to destroy you.

The ballroom was crammed with my fans. It wasn't nearly as large as the crowd in Los Angeles, but they were just as crazy and supportive. Tonight's track list was an equal amount of hardstyle and dirty dubstep tracks. The fans loved it as always. I was once again on top of the world. It started to become a familiar feeling to me.

After the show, Scott and I opted not to enjoy Vegas' infamous night life. I was so excited to come here and make my dad proud, but I couldn't get my mind off the music award gig that was only a week away.

Strippers and show girls asked if we wanted company, we turned them down. Gamblers and fans invited us to the roulette, blackjack, and poker tables, but we humbly declined. Instead, Scott and I enjoyed a relaxing chat in our room. I could imagine my father pulling his hair out.

Our conversation leaped from one subject to another. We had debates, and talked about girls. I never mentioned Kimi. I felt it was still a touchy subject to Scott just like the whole Emilio or imaginary friend thing. It felt like the times in Cleveland, getting stoned and arguing over a zombie vs. robot brawl. The more we rambled, the more alcohol sat in our stomachs.

"We've been friend for quite some time now, and I have always had a question that I wanted to ask you." Scott said. I had a feeling the conversation was about to get a little more open. I told him to go ahead and ask it. I was curious about it now.

"What was it like to die?" Scott asked. It was a question that must've been lurking in his head because he didn't hesitate or stutter. It was a topic that Scott always swept under the rug. Since the first day I met him, he never once mentioned my undead appearance. He never asked questions, nor did he ever judge me. To him, I was just a best friend.

Surprisingly enough, I had no idea how to answer. I had prepared myself for somebody to ask me that since I came to terms with being a part of the living dead. Now, I was face to face with my anticipation but my mind couldn't manufacture an explanation.

"I don't know." I said. It was the only response I could think of. I closed my eyes and dug deep into my thoughts, trying to revisit thrown away memories.

"It was bright. My whole body felt numb, but I could feel myself moving." I began. I felt Scott's interested eyes staring at me.

"It was like I was floating on thin air. I remember that I was amazed about how death was so painless." I said solemnly. Scott was still all ears.

"I remember going up to heaven, and enjoying it. It was so peaceful and soothing. Then I saw my parents. Next thing I knew, I had Dr. Moody and Emilio staring down at me." I finished there. My mind refused to go any further. It was all just a blur to me now. We sat in silence for long seconds.

"Are you happy being a zombie?" Scott broke the tension without looking at me.

"Sometimes." I answered shortly.

"More often now than before."

"I think we are both more happy now." Scott added.

I had one week to prepare for the music awards. I was so anxious, that I felt like not going. I was used to performing in front of my fans, not a lot of prestigious and immensely popular celebrities. Plus, according to some blog sites, I didn't even deserve to have a nomination. This was the most amount of pressure I have ever felt in my career.

"You'll be fine." Kimi said as she rubbed my shoulders near the foot of the bed.

"I believe in you."

She gave me a quick smooch on the cheek. Kimi was much more open and unusually attached to me. The same girl that would leave me on cliffhangers off and on, was now living with me, and she hasn't disappeared once. However, she still wouldn't let me say the three words I have been eager to tell her.

To fill in the time before the big show, I keep my stress levels from spiking by working on a track with a female pop sensation. Her name was Julia St. Claire, and she was a part of the top five most successful musicians in modern time.

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. X." She said kindly, but in a very shaky voice. She was cautious about my looks. She might have been a great vocalist, but a coward in my eyes. Luckily, she stuck around only for enough time to sing a couple of verses and a chorus.

When she left, Scott and I went to work for two days straight. For as much as I started to hate Ms. Claire, she did have a stunning voice. It was a lot more calming than the usual voices I had on my tracks.

The song was dubbed, Wild Dreams, and it reached second on the charts right behind that pretty boy hack, Travis Holster. Since the song was so high on the charts, it was pushed across the airwaves and swept over the nation. My highlight success brought a lot of hatred, though. Just because I made a song with a common Billboard artist, I was an even bigger sellout. I was now mainstream, and my devoted fans couldn't handle it, including Kimi.

"I bet you're happy." Kimi commented sarcastically. I stayed quiet, slightly confused at her frustration.

"Everyone loves you now, so you finally got what you wanted."

Kimi turned away from me with her nose stuck in the air and her arms were crossed.

"Aren't you happy?" I asked her modestly. The Cleveland Kimi never died.

"Of course not!" She yelled, spinning back around sharply. I blankly stared.

"Why would I be happy that you're going to go around and have sex with a bunch of women?"

"Kimi, it isn't like that." I tried to explain.

"It's why you became a DJ in the first place!" She yelled. I was sick of hearing her say that.

"That's a lie!" I raised my voice.

"I bet you and that St. Claire whore hooked up!" She shouted.

"We did not!" I tried to drown out her yelling.

"How many groupies have you slept with?" She interrogated me further.

"That's enough!" I finally yelled at the top of my lungs. My voice beckoned Kimi and she stopped arguing. There was an uncomfortable tension between the two of us. Scott knocked on the door lightly and barged in without permission. I held my hand up, telling him to go away.

"Everything is fine Scott. Please leave." I said in my regular tone. Without saying a word, Scott slowly crept out of the doorway and shut it.

"I like you Kimi." I began.

"I know that you like me back, or else you wouldn't be here. This jealousy shit has to stop now." I demanded.

"It ruined my best friend, and I'll be damned if it ruins you."

Kimi's eyebrows went from down to up. Her mouth was open, but nothing came out. Then, just like the classic Kimi, she abruptly left the room. I let her go, but I hope she would come back.

The time had come. Scott and I climbed in the back of the recently scrubbed down limo. Sonny was with us this time. He was nervous and jumpy. He kept checking his phone and double checking me. It was a big night for him, because I was his first client to ever receive this kind of honor.

When we rolled up to the Nokia Theatre, I felt like we were at some paparazzi convention. Tons of people were lined up outside. They were holding cameras and microphones and voice recorders.

I stepped on the red carpet with Scott close behind me. Sonny was going to make sure everything was set up perfectly for me. I shuffled among the groups of celebrities and tayed close to Scott. It was less nerve wracking to have a friendly escort with me.

The ever-growing crowd of reporters and cameramen stared at me. They took millions of pictures and people hold the microphones kept yelling for me to come over to them. I kept walking though, ignoring their pleas to do an interview. Some celebrities greeted me kindly, and complimented my work, and then others, like Travis Holster himself, gave me cold looks.

Scott kept pulling on the back of my tuxedo jacket. He was trying to make me stand still for pictures. Scott loved the spotlight, as he was doing poses for the cameras. Everytime he pulled my collar, I would stand still for about ten seconds then quickly keep walking, dragging him away from the enticing, flashing bulbs. It took me more time to get in the theatre than I preferred, but when we finally got in the building, a couple of yellow-uniformed guys broke us up.

They show Scott to his seat, then they guided me backstage. Three men in business suits and earpieces pointed to where I would be performing. They explained the lights and pyrotechnics, and the time slots for each song. They gave me a piece of paper that had the times scribbled on them.

My booth was pretty fascinating to say the least. It was a disc-like structure that stood pretty high above the crowd. The front of it had project screens on it. Pyrotechnic pieces were placed all around it and lights, too. I climbed up the stairs to the top of the disc. My laptop, along with other equipment, was already in place.

When the show kicked off live, the first song I played was the recently made "Wild Dreams" tune. The pyrotechnics were perfectly timed with the bass drop and multi-colored sparklers flamed out. I could barely see the people, but I could hear the loud applauses. After the song, everyone, including the celebrities gave a standing ovation. I wave to them politely.

The rest of the night, however, was unexpected. I was so used to my screaming fans. When the show would cut out, and it would be my turn to play another song, no one seemed interested. They talked amongst themselves and paid no attention to me at all. I felt so low and ignored that I eventually stopped dancing and just clicked stop and play on my laptop when the time came. Everyone was more intrigued on what was happening on stage. They were interested in whatever shenanigans the recent reality stars would do. Either that, or cheer for the terrible live performances.

Coincidently, the category I was in the running for was the last award of the night. Travis Holster also belonged in the same category and he lost all his other nominations. I thought that this was just a promotional technique used by the mainstream to make his award presentation the most memorable.

Travis Holster went on the stage with some airheaded modal. They made a couple of lame jokes that, not surprisingly, got laughs from the crowd. It was like being in a room full of ass kissers and suck-ups. Holster confidently read each one of the nominations, including his name. Of course, his name was last and he said it with such a cocky tone of voice.

"And the winner of best new artist is..." Both of them said. Holster opened the envelope and his eyes grew wide. The model shouted out the winner's name, and Holster's face spelled upset.

"Professor X!" The bimbo yelled in the microphone. I could hear the whole crowd gasp for air, even I gasped. Who would of ever thought that this would happen? What an upset. I slowly climbed down my tall, disc platform and the whole crowd gave a respectful round of applause. Shaking Travis Holster's hand tasted like sweet karma, and he never looked at me in the eyes.

I held the award high and waited patiently for the crowd to settle down. Scott was the last person standing up. I could see him freaking out, but Sonny pulled him down to his seat. Sonny had a quirky smile to his face.

"I would like to thank my fans first of all." I improvised. I didn't prepare any sort of acceptance speech. I had no imagination of actually winning.

"I would like to thank Scott Moon, my best friend. And I would like to thank Sonny Mouse, my manager." I continued. Scott stood up again and pointed to himself. Sonny drug him down again.

"It's a shocking, but pleasant moment for me. I put all my time in to make you guys happy. That's what this award is about for me. It means I am doing a good job." I said. I wanted to continue my speech, but the lights in the theatre shut off. A bright, white spotlight circled around the crowd. Everyone was looking around like they were lost. I stood on the stage, wondering what was going on.

The light stopped and it was focused on one person walking down the aisle. The man wore a tight leather jacket with multiple zippers on it, and tight leather pants. He wore these strange, metallic silver gloves and had on a silver helmet with a large, dark black visor attached to it that covered up his face. He carried a small, black suitcase.

He walked like a man on a mission and jumped up on the stage. I stood frozen, watching this mysterious guy steal my thunder. He breezed past me and climbed all the way up to my disc-like booth, the spotlight still fixed around him.

He unplugged my laptop and picked it up. He held it over the side of the disc and let it go. All my work and hard efforts came crashing down on the stage. He unpacked his suitcase and set a weird looking computer on the empty spot where my laptop was.

The spotlight went out and the Nokia Theatre was filled with complete, silent darkness. A little robotic sounding voice came crashing through the speakers. It talked about a rebellion and how this man was the machine savior of electronic music.

A dirty dubstep song came on that was so divine, it made me jealous. A wonderful light show appeared and the song kept going. Everyone in the audience was dancing and cheering. All the celebrities were pointing and screaming for more.

The bass dropped in the song, and it forced me to walk away. I felt defeated, and I dropped my pity award on the stage.
Chapter 11: Face To Face

"Dear, are you ok?" I heard Kimi's voice calling out to me. I woke up with my head in her lap. Beautiful Kimi was brushing my hair with the tips of her fingers. We were in my room back at the suite.

"You're back?" I asked her. She nodded, flashing her perfect smile. It was more of a grin, but gorgeous nevertheless.

"I came back for you. I saw what happened." She said in a whisper.

"What happened?" I asked her. Kimi's grin turned into a frown.

"Don't you remember? That robot guy embarrassed you." She explained shortly. I sat up, furious.

"That actually happened?" I yelled. I turned sharply towards Kimi, who was now looking worried. She slowly nodded her head, and I hurried out of the bed. I started putting my clothes back on while Kimi observed me quietly. I rushed out of the bedroom and past Scott, who was watching the event over again on the news. He saw me and jumped up from his seat.

"Jimmy!" He called for me. I kept walking, slamming the door behind me. I halted a taxi outside and ordered the driver to take me to Elite D Records. I needed an answer of what went on last night, and I figured Sonny Mouse had one.

My mind raced to the worst possible scenario. I pictured Sonny plotting the whole ordeal. I thought of him signing that mysterious thing and telling him to destroy me. My blood was rushing through my veins, almost making my skin turn from green to red.

He couldn't release me though. He promised me in Amsterdam that he wasn't giving me my walking papers anytime soon. Here I was, trapped in my mind once again. Arguing with myself about what I believed and what I wanted to believe.

The taxi pulled close to the curb and I tipped the driver two hundred dollars. Gracious by my offer, the driver said he would stay and take me back home after I was finished. I had so many bottled up emotions. I had no idea how I was going to approach the door. I stood in the middle of the busy sidewalk staring at the large, revolving doors. I could walk in calm and collected or I could kick the glass in and raise hell. I chose the former and took a deep, relaxing breath. Just as I put my foot on the first step, someone grabbed my shoulder.

"Hey man, aren't you Professor X?" This man said. He wore a Lakers' jersey and a flat bill hat that was cocked slightly to the left. I eyed him down for a second and noticed a couple of people stop and stare.

"I am, why?" I asked the man. He poked my chest.

"You got dogged last night!" He yelled. The crowd that was beginning to form, all laughed. I gave the guy a cold stare and he backed away and immersed himself in the group of laughing pricks. Before I could take refuge in the office, cameras and microphones came out of nowhere.

"What is your reaction to last night?" One reporter yelled.

"Did you expect E-Bot to come up on the stage?"

"Who the hell is E-Bot?" I asked the small group of leeches.

"The gentleman that interrupted your award speech last night." A journalist answered.

"The true number one DJ!" A man from the back shouted. The crowd started giggling again, and I took cover in the lobby of Elite D Records.

My calm and collected approach flew right out the window. I marched over to Rebecca's desk. She was sorting through papers. I tapped on the counter and she looked up as if she saw a ghost. Rebecca stuttered and quickly pressed the intercom to try to warn Sonny about my entrance. I knew something was up at that moment. I rushed towards the elevator and went up to Sonny's office.

The song in the elevator wasn't any song of mine. It frustrated me even more, because I had a feeling I knew who's song it belonged to. Then I realized it was the track that the mysterious machine played during his rude interruption of my speech.

When the elevator's doors slid open, I power walked to Sonny's office. I shoved the two wooden doors open. Standing behind his desk was Sonny. He had a shitty grin on his face. Off to the right of Sonny, was the robot and it was accompanied by an ugly, short, bald man. The thing that embarrassed me, looked exactly like he did at the award show. Black leather jacket, and pants, and that haunting helmet he wore. His accomplice had on a monocle with the lens colored deep red. It projected awkwardly from his right eye. He wore a nice business suit, and his bald scalp was laced with liver spots and wrinkles.

"Good morning, Jimmy." Sonny said. He stepped in front of his desk and held his hand out. I slapped it away and clenched my fists.

"What the hell is going on here?" I said between my teeth. I was staring furiously at the robot and his partner. Sonny put his hand up in a gentle manner.

"Calm down." He pleaded. I ignored his request and kept my gaze on my enemy. Sonny stepped back behind his desk.

"Please have a seat." He pointed to a lone chair in front of him. I shook my head, Sonny sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I figured this would be your reaction." He said under his breath.

"I figured you were behind all of this!" I shouted at Sonny. He started rubbing his forehead. His fingers tapped in a slow, annoying rhythm on the desk. I fixed my eyes back on the robot, who remained still. Even through that thick black visor, I could tell he was looking directly back at me.

"This is E-Bot, Jimmy. He is my new signee." Sonny announced. He stepped in front of me and E-Bot's stare down. My blood-boiled and I tightened my fists even more. I knew it all along, but tried to ignore it. I was trying to pretend that this E-Bot, was just a mirage and in reality I was sleeping on my king-sized mattress with Kimi in my arms. I squeezed my eyes shut then reopened them. That dark visor and weird monocle were still there.

"You're giving me my walking papers?" I asked Sonny. He turned around to the partners and laughed. The bald man cracked a smile that showed his rotting teeth.

"Of course not!' Sonny finally answered me. He started walking back to his desk.

"You see, business is booming because of you." He began.

"Why stop there? You have brought all this fame to Elite D just with your music alone. I figured I would double the benefits." Sonny continued. He walked over to his liquor cabinet that was in the corner of the room. He unlocked the door with a key he pulled from his suit pocket.

"I cut all of my clients except for you and I signed E-Bot. The two best DJs in the world belong to me."

"So what does that mean?" I asked. Sonny pulled out a large bottle of Captain Morgan's rum and turned back towards me. He laughed again and my blood felt so hot, I felt like I was sweating.

"It's just as simple as it sounds." Sonny answered.

"Elite D is going to be one of the most successful record companies in the game."

It made perfect sense, even though I couldn't stand the image of me working with this, machine. I wasn't in this line of work for the money, but I understood the decision Sonny made. I owe a lot to Sonny anyways.

"What was the deal at the awards? He shattered my laptop!" I pointed at E-Bot.

"We got a little carried away." The freak with the red monocle said.

"Who the hell are you?" I instantly scorned him.

"This is Marco. He is E-Bot's manager." Sonny interrupted my confrontation. The freak grinned and strolled towards the bottle of alcohol with his hands folded behind his back.

"We did not come here to ruin you, sir. We just admire your work and wish to team up with the greatest DJ in the world." Marco said. The definition of a true suck-up, the tone of his voice sounded eerie and diabolical, as if he were planning something in the ugly little head of his. Marco poured a half-empty glass of the liquor and dropped two ice cubes in it. I glanced over at E-Bot, who had not moved this whole time. Marco offered the drink to me.

I imagined myself hitting the glass out of his hand. The glass shattering on the floor by his feet and the alcohol spilling all over the carpet, me punching this freak in the face and flipping off E-Bot, and me throwing my award at Sonny's head, not missing, then walking out.

Instead, I grabbed the glass and took a sip.

There was a two week break before the tour kicked off again. E-Bot and his manager, Marco, would be accompanying me for the rest of the tour. E-Bot was my opener. In the meantime, E-Bot and I worked silently on new tracks. It never spoke once, so I never spoke to it. The thing was a natural though Within three days of studio sessions, he produced thirteen full-length singles. All of them were great songs too, and when his first EP dropped on the market, over nine million people bought it. It was a true spectacle.

"You think he is better than you?" Scott asked me concerned. I gave a burst of nervous laughter.

"No way, I'm still on top." I tried covering up my fear.

During E-Bot's climb to super stardom, I was working on a relaxing track, something completely different than what I was used to. I tried to take a different path on my approach to music. I was getting bored producing filthy dubstep song after nasty hardstyle song. I started creating a project I named "Heaven". It was a small side project that used relaxing melodies from keyboards. There were no dirty drops or a hard-pound bass rhythm, just a pleasant sounding lullaby. It was a fifteen-minute tribute to everything beautiful in my life; Kimi, Scott, and the place where I belonged.

The next show was in Sacramento, California. It was E-Bot's debut being my opening act. Of course, it showed no sign of emotion and the bus ride was plagued with awkward silence. E-Bot sat across from Scott and I. It had its mechanical hands on his knees, and sat up like a straight-A elementary student. Marco sat next to him and he had his legs crossed knee-over-knee, grinning oddly at me. Scott leaned over and put his lips near my ear.

"What's up with that dude?" Scott whispered.

"No clue. They've both been like this since the day I've met them." I whispered back. Scott didn't respond, he just started giggling frantically. I didn't know if it was really that funny, or if he started smoking marijuana again. Scott stopped giggling and put on a focused face. He started standing up slowly, and hunched over in front of E-Bot. Scott put out one hand and waved it across the dark black visor. E-Bot stayed completely still.

"Is he alive?" Scott asked Marco, who was still grinning at me. Marco nodded.

"Is there like a remote control or a string to pull or something?" Scott jokingly said. Marco shook his head.

"His actions are all independent." Marco stated boldly. Marco looked directly at me and I felt my muscles tense up.

The Power Balance Pavilion was sold out with thousands of screaming fans. Backstage, we could feel the place shaking under our feet. I was envious of E-Bot, because he still showed no emotion and I was nervous as hell.

The cue man came back to the dressing room and asked E-Bot if he was ready. E-Bot, nor Marco, said anything and left the room to go out on the stage. Scott and I followed him out, and watched from the side as E-Bot made his presence felt with a solid, dirty dubstep introduction.

The crowd was different than what I wanted. They weren't as separated as the audience at the award show, but it felt like the crowd was there for E-Bot's debut show, rather than my headline act. Replica helmets littered the crowd and people were ecstatic for his music.

After E-Bot's successful debut, Scott walked on the stage as usual and grabbed the microphone.

"Are you all ready for my man, Professor X!?" Scott asked the crowd loudly. The crowd gave a mediocre reaction. Scott asked the same thing, and the crowd grew quieter and less caring. I joined Scott on stage, and the audience gave a decent welcoming. It wasn't nearly as warming as E-Bot's entrance.

Keeping my composure, I decided to reveal the new side project. The song started, and the crowd went silent. Some cheers came from scattered spots in the mass of fans. Instead of dancing, everyone stood around. Five minutes later, and the crowd looked as if they were waiting for something. They were waiting for my patented dirty drop that usually came in the middle of my songs. Another five minutes went by, and the arena started booing.

I worked up a nervous sweat, and thought about changing the song to something that would make these people dance, but decided to let it continue. The booing and insults grew louder, drowning out my side project. Scott tried getting the crowd pumped up, but failed and he slowly walked backwards towards me.

"You got to play something different!" Scott yelled over the booing. The overall angriness of the atmosphere was deafening. Frustrated, I simply turned the song off, and walked off the stage. E-Bot reacted and went back on the stage to fill in for me. The crowd's loud negativity turned complete around into louder cheers.

I hung my head and left the arena in defeat. It was the beginning of the end for Professor X.
Chapter 12: Down and Out

There was a three day break until the next live show in Seattle, Washington and Sonny was upset with me. The news of me storming off the stage went global. It was on the front pages and on hundreds of websites. Hatred started progressing from my old fans and bloggers. Rumors spread that I was going soft and like always, I was a sellout.

"E-Bot is going to join you on the stage. You two are going to work as a team." Sonny demanded. I threw my arms out to the side.

"Seriously?" I asked in a whiny voice. I didn't want to be babied, let alone be paired up with that creep. Sonny stuck out his open hand, trying to calm me down.

"Relax, it's only for this upcoming show. IF all goes well, you will remain the headline act."

I figured it wouldn't kill me to do one show with E-Bot. I unhappily obeyed Sonny's orders. The show crept up on us, and we were standing on the side of the stage in the Key Arena. Another sold out crowd. Scott got on the stage and the spot light shined down on him. The place erupted and I smiled. I needed a good pick-up performance after the second embarrassment I suffered in Sacramento. I decided to keep my track list strict, without playing my side project again.

"What song do we use for the introduction?" I shouted over to E-Bot. He was standing to the side of me, still as always. The robot didn't say a word and remained frozen.

"How is everyone out here in Seattle?" Scott asked the crowd in a generous tone. The arena answered positively. I kept focused on E-Bot, observing his every action. It felt like he was staring right back at me.

"Tonight we have a very special show for you folks." Scott began telling the crowd. The place got a little quieter, listening to the man on stage.

"We usually have two DJs doing two separate shows. Well tonight, we're having the world's two best DJs do on show together!" Scott finished. The crowd went crazy, people were jumping up and down and others were high-fiving each other.

"Give it up for E-Bot!" Scott introduced the robot. The cheers suddenly turned to screams and the noise was so loud, it made my ears ring.

"And my dude, Professor X!" Scott followed up. The crowd then shifted into mediocre, golf claps and a couple of cheers here and there. E-Bot whizzed right past me, not even acknowledging the thousands of fans. I tried making myself look like more of a fan-friendly person than my so-called partner.

I stepped on the stage and waved both hands in the hair like a beauty queen. I got another decent response, but before I could even stand behind the booth, the first song started. I rushed my stage presentation and joined alongside E-Bot.

The introduction playing was a song of his. E-Bot worked the mixer and table like an expert. I just stood there watching him in amazement. The introduction wrapped up, and E-Bot played another song of his. The crowd went wild.

"Play one of mine!" I called over to him, trying to yell over the crowd and the music. He made no reaction and continued to go to work. The song ended and E-Bot played another one of his songs. I scooted over to the laptop that Sonny sent with us. I started scrolling through the set list and noticed that my partner was skipping my songs and going straight to his. I looked over at Sonny, who was off stage standing beside Marco. Marco had a devilish admiration on his face, and Sonny seemed to not care.

I halted E-Bot's song and played "Wild Dreams". Instantly, E-Bot turned his head towards me and stopped working the mixer. The crowd sided with my devious teammate, and they all started booing in unison. I looked around as if I was lost.

Sonny started coming up the side of the stage, trying to rescue the ruined gig. Scott stared blankly at me and shrugged. I took one last view of the booing crowd, and hung my head in defeat once again.

Sonny met me at the bottom of the stage steps while E-Bot continued his show. Scott was right behind me.

"I give you one easy task and you ruined it!" Sonny yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders. I had nothing to say to him.

"I quit." I mumbled. Just like that, I handed down the torch to my mechanical nemesis. Just like that, E-Bot became the number one DJ in the world. Just like that, my giant ego came spiraling down. And just like that, I was Jimmy Norton again.

Sonny didn't say another word to me. He let me walk away and Scott placed his arm around me, trying to comfort me.

I locked myself in my bedroom. I stapled thick blankets over the one window in my room and stayed in the darkness. I didn't know what else to do. Eventually, I completely broke down and started crying. I clenched my bed sheets and stuffed my face in my soft pillow. I looked like a sixteen year old girl with a broken heart. I cried so much, I passed out.

I was looking at the twenty-four year old Jimmy Norton in a mirror. My skin was back its natural color. My brown, curly hair was in one piece and patted down. I had my old, patchy chin hair. I wasn't undead anymore; no green skin, no scars, no stitches, just back to the way I was.

I put my hands on my face, feeling the forgotten dexterity and smoothness of my skin once again. I started pulling flesh from my face and tore away at my natural self. Piece after piece fell on the floor by my feet.

Professor X stared back at me in the mirror. The missing flesh around my right eye, the missing tooth, the olive green tint to my skin, all the scars, and the unkempt hair on my head. I took a long, concentrated look, then began pulling at it again, tearing chunks of green skin away until a beautiful face looked back at me.

Kimi looked at me through the mirror. Her oriental, green eyes, short black hair, and that perfect smile.

"It's alright." She whispered to me.

"I'm here now. Everything is alright."

When I woke up, my head was in Kimi's lap. I was looking up at her comforting smile in the darkness of my room. Her smile was so bright, it looked as if it was pushing away the blackness of the room.

"It's alright." She whispered as she brushed my hair back with her hand.

"I gave up Kimi." I whispered back to her. Her smile got bigger.

"I know, it's alright." She calmly replied.

Days felt like weeks that I spent in the black abyss of my room. I spent the time with Kimi and no one else. Nights felt like an eternity. Kimi was there every time I would wake up. I never left the room once. I was happy here in the eerie darkness with the girl that I loved. No one could boo me in here. No one could ruin my life in the abyss. It wasn't heaven, but I felt like I belonged here.

I lost track of time, because time gave up on me. I didn't know if it has been days, weeks, months, or even years since the last time I left. I didn't even know if I was still alive.

One night, Kimi got out of bed and stood up beside it. I rolled over and looked at her. She was smiling down at me.

"What're you doing?" I asked her, scared she was leaving me again.

"I'll be back, don't worry." She said. She crept open the door and a faint light peered through the slight opening. She slid out and disappeared. I still laid there, looking at the first sign of light I haven't seen since what seemed like, forever.

The door opened all the way and I squinted at the bright light cutting through the blackness. A dark figure stood on the other side of the door way and it flicked the light on in my room. I covered my eyes in pain.

"Jimmy?" Scott called out to me. I mumbled something in return.

"Are you ever going to come out again?" He said jokingly. Scott walked into the room and I sat up.

"Come on man, you can't stay here wallowing around in your own sorrows." Scott said, extending his hand out to me. I pushed it away lightly.

"It's no use." I said in a depressed tone. Scott made a clicking sound with his tongue.

"Shut up. Come on." He stuck his hand out again.

"Seriously." I said.

"I'm not going to go out there just to be embarrassed again."

Scott put his hand back down at his side.

"Jimmy, look." He began.

"You can't sit here and pity yourself. You're the number one DJ in the world, man. You need to go regain your throne."

I stood up and stared angrily into Scott's eyes.

"E-Bot is the best DJ in the world. I am just a nobody!" I yelled in his face. Instantly, Scott slapped me across the cheek. It was a hard hit, and my cheek felt red. I had no idea what to say or do.

"Listen here!" He shouted.

"You're Jimmy Norton, Professor X, the toughest man I have ever met in my entire life. You pulled yourself out of a six foot hole and became the number one DJ in the world. And now you're telling me some manufactured trash can is better than you?"

I remained silent. Scott furrowed his eyebrows.

"You're going to let some mechanical hack beat you at your own game?" Scott asked loudly. I slowly started to shake my head.

"No! You are not! You need to go regain your crown, right now!" He yelled.

I didn't say a word back to him. I stepped right past him and came out of the abyss. Scott knew where I was going, and he followed me all the way to Elite D Records.

Scott and I walked in the lobby like we owned the place. The people in the lobby looked as if they saw a ghost. I walked passed Rebecca's desk and went into the stairwell, straight down to the studio.

Will and Fred were absent, but E-Bot was playing the keyboard. When we walked in, it stared at us and watched us walk all the way to the large computer that was rightfully mine. We instantly went to work. I was trying to come up with a new track that would destroy E-Bot and give me back my crown.

Within a couple of minutes, Sonny and Marco entered the studio. Sonny walked in like he was pissed. I turned around and smiled at him.

"I thought you quit?" Sonny asked me nervously. His faced was mixed with shock and anger. I shook my head and approached him and Marco.

"I came back to regain my throne." I repeated Scott's words. Marco gritted his teeth.

"That's impossible." Marco said in between his rotten teeth.

"E-Bot is on top, and you will never be above him."

I stepped in front of Marco and stared at his ugly, red monocle.

"If you're so sure about that, then I challenge your machine to a duel." I grinned.

"A duel?" Sonny spoke up. I glanced over at him.

"Yes, a duel." I answered.

"Two songs vs. two songs, give us both two weeks to create our songs and we will play them at the Nokia Theatre. You can make a special promotion out of it."

I noticed Marco's hands clench tightly into fists. I could almost hear his rotting teeth scratching together.

"That would never work." Sonny said to me. He looked worried.

"Why? Is it too scared?" I laughed. I heard Scott in the back chuckling.

"No. He has tour dates to complete and interviews to—"

"He'll do it!" Marco shouted, interrupting Sonny.

"And he will wipe you clean off the map!"

Sonny didn't say anything. I turned back around and looked at E-Bot.

"We will see about that." I said under my breath.
Chapter 13: The Debate's Winner

The rules were simple. Two songs per artist and we were given a schedule of studio sessions. The duel would take place at the Nokia Theatre, where it all began. We weren't allowed to have anyone help us in the creative process, either. It really bothered Scott, because he wanted to help somehow in beating E-Bot.

The time spent in the studio was fast-paced and worked in my favor. Time was on my side for once, because I felt so motivated. I never worked this hard before, but it felt right. I was concocting something wonderful. A masterpiece that I have never tried before, I was creating a weapon out of music that was going to lead me to victory. I was creating a hybrid of hardstyle and dubstep, something never even thought of in the electronic world. Being so focused on this new idea, I didn't bother making a second song. I was sure that his track would give me back my crown.

Three days before the duel, and I was heading to the studio again. When Scott and I got to the door to my workshop, it was locked. I peeked through the window and saw Sonny, Marco, and E-Bot by the computer. Scott started pounding on the door with his fist and Sonny jumped. He looked back with a worried face. He said something quickly to my two rivals and unlocked the studio. When we stepped in, Marco and E-Bot walked hastily past us. E-Bot stared at me every step of the way. Sonny hesitated and stayed in the room.

I hurried over to the computer and opened my track file. My blood started to boil and my face felt hot. Those devious devils deleted the project I worked so hard to create. I slammed the mouse down and threw myself in a chair. Scott placed his hand on my shoulder and hunched over, examining the screen.

"Sonny, you shifty asshole!" Scott yelled. Sonny stood there with his hands by his side and his mouth was frozen open. Scott pushed off me and lunged at Sonny. He grabbed Sonny's jacket and shoved him against the wall.

"Why are you doing this?" Scott questioned him. Sonny stuttered and then went silent. Scott started shaking him.

"Why are you helping them?" Scott asked. Sonny didn't say a word. Scott put his fist up, threatening to hit him.

"Scott, stop." I said modestly. Scott held on to Sonny a little longer, then let him go. Sonny still didn't move.

"He knows why he did it." I said. I spun the chair back around and faced the monitor. I could still feel the tension in Scott, and the regret in Sonny. Silent moments later, Sonny walked out of the studio. Scott slammed the door behind him, and I heard the lock click.

"What're we going to do now?" Scott asked me, then deeply exhaled. Unknown to Sonny and his minions, I secretly transferred the file to a small flash drive. For some reason, I had a hunch that sonny would show his untrustworthy treachery. Plus, it was such a delicate track, I had to protect it. The only concern I had now, was that my robot antagonist copied the song and made it its own. I fished the flash drive out from my jean pocket and held it up to Scott. He gave it a confused stare then grinned. I smiled back and Scott nodded his head slowly. He knew what is was.

"I tell you Jimmy, after this is all done and over with, you better not go back to Sonny." Scott advised me. I could sense the bitterness in his voice.

"I promise you that Sonny will be in tears after I'm through with that robot." I said confidently. Scott gave me a pat on the back and I went to work on the track. All it needed now was some touching up and a clever name, then it would be the perfect kryptonite.

A few hours of hard work and determination went by and the track was finally finished. I spun the chair around and asked Scott what the name of this masterpiece should be. He took up a humorous thinking pose then clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth.

"The Electro Execution." He bellowed. I started laughing and Scott smiled. I shook and my head and Scott went into another thinking pose.

"A cup of water." I said solemnly under my breath.

"What?" Scott asked. He looked like he smelled something foul.

"A cup of water." I repeated myself a little louder.

"That's the name of the song."

Scott gave me a blank stare. He started tapping his forehead lightly and repeated the name over and over again. His eyes lit up and he got a clever smile on his face. Without saying anything, Scott started shaking his finger at me and nodded in agreement.

The duel was being promoted everywhere around Los Angeles and all across the globe. The event was plastered on towering billboards and advertised in local shops. Music blogs, newspapers, magazines, and television stations were counting down the days until the big show. Within the first day of going on sale, all the tickets were bought. Internet pills were made about who would win. The results were all the same, with E-Bot winning decisively.

I wanted to prove people wrong. I wanted to show them that I was here to stay. I wanted to be back on top, wearing my crown. I wanted to take my rightful revenge. I wanted to embarrass E-Bot like he embarrassed me, and most importantly, I wanted to make people dance again.

A day before the widely anticipated bout between the robot and the zombie, and the paparazzi were on the hunt for either one of us. I stood out on the balcony trying to coax my nerves with a cigarette. The media amassed in front of the complex, all looking up at me. They were yelling for me to come down and they were taking pictures of me smoking. I ignored their annoying begging and took a long drag of my cigarette, admiring the beauty of the setting sun.

When the sun set below the gray towers of L.A, I noticed Kimi standing beside me. She had a different look on her face, one that spelled fear and concern.

"Are you nervous?" She asked quietly. I looked over the railing at the crowd of journalists, reporters, and cameramen. They all started to depart knowing that I wasn't coming down.

"No." I answered shortly. I took another drag of the cigarette.

"I am." She said. I exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"Why?" I questioned her.

"I just don't want you to go." She answered. I wondered where Kimi was always off to. I wondered where she went when she would leave me in my bed alone.

"I'm just scared you will be loved again by all those tramps that go to you show." Kimi said, interrupting my curiosity. I took a final inhale and the lit end of the cigarette nearly scorched the tip of my finger. I didn't say anything back to her, because I was tired of arguing about such stupid things. I crushed the cigarette under the same shoe my one-time loyal manager, and friend, made for me.

I headed for my bedroom with Kimi following quietly behind me. We undressed and cuddled together like usual. I fell asleep softly, but it was odd because I didn't have a dream. There wasn't a pregame visit with my parents, or another trippy vision.

The time had finally come and it was the day of the duel. Time has been friendly to me in the last two weeks and I hoped it wasn't going to give up on me now. I rolled out of bed without waking Kimi up. I went to the over-sized closet and put on my casual attire and grabbed tonight's outfit as well, the classic lab coat and fake, black framed glasses.

The day passed in a blink of an eye and the hour of the duel was near. Kimi didn't leave my bedroom, but I was too busy trying to prepare myself to even bother checking up on her. It was time to leave and Scott was so outrageously excited, he danced out of the door in an animated way. Right before I could leave, I heard my bedroom door creak open.

Kimi stumbled out into the living room. Her hair was a mess and her eyes and cheeks were laced with messy tears. She was sobbing frantically and held her arms out to me.

"Please Jimmy, don't leave me here!" She cried out. The same girl that left me alone in my abyss, the same girl that bombarded me with confusing emotions and feelings and acted like I was just there in existence, was now crawling on her knees, begging me to stay with her. For some strange, creepy reason, I was aroused. Looking at her in the lowest of her low, made me want to say those three impacting words that I have been dying to tell her for the longest time.

I didn't though. I was afraid it would worsen the moment, so I left her there in a puddle of her own tears, hoping I wouldn't regret it.

When Scott and I went outside, we were surprised to see a familiar white, glimmering limo parked in front of the doors. Mark stood by the back end, smiling at us with his uniform on.

"Mark?" Scott called out to him. Scott was just as surprised as I was. Mark's smile grew even bigger and he politely tipped his hat to us.

"Sonny sent you?" I asked him.

"No, sir." Mark answered in his well-mannered, Swedish accent.

"He told me to drive E-Bot. I respectfully refused, so he fired me." Mark explained quickly. Scott and I walked towards the limo.

"So you came to get me?" I asked him.

"I am honored to be you chauffer, Mr. Norton. It's been a great pleasure of mine. I am dedicated to you, sir." Mark replied. I started snickering a little bit and shook Mark's hand as he opened the door for us.

"You're my dude, Mark." Scott said from inside the limo. Mark tipped his hat and closed the door after me. Before we even started moving, Scott was already tearing into the cork of the champagne bottle with his teeth.

The setting was almost identical to the first time we visited the Nokia Theatre. A luxurious red carpet was rolled out and the paparazzi were already swarmed around it. To my surprise, a lot of celebrities showed up and shared the red carpet together. I figured they were here only for a popularity bit, but maybe they came to watch me get my redemption.

I stepped on the carpet with Scott behind me. Before walking down the famous rug, I hunched over Mark's window and tapped on it. He rolled it down and a slipped him a bundle of cash that amounted to around two thousand dollars. I winked at him.

"God bless you, sir! Good luck!" He yelled to me as I walked away.

To my delight, not one member of the media seemed to notice my entrance. Even if they did, they didn't care. They were too busy sucking the life out of famous faces that littered the spotlight. I walked hastily through the mob of celebrities and Scott followed my lead.

When we finally got into the theatre, a group of guys dressed in the same yellow uniforms from the night of the VMA's approached me. They escorted us all the way backstage and into the dressing room. Good-looking women stood by an elevated chair, and I politely turned down their makeover offer.

Scott and I shared a moment of complete silence together. We didn't have any heart-to-hearts this time, or even a simple conversation. We both just waited nervously for our cue to go on stage.

The arena grew louder every minute. I could feel the rumble of the fans. The cue man came into the dressing room and nodded towards us. The moment was finally here. Walking down the hallway towards the stage, I could hear the chants for E-Bot and the screaming from excited fans. My hands became clammy and my knees started to buckle underneath me. My mouth felt like sandpaper. I felt like I was going to pass out.

The cue man that was leading us towards the stage halted us right before the steps. I saw E-Bot's shiny helmet on the other side right before the lights went out. The atmosphere in the theatre grew so loud, that Scott had to cover his ears.

An announcer dressed in a nice suit with a bowtie, stood at the foot of the stage. There were two DJ booths set up on opposite ends, both had all the essentials we needed.

"Ladies and gentleman!" The announcer sounded off in the microphone. It sounded like a boxing introduction. The man waited for the crowd to quiet down, then announced our names. E-Bot was first and a spotlight circled around him. It did his usual walk towards his booth, and remained emotionless behind the table. The crowd got even louder and cheered for their new hero. I was next and started walking up the few, short steps. I turned around and noticed that Scott was not following me up. He pointed at me.

"You got to do it alone." He called out to me. I nervously nodded and took my position behind my booth. The crowd was obviously sided with E-Bot as they responded with boos for my entrance.

The announcer summarized the rules for the crowd. Two songs per DJ and they each had to stay under five minutes. E-Bot would go first, since he was the current number one ranked DJ. I would go second, since I wasn't even ranked anymore.

E-Bot's song started and the place grew quieter. A sea of replica E-Bot helmets danced to the track and the rest of the audience followed. The celebrities listened to the song and tapped their feet to it. The song's bass dropped and the place went nuts. I even caught myself bouncing my head a few times.

After its song finished, it was my turn. The crowd went silent once again, listening to what I had to offer. Since I concentrated my efforts in "A Cup of Water", I didn't have any other songs to play. To fill in my turn though, and to the crowd's disapproval, I played "Wild Dreams".

Boos were so thick that my song was drowned out. A cold sweat dripped down my forehead. My eyes went wild, bouncing from one angry face to another. I saw Sonny smiling and Marco laughing. All the celebrities were booing me, and hissing. I quickly looked at Scott.

"Composure!" He shouted. I have no idea how I heard him over all the hateful yells. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I counted to ten and exhaled. I repeated that process until my song finally ended.

E-Bot played another track directly after mine finished. The crowd went from booing to cheering. The song was a great one. I could tell that it wanted this song to push me off the stage. To everyone's surprise, I stayed on the stage and handled the embarrassment well. The song was dirty, but I knew mine was better. I waited patiently for its song to end, and then I took out the flash drive I had in my lab coat pocket.

I glanced over at Sonny and Marco, who both were wondering what I was up to. I gave a cocky wink and waited for the cheers to die down. The crowd finally got quiet enough so that I could play the final song of the duel. It was the nail in the casket, or in this case, the cup of water.

The song started and no boos came from the crowd. Everyone was still and not one hiss or negativity came from them. The song hit the one and a half minute mark. I couldn't help giving a shitty grin, because I knew the grimiest drop in electronic music history was in ten seconds.

When the bass dropped, it felt like the world imploded on itself. I could see heads exploding from the inside out. The sea of replica helmets took off their headwear and everyone had the same reaction on their faces. All of them, celebrities included, had their eyes wide open and their jaws were on the floor.

They all looked like they saw a zombie for the first time in the flesh, not fear, but utter shock.

The song wrapped up, and the crowd didn't make a single peep. I looked over at E-Bot, who stood motionless like always. And in one swift second, E-Bot stormed off the stage in defeat.

The crowd erupted. Chants of Professor X shook the stadium's ceiling. I took a deserving bow and waved to the crowd. Here was me again, on top of the world. It felt so natural.

I exited the stage with the crowd still cheering behind me. Scott was ecstatic and gave me a hug. He looked like he was crying. Sonny came over and placed his hands on my shoulders strongly, and smiled.

"I knew you could do it." Sonny lied. I shrugged his hands off of me and gave him a cold stare.

"I'm giving you my walking papers." I said to him, and I walked by him. I could hear Sonny behind me, cussing at me and wishing me the worst of luck.

When the night settled down, we left the arena. As soon as Scott and I stepped foot on the outside pavement, fans and media clustered around us. Tons of flashing bulbs went off and Scott jokingly raised my hand. I turned to him and hugged him again. We broke apart and Scott's smiled flipped upside down. His eyebrows went up and his mouth opened. Then, in what seemed like slow motion, he tried yelling something. I heard the word, watch, come out of his mouth then my ears started ringing.

A quick sharp pain entered the back of my head, and I could feel this warm liquid drip down my neck. Then, I smelled something I haven't smelled in years. I smelled death.
Chapter 14: In My Dreams

When I woke up, I was in a dull room lying on a bed that smelled like medicine. I heard beeps and buzzes and felt paralyzed. This tube was stuck down my throat and these warm bandages were wrapped around my head.

The bright light from the room was blinding. I had no idea how long I had been out. When my eyes finally focused, I saw Scott standing at the foot of the bed. His eyes were wet and he was breathing heavy.

"You were my best friend, man." He sobbed. His eyes squeezed shut and he wiped away a stream of water from his cheek.

"I know how you always thanked me for helping you, but it was the least I could do for you. You saved my life." His voice said breaking in and out. I tried talking back, but my jaw felt clamped together. I tried making a sound, but all I could feel was that damn tube.

"I had nobody, and then you came along and saved me from my destiny of loneliness. Then look how far we got together, man." He wailed. He eventually broke down and began to bawl. Snot and water flew from his face in every direction. I tried moving, but felt stuck in this bed.

I began to think that this was all a dream. One big dream. That I was actually in my room in Cleveland with my old girlfriend and I was on my way to becoming a veterinarian. Or maybe, I was a zombie, but I was still a caterer for the casino. Maybe I was cuddling with Kimi in that crummy house in Cleveland and I was having a dream about what would happen if I went to The Reason's office.

"Mr. Moon, I'm sorry but your time is up." A nurse said in a gloomy tone. Scott wiped away his tears and was choking back more.

"I love you, man. I'll never forget you." Scott said. Scott took one final look back at me, and then followed the nurse out the door.
Chapter 15: Keep You Kimi

I woke up again in the same place. Instead of Scott at the foot of my bed, it was Kimi. Kimi had a very different expression than Scott, though. Her eyes were not welled up with tears, nor was she sobbing. I had to be dreaming now.

"You shouldn't of left." Kimi whispered to me. She had a faint grin on her face.

"You should of stayed with me."

I mumbled and noticed that the feeling of being mute was gone.

"Kimi." I groaned. My throat felt like it hasn't felt water in a long time.

"Kimi." I said again, making sure I was audible. She hushed me and walked to the side of the bed. She sat down softly next to me and started brushing my hair. I noticed the bandage was gone, but I could still hear the beeps and could still see the machines I was wired to.

"Am I dying?" I asked her. Kimi smiled and nodded. My eyes wandered around her beautiful presence.

"Am I just dreaming?" I asked. Kimi shook her head this time, still smiling. If it really was true and real, and I was really dying, I had to say those last words to Kimi. I would regret it for eternity if I didn't.

"Kimi...I," I began to say. She hushed me again.

"It's alright." She whispered, interrupting me. I was reliving a dream all over again, but if this was real, I had to say it.

"No." I groaned. My throat felt like it was caving in. I had to say it now. I might never get the opportunity ever again. I must say it before it's too late. I have to say it before time gives up on me again.

"I love you." I finally sputtered out. After I said it, my throat instantly crushed together and I could feel my voice box die. Kimi's smile grew even bigger and then she giggled a little. I looked at her with wide eyes like the fans at the duel. She quickly covered her mouth.

"You can't." She whispered. My voice was gone, I could say no more, but I wanted to ask why. She leaned down and kissed my cheek. Then she whispered the most haunting thing I have ever heard in my ear.

"I'm not real."
Chapter 16: Peaceland

I was standing on a luscious, soft, white cloud, staring at this enormous, golden gate. My mind was running a mile per minute, but I guessed this was my welcoming entrance to the place I've been before.

A song I recognized was playing in the distant. It echoed throughout the sky and I saw a man standing between the gates. He was floating towards me and it looked like he was moving his hand with the beat. He had this bright white aura looming around him and white long hair and a white, scruffy beard that grew just below his chin. He was standing face to face in front of me. He was smiling and had in these all white earphones. He plucked one of them out and shook my hand.

"Welcome home Jimmy Norton. It's a pleasure to have you back." The man said. His voice was loud and rumbled through the clouds. I shook his hand, but noticed something that almost frightened me. My hand was back to its natural color. I felt my face. There were no more scars, or empty patches of flesh. The man raised an eyebrow and I stopped feeling myself.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"I am God." The man answered. It was a dumb question. He looked like the stereotypical version of God. I then noticed that the song coming from his earphones was one of my own.

"Are you playing, 'Heaven'?" I asked him. He chuckled and pulled out a bright white iPod.

"It's my top played song." He jokingly said. I was in the position that millions of people think about every day, but I had no idea what to say.

"Stop thinking so much, I'm always around to answer questions." The man said, reading my thoughts. I grinned a little.

"What's the meaning of life?" I quickly asked. It was the first and only question that came to my head. God sighed and placed his arm around me.

"It's whatever you make of it." He said. We started walking towards the gate.

"People always ask that question and seek their whole lives to try to find it. Some people will tell you the meaning of life is to serve me, others feel like they have an obligation to fulfill." He explained.

"The meaning of life is to just live it, and whatever happens, happens." He smiled and we walked through the golden gates. I felt a tingling sensation on my back and I twisted my head around. I had a large pair of white wings expanding out from my back.

"I wish we could chat more." God said.

"But I got some errands to run, you know, God stuff." He laughed. He turned away and started dancing in the distance.

"Wait!" I yelled out to him. He stopped dancing and turned around.

"Can you turn me back to my natural self?" I asked him. God smiled and snapped his fingers. I looked down at my hands to see that they were olive green again. I felt my face. All the bumps from old scars and dried flesh were back. I tongued the missing tooth and smiled.

I felt a hard tug on my shoulder and spun around. My parents were behind me.

"It's so nice to have you back!" My mom cried, wrapping her arms around me.

"Welcome home, son." My dad said before taking a hit of his lit cigarette.

I smiled at them. My mom looked up at me. I knew what she was going to ask.

"How's Emilio?" She asked me in a soft tone. I smiled at her and looked at the blue skies. I watched God dance in the distance amongst the white, puffy clouds. I listened to my song being played across the skies. I saw a group of angels dancing and cheering.

"He sent me back to where I belong."

