The monster within

Unfired.

Its been a week since I've been dealing with my wrecked marriage trying to forget it ever happened. I'm here in the club preparing for my performance for the day. I've practiced the song and dance , I was ready to go. I was still nervous some how, I guess I was not ready to see the people after my scandalous wedding. I put my costume. It was a Strapless Floral Embroidery Corset with Lace Skirt and I fixed my hair and put on some make up.

"Are you ready?" Our director Fred popped into the dressing room quick to cover his eyes.

"You can open your eyes Fred I'm ready." I say as I was applying my lipstick and looked at him on the mirror reflection.

" You look ready , but you don't sound ready." He looks at me with pity in his eyes.

" I don't know Fred. I don't think I'm ready to face the people yet." I sigh as I slam the lipstick on the table.

" Honey, honey listen to me. It's time you show them you can't be broken down. Be the strong women I know you are. Don't be squirming over that stupid douchebag. Go out there be a star and most importantly, make him jealous. Let him know how stupid he was to let go of such a beautiful bitch." He offers me a hand pulling me out of my chair. Hearing his words made me feel a lot better.

"Thank you Fred. That really means a lot, except for the b***h part." I looked at myself once again in the mirror.

"I think I'm ready." I turn to him with a smile.

" That's the spirit. Now go out there and melt that stage." He pushes me out of the door, not allowing me to say a word. Well at least he didn't give me one of his stupid Ideas, like having s*x at his office. That's what he always tell us.

"Maybe later you can have s*x in his office. The best place his desk." He shouts after me.

" Believe me I know." He laughs and I giggled a little as I Walk to the stage. He can be so dramatic.

I find my crew which will be helping me with my performance. In the front was Jane with smile. I wave at her with a smile of my own.

"Are you guys ready to do this."

Everyone yells "Yeah!!!".

" Let's do this!" They all disappear in different directions getting ready for their roles. When I turn around I find Jane still staring at me.

"Staring at me huh? What? Is my dress that beautiful?" I raise my brow in question.

" No I'm just checking up on you. I wanted to make sure that our super star is okay. We can't let you embarrass yourself in front of everyone." She puts on her most fake sad face.

I snort as I stare at her.

"You would like that wouldn't you?" I say with a tiny smile.

" Sadly, it will take more than sleeping with my fiance to bring me down. Try harder next time.. sweetheart." I smile as she curls her lips in anger.

I went to the back of the stage waiting for my turn to come.

Standing in the middle of the stage the spot light highlights me attracting everyone's eyes.

Soon I hear the beat and I start swaying my hips matching the rythm.

The crowd cheering everywhere. This was my happy place. Join by the rest of the group we danced as we practiced. I sang with joy in my heart.

**

After the performance I ran back stage meeting the rest of the crew.

"Well done everyone. That was amazing." Everyone cheers happily. Excited I go back to my dress room to freshen up and change my clothes. Right then I go back to the bar to get something to cool down.

Down the bar I see a man I've never seen before. I have to say he's really handsome and I could see his muscles behind his expensive suit.

I decide to go and say hi. So I find myself a sit right next to him.

"Hey, I'm Raven." I introduce myself and he doesn't seem to be even interested. I wait for him to reply but he's quiet only draining his drink.

"Rude." I mutter under my breath and look for the bartender.

"Athan. Nice show." He slams his glass on the bar table and gets up leaving.

"Thanks." But he's already headed to the opposite direction with no effort to look at me so I just order myself a drink wondering.

"What's the deal with him?" I ask Drake our bartender.

"No one knows. Peace of advice, stay away from him." He passes my drink with a serious expression.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask.

" I saw the way you were looking at him." He says attending the woman sitting next to me.

" So that doesn't mean I want to mess around with him. Anyways why is it I should stay away from him?" I curiously questioned.

" I've heard terrible things about him. Just be careful." He then leaves me attending everyone else.

"Terrible things?" That made me even more curious.

I drain my glass wondering what bad things he could be talking about.

Meeting some random guys and dancing kind of made me forget though.

So I go back stage to prepare for my last performance. I wear my costume, fix my hair and makeup and I went on the stage.

I started the performance and it was going great.

Jaden Cuts me in the middle of my song.

"Attention everyone. I'm sorry I have to cut this performance short." Everyone shouts angrily at his announcement.

" I'm sorry but , Raven you're fired. You not allowed to set your foot on this club ever again." He smirk as if he's victorious, and I could see Jane smiling wickedly.

"And this is your biggest plan yet? To embarrass in front of everyone? Well guess what? The joke is on you because, this club…" I move my fingers across the whole room. "Is nothing without me and you know that. But I know you have your pride and you won't admit anything. So goodbye!." I flip my hair and walked off the stage.

Everyone else was booing Jaden off the stage. He tries to force everyone to continue the show, with Jane taking my spot. I didn't care, I knew it was gonna backfire without me anyways. Jane's singing was nothing compared to mine. She could lip sync at most.

" That was smooth huh? Making everyone believe you don't care, yada yada yada. Guess what this club will be fine without you." Jaden mumbled behind me as I'm going to pack my stuff because I was more than ready to leave. I'm not here to satisfy them with my sorrows, I won't beg them either.

"Hi." I bump into the man from earlier in the bar.

He stares me up and down making me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. Wondering if there was something wrong with my dress or face.

"Mr Wilson." Jaden approaches with the biggest I've never seen. I've never seen him so happy to see someone before.

"I was just escorting miss Harwell out of the club." He explains looking like a little kid running into his parents, when he was planning to run away with his friends.

" I thought she was supposed to be on stage." He c***s his eyebrow in question.

"No we've decided to let her go. She's banned from the club." He grins from ear to ear.

" I…" He cuts me off before I could even defend myself.

"You're firing her because she found you sleeping with another girl on your wedding right?" His questions surprising both me and Jaden.

I was wondering how did he know about the marriage incident. Was he there? Is he one of Jaden's friends.

"No… I..I…" He couldn't finish whatever he was stuttering about, he was cut off.

"I want her back on stage." He face grew stale and I think I was seeing Jaden sweating. Is he really so scared of this man?

"But…" He glares at him , which he instantly kept quiet.

"I won't repeat myself." Jaden just froze in place almost pale.

"You heard the man, go back to the stage." He waves his hand carelessly. It's so annoying to see him act so bossy around everyone, it's really nice to see him sqeal. I almost died laughing but I held my cool. Couldn't get away the thought of him squirming for someone else.

"Thank you sir." I smile so happy, my heart was jumping up and down with happiness. Even though I wasn't ready to beg anyone yet , I was still not ready to let go of this job.

I offer him my hand , waiting for him to shake mine.

"Don't jinx it." He sneers at me and left both jaden and I stunned.

"He's so rude." I complained. I thank him for giving me back my job but I feel like he doesn't have to act like an asshole.

" Enough with you. Go back to the stage!" He yells at me like he was not sweating and squirming just a minute ago.

"Ugh, whatever." I turn on my heels and went back to everyone on the stage.

As I was instructed , I busted into the stage and took over. I have to admit I really loved the look on Jane's face when she saw me climbing on that stage.

"What are you doing here? Jaden fired you!." She storms angrily at my direction.

" Well think again, sweetness." I took my place as I ordered everyone to get ready.

" Your girl is back, to rock the stage." I screamed through the mic and everyone applauds and cheers loudly. With no care of Jane's evil glances , I continue the show and killed it.

**

It's already 2am in the morning and I'm preparing to leave for home. I call Amanda, she is the one who drives me home. It's late I know, but she's the only person I trust.

"Sweetie!" I hugged my sister and she does the same.

"I'm sorry to bother you late at night." She pulls away and looks at me with a smile.

"Sis , your safety is more than important to me. I have to make sure you make it home safe." We both walk to her car.

" So how was your night?"

"As bad as I thought it would be." I answered.

Left the club and into her car which was parked in front of the entrance.

"Wanna tell me all about it." We both went inside the car and she starts the engine.

"Well first I got some pep talk from Fred, which went as well as you can imagine it. But everything seemed fine, I performed my show and was fire as always. I then met this guy, Athan who's very wierd and Drake told me to stay away from him. Though I really like the way he scares Jaden. Jaden fired me today..." My sister looks at me surprised.

" You got fired?" I could hear the anger in her words.

"Don't worry. The mysterious man helped me get my job back." I said enthusiastically.

" How?" I get why my sister is surprised. Jaden is stubborn, you can't convince him unless he's getting something out of it.

" Well he knows about our scandalous wedding. So he knew it was unfair for me to be fired , because his stupid ass couldn't keep it inside his pants. So he told him to give me back my job and he was so scared that he unfired me immediately." I explained to Amanda.

" I thought Jaden is the boss." Through the side of her face I could see the shock.

"Yeah I thought so too. Turns out the new guy runs everything."

" How could he run everything, if you say he's new?" She asks as she sways us through the dark streets.

"I don't know. I don't care. As long as it serves me well and will keep Jaden of my tail, then I'm good."

" Well I'm glad you still have your job." She drives us both home. We both chat on the way , and before we know it we were both back home. I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning she was already gone. Of cause she works day shifts.

I get something to eat, I do some chores and I watched TV. Before I knew it I had zoned out.

I woke already late. I make some dinner for Amanda and I went to prepare myself for work.

***

I lock the house and went into the car. Amanda left me with the car keys because his boyfriend is coming over tonight. I drove myself to work and went on my dress room to prepare for tonights show.

Then suddenly someone bursts into my room.

"Well well well, if it isn't miss Hardwell. You know just because you got your job back you think you've already won. Well let me tell you something boo, this is my stage. And you, you'll wish you never knew this place." I turn to look at her as I brush off her senseless threat.

"Is that a threat, Miss Jane ? Because from here it sounded like a girl so desperate for the sport light. Something you don't know.. jealousy looks so bad on you." I pet her shoulder and walked past her.

"Your threats are getting old, try something new." I walk out of the room and into the stage. I walk into my spot light and I started to do what I'm good at.

**

I climb off stage and my performance was spectacular as usual.

"Wow you looked amazing up there." Drake gave me my favorite drink which I accept gladly.

Thank you Drake." I endure my cold cocktail as I stare around the club.

"I wonder what they are talking about?" I see Mr Wilson talking with two man wearing black suits. From where I was sitting whatever they are discussing , seems so important and yet again he looks bored out his mind.

"Poor him." I muttered as I take another sip spinning back to see Drake.

" I heard he just bought this club. He's the new boss now." Drake glances at him slightly.

" Well good then, coz it means I get to keep my job. Maybe finally stop Jaden breathing down my neck." I drank my cocktail and ordered another one. The night went by busy as always. I went back to my room and started packing my things.

"Ohh my God, why are you leaving so early? Did something happen?" Jane asked as she noticed me packing. Sometimes I feel like she's just too obsessed with me.

"You would love that, wouldn't you?" I continue stacking my things inside my hand bag.

"My sister is not coming to pick me up, so I'm leaving early. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get going." I took my bag and walked past.

" What about the show? Aren't you performing tonight?"

" You can take over sweetheart." I walked away and I'm sure she was squealing with joy. I don't care, I just went to my car because I knew when I come back the next day, it will all be over and I will be the star once more.

I went to the car and drove away. I was listening to my favorite when my sister called.

I pick up the phone "Sis?" I answered.

"Are you still at the club?" She tries to hide it but I could still hear that she was more than worried.

"No I'm driving home. I'll be home very soon." I say with a calm voice as I drive through the dark streets.

"I'm so glad you…" She never even finished her sentence.