Breathe

Title: Breathe: Prologue:…And He Went Out
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A rockstar is assisinated on stage.
Warning(s): Angst, character death, language, allusions of homosexuality.
Disclaimer: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. The song in this chapter is Breathe by Faith Hill. Chapter title is from a short story called The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde.
Series: None.
Word Count:
Note(s): Konnichiwa, Bitches is Maddox’s greeting to his fans. Konnichiwa is Japanese for ‘hello’. Bitches is what Maddox’s fans are called. Gaga has her little monsters, Johnny has his Angels, Adam has his Glamberts. And Maddox has bitches.

~*~

Maddox almost changed his mind when he heard how many people would be watching his New Year’s Eve show. It was an unprecedented event to start a concert in one year and finish in another. Several thousand people would pack Times Square to watch the ball drop and see Maddox perform a show the people who had thought it up were calling Maximum Volume. The name of the show was in reference to both the number of people to be in the audience and the volume of the music. The concert was being broadcast from coast to coast and millions of people would be watching him on television. But the show had been planned right down to the smallest detail. Maddox would play half of his set list, the ball would drop, and he would finish his set in the new year. There was no way he could back out.

Truthfully, he wanted what the night would bring too badly to back out.

“Five minutes, Maddox!” Katelyn called.

“I…um…yeah, okay.” He lifted his right hand to run his fingers through his hair.

Spencer paused in the application of glitter to Maddox’s eyelids long enough to slap his fingers. “No,” Maddox’s makeup artist/hair stylist ordered. “Keep your hands out of your hair until after the concert. Five minutes is not enough time to fix it.” Especially when the organic hypoallergenic hair products Maddox had to use didn’t hold his hair in place as well as the stuff he was allergic to would have. Spencer stood back and surveyed his work.

Maddox’s face was pale, flawless. His few freckles were hidden by concealer. His big blue-gray eyes seemed even larger due to the careful application of a large amount of eyeliner and mascara. Gold glitter had been applied to his eyelids to match the glittery gold gloss on his lips. Hours of careful sculpting and several hair products had given him a faux-hawk. Spencer had streaked his masterpiece with metallic gold. The idea was that, beneath the stage lights, Maddox would shine like the sun.

His stylist had been in on the mission to make him shine as well. Maddox was wearing shiny gold platform boots that came up to just below his knees. A pair of black leather pants so tight they looked painted on were tucked into his boots. With them he wore a gold silk button down shirt. Before he went out onstage Maddox would slip into his jacket. It was black leather with gold spikes of various sizes on each shoulder and a gold zipper on the front. Despite his asthma and the subsequent need to cover his chest when he was out in the cold, Maddox had planned to leave his jacket unzipped so his shirt was revealed. His jacket had been a Christmas present from August, left under the Christmas tree just before he had left.

“You’re good,” Spencer announced. “But don’t touch anything.”

Elizabeth materialized at his side suddenly before he could answer Spencer with an August-esque snarky comeback. He almost didn’t recognize her because despite her youthful attire of black skinny jeans and a black fleece lined hoodie, she was over forty and tonight every one of her years showed in the lines of her face. Maddox didn’t remember ever seeing her look that old before. She placed one hand on his left arm. Tonight Elizabeth’s wickedly long fingernails were painted a glittering gold that matched his own. Her other hand clutched a small black purse at her side. “Are you absolutely sure about this?” she asked. “You can’t go back if you change your mind later.”

“I’m sure,” Maddox said with absolute conviction. He smiled, the first genuine smile anyone had seen from him since August had left. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

His manager nodded. “I’ll see you after the show,” she promised.

“Places!” Katelyn called. “Maddox, get your jacket on!”

Maddox stood and slipped his coat on. He took a deep breath, suddenly nervous about what the night would bring but as he took his place just off stage and waited to be announced, he knew that, no matter if things went right or wrong, his fans were in for one hell of a show.

Beside him, Katelyn nodded to someone Maddox couldn’t see and shoved a microphone into his hand at the same time. The host of the television special – Nikki Narcissus, who was taking a year long break from his own hectic rockstar life – walked across the stage into Maddox’s line of sight. A roar went up from the crowd. Maddox was hit by a sudden attack of nervousness and squeezed his eyes shut. It was too late now. Even if he changed his mind it was too late. There was no way he could back out of what was about to happen.

“Hey!” Nikki shouted into the microphone in order to be heard over the thousands of people in the audience. “It’s great to see such an amazing turn out. Fifty years from now you can tell your kids and grandkids you were at the first annual Maximum Volume New Year’s Eve concert! But it won’t become an annual event unless enough people want it. So get out your iPhones and make Maximum Volume a trending topic on Twitter. Until midnight tonight the iPhone company will donate one dollar to Homes For The Homeless for every tweet with the words ‘Maximum Volume’ in it.

There was an enormous cheer from the audience.

“And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for – some of you since four o’ clock this morning-“

That brought another cheer and Maddox experienced a pang of regret for what he was about to do. Some of his fans had been waiting in Times Square to see him for nineteen and a half hours. It didn’t seem fair for him to go ahead with his plan.

But life wasn’t fair. If it was, Maddox wouldn’t be allergic to everything that made life worth living and August wouldn’t have left him.

“-the makers of iPhone are proud to present-“ Nikki continued “-Maddox!” Just Maddox because, like Cher and Madonna and Elvis and the rest of the truly great artists, he needed no other name.”

“Konnichiwa, Bitches!” Maddox shouted into his own microphone as he came out onto the stage.

There was a roar of approval from the crowd as more than a few of Maddox’s fans returned his greeting. He reached up to catch a black lacy bra as it flew through the air at his head. He grinned at his fans. “Come on, girls. You know I don’t swing that way,” he said and tossed it back in the direction it had come from. The crowd became even louder. Apparently not much had changed since Maddox’s coming out a month ago.

“I know we usually start out a set with Konnichiwa, Bitches,” he said when it was clear that no more undergarments were coming his way, at least for the moment.

And why is it always bras and granny panties, Maddox wondered. Why don’t any of the pretty boys throw their underwear at me?

“But just for tonight I want to change things up a little bit. Tonight I want to start with a new song I wrote for someone very special.” He was sure the audience knew just as well as he did who the ‘special someone’ was. August was the only person he had ever been romantically linked with. “It’s a ballad called Breathe.”

There was a lot of clapping and cheering even though Maddox knew that until that moment, none of his fans had even heard of his new song. Unless one of his rehearsals had been leaked to Youtube again. But that seemed unlikely because someone in his entourage usually knew immediately.

The first notes of the music to his new song played and the noise from the crowd in front of him grew less. Maddox waited for his instrumental cue and then his voice filled Times Square and all noise ceased. The only movement among the thousands of people gathered there was the gently falling snow. It seemed to fit with Maddox’s song.

I can feel the magic floating in the air
Being with you gets me that way
I watch the sunlight dance across your face
And I’ve never been this swept away
All my thoughts just seem to settle on the breeze
When I’m lying wrapped up in your arms
The whole world just fades away
The only thing I hear
Is the beating of your heart

Cause I can feel you breathe
It’s washing over me
And suddenly I’m melting into you
There’s nothing left to prove
Baby, all we need is just to be
Caught up in the touch
Slow and steady rush
Baby, isn’t that the way that love’s supposed to be
I can feel you breathe
Just breathe

In a way I know my heart is waking up
As all the walls come tumbling down
Closer than I’ve ever felt before
And I know, and you know
There’s no need for words right now

Cause I can feel you breathe
It’s washing over me
And suddenly I’m melting into you
There’s nothing left to prove
Baby, all we need is just to be
Caught up in the touch
Slow and steady rush
Baby, isn’t that the way that love’s supposed to be
I can feel you breathe
Just breathe

Caught up in the touch, slow and steady rush
Baby isn’t that the way that love’s supposed to be
I can feel you breathe
Just breathe

I can feel the magic floating in the air
Being with you gets me that way

The music faded away and the sound of thousands of hands applauding filled its place. The tears Maddox blinked back weren’t just from his allergies. “Thank you,” he said into the microphone. “There are no words to express how much all your support means to me.”

Near the stage in the first few rows of the audience a figure dressed in black from the hood on its head to its boots reached into a small purse at its side and pulled out a hand gun. In the excitement and noise of the New Years Eve crowd no one saw her take aim at the man on the stage. A finger ending in a long gold fingernail squeezed the trigger

The impact the bullet made when it hit his chest knocked Maddox off of his feet. Lying on the stage in the middle of Times Square, he gasped for breath and his last thought was I didn’t think it would hurt this much.