“Have you guys seen Addie? She said she’ll be here later but…I can’t find her anywhere.”

Both McKenna and Arin looked up to Lacey, squinting their eyes to fight the blinding light from the sun. She shook her head, and so did Arin.

“Sandcastle guys? Seriously? How old are you?”

“Twelve.” Both McKenna and Arin said and they giggled together later. Lacey rolled her eyes and walked forward to her husband who was trying to swim using the yellow duck-head float.

“God, baby! You’re embarrassing me!”

They heard Lacey groaned at Johnny and they laughed at them, releasing the awkward pause between them ever since they started building this silly sandcastle together. Arin can’t control his heart from beating like crazy when he saw her in her dark purple bikini top and a jersey shorts which he guessed it belonged to Brian.

“So after the vacation, what’s your plan?” McKenna asked while piling up a heap of damp sand on top of another damp sand they had made earlier.

“My plan? Hmm, I dunno. Probably gonna take another vacation. What about you?”

“Not you silly! I was talking about the band. Your precious band.”

“Oh! Hmm, writing process I guess? For the new album? Man I can’t wait to be a part of it!”

“So do you have any idea on how it will sound?”

Arin shrugged and dug a little deeper to form his little pond beside the castle. “Probably the same style as before but different approach.”

McKenna nodded and said nothing more. “How’s The Skull Arise?”

“Huh? Oh, we’re doing fine, I guess. Besides performing in Anaheim for months we couldn’t get out of Huntington.”

Arin stared at her long, until she felt her cheeks hot with blush under his gaze.

“Do you want to be our opening act, someday?”

McKenna straightened up. Her eyes gleamed with hope. To her that was like Arin asking to go out on a date with her.

“Of course I do, Arin! Wow, Even Brian didn’t ask me this, but you! Oh Arin, thank you!”

Without knowing she plunged herself onto him, making him fell on the sandy ground with her on top of his shirtless body, yet again. She froze as their eyes locked and their heartbeats rose up higher. Arin smiled a little and raised his hand to touch her hair but stopped halfway when a voice suddenly spoke;

“WOW! Nice castle!”

Both Arin and McKenna yelped and jumped apart from each other, scattered to find their own composure. Brian Sr squatted in between them with his palm under his jaw, just calmly watching.

“Dad! You scared us!”

“Why? Were you in the middle of something before?”

“No! We were just…” she stuttered and didn’t know what to say next. She did jump onto him clumsily so it was practically her fault.

“Oh, carry on. Don’t mind me. Pretend I’m invisible.” Brian Sr wiggled his eyebrows at Arin who chuckled nervously.

“Anyway, have you seen your brother? I’ve been trying to call him but can’t get through.”

“Nope. He’s been cranky anyway since we’ve arrived. Something happened between him and Michelle?”

Brian Sr shrugged but his eyes still glared at Arin. “Don’t know about those two but about you two…hmm...Arin, this is my precious daughter. If something happens to her during your sandcastle building,” he motioned a thumb across his throat.

Arin swallowed the lump in his own throat. “We..I..I don’t..”

“Hahahahaha!! I’m just joking, kid. Lighten up a little! Jeez! Why does everyone seem to take me seriously? I’m a comedian aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but not a funny one.” McKenna spat back, her arms folded across her chest. Arin felt like laughing but he held back the urge.

“You ungrateful daughter. Go to your room!”

“But daaadd!!”

“Good God, even you too, Mac? Come on! I was kidding! How can I ground you in the middle of a freaking – I said freaking Mac – beach!”

“Ughhh go away dad!”

McKenna pushed her dad away until he got up and walked off by his own. Arin can’t control his laughter anymore.

“Your dad is fucking awesome, Mac.”

“Yeah, glad one of us thinks so.”

---

The airport looked a little crowded, with random people wearing black tshirts printed with Avenged Sevenfold’s winged-skull logo, waiting for their arrival. I have dealt with this kind of situation before; fans willing to stand here for fucking 6 hours straight just to get a glimpse of them, or if they were lucky, they get to take pictures with them. I don’t even know where the hell did they get the information about them being here.

I scanned around while walking behind Brian and Michelle. Shit. These two. I have no idea why Michelle was being nice to me yesterday. After Brian had done seducing me behind the rocks, I suggested that he’d better head to the beach first and I’ll follow him 10 minutes later. This was to avoid suspicions, which Brian reluctantly agreed.

He went on first as I was putting on my tshirt back and tied the bikini strings to my neck. I reached the door just a few minutes after he had gone and God help me, I ran into Michelle.

“Oh, hey Addie! Have you seen Brian?”

I strung back, questioning at her reason to speak so friendly towards me. “Uh..nope. Haven’t seen him since breakfast.” I lied.

“Hmm, I wonder where he’s been.” She put her index finger on her chin and tipped her head up.

“Well, see ya.” I wasn’t in the mood to entertain Brian’s girlfriend at the moment. I don’t even know if she’s still his girlfriend or not.

“Hey Addie.” She called and I was forced to turn around.

“Yeah?”

“We got off to a bad start. I’m sorry. Let’s just start over.”

Wow. I can’t help but find a similarity between Brian and her. It was like a freaking dejavu when I heard her wanting to start over with me. But wait, start what?

“I’m sorry if I’ve been pretty cold to you all this time. I just thought that Brian doesn’t need a bodyguard. But after seeing how you protect him, I feel that he does now.”

I gritted my teeth and sported a fake smile.

“I want us to be friends! Since Brian and I will move in together after this, I want us to get used to each other. What do you say?”

WHAT? They will move in together? So, Brian lied about telling her that he can’t be with her anymore? For God’s sake I don’t even know what to believe right now.

“Addie, Addie, come in.”

I jolted back to reality and quickly looked around again. Andy’s voice in my earpiece, sounded so alarming. I turned, slightly away from Brian and Michelle who allegedly taking photos with the fans in the waiting area together with all the guys including Brian Sr.

“What? I can’t talk right now.” I pressed my earpiece and saw Andy was hiding behind the pillar somewhere near us.

Truth was, Andy said goodbye to them yesterday at dinner, saying that he had to go somewhere important for his work purposes and I can’t forget how he called me darling in front of their eyes, making another pair of piercing eyes watched me with furious flame.

Gah! Screw Brian. He lied to me, didn’t he? So I can lie too! Shit.

Back to Andy; after he said goodbye, he didn’t actually leave. He never left. He was watching our moves carefully, in case the fucker that called me anonymously showed up. Thank God during our last night in Cabo, nothing had happened.

“3 o’clock, your right.”

I glanced rapidly over to the direction; a swarm of giggling fans surrounded the boys and their girlfriends, flashes of cameras flared that I couldn’t really see straight.

“What is it? Can’t see anything.”

“Bald guy in Metallica’s shirt.”

I studied the reference. He didn’t look anywhere like near the criminal that we wanted.

“That’s just a fan, Andy.”

“What about that bald guy in Ramones? He looks like our guy.”

“No way. That’s a random person.”

Andy didn’t answer me, but I saw him moving quietly around us, and just as I watched him, a guy in a black hoodie came towards Brian and his fans. Brian didn’t notice anything, so did Michelle. Hell she even had fans now.

That hooded guy must be their fans too, so maybe I shouldn’t be so jumpy about it. I looked around and learned that Big T was talking to some fans, with Matt and Valary behind him, interacting with their own.

“SHIT, THAT GUY HAS A GUN!!”

What?! Andy screamed in my ears as I turned to Brian and saw that he was left alone; the hooded guy sneaked something out of his pocket and holy shit, it’s a fucking silencer!

“Brian!!” I sprinted towards him, tried to push him away. He looked at me; a smile etched on his face as I went near him, more like in front of him – everything was happening in a slow speed I didn’t know why – I was face to face with the hooded guy. His silencer drew, and pointed straight to my stomach, his lips curved up in a smile, and then suddenly I heard a quiet trigger pull and a sharp thrust went into me and everything was back in normal speed again.

“ADDIE!!”

I heard someone screamed my name. Brian?

“ADDIE! SHITT!! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! ADDIE!!”

I realized that I was lying down on the floor when he started to hold my head and put me on his lap. Everything was so blurry. I saw a group of people approached me in a circle and I was confused.

“GOD, ADDIE! TALK TO ME! SOMEBODY CALL 911!!”

Call 911? Why? Have I injured myself? My hand roamed over my stomach and I felt a presence of metallic fluid on my fingers. My blood.

I looked up to Brian. He looked so worried and his eyes pooled with tears. But I don’t want him to cry. This is my job. Shit. MY JOB. Whatever happened to that bastard who shot me?

“ADDIE, DON’T FALL ASLEEP! TALK TO ME! ADDIE! GOD, NOT AGAIN!”

As I watched his brown eyes staring down at me in worry - I can’t figure out why, my mind quickly thought of our sin. Brian doesn’t deserve a painful cheating relationship. If I wasn’t in his way, he would have treat Michelle better, or even himself better.

“Brian..” I called him aloud, but my voice was against me. It only came out in whisper.

“Yeah, baby..??”

He called me that in front of these many people. Including Michelle. They must be shocked by now.

“We..can’t be together. I’m sorry.”

“What?! What the fuck are you saying? Cut the crap now and stay with me! Addie!”

I shook my head. The pain started to cringe within me and my head gone heavy, my vision was blurry than ever. A voice faintly ringing in my ear;

“Addie, I got the guy. Hang in there. Backups are on their way.”

Then everything went black.

---

She was living it. This is her favorite place to be. Beside Brian and his limelight. She wanted to be Mrs Haner the most, but she doesn’t want him to be in the picture. She wants his 20 million dollar mansion, and 300 million dollar royalty – that can only be obtained once she’s officially married to him.

She had her eyes on Brian ever since day one, even when Jimmy was around. They became best friends because Valary introduced them to her. That girl has been with Matt forever. At first she went along with them just fine; fulfilling their teenage years with drug needs and alcohol boost.

She knew right then that Brian’s gonna get big someday. It was a right decision for her to slip those pills in his beer and they hooked up that night. Damn, she couldn’t get herself pregnant and surely she can’t fake one right now since Brian hadn’t touch her one bit. If only she could get him to be drunk again…

She never really meant to kill Brian, she just wanted to have him all for herself. Even his memory. She doesn’t want anybody else to be in her way. Not even Jimmy.



Nobody in this whole wide world knows that Jimmy didn’t die of suicide. It was one major drug mistake. The drug was meant for Brian to be high, but instead, Jimmy sipped his drink fizzed with it and clashed with his heart condition and medication. Michelle has kept her mouth shut ever since.

And now this bitch appeared. Michelle wondered what does the girl has that Brian can’t take his eyes off her even for one second. Even now, while he was signing some autographs and taking pictures with the fans, his pupil still wandered around looking for his security girl.

Michelle’s eyes caught her moved relatively far from them and she nodded at herself, as a cue for the man who was doing her dirty job to strike Addie at anytime. But then she saw him walking fast towards Brian who just signed off his last autograph and started picking up his luggage to go inside the waiting area.

No! Fuck, not Brian! Michelle screamed in her head and bulging her eyes, forbidding the attack on Brian. But then out of nowhere, Addie ran towards him and pushed Brian away. The shot was fired, making a quiet sound of silencer shot in a mere split second.

Michelle froze watching everything reverb to chaos. People were screaming frantically, her guy managed to escape quietly but the airport police saw him and chased him off. Michelle saw everything and didn’t know what to feel or think. She wanted this to happen. She wanted Addie to die but now that it happened, she wasn’t sure anymore.

Brian knelt in despair, calling out Addie’s name repeatedly. He was crying. Michelle never saw him cried this hard ever since Jimmy’s funeral. He ignored the world around him. The guys gathered in panic, so did the girls and Haner family. Big T was shoving off fans and seconds later, Michelle found herself dropped on the floor – feeling so weak and helpless.

She heard the sound of ambulance approaching and soon the paramedic took Addie away from there with Brian following from behind.

“Michelle! Are you okay?”

She looked up. Valary shook her body hard. “Why?” she asked quietly.

Valary pulled her into a hug and whispered; “Brian and Addie. They’ve been sneaking behind your back? God I don’t know what just happen but I swear to God, Chelle. If this is one of your tricks, I’m going to have to turn you in.”

Michelle pulled away from the hug and frowned at her twin sister. “What..what..what are you..saying?”

Valary pursed her lips and looked around. The guys were being interrogated by New Mexican police officers. A lot of blood was spilled on the floor. It was a hideous scene and possibly tainted reputation, especially to a rock band like them.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Valary pulled her sister up and walked towards the guys. Matt was answering some questions from the officers and honestly none of them saw what happened. They just heard a silent gunshot and screams from everybody. Fans taking pictures of the scene, and they just couldn’t prevent this situation from leaking on the internet right now.

“Shit I’m so screwed.” Michelle said quietly, but Valary can hear her crystal clear. She knew it. She knew her sister like her own skin and bones.

But damn it Chelle. Not again?

Notes

A/N: hmm don't hate me guys..but if you already are..then..i can't help it :P