Dance Me to the End: Part Three

Dance Me to the End is set in the Magic Revealed universe. It is completely free. I'm posting it as I write it, so it is unedited, but proof-read.

This is Part Three.

Jack would've felt better if she'd have slapped him. He felt the wind knock out of him just the same. This was Gin. His Gin! His muse! The love of his life and the one that got away. The day she walked out the door was the worst of his life. Worse than breaking up with Penelope. Worse than Valkyrie's contract not being renewed. Worse than finding out that he wasn't going to get a goddamned penny from a decade's worth of sleeping in tour busses and playing until his fingers bled. That couldn't happen again. He couldn't feel that way again.

It should have been easy to get over her. After all, the best way to get over one lover was to get under another. Penelope had wanted him and he had fallen for it. He had never meant to hurt Gin. He had felt powerless against the pull of Penelope's desire. He didn't understand it. Not then. After the Reveal, when Penelope was one of the first celebrities outed as magical, Jack had put it all together. Ancient sirens had sung sailors to their deaths, hadn't they? Penelope would have done the same.

That was, perhaps, an excuse.

She's a siren, so you can't blame me for cheating. It's all her fault!

That kind of thinking was all too common in the early days of the Reveal. If you spoke like that now though, most good people would steer clear. No one liked a bigot. Jack didn't tolerate that in his bar and he wasn't going to tolerate it with himself either. He had been young. He had made a mistake. The blame lay squarely on his shoulders.

After Gin left, it should have been the best time of his life. Valkyrie's success had risen to new heights. The songs were hitting all the charts. The tour had sold out. Valkyrie had gone on the road, and he and Penelope had led the charge. Paparazzi had started to follow him, desperate for a shot of the Valkyrie's lead singer and bassist together. He was living the life of a true rockstar! He had money. He had drugs. He had the girl. He was no longer stuck in Seattle, playing in underground clubs. Sure, the fans had been dedicated in the early days. But nothing beat the rush of playing for a stadium full of people screaming your name.

Through it all, he was fucking miserable. He had been a dick to be around. When Jack looked back on those early days, and the reputation he had garnered, he cringed. He felt ashamed of how he had acted, guilty at the damage he had caused. He had wrecked hotel rooms, berated staff. When Valkyrie wasn't playing, he was drinking. When he wasn't drinking, he was passed out somewhere. Sometimes in his bed with Penelope. More often, not. One morning, he had woken up in the Desert Passage Shops of the Aladdin hotel in Vegas. The indoor rainstorm had begun while he, buck naked, had lain in the water feature. It had been the afternoon show. Penelope had been so furious, she had almost kicked him out of the band for it. Even now, tabloids ran fluff pieces about how difficult Johnny Mendez was to work with.

All he could think of during those days was how he was never going to see Gin again. Jack had looked her up after the band broke up. Her father had refused to speak with Jack, but the old man still lived in the same house. It was clear, though, that Gin moved on.

And now, she stood in front of him, shivering from the cold. He would give anything to draw her into his arms, but her face burned red with anger. He remembered that look. It signaled to him that her tongue had been unleashed. He used to brace himself for the yelling.

When the verbal lashing didn't come, he pleaded with her. "Please, Gin, can we just talk? Let's just go inside and talk."

His heart ached fiercely. It radiated out his chest and into his arms. He thought for a moment he might be having a heart attack. Maybe his luck had run out. It was time to meet his maker. At least he had seen Gin once more.

Gin stood up a little straighter, loosening her grip on her arms. "I don't want to go back in there." She said, firmly. "And I'm not going anywhere else with you."

Fully convinced this was his dying hour, Jack changed tack. He'd do anything to spend just one more minute alone with her. "How about some coffee? It's next door."

Gin nodded. The pain in his chest eased. He'd live another day... as an overdramatic asshole.