Kind Of Woman (Mirage Era: Part 1)

You Have Another Waiting At Home

***ATTENTION: Symbolism, sadness, lots of sex and angst ahead! Enjoy!***
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Château d'Houerville
"The Honkey Château"
Houerville, France
Wednesday, December 30, 1981
4:30 am
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Stevie was in the recording booth. She was wearing her headphones, standing at the mic, waving at Robin who stood in the window and waved back. The lyric sheets were in her hand but she didn't need them; she knew her words by heart...

"Well I never thought I'd make it here in Hollywood...I never thought I'd ever want to stay...What I seem to touch these days has turned to gold...What I seem to want, well, you know I'll find a way..."

She made a goofy face in the window towards Robin, who was laughing even though she couldn't hear because she was in a soundproof booth to sing. That was when the lyric sheets slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor, and she hurried to pick up the papers before she had to sing the next line into the mic.

"For me it's the only life that I've ever known...and love is only one fine star away...Even though the living is sometimes laced with lies, it's alright...The feeling remains even after the glitter fades..."

She had closed her eyes to sing the chorus, and when she opened them, Robin was no longer in the window, watching her. Jimmy had been very strict about not having friends of hers hanging around the studio to distract her; they had to make the album in three months so she could still fly to France to keep her promise...but where had Robin disappeared to?...

She was walking down a dark corridor all of a sudden, using a lighter for a flashlight until it began to be too hot to hold so she dropped it on the floor and kept moving ahead. A big, heavy concrete door marked EXIT ONLY was all she could see ahead of her...she wished she had been wearing her glasses.

Pushing the door open was hard, but she had to; something told her Robin was out there in the alley, smoking a cigarette and talking to some of the people she'd introduced her to there.

Stevie gasped in horror at the sight: A long, black limousine was in the alley, engine running, and two large men in black suits were stuffing a moving blue sack into the back seat. She could hear the muffled sounds coming from the sack that looked like laundry...IT WAS ROBIN!

"Robin! Robin! What the hell are you doing with her? Put her down! Robin!" She began to scream her best friend's name. Taking a step, she once again dropped the lyrics to "After The Glitter Fades" to the ground...Why the hell had she carried these papers with her in the first place? She bent to pick them up; she had to save Robin and there wasn't much time but she knew Jimmy would be upset if he saw the lyrics lying around because he'd told her she wasn't supposed to be just passing time hanging out...he'd think she'd been idling in the alley too! She slipped as she bent over, twisting her ankle, her foot caught in what had been concrete a moment ago but was now wet, tacky cement...and her foot was stuck. She could feel the cement drying around her ankle but she couldn't move it at all...Was cement supposed to burn your skin like this? Robin had stopped fighting now, she could see; the sack was no longer moving. But she couldn't breathe in there! Didn't these guys in suits know she couldn't breathe in there?

"Robin!" That was a scream; she didn't care anymore if Jimmy heard. Robin was being kidnapped, goddamn it, and she was stuck in the cement! "Don't take her! Please! She's my best friend...what did she ever do to you" She felt hot tears spring from her eyes and she could barely see...shit, she really needed her glasses...but what she really needed was to get out of this cement and save Robin...but it was too late. The rear door of the long, black limousine was closed, an unmoving laundry sack containing her best friend inside, and she could only crouch in the cement and cry. The limousine was backing too fast out of the alley now...she had to stop the car. She began to scream, "Help! Somebody! They got my best friend! They got my best friend!" And they did, the car speeding around the next corner and out of sight.