Life Without You

Chapter 1 - The Painful Truth

"Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" by the Backstreet Boys. Fits perfectly how Leon is feeling.
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"Ariel? Ariel..no!" Leon wailed as he hugged her body one last time.

"I'm sorry, Leon, we really did try our best. She has passed," Theo said calmly.

"Not true, not true! She was fine and was wheeled home! Why is she here?"

"Leon, you've been imagining things for months. The truth is she cannot wake up. We'll need to switch the machine off," Beth explained.

"NO! I won't allow you to do it!" Leon shielded Ariel's body and prevented Beth from switching off the machine that was artificially keeping her alive.

"Please let her go..." Rita begged.

Andy was crying over his mother's body. Leon took one last hard look at Ariel's face. She looked so peaceful and beautiful and was still wearing that beautiful dress from the gala dinner. It was hard to believe that she was gone. This has got to be a joke. No, she's not dead, she can't be dead.

"No...I won't allow it, I WON'T ALLOW IT!"

Suddenly, he felt a strong pair of hands tearing him away from her.

"What are you doing, Evan? LET ME GO!" he kicked and screamed, but Evan was unmoved. The other bodyguards came and held him down as Beth proceeded to switch off the machine.

"Ariel!!!" Leon howled and collapsed into a heap.

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"Ariel?" Leon whispered as his eyelids slowly unfolded.

"Leon, are you alright?" asked Evan as his face hovered over him.

"Where's Ariel?"

"She's gone, remember?" he reminded.

So it was true, Ariel did die and all that happened - her returning home from the hospital, their celebrations and all - were just imaginations. Evan passed him a tissue as tears streamed down his boss' face but he did not say a word.

It was not the first time he had been hallucinating since Ariel and Andy disappeared.

News around the world were going crazy over what looked like Leon Waltz's apparent meltdown.

Ever since Ariel left three months ago, every trace of her and Andy in the country vanished. News of her not collecting her million-dollar win shocked the whole world and the headlines were ruthless in inventing imaginary theories as to what happened between her and Leon.

Beth, Camila and Rita have also been kept in the dark of where she and Andy went, and were the ones giving social support to Leon who now replaced Ariel as the 4th member of the group, grieving along as to what had happened to their close friend whom they regard as a sister.

Leon had hired a private investigator to trace her and Andy's whereabouts, but to no avail as they only managed to trace her last steps flying off to India and then to China, and the trace vanished from there. Why would she and Andy fly off to those places? To take a break from the mess at home, perhaps?

Because of this, Leon could not fulfil the full year of promoting Fujita sauces. Fujita Corporation paid half of the $10 million originally agreed and decided to discontinue working with him.

Another blow to his reputation was the collapse of the pretend relationship with Jasmine Ferne, resulting in many angry fans threatening to boycott the upcoming movie and an angry director, William Jones demanding for a quick remedy of this mess or his money back.

But Leon could not care anymore.

Jasmine Ferne had now moved on to a new boyfriend, a fellow A-list actor from Hollywood who was just as hot over heels over her as she was on him, and she looked much happier in the pictures, no longer burdened by a pretence relationship.

The three months saw Leon spending more time at home binge drinking almost everyday. His extreme mood swings and unstoppable outbursts meant that he was unfit for work and unable to complete his album. Many brands were dropping him as the face of their endorsements as the tabloids were reeked with unflattering pictures and videos of him in a drunken stupor, cursing and swearing at the paparazzi and fans, an image that saw them unwilling to partner with him anymore. Worldwide sale of his skincare line was plummeting as a result of boycotts by angry fans.

Even Arnold and Vinny were helpless at the apparent downfall of his reputation. Pressure and demands from Avon Music were falling onto deaf ears, as Leon continued his alcohol addiction. Many of his upcoming performances and TV appearances were postponed or cancelled as a result.

The empty rooms of Ariel and Andy were painful reminders of what he once had. Their absence created a huge crater in his heart that no amount of alcohol or women could fill. He refused to let Anna clean up Ariel's and Andy's rooms in the effort to preserve the last of their presence.

Sometimes, he would lie in Ariel's bed to feel the presence she once occupied, only to awake in a blank state, knowing that she was no longer there. Her scent has long gone but it felt like she was here a while ago, since he kept the smell of her favourite lavender scent alive with lavender candles. Leon would look back at the photo they took together at Tokyo on his phone from time to time, and even rewatched the competition on the day she won. 

He continued dating random women in the hopes to forget her but his thoughts always stuck to the one woman who got away and whom he never once slept with, and she had now miraculously disappeared from the face of the earth.

To make matters worse, the women whom he had slept with were now turning against him with embarrassing lewd details, threatening to wreck his reputation further unless payments were made. He refused their ridiculous requests and they went ahead with their evil.

Leon Waltz, the despicable.

Leon Waltz, from hero to zero.

Leon Waltz, the useless playboy who couldn't perform in bed.

And on and on went the headlines.

The news was selling like hot cakes everyday with some form of new revelation about him, regardless if they were real or fake. Interviews poured in like mad to invite him to speak, but he refused all. Despite his PR team's best effort to quell the inferno, Leon's career seemed to be heading down the toilet.