While He was Awake

The Last Night

©AppleheadIsLove
On the 24th of June, 2009, Michael returned home from rehearsals. He was particularly tired that night. As the concerts were approaching, he was becoming increasingly stressed. His anxiety had caused him such misery that the most complex recipes of modern medicine were of no use to him. He hadn’t slept in days, every time he closed his eyes, the thought of him not being able to perform would jerk them open again. If he didn’t do the concerts, he’d drown in debt. There was no way out but to stretch his body and mind beyond human limits even if that meant…no, he didn’t want to think it.
As he made his way up the stairs, his bodyguard called out to him
“Sir”
“Yes Bill?” Michael asked, his voice barely audible
“Carmen asked me to give this to you”
“Okay, thank you Bill, where is she though?”
“I don’t know sir, she went out in the evening, said she had somewhere to be”
He exhaled feebly in response and forced his legs to climb the steps again and again till he reached his bedroom. He closed the door behind him and dropped down on the bed. He was physically so exhausted that he could pass out, but his mind wouldn’t stop stressing. The thing he needed the most and the thing he couldn’t have at all was a little rest, a little rest from everything.
He opened the parcel that Bill had given him. There was a diary and a sheet of paper. He unfolded the paper first.

To Michael,
When you come back from rehearsals today, Bill will give you this diary. It tells my story, from the very beginning. Whatever you’ve wanted to know about me is in this. All the incessant questions that you kept pestering me with, my little applehead, will be answered through this.
I’ve seen how much you’ve suffered all these years. it was unbearable, but you held on. Don’t worry Michael, the suffering is only of the body and it will end soon. Be brave, Be strong. And tonight, when all seems lost, remember this that there was and will be, in the entire history of Homo Sapiens, only one Michael Jackson. No one can dream of coming close to the performer that you are.
I cannot bring myself to say goodbye to you and hence, by the time you get this letter, I would have gone back to be with you all over again….
Yours once again,
Carmen.

The letter was confusing, was it because of his tired state of mind or was it because he didn’t know the whole story yet? Hopefully the diary would unfold whole story, he thought, putting aside the letter and picking up the black leathered diary. On the cover, at the center, in tiny little gold letters was engraved

While He was Awake