I meet the king of pop.
(Darren is as young as he is in the books but the princes just accepted it and did not make him go through his trials. They live in the mountain because Larten is with Arra. One more thing, Darren's MP3 player is battery powered.)
Darren's POV
I sat in the food hall with my headphones in my ears and looked around. I could see my mentor, Larten Crepsley walking through the huge doors coming towards my table. He was not alone her had his arms wrapped around Arra, his mate, and they were both walking over. I quite liked Arra, and I liked Mr Crepsley having someone to be with. The only bad thing is that they share the cell next to mine and well...they really should keep it down at night...
They got to my table and sat down, Mr Crepsley next to me and Arra sat next to him. Well I say next to him, she was practically on his lap.
"Hey."
"Hello Darren." The both said at exactly the same time which sent them into a fit of giggles. I sighed and looked towards the door again. OH MY GOD. Who the hell is that? It looks like Michael Jackson but he died the same year that I became a vampire. Wait a second, I faked my death what if he faked his...and became a vampire.
The couple next to me calmed down so I decided to ask them about what I saw.
"Ummm guys. Do not laugh at me. Ok?"
"Don't give us a reason to laugh at you then." Arra said still laughing slightly.
"Uhhh...I think I just saw Michael Jackson."
"Who?" Mr Crepsley asked. Oh yeah I forgot he was a bit of a dunce when it came to music.
"You know the king of pop he 'died' the year I was made into a vampire." I put air quote around the word DIED.
"Oh, you mean Master Jackson."
"Huh?"
"I think you are talking about Seba's newest assistant."
"Wow that is so cool. Do you think I could meet him? Please, please, please, please." I pleaded.
"You will have to ask Seba."
"So Darren." Arra asked me. "Do you like Michael Jackson?"
"Hell yeah, I have listened to his music since I was like...born. I know all of his songs and I have read tonnes of books about him."
"I have never heard his music."
"WHAT!"
"No, me neither." Mr Crepsley added.
My mouth hung open in surprise. Whilst I was trying to think of any possible reason to how the pair had never heard any of his music I realised I still had my head phones in. I pulled them out and cleaned them off, not that I had any ear crap on them but I know that Mr Crepsley is a bit of a neat freak so just to be safe.
"Here, put these in your ears." They took one each and pushed them into their ears.
"Darren before you start the songs, turn the volume down. It will probably blow our ears off at the volume you have it at." It was true I do have my head phones on very loud, and they would have to be extra quiet because of their sensitive vampire hearing.
"Ok, I will start with my favourite."
I pressed the play button and 'Give in to me' came out of the headphones. They listened to the songs all of the way through.
"So do you like?"
"I love it." Arra said with a huge grin on her face.
"It is good. Better than the usual stuff you listen to." That meant he liked it in short.
"Can you put on another?" Arra asked me.
"Sure."
I looked down at the long list and chose 'the way you make me feel' another one of my favourites. The sing started and Arra said.
"OOOOO I know this one." She said as she quietly sang along.
Mr Crepsley took out his head phone and passed it to Arra who gladly took it and shoved it in her other ear.
"Darren I think you should go and ask Seba, now."
"Ok, I'll be right back."
"Wait a second. Remember to speak properly around Seba else you know what the consequences will be."
"Ok...Sir." I added at the end.
I walked towards the door to find Seba just entering.
"Hello, Seba."
"Hello, what a pleasure to see you today. Could I be of any assistance?"
"Um..Yes actually. Mr Crepsley said that you got a new assistant around the same time as he got me. I was wondering if I could possibly meet him."
"Yes of course. He should be here shortly. I told him to come to my table."
"Seba?" I asked as we walked over to the table.
"Yes?"
"Is he really Michael Jackson?"
"Yes. How do you know his name?"
"Because he is the king of pop."
"You mean I was the King of pop." A voice came from behind me, it was a lot lower than I expected.
I turned round to come face to face with a tallish, white skinned, man. None other than Michael Jackson, himself.
"Hello." He said.
"Hi. Umm, my name is Darren Shan." I said as I stuck out a hand and I was hoping he would state his name so I could be absolutely sure it was in fact him.
"I am Michael Jackson." He said as he shook my hand firmly.
"I know you are! What happened we really thought you died! And how the hell did you get away with the memorial service where your gold coffin was in the middle of the theatre."
"I got away with dying the same way you did and well the coffin contained meat and it was locked."
"But your family says they did an autopsy."
"It was on my body double. I am still not quite sure how I got away from all of that."
I looked over his shoulder only to find Arra still singing along but to 'This is it'.
"I think you have got another fan." I said as I pointed to Arra.
His face lit up and he walked really slowly over to the table and sat down really quietly. Then out of no-where he started to sing along with Arra.
She looked straight up at him and then at me.
"Who is that?" She said pointing at Michael.
"That is who you were just listening to."
"Oooohhhh crap."
"What's wrong Arra you were good?" I stated.
She turned as red as Mr Crepsley's cape and I thought she might want to get out of here.
"Hey how about we go to my cell. It should be empty and you will not have to worry about blushing too much."
"Fine. Come on." She snapped and grabbed Mr Crepsley's hand and led the way.
We walked down the tunnels, Arra still leading the way, then Mr Crepsley and Seba then Michael and me. He turned to me a said.
"You seem to know a lot about me, you don't happen to know how my family and fans and friends are coping. Do you?"
I racked my brains, it had been a long time since I thought about this.
"Well I know that your mum is your kid's legal guardian now. And that Janet has brought out some new songs. In three days it will be the day that you faked your death, so people will be sad, obviously. The last I heard was that your doctor is going through legal trails at the court about murder."
"Dr Murray?" He asked, I nodded my head. "That's terrible, he was such a good guy."
"Oh yeah and there is this man called Dave Dave. He used to be called Dave Robinson but he changed his name. He said that you paid for some of his treatment when he got really badly burnt. But people think that it is just you in a costume."
We reached my cell and I walked inside, the door was already opened because the others had just invited themselves in. My room was the most modern, or as Vancha calls it, the most human room in the whole mountain. Only because I had more than two changed or clothes, batteries for my MP3 player and some calone in there. I had other things such as tooth brushes and a hair brush and things like that but I had to hide a lot of them because for some reason most vampires like to look scabby. Oh, and there is a mirror in the corner, Vancha takes the piss out of that the most because he says real vampire never look in the mirror, but I can counter that and say, real vampires aren't stupid enough to go out in the sun.
"What are you talking about music?" Seba asked, clearly confused.
"I was sort of a pop star."
"SORT OF!" I blurted out but got a swift slap round the head from Seba to shut me up.
"I mean, what do you mean sort of, you were like the best musician ever."
"Oh really, Ok show me what you can do." Seba said smugly.
"Of course sir." He said whilst standing in the middle of our little group. "What songs would you like me to do?"
Everyone looked at me.
"Ok, do 'smooth criminal'."
"Sure. But only if you sing along."
"Fine, I will."
He begun and I let him start; it was his song after all. He was dancing and singing and the chorus started and I joined in. We were singing and dancing together and then Arra joined in with Mr Crepsley and Seba just watching. Arra walked over to Mr Crepsley and grabbed his hand and pulled him up. He started dancing and I was shell shocked. My mentor was dancing, no scratch that my 200 year old, normally strict and tightly strung up mentor was dancing. Me and Michael were sticking to the routine and Mr Crepsley and Arra were just dancing together and Seba was tapping his hand on his knee with a slight smile on his face, I think that was the closest to dancing we would ever get out of Seba.
The song ended. "So what did you think, Seba?"
"Very good but we must go, you can come back tomorrow if you want."
"Ok, see you guys tomorrow."
They walked out of the room and left me, Mr Crepsley and Arra on our own. They were giggling together like teenagers and I went over and pushed them out.
"See you."
"Bye, Darren." They both said and left.
They went straight to their cell and shut the door. I could still hear their giggling and I was very glad that the walls were opaque or god knows what I would have seen. I pushed my headphones in and lay down in my hammock. I could still hear their laughter over my music; this would be a long night. I turned up the volume to full blast and somehow managed to fall asleep.