Emily's legs shook slightly as she rose from her chair. The manager's voice echoed around the club.

"Do dark, depressed, rock chick's make you rock hard? Let's find out!" The audience, mostly men, cheered. Emily felt sick.

Breathing deeply, she began to walk onto the stage. She could hear a cold, cruel voice in her head, muttering, chanting the same phrase over and over.

"Swallow your fear," Emily gulped. She gripped the microphone tightly and began to sing the first few lines of the song. She wouldn't have described it as rock but whatever. It was 'Demons' by Imagine Dragons and she knew it well. Thank God. She closed her eyes and blocked everyone out as she sang.

Hidden in the crowd, Don lost focus on Lyra as he concentrated on the beautiful words coming out of Emily's mouth. He couldn't take his eyes off her face and couldn't hear anything but her voice. A few men sitting in front of him grunted obscenity's about her and some other girls to each other. Don clenched his jaw and started to pace once more. After a while he found himself lost in the music again. It was over too soon. As Emily smiled to herself and walked off-stage all Don could think was that it was over far too soon.

Her legs shook as she sat down back stage but she smiled. She'd done it. It was over. Emily sighed gently and closed her eyes for the rest of the performances. Across the room, Lacey winked before returning to her friends. Lyra sat alone, in the corner scowling. When Emily's eyes met hers, she glared until Emily was forced to look away. There were announcements and talks from the manager until all the girls were called up. There was about ten of them in total. Lyra rolled her eyes when the drum roll started.

"And our new lovely lady is…" The manager grinned as the audience licked their lips in anticipation. Several of the girls tapped their feet as the manager slowly pulled open the envelope containing the answer.

"Emily!" The audience cheered as Emily gave a fake simper and wave. A few of the girls looked ready to cry but Lyra was fuming. The next moments were over quickly, mostly waiting for everyone to leave. Don and Danny waited near the entrance; Mac had been called and was waiting at the back entrance. Lacey was the last to leave. Just as Emily prepared to change, Lyra appeared behind her.

"You absolute cow," she snarled. "That place was mine"

Emily turned to face her and smirked. "Please. The best person won." Emily smiled a sickly sweet smile and asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Why don't you ask the audience?"

"You're nothing more than a small, scared little girl," Lyra sneered but sounded slightly confused.

"And you're nothing more than a pathetic, worn out failure," Emily retorted, daring Lyra to say something more. When she was silent, Emily snorted and turned. Cold hands pulling at her hair made Emily yelp in surprise. Lyra dragged her back viciously.

"Scared?" Lyra hissed into Emily's ear. Emily twisted in her grip and pushed her in the stomach, hard. Lyra fell back, but kept her hands tangled in Emily's hair. Both fell backwards with a crash.

.

Outside, Don and Danny heard the loud crash from inside. Don immediately went to go in, but Danny stopped him with a hand to his chest and shook his head.

"We need her blood." Don nodded and once more, paced.

.

Lyra scrambled back on the floor like a frantic insect. Emily pulled herself up and shook her hair back. Lyra drew her hand back and hit Emily at full force. Her face tingling from the slap, Emily stood up, grabbed Lyra and threw her against the mirrored desks. Lyra squealed as her body smashed into the hard metal desk. Heaving herself up, Lyra shoved against Emily hard. Emily grabbed Lyra's arms and dug her nails in, pressing hard. Lyra continued to push and Emily continued to dig her nails in. Red blood burst from Lyra's skin and onto Emily's hands. Triumphant in her mission, Emily allowed herself to fall back. Panting, Lyra did her best to straighten herself up as Emily rested on her hands, breathing heavily. Lyra half laughed and sighed then, taking care to step over Emily, sashayed her way out of the door.

.

Don perked up when he heard footsteps coming towards the door. High heels clipped against the floor. When Lyra came out, she already had a cigarette in her mouth and a lighter in her hand. She ignored both Danny and Don and simply lit her cigarette as she got into her car before driving off. Don glanced towards Danny briefly, and then headed inside.

.

Emily leant her head back as her breathing slowly returned to a normal pace. Don and Danny jogged in, almost cautiously. They were followed closely by Mac. Don offered her a hand, but she shifted away from him.

"Don't want to contaminate my evidence." Emily wiggled her slightly bloodied fingers cheerfully.

"Good job. Get back to the lab and get a sample of that blood." Mac nodded. He started to leave, but half-turned. "Then go home." Emily nodded.

Danny left soon after Mac; Lindsay had gone home once she knew everything had gone to plan.

.

Emily fidgeted in her seat as Danny pulled the blood from under her nails. She hadn't had the chance to get changed yet, and the short skirt and leather was making her uncomfortable. Time went slowly, like everyone and everything was stuck in thick treacle, still moving, but so painfully slowly. As she sat, Emily's mind began to wander and she began to remember things, things she had tried so hard to forget.

Flashback starts

She hid behind the wall, peering round at the strange men at the door. Her blonde hair was in pigtails that her mother had done for her party earlier. They were eating dinner, her favourite, pasta, yum yum, but then they had come and her mother was scared. Were they bad men? She wanted to ask so desperately but her mother was talking and she shouldn't interrupt and besides they looked scary.

Then her mother began to cry. Emily became alert at the sound and wanted to reach out. Fear kept her secure in place. She could hear the sound of her mother sobbing and the bad men talking.

"Just give us the girl," One said gruffly. Girl? What girl? Her young mind buzzed with curiosity.

"No. No she's mine you can't." That was her mother and Emily had smiled, and turned away because her mother had said they can't take the girl –whoever that was- and if she had said it surely it was true. The sound of a loud wail and a hard BANG sound forced her head back round the corner, eyes wide, but naively certain everyone would be all right. Her mother was rising from the corner; the bad men had knocked her down, a sad voice in Emily's five year old mind whispered. Emily pouted and lifted her foot to step out from her hiding place. Her mother once more defiantly saying 'no' and standing in front of the bad men made her withdraw. The bad men backed up a little and Emily looked longingly to the table, wishing they would leave before her dinner got cold.

A loud, jolting noise shook Emily from her thoughts of dinner. When she peered round the wall once more, her mother was holding her belly, where the food goes, the voice reminded her. And it was red, all red, like the painting she'd done at the party. Were they painting too? Her mother clutched her stomach with a look on her face Emily had only ever seen once before –when her brother Jonas was ready to come out of her mother's belly and she said 'ow' a lot. With the same funny look on her face, her mother fell backwards, it was slow and her back curved almost gracefully as she fell to the floor, her hands still holding her belly. Her mother blinked hard and looked up. She stayed still. Puzzled, Emily leaned forward, waiting, waiting for her mother to get up and laugh and be okay and get Emily ice cream like she promised. Emily smiled in anticipation but her mother lay still.

Above, stairs clattered. Her father appeared. His eyes swept across the room, finding Emily's mother, lying so still on the wooden floor. He turned towards the bad men, crying. She'd never seen her father cry. He opened his mouth to talk but the bad men raised the things in their hands and after a lot of the funny noises, her father lay on the floor beside her mother, all red too. Doubt slowly seeped into her mind like the red seeping from her mother and father, but Emily shook them away. They'll be all right, the voice reassured and so she remained.

The stairs thumped once more before Jonas appeared, dripping from his bath. He looked to his parents then looked up at the bad men and Emily wanted to scream because she didn't want Jonas to play too; she wanted her parents, she wanted them to get up and hug her and get the bad men out so they could all eat dinner and be happy. Jonas turned and looked behind him, his expression one of innocence and confusion but they the funny noise started again, making Emily clap her hands over her ears. Jonas lay next to her mother and father, covered in the same vivid red. His eyes weren't blinking.

Flashback ends

The scraping of Danny's chair made Emily's memories fall away like ashes from a fire.

"All done." He grinned and stretched. Then he saw what Emily looked like.

"Hey, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost" Danny leant down and Emily wanted to tell him she had, but instead smiled faintly and nodded.

"Okay, I'm heading home" He waved and headed out the door. Going home, Emily thought, wish I could do that.