Author's Note: Mature themes ahead

The crowd laughed and gave another round of applause for Bryan Cranston as he finished telling his story about some behind-the-scenes pranks he pulled but Jade just rolled her eyes as she tapped her foot, waiting for her cue to come out on stage. Her mood had turned sour over the last couple of hours, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and have a stiff drink. She shook her head and fought back against the craving and tried to focus on reading the crowd and preparing herself mentally for this interview, just like in her writing, she tried to tailor it around a form of music to better prepare herself for what might come. She ran through genre after genre but none of them matched the energy of a crowd and atmosphere like this, especially with the band constantly playing out on the stage. She had done interviews before, but they were mostly over the phone, in small radio stations, or random meeting rooms with a magazine reporter. This was her first major television interview and it was proving to be a different beast altogether. When her attempts to think of a mental soundtrack failed, she started to pace around the condensed waiting area and ran through all the possible questions that she might be asked and how to handle them. Her instinct was to play it cool and to not take any shit from an interview like this, but Mary's words had struck a chord with her, and this was a golden opportunity to show that she could be sophisticated and not another drunk and miserable performer. Her train of thought was cut short though as she heard from the stage, "Welcome to the stage, the amazing and talented: Jade West!"

The crowd applauded her as she came out and walked across the small stage with a subdued smile on her face and shook Jimmy Fallon's hand. He motioned for her to take a seat and he strolled around to his desk as the clapping and music came to an end. As he leaned back in his seat with a bright smile, he adjusted his tie and said, "I can't thank you again for finding the time to come out and be on the show! I am such a big fan of your work and I know a lot of the crew is as well!"

He motioned and pointed to a few who were smiling and gave her a polite wave before getting back to their tasks and Jade nodded and smiled before saying, "Thank you, that means a lot."

"So," he said as he looked at a small card on his table, "you started as a writer. Then made several best sellers and then picked up music and managed to get a couple of albums out. Then on top of that, you started to direct and make shows for Broadway."

While listing them off, some people in the audience applauded some of her work in certain areas before Jimmy continued and said, "And now I hear you're in the directing chair at long last for a full feature film. To top it all off, it's an adaptation about one of your books as well!"

There was another small round of applause as Jade nodded and said, "Yes, I've always wanted to direct, so getting the chance to do this is kind of a dream come true. Then again, I never expected to do so much, I expected I would just stay as a writer but here we are."

"That is truly incredible, you should be proud, you've done so much and you're still so young so I know that we are all looking forward to what's next for you! I can tell you right now, I'm seeing your new film as soon as it comes out!"

"Thank you so much—" Jade started to say.

"But I do have to ask," Jimmy said as he shifted so he was fully facing her in his seat, "and I'm sorry for interrupting, but you're also known for having a wild side, aren't you?"

Some of the crowd "Oohed" or snickered but Jade just tried to offer a small rehearsed smile as she shifted in her seat and started to lightly tap her foot, "Yes, you could say that."

In an unexpected turn, the conversation shifted as Jimmy said, "Yeah, I've seen the news with some of your arrests and some of the parties you've been to…but I've also noticed that in the last month or so, you've kind of dropped out of that realm of the entertainment world. Are you, and I don't mean this in any negative way or insinuating anything, trying to get clean or cut back on that stuff?"

Jade was taken aback and immediately fired back, "I don't have a problem if that's what you mean! I just liked to go out and I realized that with a movie like this, something I've always wanted to do, I should give it the proper attention so I've been fully focused on work and trying to make this as perfect as possible!"

The late-night host nodded and said, "That's commendable! I was also wondering if maybe you might also be trying to take the first step for a certain someone?"

With that comment, Jade's heart started to race as Jimmy's voice became distant and echoed in her mind. She loosely followed along with him and how he explained, while reaching under his desk for something, that he heard her singing in her green room. He offered her a compliment on it and asked if the audience would like to see what he meant, to which they all agreed eagerly. Jade dumbly nodded and turned to look at one of the monitors angled towards her on the floor as the audience watched the giant one behind her. The image of the city skyline changed to the security footage of her green room and she immediately knew what this was about. Her emotions were starting to get the better of her as the video started with her singing to Tori on the phone, thankfully the image was impossibly small and the lighting kept Tori's identity secret but Jade's grip on the armrests of her chair grew tighter with each note she sang. Her foot began to tap a little bit faster and her lips felt parched, the siren song of the bottle rang a little louder in her head as the video came to an end and she could hear the last bit of their conversation being played for everyone to hear.

"Get some sleep. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Jade wait!"

"Yeah?"

"I-I…thank you."

"I love you," Jade said in the video, causing the audience to awe and clap even louder than before as the screen went back to the city skyline. Jimmy turned to her with a bright smile, thinking he was doing her a favor by showing them her sweeter side but did not know the fire that which he was playing with. Jade sat there while the applause stopped and Jimmy said, "It sounds like you really care for her."

Jade was about to give him a piece of her mind as she took a breath but was cut off as he produced a laminated image of the two of them walking away from Angio's Diner! It was one that Mary managed to pull from the tabloids in L.A. where Jade was in the lead taking them to Tori's van, while the girl in question was looking away and her hair was covering most of her features while being led by the wrist. Mary had mentioned they were trying to make sure no pictures of her and Tori got out, but obviously, one was missed. "I was wondering if this was the woman on the phone and if you'd like to tell us a little about the two of you!"

"Well, I can tell you that my manager will be getting a call from me after this interview," Jade said coldly. The crowd laughed at her comment, not able to see the fury burning in her eyes.

"Can you tell us where you were?" Jimmy asked with a smile on his face.

Jade glared at him before saying, "That was actually a last-minute meeting with a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in years. I was hoping these pictures would never see the light of day because they are currently going through some shit and when I saw all the people outside, I tried to rush her out so she could be spared something like this happening! But obviously, privacy is a luxury that gets traded out with this line of work."

Her voice was even but Jimmy could tell she was holding back her anger and decided not to comment on her word choice, a bill would be sent to her regardless. He nodded and said, "Oh my god, I am so sorry! I didn't realize that this was something else, I just assumed that when you were talking to the woman on the phone, that it was the same woman shown here."

Jade couldn't help but comment and say, "So instead of asking me about it backstage or in my green room and making sure I was comfortable covering this, you decided to just go with it? 'Yeah, it's live tv! We'll get such a huge rating spike from this!'"

The veteran tv host sank back in his chair a little bit, the people in the camera room were yelling the headsets to the floor manager to cut to break and waved at Jimmy to give them the cutaway. He nodded before Jade could continue her tirade and said, "We'll be right back ladies and gentlemen!"

The audience was shifting uncomfortably in their seats while Jade was fuming as one of the producers and Jimmy came around to her and started to offer their apologies. "It's fine! Look, let's just get this stupid interview over with so I can get out of here. I'm not talking about that anymore," then an idea struck her to get attention off of Tori. "I'll answer whatever questions you have about the movie and even reveal the cast list if you want. I'm sure that'll get you a nice rating boost," she said with an icy glare. "If you have any more questions lined up about my personal life, I won't answer them."

The two of them nodded and agreed to it which made Jade feel a little proud that she could still inspire such fear in people. They briefly spoke in hushed tones about the rest of the questions and before she knew it, Jimmy was back in his seat and said, "Welcome back! Once again, I am here with the amazing and talented: Jade West!"

Several thousand miles away, Tori tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep once again. It has been like this every night since her audition and it was slowly starting to take a toll on her both physically and mentally. On the outside, she was clearly fatigued and had bags under her eyes, and wasn't taking care of herself as much as she should. Her hair was disheveled and given little attention and her face was devoid of any makeup, instead, she chose to not do these things unless absolutely necessary to keep up appearances.

Sitting up in bed, she looked out towards the window and tried to find something to distract her mind, but no matter what she did she was always drawn back into darkness, back into the dream. Her shoulder and thigh burned as she recalled where her abuser touched her last and it started to itch across her body as the sensation spread like wildfire spread across her skin, covering every spot where they had touched her previously. In this dream state, her clothes were burned away into ashes leaving her completely exposed to whatever was in the darkness that surrounded her. The flames on her shoulder and thigh burned bright like a beacon in the night as they began to bend and warp around her body, cocooning it and causing her immense pain. She tried to scream but found her voice to be completely gone, taken, stolen away and that was when the worst of it began. In the darkness, she could see the glow of their smile shining back at her. A horrible, crocked and warped smile, filled with sharp jagged teeth emerged from the shadows and illuminated with a sickly yellow shade that focuses on Tori like a spotlight. It opens and releases a torrent of laughter that rattles Tori to the core! It echoes and seems to come from every possible direction, bombarding her as if the sounds are physically impacting her body. She cries as she tries to scream for the laugher to stop but the words continue to fail her and she can feel the flames on her body start to burn hotter than before.

Looking down into the great dark expanse, she can see that her toes and feet are fading away into ashes and drifting off into the void. Her hands are the next to go and she tries to think and cry for help as her limbs fade away entirely but no one is there to help her, no one is there to hear her and no one cares. She cries and cries as the laughter grows louder as her torso burns away into nothing and then her neck begins to go as well. In this twisted nightmare, the worst comes next as she looks and sees the flames around her neck slow down while her hair ignites. The two sources of fire then slowly encroach on her head from both fronts, burning away every trace of her beauty, every trace that she was ever there. The last to be burned away was her eyes which are locked on that crocked, disgusting smile until she is finally given the bittersweet gift of the end.

Unfortunately, that gift only lasts for a second at most, two if she's lucky before she sits up again in bed and tries to find some semblance of peace. Tori continues to look out the window for a while longer before giving up on trying to sleep again and gets out of bed and tries to find something to occupy herself with until the rest of the world awakens. Jade's words echo in her mind but it becomes muddied and distorted amongst the laughter that plagues her mind. With nothing else to do before the dawn breaks, she heads downstairs with Nyx and Duke at her heels and she goes to the same locked room and pulls the key from its hiding spot. Just as before, she carefully unlocks it and reaches around and grabs the guitar that's hanging on the wall, and locks the door again before heading out to the deck after hiding the key. Outside the cool evening air is almost too much but after having that dream again, Tori doesn't seem to mind at all. Over the next several hours, she sits in her chair strumming chords and playing songs she learned over the years and experiments with others, playing anything to distract herself from the world around her. "Why now?" She thought to herself as she played, "Everything was perfect. I had everything I wanted, everything I needed and now it's all coming undone again."

When her question goes unanswered by the forces of the universe around her, she rolls her eyes and sets the guitar down, and scratches Nyx behind the ear before pulling out her phone and looking to see that it's nearly six in the morning. The sun was just barely cresting over the tree line in the distance, ushering in a brand-new day. Tori sat there watching it as more of her furry children came out to join her on the porch until the silence was broken by her phone going off. She unlocked it and saw two messages left for her. The first one was from Jade while the second one was from an unknown number.

Jade: Hey. I'm coming back earlier than I thought, Once I finish unpacking, I want to take you out. Pick a place and we'll go. Call me later if you get a second.

Tori was curious about why Jade was returning so quickly but sent a message back saying that she would think about where to go and then opened the next one.

Unknown: Come to my office towards the end of the day. I want to get a head start on your part. Oh, and wear something pretty.

It was a short message but in those few short sentences, Tori felt nauseous and disgusted. She started to shake as she dropped her phone onto the table and started to go into a panic attack. Her thoughts were rapidly flying past like trains in a busy station. They were loud, deafening even, drowning out the barking of her dogs as they tried to calm their mother down as she stood from her seat and rushed back inside and up the stairs.

Duke noticed immediately that Tori was going into a blind panic as her breathing became rapid, just like when she had her nightmares, and she was shaking uncontrollably. He rushed past the others and tried to cuddle up next to her but that was when Tori got up and ran up the stairs. Acting on instinct, the old Great Dane followed her and was met with a closed wooden door leading to the bathroom. He barked and growled as he clawed at the door, but his attempts were only met with scorn from his mother as Tori called out, "Go away Duke! Leave me alone!"

Knowing what was coming, Duke backed up and got ready to charge the door. Inside the bathroom, Tori was rapidly tearing apart the bathroom cabinet and flung open the doors as she looked for something she knew she shouldn't grab. Her mind was racing as she battled with herself, "Don't do it! Do it! Cut! No! Grab the phone! Call for help! Open the damn door! No, keep it closed! Razor! Grab it! Where is it! No, just get the weed!"

She slammed the doors closed and opened one of the smaller drawers under the sink and found what she was looking for. She grabbed the small razor and went over to the corner and sat down on the floor and pulled up her sleeve and angled the razor just below her wrist but stopped. She looked at the numerous scars that were already adorning her skin and she remembered all the years she spent locked up and under medical surveillance. She remembered how she made everyone worry and all the sacrifices they made for her—but that doesn't matter!

The blades of the razor now rested on her wrist as she was taken down another dark path. The voices of her family members echoed in her mind, mixed with the creaking of metal as the sounds of the car crash replayed in her mind. It was followed by an endless chorus of blurred voices all saying how strong she was, giving their condolences. All their words fell flat as she sat. Andre's voice came next, then Cat's, Beck's and Robbie's voices came immediately after as they said they would support her and take care of her, but she hated it. She hated every second of it! They looked down on her and were treating her like a fragile child! She was the problem solver of the group! The one who always took care of them, they can't sacrifice their time for her!

She shook her head and slammed the back of it against the wall in her seated position on the floor as she tried to forcibly expel the negative thoughts from her head. As her head collided with the wall, Duke slammed his body into the door but to no avail. The older dog rushed back to do it again as a new voice started to speak in Tori's mind.

"You're all used up. Just go ahead and do it," Their sickly voice was distorted but Tori could still hear their feminine tone as they tried to stifle a giggle as they said, "Just run away from all your problems. Just like what Jade did. If she can do it, why can't you?"

BOOM!

With a loud thud and the sound of the door crashing against the wall, Duke burst into the bathroom and grabbed the razor from Tori's hand with his mouth, and tossed it aside. He then forcibly went into Tori's arms and stayed there, holding her there under his weight as he licked the sides of her face and tried to get her to calm down. The poor girl cried and cried as she held onto him tightly, burying her face into his coat as she sobbed and pet him. This wasn't the first time she's been saved like this, nor would it be the last.

Axel followed in next followed by Lola, Kona, and Zippy and they all surrounded Tori and waited for the storm to pass until she finally came back to her senses. "Thank you," Tori said quietly as she leaned back against the wall and wiped away some of the tears.

Abruptly, she then stood up and walked past them all, and went towards the stairs where she found Nyx approaching her, holding her phone in her mouth. Tori smiled and crouched down and kissed Nyx's head as she took the phone and pet the Border Collie as she pulled up her contacts and called someone for help. She didn't want her friends to know that she had another severe episode like this, she didn't want to make them worry, so instead, she called on someone else who could help her and that she knew could stay quiet. After the first ring, they picked up.

"Hello?" The older male voice said on the other end.

Tori sat there silently petting Nyx, she suddenly felt embarrassed about calling but was too afraid to hang up.

"Tori?" They asked, "Is everything alright?"

With a deep sigh, Tori weakly said, "I need someone to talk to. Can I come over?"

"Stay where you are, I'll come to you," they said before hanging up the phone.

In the halls of Hollywood Arts, Erwin Sikowitz shoved his phone back into his bag and turned to his class that was starting to filter in, and said, "Alright children! Today is a free day! Work on your assignments and practice your lines! I'll be back later!"

Author's Notes:

Hello, hello! Once again thank you all for taking the time to read the latest installment to Unsaid! I apologize for the delay but with work and school things get chaotic. I was able to take some time off and took a road trip with some friends up to Maine and I had a wonderful time and managed to relax and even do some writing. I hope that you all are doing well and had a fun Halloween this year!

I'll admit, this chapter I had to rewrite several times because I wasn't liking how I was framing things. It took far longer than I wanted but it was worth it in the end. Jade has had her interview, at least from what we saw, while Tori is falling in a downwards spiral. We'll have to see where things go next. Please feel free to leave a review or PM your thoughts to me, I'm always eager to chat and see what you all think so far.

Have a good day!

Songs Used for Inspiration:

1. ?

2. "She Got the Best of Me" by Luke Combs

3. "Miss Missing You" by Fall Out Boy

4. "Glimmer" by Marianas Trench