Hurricane

Chapter Three

A headache, such a strong headache was taking over her every thought as she sat in front of businessmen talking. She had been called in to a meeting with the directors of the company she 'worked for'. As both a singer and an actress, Anja was forced to attend every now and then the meetings the recording company that was recently producing her music. A bored, almost annoyed look made a couple of the men both nervous and exasperated. Did she have the attitude to work with people? Once, she was sure she did; not anymore. Talk about how she should dress and how she should be behaving was going around. Surprisingly, the people in the room actually found her partying and care-less behavior quite helpful for her growing popularity. Anja licked her lips and shifted back and forth between disgusted and bothered looks.

Of course, while she was needed there, she was never really needed to talk. As the men spoke back and forth with each other about the future of the girl, without caring about what she thought about it, not even giving a damn about if it made her uncomfortable or if it would harm her, a cynic laugh was heard. She had meant to let out a soft chuckle, but it turned out to be cold laughter the one that left her lips.

"So, let me see if I get this straight. You people actually want me to get drunk more, smoke more, party more, put on a badass attitude, and still be considered nice and cute?" As she had been almost in a laying position on the black leather chair, she regained her posture and got closer to the table, setting her arms upon it. "People are not that stupid. If I suddenly come up and act like I'm an angel during the day, on interviews, on every fucking show you're making me attend, and then I act all fucked up at night, do you honestly, honestly, think that they will buy that I'm a good girl and want to be just like me? Do you really think that parents will want to buy their kids some of the merchandise?" She had a cold look upon her face; that she did.

Standing up, scratching her head with a disbelieving look on her face, she shook her head, and bit her lower lip anxiously. "All people know about me, is that I can sing, I can act, and I live a fucked up life, just like any other super star that winds up dead. All those kids that just want to look cool, feel like they don't fit and shit, just like most teenagers, are most likely going to try and act just like me." Oliver was standing on a corner right behind her, watching the scene amused, even if just a little bit proud because she seemed to be getting somewhere good, just like she used to.

"I told you. I made it very clear to you when I first signed why it is I do this, why it is I actually love doing this, singing, performing, whatever you wanna call it. Sure, I smoke, sure, I get drunk, and sure I fuck up, but you people know why! So stop acting like you make some profit out of my current shitty life. This is not about this." Anja said, her voice going up with each word.

Walking around the room, truly angered, she stopped to once again look at the greedy men. Speaking a little bit softer and with less volume, she spoke looking directly at the head's eyes across the room, "When I signed with you, you promised you would respect my values, and respect my wishes. I told you I do this to bring some good to people. I told you I want to make a good example of myself. Believe it or not, I do work on not letting my shit go out in public, and still, you all decide to not give a damn about my desires and you work on getting more and more interviews that force me to talk about the bad things I do, specifically. You try to get more publicity about how much I party, about how many addictions I have. Do you realize you're just fomenting the use of alcohol, smoking habits, and just, plain dirt?"

Aaron, the head of the company, stared passively at the girl. "Do you realize that you are the one doing all this things? And causing the talk? Tell me Miss Evans, why don't you spare us all of having to make up dramatic stories that will bring your fame up and bring us more money? People wonder why you're suddenly so different, why you're not giving any concerts, why you're just doing small presentations in small places that bring us almost no money." Now, the tall man with slick brown hair was the one ready to yell. From across the table, the short girl stood as tall as she was physically allowed to, but with her steady attitude intact. "You are the one partying all over the world, getting intoxicated and whoring yourself. You are the one refusing to see those 'adored' and 'oh, they are so lovely' fans of yours. You, Miss Evans, are costing us a lot of money. All this publicity you're talking about, that's the only thing that keeps talk going on, that keeps the interest alive, and that brings – us – money." Standing up with the force of his words, Aaron Schwien walked around the table, elegance showing, arrogance shining, Letting his right hand grace the top of each member's chair as he passed, he walked up to Anja and stared down at her.

"You complain, all the time, about how we're the bad guys, taking advantage of you, not respecting you. But, sweet child of hell, you're the one not respecting the contract. That mother of yours is gone, face it, move on, stop being a coward hiding under behind your drugs, or you'll end up having a whole lot of amazing lessons to teach to your faithful students. You'll be able to teach them how to fail at life by becoming a drug addict, and alcoholic, and a whore. Of course you want girls aiming to become you, why then do you not like that we promote what you do? You do everything right, don't you? A perfect bitch you are."

Oh, if only Loki's smirk could be seen. The anger, the dark feelings, the humiliation, the almost desire for blood, it was so enticing, so lovely to look into her eyes from afar. How much had the vain man angered her? How astonishing would her next act be? Having followed her for a couple days now with no second spared, the amusement and interest within him could only grow as he analyzed the strong anger she felt when rather uneventful events displeased her. He had seen how even with small things fire flashed through her eyes. An almost blue almost too thin to be seen flash of energy was surrounding her, of course, only the god could see it. Only he could know what the extent of her power was, and only he was out trying to discover it.

To his dismay, the intense weight that had been lingering and growing on the air and upon the businessmen suddenly banished, leaving only that uncomfortable one of said males. His smirked disappeared, a light frown taking its place. He tilted his head to one side and once again smirked. 'You used your own abilities on yourself? How chary you are to let people know about who you really are.'

She didn't look offended; she did not even look upset. She leaned down to pick up her bag, took her phone from the table, smiled at the people in the room both confusing and scaring them, and walked away leaving the door opened for Oliver to follow behind, as usual, confused, stressed, and half-proud and half-disappointed. She knew how to act, that she did, but when such feelings were taking over her, and when she was in the state she was, she knew best than to rely on her acting and lying skills.

With the god of Mischief trailing behind her, she strolled with a satisfied look upon her face. She had, indeed, wished dead upon them, thought which angered her more than the words uttered. Blocking away the voice of the man she had grown to detest, she focused solely on the mantra inside her head, floating away, leaving behind all feelings she did not want. Like many times, she had literally lost herself in thought.

"Your food looks good… How about you actually eat it?" Celo's frown had become more noticeable as the day went by, witnessing more and more bad habits from the girl he cared so much about. The scene was quite pleasant for Anja and for anyone who might be walking by. Sitting on the wooden chairs on the terrace of a busy Starbucks, a cigarette between her fingers, food getting cold right in front of her; Anja put her sunglasses on after glaring at some people taking photos of her.

."Already had half of it, I'm pretty full." Celo rolled his eyes and let out a soft sigh as he listened to his good friend.

"Whatever, girl. Finish it so we can go drop you off, got a date today." Anja smirked at his words and gave him a teasing laugh, earning nothing but another rolling of eyes, a short laugh and a smile from her friend.

Taking another bite from her truly tasty food, she stood up, took her bag from the chair next to her and her phone from the table and began walking without waiting for Celo, only stopping as she got to the stairs to look back at him and wait for him to get to her side. Having parked the car outside the open mall they were in, they found themselves walking between crowds and with them to get to the other side of the place. Half way through, Anja let Celo know she wasn't going back home just yet, letting him go back to his car while she went look at some stores.

It was then that she felt something unusual surround her. It was only four in the afternoon, sun still up, brightness everywhere; only the shadows created by the buildings around her covered the people walking around. Getting tired of the sun, and starting to feel a bit of sweat come down, she ventured herself in one of the many alleys that connected the stores. Sitting on a bench there, glad there was barely anyone walking around there, she took out another cigarette and put it between her lips as she rummaged through her bag trying to find her lighter.

"Damn it." She muttered, still searching.

"May I?" A voice on her left startled her as fire was suddenly right in front of her face. Lips still holding a cigarette, she half smiled and chuckled, leaning in and holding the cigarette with her right hand. She let out a small cloud of smoke to the other side, so it would not get in this stranger's face.

"Thank you, I swear I need to start putting a GPS on it or something." She laughed.

Oh, how delicate, how unguarded she finally was. Offering a gallant and soft smile, he made a gesture towards the spot right next to her and courtly said, "May I?" She was finally alone out in public, allowing him to start his strategy to win her over, allowing her to be approached by a stranger and for it to seem completely normal, flirtatious even –he hoped-.

A small smile and a knowing soft chuckle was her answer, "Naturally."

She had taken her time to analyze the man whose intentions she was pretty sure she knew of. Tall, pale, black hair slicked back, light colored eyes, black sweater, black jeans, black boots, and a black and green scarf loosely wrapped around his neck. Her first thoughts were that he looked like a rich, typically dark and mysterious manwhore. 'This might be fun'

Her laugh echoed around the room, "Alright then, are you finally going to tell me your name? Or we're still in this guessing game thing?" Taking a sip from her drink, and setting her cigarette on the ashtray the waiter had just put on her table, she sat straighter and leaned in on the table, resting her face on her left hand, looking straight at his eyes.

He smirked once again and finally said, "Alright, my name is Loki."

"Mh, nice name, hun. My name's Anja, and to answer your question, yes, I'm more than twenty-one quite obviously. You?"

"I am twenty-seven." She wasn't sure just what was about him that was making him so intriguing, but she could feel her breath become heavier as the next two hours went by. She wasn't exactly worried; if anything went bad, she knew she could fight him off in a second, there was something else about him though, something more inexplicable that caught her attention. With her unnatural senses, she could feel something different about him, but she couldn't feel anything extremely weird about it, perhaps she should just not worry about it. Maybe.

"For real? I live just around the block from you." She sure was tipsy already, maybe more than that, feeling a strong urge to add some illicit fun, she wondered if it would be alright to add some extra fun to the night. What if he did something though? Nah, not likely.

"Tell you what, I'll go use the restroom and then we can sorta carpool the way back, what do you think, English man?" A sly smirk was now for her to show, if only she knew.

"I have to say that I find your plan perfect" How formal he was, she liked that.

In the end, her survival sense turned the fire burning inside of her off and she opted for no extacy during that night.

It was a short walk to the entrance where many cabs were parked; the ride back though was much longer. It began with an overly active and happy short girl laughing and resting on a mysterious man's shoulder and ended up with a long pale hand touching her hair and caressing her cheek. She looked up at him, dazed eyes and awaiting smile. She was shocked, as hi smirked and leaned down, how nervous she felt, how extremely needy she felt and how she felt herself shake a little just before his lips brushed hers.

He was so easily winning her over.