Just giving people a heads up... how I create Criss in this story isn't necessarily how he is in real life. Like in Chapter 2... he's not always thinking awards are dumb and other stuff. He's always going clubbing either by himself or with others and he LOVES the awards he wins. He is very connected with fans, that's true! I really hope you guys love this story so far! I'm slowly, painfully slowly, getting reviews! I'd love a little bit more so I know people are liking this and I'm not wasting my time! Well, here's your Chapter 3!
Chapter 3
(Hollie's POV)
He seems to be popping up everywhere I am! Is there no escape?" I thought to myself as I walked back into my hotel room with my can of soda still clutched to my chest. Things are getting really weird. And it's also like he could somehow sense something's wrong. Oh he's good." When I got back inside my hotel room, I walked to my dresser taking out a pair of night clothes and went into the bathroom, changing into them as I looked at myself in the mirror, seeing the eyes of a broken person staring back at me that seemed to be completely devoid of life. Sighing, I changed for the night into my pajamas and laid down on my bed, putting the soda on the nightstand next to my bed and stared up at the ceiling, letting my mind think about everything that's happened in the past 24
hours.
I'm finally free of that creep Travis, that's an upside. God, why'd I even fall for that bastard in the first place? And then there's Criss Angel who seems to be popping up EVERYWHERE! He couldn't be interested in me, could he? Besides, why would he want to? I'm just a troubled soul and he's... famous! Why am I obsessing over this? It's not like I LOVE him! But that look back when my cab nearly hit him earlier tonight... it was a look that like, captivated me into him! I don't know what's going on! I guess I'll just have to watch and see? My thoughts was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a crash, a thud and the screams of a little child ringing out in the hallway outside my door. I quickly jumped to my feet, put my slippers on, threw my door open and saw a little girl possibly no more than five years in age laying on the floor not far from my room holding her knee crying hard, people from other rooms nearby coming out to see what all the commotion was about.
"What happened, little girl?" I asked the crying little girl holding her knee, crouching down next to her, stroking her knee gently.
"I was wunning down the hallway chasing my brudder and he tripped me and I fell and hurt my knee!" she told me crying.
I can feel your pain, little child. Trust me.
"Where your brother, little girl?" I asked her as I looked around, not seeing a little boy older than her that could be her brother hanging around.
"He went back down to our floor to probably tell mommy that I tripped him!He's always bwaming everything on me!" she cried.
"It's alright, little girl. I'll help you. Want to go find your mommy and we can tell her what happened?" I asked her as the little girl nodded her head a couple times at me and I smiled, bending down and picking her up in my arms. "Come on, little girl let's go find your room," It was at that point as I started walking down the hall carrying the little girl in my arms that I noticed people standing around us watching me deal with the ordeal outside my room, making me turn red from blush as I walked down the stairs to the 7th floor. "Is this your floor?" "Yes. That's our room we're staying in right down there at the end of the hallway. It's on the wight." she told me, using her little finger to point out her room to me. When I got to her door, I knocked a couple times and took a step back waiting for somebody to answer. After waiting several seconds, the door to the room opened and a woman looking very distressed appear in the doorway.
"Yes? Can I help you?" the woman asked me slowly, probably wondering what the heck I was doing knocking on her door.
"I'm very sorry to disturb you, ma'am. I'm on the 8th floor and a few minutes ago, I found your daughter outside my hotel room crying holding her knee. She told me that she was chasing her brother down the hallway and that he tripped her, I guess on purpose, and he didn't bother coming back to see if she was OK. She hurt her knee pretty badly. I don't think it's broken or anything but it's really red and swollen." Just as soon as I finished telling her mother what happened, a boy who looked to be about 7 or 8 appear in the doorway standing in front of his mother and look up at me.
"I didn't trip her! She must of fallen over her untied shoelace or something. But I sure didn't trip her." he told his mother sounding really confident in his story.
"Mommy he's lying! He twipped me on on purpose! My shoes was tied!" the little girl started screaming from my arms, tears starting to run down her little cheeks again. Inside, I could feel like my heart was ripping in two as the girl continued to cry because she felt like her mother wouldn't believe her and upset that her brother was always being mean to her and lying that he didn't do it.
Little girl, you've got no idea how much I can relate to you.
"Annabelle, don't scream honey, come here," her mother said, her arms reached out towards Annabelle who reached over my arms and went into her mother's. "Thanks so much for your help... uhm..."
"Hollie. And it's not a problem, ma'am. I've got to head back to my room. Take care of your knee, Annabelle, OK?" I said to her with a smile on my face, turned and walked down the hallway, going up the flight of stairs to my floor. When I started walking down my hallway, my heart nearly stopped beating when I saw somebody standing just to the side of my door in a leisurely pose like he was waiting for me to return. Cautiously I approached my door as he saw me and smiled.
"I saw what happened, that was incredible! You really do have a way with little kids, don't you?" Criss asked me as I unlocked my door with my keycard.
"I just helped out because no one else would step up and help her," I told him quickly, partially lying. "But yes. I love little kids." I answered as I stepped inside my room and stood in the doorway facing him.
Why's he after me?
"Well I sure say so! It's almost like you had like an instant connection with her or something! Now that's magic!" Criss exclaimed as I looked down to the ground biting my lip at his words.
Buddy, you've got NO IDEA how much I can relate to that poor little girl. You have got no idea that can even come CLOSE.
We both stood there in an awkward silence after what was said with him being able to pick up something was wrong by the way I was acting.
"Look. I must of said something to set you off and make you shut down like this, so I'm just going to leave now... I'll see you around?" "Yeah. Sure. See ya." I told him, closing the door in his face, not giving him a final glance as I did so. Walking to the bathroom in my room, memories of Travis started flooding back to my mind all at once.
"Stop it! You're hurting me! Why are you doing this to me? Why do you continue to hurt me and abuse me like this?"
"Shut up! Just shut up! You're a worthless piece of shit! No one loves you and no one will ever love you!"
"No. You're just a dream. You're the past. You're out of my life forever, Travis! You're not real!" I whispered to myself, crouching down against a wall in the corner of my room holding my head in my hands, trying to clear my head of the memories. "You're not here. You're just memories, that's all. Voices in my head. Nothing more." I took those reassuring thoughts with me as I shut the room lights off and crawled into my bed, softly reassuring myself to sleep.
The next morning when I woke up, it felt like somebody took the brightest spotlight in the world and was shinning it right on my eyes. Groaning as I sat up in bed, stretching my body out, my mind couldn't help but think about Criss.
No. Shake him out of your head. Don't get too wrapped up.
Sighing, I got out of bed and looked through the little clothes I had packed into my suitcase.
I so need to go shopping today!
I decided to just go with a simple neon blue tank top with a pair of cutoffs, knee high boots and jewelry, sunglass, just some bling I had. I grabbed my cell phone and my wallet, left my room locking it and just about bumped into somebody standing very close to me as I turned to walk down the hall.
"Hey there!" "What the hell, Criss? You nearly gave me a freaken heart attack!" I said, placing my hand over my heart as I tried to calm myself down. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I was just wondering if you was free today and wanted to hang out, maybe I could show you around Vegas a little bit?"
"Uhm, I was just about to leave and walk around town and explore Vegas myself. I also need to do some shopping since I brought little clothes with me."
"Mind if I go with you?" "Don't you have a show to shoot or something?" I shot at him that came across as sounding rude."
"Oh. I see what's going on here," Criss said as his eyes looked down at the floor letting out a big sigh. "You don't want to hang around with me. That's fine. I'll just leave you alone. Have fun shopping And no. I don't start shooting season 7 until March 7th." he said as he turned and started to walk back to his hotel room. I stood there watching him sighing, my heart feeling bad that I sounded the way I sounded a few moments ago.
"Criss, wait!" I called out to him. Criss stopped in his tracks for a minute, then slowly spun around on his heels facing me.
"What?" he asked me, his voice kind of upset, his feelings still kind of hurt.
"I didn't mean to sound rude," I began. "I'm sorry for how I acted to you. Do you still want to come with me? I could use somebody to go with me so I don't get lost in a new town by myself." I said laughing which made him smile.
"Sure thing. Your tour guide is here." he smiled as he slipped his shades on and left the hotel with me. Vegas was in full swing as we walked the streets together which was packed full of people bumping, pushing into each other while trying to get to where they was going.
"You know, I much prefer this city a heck of a lot better at night time," Criss told me as we rounded a corner getting deeper into the shopping district of Vegas. "It's way much more prettier because then you truly get to see the City Of Lights in it's full glory when it's in full swing."
"Well, I missed quite a city show last night, it sounds. I was way too tired to even stay up when I got to my room last night."
"Try staying up tonight and look out your window when it's fully dark. Your room has the perfect view of Vegas at night."
"Thanks for that info. I'll be sure to keep that in mind." I told him as I stopped in front of one store that seemed interesting to me. Criss held the door open to me as I stepped inside and started browsing around.
Dang, it sure is a good thing I brought all the money I had with me! Everything here is mighty expensive!
"Hey, want to see a magic trick?" I heard Criss ask me.
"Uhm, sure?" "Alright! Wait here." I watched as Criss ran to the front of the store to the clerk, asking him something probably to use for his trick. I watched as the clerk handed Criss one of the female mannequins outfitted in a little black dress which Criss stood in front of me when he got back to me.
"What are you going to do with that mannequin?" I asked him slowly, really confused on what he needed a dummy for.
"Watch. I need you to believe in me. I need you to believe this mannequin can come to life. Have 100% confidence in me. Don't say anything, just let your mind, body, your soul believe," I stood there watching Criss get a sweater off a rack, place it over the mannequin's head and look at me. "Do you believe me, Hollie? Do you believe this mannequin can come to life?" I stood there for a minute, my eyes closed, letting my mind clear itself of all thoughts, letting the belief the mannequin could come to life fill my mind.
"I do. I believe." I whispered as I slowly opened my eyes.
"Then watch." I watched Criss slowly remove the sweater away from the mannequin's head and step right in front of the mannequin, place one of his hands on the back of her head and place his lips upon the mannequin's lips in a kiss. What shocked me the most was during that kiss on the mannequin, one of her arms moved rubbing his arm. When Criss stepped away, the mannequin blinked her eyes twice and opened them and looked right in my own eyes which was leaving me beyond speechless.
"How did you-? How is that-? Who-? How did you do that?" I questioned loudly, causing some other customers to look up from the items they was browsing to look in my direction for a few seconds then go back to browsing.
"A great magician never shares his secrets to anyone," Criss told me with a smile as he turned to the now alive mannequin. "Fun time's up, Natasha. Time to go back to being plastic." I couldn't do anything but just stand there watching completely in shock as Criss kissed Natasha once who suddenly turned back to plastic when he pulled his lips away and gave her back to the clerk who put "Natasha" back behind a window.
"OK, now that was definitely one of the most effed up things I have ever seen in my whole life!" I exclaimed, my finger pointing to the spot where "Natasha" had just stood no longer than two seconds away. "You have got to be the most craziest person alive!"
"You have no idea how much I hear that after a trick I do," he told me with a laugh. "But your reaction was priceless!" he finished, mimicking my shocked face I sported after his trick.
"You are such a show-off, Criss! I'm going to get back to shopping now!" I told him with exasperation as I started looking through some cute summer dresses.
"Oh come on, Hollie! You know you enjoyed that trick a lot! You're mulling it over in your mind right now how I did that trick." he said with a smile as he stood next to me watching me browse. I stopped looking through the dresses for a minute and took a step closer to him so I could whisper to him easily.
"I'm also wondering why you're after me all the time. Do I interest you that much, Criss? Is that it? Or is there something about me that interests you?" "Why don't you start off by telling me what's got your life so bad that you can't even let your own guard down to me?" he questioned back.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I shot quickly. "Nothing's happened in my life. It's just who I am." I said, quickly diverting my attention back to the summer dresses hoping Criss would drop the subject with no such luck.
"I can tell something is up, Hollie, and I am not going to give up until I figure out what it is!" "Well I guess you'll end up dying trying then, won't you?" I said, grabbing a couple dresses off the rack and going into one of the changing rooms to try them on.
"You keep proving me wrong, you know that?" he said form outside my dressing room as I stripped down and started trying the first dress on. "I always think that I can figure out in a matter of seconds, but then you throw me a curveball of some sort and then you put me back at square one. No matter how hard I try to read you, it's just impossible for me to do so!"
"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don't want to be read? That maybe I do have walls up so people can't read me as easily as they believe they can? Has that thought run across your mind, Criss, or do I need to put it there?" I asked him as I stepped out of the dressing room in the first summer dress, a light baby blue strapless bow dress with the bottom cut out into two different lengths that spun out wide when I twirled.
"Look, I'm just trying to figure you out is all. You're the most interesting person who's here in Las Vegas and I just want to figure you out. By the way, that dress looks absolutely stunning on you."
"I'm not really an all interesting person, Criss. I'm a normal person just like everybody else in the world. And thank you." I finished as I went back into the room and tried on the second dress, a simple fire engine red spaghetti strap. (This one had to be my more favorite of the two because this one was a little more tighter on me than the other one and it exposed just a tiny bit more.)
"Alright. What do you think about this one?" I asked Criss, stepping out of the dressing room and stand in front of him. I guess he liked this one more than the other one as well because I could see his eyes slowly look me up and down a couple times.
"You can stop staring now!" I hissed at him, smacking his arm to bring him back down to earth.
"S... sorry. I just couldn't get over how beautiful you look in that dress!" he said, finally diverting his eyes away from my chest and back to me.
"Thanks." I mumbled going back into the stall and changing back into my shorts and tank top, grabbing the two dresses and leaving the stall, walking to the registers and paying for the dresses.
"You know, I wish you had let me done that." Criss told me as I handed the lady my credit card.
"Do what?" "Pay for your dresses as a 'nice-to-meet-you' gift."
"That's OK. Thanks for the thought, though." I told him as I took my bag from the lady and put my shades back on as Criss and I left the shop together.
"It's around 1:00 p.m.," Criss informed me, glancing down at his watch. "I don't know about you but I'm starving! Do you mind if I take you out to lunch?" "You're with me now, aren't you?" I said then quickly adding "I don't see why not."
"Great! I know this great little place we can go to for lunch. Let's go. Watch this." When Criss hailed a taxi, he didn't open the door and go in like any normal human being, he climbed to the roof of the cab and stood up and looked at me!"
"Let me use one of the dresses you bought a few minutes go." he said, an arm extended in my direction for a dress.
"Why? What the hell are you doing? Get down here! People are staring!" I said, looking around as a throng of people started to gather around our cab wondering what was going on. Even the cab driver got out of his cab and started yelling at Criss that he was making the driver run later than he already was. But Criss didn't budge. He just kept looking at me with a smile on his face, his hand still waiting for a dress to be placed on it.
"A dress, please?"
"Fine!" I reached into my shopping bag and tossed him the light blue dress and sighed. Criss looked around at the little crowd that had begun to form around the crowd and addressed them.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I need you all to clear your mind of every thought in your brain! I need you all to clear your mind of everything and believe that I can pass through the roof of this cab into the seat below! There are no tricks involved! This is a real cab, there are no hole in the roof, there's no tricks around me everyone, correct? I don't know ANY of you gathered here correct? Nothing has been pre-arranged, nothing's been set up. I don't even know who you are, right cab driver?" Criss finished, motioning to the cab driver.
"No we don't know each other! Get the hell off my roof now or you two can find another cab! I'm late!" he yelled.
"Alright alright I'll go. Everyone clear your mind and believe! Are you ready?" The little crowd of maybe 40 people, watching this strange unfold, all started screaming and hollering excitedly as Criss crouched down and placed my dress over him.
"Here we go! 1! 2! 3!" In a second, where Criss' crouched body was huddling on the roof of the cab was gone, my dress falling to the roof flat. Everyone started screaming and hollering again which got even louder when Criss opened the door and stood in front of the crowd, his arms extended towards the sky.
"YEAAAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed happily as everyone continued to cheer and take pictures of him.
"MINDFREAK!" everyone yelled loudly as Criss reached up to the roof of the cab and handed me my dress back. People started coming right up to the cab to examine the roof and inside it, surprised to find that there actually was no secret doors or anything that helped aided Criss.
"Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, but I do need to go. This poor driver is late and me and my friend are late to lunch. I love you!" Criss held the door open for me as I got inside the cab while we waved to the fans and then got into the cab and shut the door, telling the drive where to go who was only more than happy to leave.
"What the hell was the stunt you pulled?" I asked him as the cab pulled away from the block heading to our destination that I still didn't know what it was or where it was. "That was sheer madness!"
"I am madness!" he blurted out. "That's who Criss Angel is, that's who I am! I do things that are complete madness for a living around town, sometimes around the country! Sometimes I even get to go around the world doing 'madness' things!" he finishes, resting back in the back seat of the cab seat while the driver kept driving around Las Vegas heading for Criss' destination.
"Well, are you at least going to tell me where it is we're going for lunch, at least?" I asked, changing subjects.
"Just a nice little restaurant on the outskirts of town. No, it's not the most expensive restaurant." he said to me. Criss and I sat there in silence for about five more minutes before the cab finally pulled up in front of the restaurant. Criss got out of his side first, coming around to the other side holding my door open for me as I stepped onto the sidewalk and took in the exterior of the restaurant. Criss seemed to be true to his word, the place didn't look like it was going to be terribly expensive at all. Following Criss inside the restaurant where he got us a restaurant in a corner in the back to be secluded from the rest of fellowing diners, the interior of the restaurant seemed to follow through with Criss' word.
"After you," Criss said, holding my chair for me as I sat down, watching him sit down in his own chair on the opposite side before either of us started talking.
People are staring at you two already! They probably think Criss and I are going out. Well that is never going to happen, people. I am never going to date Criss Angel!
"Look. If we're going to be friends or at least attempt a friendship, we need to get to know each other a little bit, don't you tink? Find out more about each other that runs skip deep rather than just the itty bitty small stuff," Criss began as he folded his hands neatly placing them on top of the table as he continued. "So, do you want to tell me what this is all about?"
"Sure I can. You wanted to take me out for the day and take me out for lunch so here we are having lunch. What else do you want to know? My favorite things in life? Favorite places I've been?" "I'm sure that's all fascinating, but you know what I mean, Hollie. Why are you here in Vegas? What's happened to you that made you come here? I know something must of happened to you, I can sense that so you can't sit there and lie any longer that it's nothing when the truth is, it's definitely something."
Damn. He's got me there. Stall... stall...stall!
"I don't know what kind of answer you want then, Criss. 'Nothing' is all I have to tell you because NOTHING is the reason why I am here. Absolutely nothing. If you can't deal with that for an answer then I don't know what else to tell you." I said quickly as I pretended to look completely interested in what this place had to offer in their menu rather than on the impending conversation.
"Alright, fine. You don't want to tell me what's going on, you don't have to tell me." Criss said in a tone that sounded like he was going to give up the subject at least for right now, but certainly not forever.
Abrupt ending! :D I figured I'd leave you guys "hanging" a little bit. That and I haven't posted anything in almost three weeks. Things have just been hectic with college stuff :p Hope you like and leave me reviews!