"Oh my gosh, Rae's here!"
The green room exploded with screams, other artists squealing like fangirls instead of competitors. Nobody even looked at me anymore. They hadn't even cared that Maeve their once-favorite artist was seated in the same room with them because of my scandal. All eyes were on her.
She stood at the doorway in a dramatic red veil that hid her face like some goddess descending from a cloud. The cloth shimmered under the backstage lights, thick enough to keep her identity a secret. But I knew those eyes. Those sharp, mocking eyes. That was Ama.
And of course, she wasn't alone. Beside her was Mr. Martin, my stupid ex-manager, his gaze landing on me and Becky for the briefest second before he looked away, pretending not to care. Craig, the label's star stylist, hovered at her other side like a shadow.
Ama's eyes locked on mine through the veil. Then she lifted a hand and waved. All the other girls in the room frowned as she waved at me, jealousy written all over their faces.
"Maeve," she rushed towards me. "Hi, I'm a huge fan." She said.
"Hmph, how can Rae be a fan of that whore. Did she not hear what she did?" One girl among the others murmured but loud enough for me to hear. But I ignored them, I was so hellbent on exposing Ama tonight.
But something seemed off. Though the new artist never spoke to me in the past, hee voice sounded different from Ama's. I stared at Backy who stared back at me.
"It's alright if you don't want to speak to me. I just wanted to let you know, you've always been an inspiration to me musically." She added.
"Rae, come this way. It's time for your performance." Martin said to her as they carried her out of the green room. He flashed me a frown and then walked away.
"That's not possible," I muttered.
"Miss Maeve, do you think we've got the wrong person. That doesn't sound like Miss Ama at all." Becky said. She had noticed too.
"That's not possible. The thief didn't steal my music while Ama was there that day..." I spoke out but more to myself than Becky. It couldn't be that I was wrong all this time.
There's no way an outsider could easily get my song while I produced it in the studio. It had to be someone close. It had to be someone I know.
Unless someone was selling me off and that person was Martin. I sent him every song and all of my plans. He had been the one to betray me.
All I wanted at the moment, was to be sure the person behind the red mask was not Ama.
I stepped out of the green room immediately and headed for the audience. When I peeped through the backstage, I saw Ama seated amongst the crowd smiling as Rae stepped out to sing.
If Ama was not the thief, then who is?
"Did you find her," Becky asked from behind and I nodded.
"She's seated in the audience," I said calmly. "Did you find Mirabelle?" I asked and Becky nodded.
"She's with Mr Orchard." She said. It seems we had picked the wrong people, Miss Maeve, what will you do? She might steal your songs again. It's no wonder she had greeted you and called you her inspiration." Becky said through gritted teeth.
I was so confused. I didn't know what to do. Every clue I thought I had had been a lie. I had yet to find the thief who killed me in the past and stole my music.
Just as I was about to head back to the green room...
"This song is for my parents. I had lost them when I was little." She said.
A familiar sound started playing in the background. A sound I knew all too well, the one I had sung before Ama.
No, no no no... This couldn't be..."
Shadows in the hallway,
Photographs that never aged,
A lullaby still lingers
In a frame that time erased.
I was small when silence grew,
The night they both slipped through,
And every echo of their names
Still bruises me like new.
Chorus
Empty house, no one to call,
I learned to dance with ghosts against the wall.
Mama's voice is thunder in the rain,
Daddy's eyes are burning in the flame.
I'm a child who never found her way,
But I keep singing, just to make them stay...
This... This was my song. Word for word. She had stolen every note of it even though she wasn't there when I recorded it.