These men… are going to kill me

There I was lying sprawled out in my bed. Half of my plush covers were tangled uncomfortably around my body, every simple movement seems to make them tighten around my broad yet terribly skinny body.

Another sleepless night I thought to myself. Ever since the last couple of weeks ever since I have announced my comeback tour, This Is It, my health was alarmingly getting worse every day. I don’t know why, probably stress could be a common factor. But after all I have been through while touring, today seemed to be at its worse.

Doctors have been coming in and out of my chambers once in a while; one of them was Dr Conrad Murray, who the company has hired to take proper care of me. To my POV, I thought he was slacking off. Most of the time id see him on his phone, I was beginning to detest the tiny device.

Moving my left arm to swipe the unwanted strands of curly hair out of my face, a sharp pain suddenly jolted up my arm, making me gasp. Oh that’s right, Murray inserted a IV into my arm before I went to sleep, or what I thought could have been sleep. As much as I refused to have it tucked in my arm for the last time, I had to give in.
I wanted to do my last tour, yes I really want to! But these last few weeks have been pure torture to my weary mind. There has been officials barking this and that about the concert, budgets and finances to pay off. For now I just wanted to get away from all of it, I wanted to go away forever, but there is no time left for a vacation.

Clenching my teeth together as I carefully pulled the IV out of my arm, crimson blood spewed of out the wound as I cried out, finally taking it out. Suddenly there was a knock at my door.

“Mr Jackson? You have to get to rehearsals in about half an hour!” One of my bodyguards called out from behind the door.

Half an hour?! I took a glance at my alarm clock that never went off half an hour ago. Well bloody hell im late for my rehearsals, oh how dreary. Slowly getting up, I untangled myself from the cocoon of sheets with my good hand as the other one continued to bleed, drops of blood was beginning to fall onto the sheets. Better hide them.

Shuffling my way into the bathroom with just one sock half way on and the other foot bare, I took a glance into the mirror and nearly grimaced at my reflection. My hair was in a curly mess, some of my makeup to hide that blasted vitiligo was smeared here and there and my eyes were bloodshot. Talk about a horror movie in one take.

After forcing myself to wash up and pull on random pairs of clothes that nearly matched, I carefully cleaned and bandaged up my bleeding arm. It was so hard to even leave the freaking bathroom, my whole head felt light like whipped cream. Ugh now im hungry.

Coming to my senses, I took in gaspfuls of cool air and closed my eyes. You can do this Mike, its only for today, you can handle this stress like any entertainer could.

My eyes locked onto a bottle of pills Murray prescribed for me for my ‘strange’ sickness. Oh how I hated pills! Anything to do with medicine! Screw it all!! I wanted to throw the bloody thing out of the window for Christ’s sake. I sighed, slamming my sweating palms against the side dresser as I hung my head infront of the mirror. I don’t want to go today, I just want some rest, REAL rest.

“daddy?” a knock to the door. It was Blanket.

Sh*t, I promised my children today that I was going to bring them to rehearsals with me. I cant let them see their father like, like this!. Taking another glance at the bottle of pills, I swiped it off of the table and popped two into my mouth, dry. Almost gagging at the bitterness as I took in a mouthful of water.

Wiping my mouth with my sleeve, I placed on the happiest expression on and opened the door. Looking down I saw Blanket staring right up at me, his innocent little eyes sparkling.

“hey kiddo, are you ready?” I asked, plucking him right off of the floor and spinning around making him giggle. “of course!” he cried out as we went downstairs where Prince and Paris were waiting for me. I didn’t really bother picking at my breakfast until Paris began to tempt me to. Then there was the bloody long ride to the center. Ugh.

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My heart nearly leapt out of my chest as the van pulled up to the center. How in the world did I become groggy morning Michael to excited as going up to a half a million fans on stage Michael?

As we exited the car, I handed out VIP passes to my children unless they wander off. But wait! They are Michael freaking Jackson’s kids! Well damn, I have never exposed them to the world before, so people might just wonder why little children are wandering about in the center. Plus ill be rehearsing, so there would be no point of wandering off.

"kids, now as you enter, do NOT wander off, stay with me at all times, i have assigned some people to take care of you while im onstage." I said with ease as we strolled into the Center. We were greeted by Karen aka Turkle, my makeup artist and Kenny, the director. I gave them all warm hugs.

"Michael! I never knew you weren’t joking about bringing your children to rehearsals with you today" Kenny said looking down at my children. Blanket hid behind his brother making Kenny chuckle.
.
I shrugged “a promise is a promise” I then turned to my children "kids would you like to introduce yourselves?" I asked with confidence.

Prince and Paris both introduced themselves, while Blanket said his name so quietly, Prince nudged him to speak up.

Kenny knelt down to Blanket. "ah i see you got the Marvel figurines, you know when i was young just like you, i used to love reading those comics" he said with a smile

Blanket smiled "daddy let me read his comics". Biting my lip, I turned red in embarrassment. Kenny glanced up at me "Michael, i didint know you had a collection of your own" he joked

I shrugged "well Kenny, you know that I cannot bear apart with my collection, unlike yours who you only got issue 25 of Wolverine while I have the whole series!" I beamed.

"is that so?” Kenny retorted with a sneer “well its not my fault that you 'dropped' Superman Returns into the pond and saying that the pond wanted to read it"

My face went from red to beet red in embarrassment. My children began to howl in laughter while Blanket needed support from Prince from dying from laughter. Okay, maybe its true that in Neverland i liked to read comics while I was on walks, and maybe I did accidently drop my Superman Returns into the pond and Kenny wanted to read the comic after me, so I made up that crazy story.

As I headed up on stage with Michael Bush, my costume designer and wardrobe, Prince and Blenket was with Kenny, he was showing Prince how to angle the camera while Blanket stood there silently watching. Paris was with Karen.
Bush slid on my jacket as he carefully adjusted my mic on. He looked worried. I gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder to show that I was just fine. He gave a quick nod as he rushed off stage.

Later, I was greeted by the young dancers whom I have chosen to perform with me during This Is It. They all gave me hugs and greetings. One of them went down to Blanket and played with him. Blanket holding Superman while the dancer held Wolverine, they both attacked each other.
When Blanket lost, he shot an invisible SpiderMan web at the dancer, he pretended to fall to the ground strugglined against the web as a few dancers giggled to themselves.

"okay people! everyone in position!" Kenny boomed on the microphone. All the dancers scrambled to get microphones and to their position. Taking a deep breath, I turned to Karen who seemed to have the same worried expression like Bush in her eyes. I nodded to her

"Turkle, keep an eye out on them" I assured. She smiled and rushed to my children’s side.

Here goes nothing.

"lets begin" I said, raising my hand to cue the music.