Chapter 3: Chapter 3: A Shock To The System
The metal doors opened onto the fifth level of the parking deck. Duke looked around, cautiously, as though he’d stepped into an espionage plot. A few cars sprinkled about: The sounds of the street below. Not much more. As he walked, his footsteps echoed in the shadowy, open space. Then, in the far corner, away from the street: the figure of a lone woman smoking.
Suddenly, Duke’s heart began to race, and he could feel his pulse quicken. Was he in an espionage thriller? Why didn’t he have protection? A bodyguard? Why was his mind dancing all over the map when all he was doing was meeting some singer to talk about an album project? He needed to pull it together.
Duke attempted to play it cool as he slowly made his way toward her. She was facing away from him, her elbows resting on the concrete wall: she seemed oblivious to his presence.
As he got closer, he began sizing her up: this thin woman dressed in a black skirt: high-heeled boots up to her knees, raven-colored hair. The only movement was in her fingertips, dangling that cigarette.
Duke approached slowly and leaned casually against the concrete. Neither spoke. The tension between them seemed overpowering for a moment.
Crystal took one last drag, flicked the remains of her cigarette into the open air, and turned to face him. Her long, dark hair fell casually around her face, framing it half in light.
“Amber said you were cute,” she said as she sized him up. “Turn around.”
“What?” asked Duke.
“Turn. Do a spin. I want to see you. I want to see what everyone else sees.”
Duke straightened up and did a slow, exaggerated spin, unsure what he had gotten himself into.
“I’ve seen better. What are you, eighteen?” she asked, her guard still up.
“What does it… I’ll be twenty-one next month.”
“And already king of the world, huh? Is that what that girlfriend of yours, that Nicolette what’s-her-name, finds so irresistible about you?”
Duke studied this woman’s face a little more. He could see she was already dismissing him.
“And what about you? The one-hit-wonder woman? One single and you’re ready to…”
“What do you know about popular music?”
Duke nearly laughed. “I know enough to sell hit records, have millions of fans.”
“Yeah?” she grinned, “What do your adoring fans think of this Ocean Tides album of yours? And who thought of that title anyway: you a scuba diver?”
“Does that mean you listened to it?” Duke asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her hair in the cool breeze. “Anything else you know besides water sports?” Crystal asked in an icy tone.
“Yeah,” he replied, “I know I don’t like games. What’s this one all about anyway?”
Crystal turned back out into the open sky.
“Everything’s a game,” she said, “that’s something you’ll learn…” she turned back, and looked him in the eyes, “…once you grow up a little, that is.”
Duke shifted uneasily against the rough grain of the concrete wall.
“What is this? And who are you, really? I didn’t come here for your life advice, lady. I’m only here because of my manager. My career’s just fine.”
“Yeah?” asked Crystal, “then what are you doing here?”
“Wasting my time if you ask me. Good luck with that solo effort,” sneered Duke as he retreated back toward the elevators.
“Why don’t you put any real heart into your music?” Crystal nearly shouted, watching him as his features blended into the darkness. She waited, then heard his footsteps stop.
“Do you really wanna rule an empty kingdom, or would you want to live, really live among true artists?”
Duke’s dark shape began moving back toward the light: his footsteps grew louder as he moved again toward Crystal.
“What’s the point in selling millions of albums if all you’ve really sold is your soul?” Crystal asked. “If you still have one, that is?”
Duke stopped just short of revealing himself, his face still vaguely in shadow, lost in the expanse of the parking deck.
“You saying my music has no soul?” he asked.
“You tell me,” Crystal nearly demanded, pulling another cigarette from her pocket.
“And just what exactly do you know about my…”
Crystal didn’t let him interrupt.
“Three gold records, all back-to-back,” she began. “Impressive. But what have you given people so far? You charted with songs about meeting girls in clubs and not returning their calls. That’s what you call soul?”
Duke stood motionless; completely unsure what he’d gotten himself into.
“You give interviews,” she continued as she lit her cigarette, “and talk about your pool and your house and your desire to start a charity for homeless teens. You call that soul?”
Duke watched as Crystal started moving toward him, her face and features obscured by the blinding daylight behind her.
“You tell Rolling Stone magazine that your biggest wish is to have a videogame named after you?” she continued as she grew increasingly closer to him, “and you want me to believe that your music has any kind of soul?”
Crystal stopped arm’s length in front of Duke, puffed the last of her cigarette, and let the smoke out directly into his face.
“I’d say your music has about as much soul as the inside of an empty soup can.”
Duke stood speechless. His mind had gone blank, overrun with a barrage of thoughts and ideas he couldn’t piece together. This woman, the one who’d stolen his pop music crown, was unlike anyone he’d ever met or even imagined existed and was now uncomfortably infringing on his every nerve. Then, as if to test his very core, she stepped even closer.
“And you want me to record an album with you?”
She was so close to him now, he could feel her breath as it touched his face, smell the hints of clove from the cigarettes she’d been smoking.
“Give me one good reason,” she practically insisted, in a way that very nearly came across as desire.
Duke couldn’t move for a moment. He wasn’t even sure if he was still breathing. His hands had gone numb, and he was struggling to remember where he was. He felt as though he was watching himself from outside himself: watching from a safe distance. Then she jolted him back into his body.
“Well, can you?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t make an album with you…” he heard his voice say, “…for all the gold in the world.”
Suddenly Duke’s nerves and veins were all shifted into overdrive and they kept pressing on his tongue.
“This idea of me making something with you is a joke, sister. I’m outta here.”
“Soulless and gutless, aren’t you?” Crystal steamed as Duke pulled away. He spun on his heels and made for his escape.
“How deep is your ocean, Duke?” she called after him, “How deep?”
Duke hit the down button on the elevator as though he were probing for gold and could see the fruits of his strike inside. A “Ding!” rang out and the down arrow lit up red, forcing the metal doors to part. Duke flung himself inside and beat repeatedly on the button for the ground floor.
Alone, safely inside the empty car, he lost his cool and punched the walls and kicked wildly at the doors. He’d been unraveled by this woman, this Crystal, and had no idea why. In the midst of all his anger, his phone began to vibrate and ring inside his pocket. It took a moment for him to realize the sounds and vibrations were coming from outside his own body.
Duke jammed his hand in to retrieve his phone and yanked it out before he had time to consider where or who he was.
His phone fell from his grip and bounced to the floor of the elevator. Duke fell to his knees and scrambled to pick it up, hitting the button and lashing out at the receiver.
“What?!” he barked.
“Duke Chambers, you low-life bastard!” blared the voice on the other end, a voice he was very familiar with.
Just then the chime rang out inside the elevator “Ding!” and the metal doors parted once again.
Duke looked up from all fours and saw a pair of legs he knew could only lead to the body of one woman.
“Nicolette,” he stammered, attempting to rise to his feet, “when did you get…”
That’s when the steel train that was Nicolette’s gigantic, eco-friendly, recycled metal purse collided with Nick’s jaw. In that moment it was nothing but dark stars for Duke Chambers as he lay unconscious on the cold floor inside the elevator.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone