For a moment, there was no answer.
Candi covered her head and gasped. Oh God not him too.
'Byron! Byron are you there???'
'Darling! Is everything alright? Are you hurt?'
'Oh my God, Byron!" Candi began panting, her fear exploding. He was answering which meant he was not hurt.
"I'm fine, but the twins, Lucas, and Dante were supposed to be here to help me with the Event. It's almost time, but nobody has shown up!'
'Listen. Just relax. Breathe deeply. Everything will be just fine.'
Candi closed her eyes and breathed as Byron told her to do. The breathing helped quell down her panic, but she was still extremely worried.
'Good girl. Now listen carefully. You only have fifteen minutes left. From the dressing room where you are to the stage is going to take about ten minutes to get to.'
His voice sounded urgent. Something was truly wrong.
'You need to start walking there NOW.'
'But Byron, I'm not dressed for the performance!'
'What are you wearing?'
'My—my white outfit from yesterday.'
'That's good enough. You looked delectable yesterday so you should be fine. Remember, you don't have to do much. Just show up on the stage.'
'But—'
'Start walking Love.' Byron's voice was insistent. 'You only have thirteen minutes left to walk.'
Heaving a cry, Candi ran out of the dressing room and began heading in the direction of the black and blue arrows that clearly pointed the way onto the stage.
'Remember. All you have to do is show up onstage. You don't really need to do anything and you would still take third position since this is not an elimination event.'
'It's not?'
'No. Remember, it was just a talent show for the top three Avgo Females to show off their magical talents. Even if you didn't do anything, you'd still be fine and in first place still. Just show up when your name is called.'
'Okay Byron.' Her voice shake, partly because she was running through the corridor and partly because she was scared.
'Please go find your brothers. I don't know what happened to any of them.'
'Leave them to me. You just go out there and do your best.' He responded in a rushed manner, as if he was running himself.
The halls were twisting and turning. The arrows continued to point, but half way to the staging area, she no longer needed them.
The noise coming from the stage area was like a dull roar. It sounded as if someone had just finished their Avgo Event.
'I'm here at the back lobby area. I can hear the crowd and Lorem Ipsum.'
'Good luck Darling.' Byron said and then there was silence on his end.
Since she didn't have access to any of the monitors, she had no idea who was performing what and how the scores were racking up.
At this point though, the Avgo was not on her list of the most important thing to think about. Aside from Byron, who sounded as if he was in some sort of distress himself, she had no idea where the others were.
Candi was gulping down tears as she ran towards the back stage.
The back lobby area was filled with Lorem Ipsum's attendants.
When they saw her running up, one of them ran out to let the old goat know she had arrived.
The other attendants converged in on her. They looked her up and down without saying a word.
The top ranking Avgo Female had come with no attendants of her own and looked as if she had been running through the halls to get here.
"Good morning Princess. Glad you were able to make it on time."
One handed her a cup of water and another was wiping the sweat off her brow and dusting something light on her face.
A third attendant gave a nervous smile as she looked at the white outfit that looked as if it was the same J&J exclusive that Candi had worn yesterday.
Although it was still clean, it wasn't exactly appropriate and proper for the leading Avgo Female to show up at the Avgo Magic and Illusions Event in a J&J outfit that was not specifically created for it.
The Twin Princes would never have missed an opportunity of this magnitude to show off more of their magical creations on this perfect woman who had modeled everything they had made for her to perfection.
"It's fine. This outfit is part of my performance." She lied.
They nodded, as if relieved to hear her say that. Obviously, this was supposed to have been seen twice. It must be the flagship outfit.
"We were told you would be here almost an hour ago to get set up so we reserved a special stage for you, but there's nothing on it. It's just an empty stage."
Another spoke up as he quickly brushed her hair back into some semblance of a sleek blonde ponytail and then sprayed it into place.
Candi beamed a bright smile at all of them. Her mask was firmly in place.
"Something unexpected came up so I was a bit delayed, but I'm here and I'm ready now."
The attendants nodded and bowed to her. They had seen this woman in action. Anything Princess Candace Farrah did was always spectacular and stunning.
What were they worried about? This event would be no different.
An attendant ran back to the staging area.
"Get ready, Princess. You're on next." She called out in a low calm voice.
Candi looked up at the woman and nodded.
From backstage, they could hear the sound of Lorem Ipsum's announcement coming up.
"And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for. Please give a big welcome to our current top ranked Avgo Female, the beautiful, multi-talented, exquisitely stunning Candace Farrah, from the blue green world of Earth!!!"
A huge whooping and hollering rose up among the crowds.
How much of it was real and how much was canned, she could not tell. It was all one huge noise to her.
Candi took a deep breath and walked out onto the brilliantly lit stage.
A single spotlight found her small white-clad figure walking out through a small sliver of the huge curtained back and began to focus in on her.
Suddenly, all the visuals pods began training their eyes at her wide-eyed innocent, unadorned face. Her hazel eyes and soft lips popped up on the large screen everywhere.
Everyone gasped.
Most of the visuals that had been shown around the galaxy was of this woman in carefully created fashions from the Twin Princes Jason and Jared.
There was also the abundance of still images of Lucandace from the 'Couple of the Galaxy' which showed her in beautiful costumes and a perfectly made-up face standing alongside the most handsome Prince of the Royal family.
But at this Avgo Event, she looked so fresh and natural! With her shiny smooth blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail, she barely looked seventeen!
Wait a moment. How old was she?
Some quick-thinking media expert pulled visuals of her first onstage appearance. It was an up-close zoom of her face as she was being flown onto the stage and dropped from the arms of one of the Princes of Erenveil.
This was most definitely a natural beauty. She needed no makeup to walk onstage and perform brilliantly.
On the running text below her visual, it clearly stated her name and her age: Candace Farrah - 22 Earth years.
She most definitely was past legal age.