Matthew.
Another concert that ends well. The crowd went wild, the guys did great. I close with a song that my fans love, the one that made me famous. I wrote this song for my ex-fiancée Tessa, before she left me a few days before the wedding, saying that this life was too much for her, that it's hard for her to live with a super star, knowing that she'll be in constant competition with my fans and all the beautiful women that I'll be around in this business. For a woman who grew up in Colorado, she is used to a totally different lifestyle. The farm being at the center. We have a ranch in Colorado, my mom passed on the love of music to me, she is a therapist. Her methods are pretty special, she created this center to be able to help all these soldiers who came back from the front and had to live with all the horrors they saw there.
That's how she met my father, who is also a former soldier. She was a therapist at the military base. She cured her patients with the beauty of nature, some time on the ranch, music around the fire.
My mother's methods have always worked well and everyone who leaves there is cured. My breakup with Tessa couldn't heal, so I permanently moved to New York. Colorado brought back too many memories. But every once in a while I take some time for myself and go home to my people. I am the second to last of four children.
There's Spencer, our big brother, he runs the ranch with Dad, he's married and already has two beautiful kids with his wife Sheila. Then the one who comes before me, Reed, who is not ready to get married. He also chose the army like our father, he travels a lot and is fulfilled in what he does. Then there's me and finally Riley, the youngest, she's twenty-two years old and got married last year. She is pregnant to the neck.
Her husband is also a well-known rancher in Colorado, they love each other. She teaches at the local school, she has always loved children, we all knew that she would either be a pediatrician or a teacher. My thing is music, I inherited it from my mother. I always loved to hear her sing, I accompanied her in each of her songs. So it was like a revelation, she encouraged me a lot, my whole family, I'm lucky to have them, what was hard was the separation when I had to move to New-York. So I compensate by calling the Ranch every day. I call them every day to hear from them. I close my eyes and let the emotion wash over me. This song tells our story, I fell in love with her as a kid, I've known girls, but it was always Tessa I wanted to marry. The first time we said I love you we must have been eighteen. We had a relationship hidden from the rest of the world. It was just us, her and me. I would have given anything for Tessa, I even offered to give up music for her but she refused saying that it would be too big a sacrifice for me and that she would blame herself all her life if I did it.
We couldn't find a compromise so we said goodbye. I was depressed for months, for a while I even stopped singing altogether and then I started to live again thanks to my mother whom I adore.
I've known other women, yes, but none that I've wanted to pursue a long-term relationship with. I always wondered how she would have reacted if she had known this dark part of me, this part of me that would scare the most reasonable woman.
The show ends, I thank the public then, I go down from stage. In the dressing rooms, I greet all my musicians.
<< Thank you guys... You were great as usual. >>
<< You want to laugh it is you who makes them all crazy. >> Nate tells me.
<< What can I do? >> I asked, shrugging my shoulders. I have a drink with the guys before heading back to my dressing room. I arrive and call my mom, she answers on the second ring.
<< Hi mom, I'm sorry it's pretty late. >>
<< Don't worry my darling. >> I was just waiting for your call. How did it go?
<< It went fine like every other night. >>
<< Okay, that's a relief, she says with a sigh. I'm really worried about you, you know all those strange letters you keep getting. >>
I listen to my mom talk while I change my clothes. I open my locker to get my shirt and I come across an altar with my image on it.
<< Oh fuck >> I scream as I drop my phone. I get closer, a picture of me is in the center of several red candles, a doll that is probably supposed to represent me is sitting next to a candle. And traces of blood are all around the candles.
Shit!
I bring my trembling fingers close to the stains I touch you. Thank God it's paint.
<< Matthew... Matt is everything okay? >>
I go back to pick up my phone to answer my mom.
<< Yes mom everything is fine. >> << What was that noise? >>
<< Just my phone falling. >>
<< Matthew Baxter I am your mother, and let me tell you I am the person who knows you best on this earth so stop lying to me and tell me what is wrong. >>
I let out a sigh before answering, I really need to learn to lie!
<< I found an altar with my image in my locker. >>
<< What? yells my mother. >>
I hear my father's gruff voice asking her what's going on. I imagine my mother raising her hand to ask my father to wait a bit.
<< First this person left a message in your car, then he went into your apartment and left you a note saying you belong to him. Then we have an altar? >>
<< Mom... >>
<< No Matt this time that's enough. I'm calling Nicholas. >>
Nicholas is a former patient of my mother's, when he came to us he was a mess from the inside out, the army changes a man. We almost lost our father, the horrors soldiers see over there and the horrors they witness can drive them crazy. He was traumatized by the death of his best friend, killed in a car bomb. He spent a year with us, and we became friends, we were very close to the point where I am the godfather of his little girl.
But I have to admit that I am a poor godfather, we are in the same city and I never went to see her, from time to time, I often call her to have some news. But my schedule is so busy that we don't have time to see each other. After he left our home, and after my mom used her super powers on him, he opened a security agency that is doing quite well. I am very proud of him and the journey he has taken, he has managed to rise from his physical and mental wounds.
<< Mom we're not going to bother him for so little... >>
<< For so little? What if things get worse? We need to find out who this person is right now. And put an end to this. >>
<< Mom I don't want to walk around town with an army of bodyguards, that's not the image my fans have of me, I'm totally available to them. I'm totally available to them. >>
<< I'm sure he'll find people who are discreet and won't get in your way. >>
<< Mom... >>
<< Don't argue. We'll talk about this tomorrow. Did you at least change the locks like I asked you to? >>
<< Yes, Mom, I did. >>
<< At least one good thing done. >> My mother hangs up on me, she's always been a strong character, even my father has nothing to say to her, somehow I think she even scares him a little. I take a bag to clean all this shit. I extinguish the candles that I put in a bag before throwing them in the trash. My t-shirt was torn in small pieces, I can't put it on anymore.
Great.
And my hairbrush is gone. I pick up each little piece and then put it in another plastic. After I finish picking up all these pieces of cloth, I realize that there is a message at the bottom. I grab the paper and unfold it, and the words I read on it really start to scare me. DON'T YOU SEE ALL THE LOVE I GIVE YOU, YOU ARE MINE. MINE ALONE.
Okay, this is really starting to freak me out. Mom is right I need protection.