Offscreen

“Hello, and welcome to this special edition of ‘Celebrity face off’. Tonight, we are proud to present some of the finest female singers the world has to offer – competing tonight will be: Anastacia (cheer from audience), Britney Spears (cheer), Christina Aguilera (cheer), Jennifer Lopez (cheer), Shakira (cheer) and Pink (cheer). The six ladies will face off against each other in several rounds, as usual, but tonight’s edition will focus on balloons and inflation, so we’ve added some special surprises.

Bzzzt, bzzzt. The Mike’s mobile phone vibrated. The call display showed his home number.

“Hey there Mandy baby, what’s up?”

“Are you still at the office? You know today’s your birthday.” Mandy sounded like she was a little put out.

“I just had some files that needed a few minutes of extra work before I left. Do I hear a hissing noise in the background?”

“I was going to surprise you. You know that thing we did last month? You know, for my birthday?” Mandy cooed.

Amy was in a new store. This wasn’t just any ol’ store though. If it was, then it wouldn’t be worth mentioning. It was a magic store. Not the kind of magic that involves rabbits and sleight of hand. This was a real magic store. The kind of magic that involves eye of newt and caldrons. (Actually eye of newt is an ingredient used in less than 1% of all potions and spells. Witches often speculate on why it is so well known.) To Amy though, it was just any other store. She didn’t believe in hocus pocus. In fact, she went beyond being a mere skeptic and usually downright made fun of it.

Storm clouds had already begun to gather as the crowd filtered out of the club. It was just after 3am, kicking out time, and the distant sound of thunder crashing echoed through the streets.

Raindrops began to fall, lightly at first, onto the little groups of people waiting for their friends to join them.

The sound of chatter started to drown out as the rain began to fall more heavily, much to the dismay of those just stepping outside.