~~Chapter 9~~
~~Virtual Insanity Index~~
Crystal gazed around her surroundings, feeling like an outsider. She never usually go out in public places for fear of what James might do to her. But now she's out here, and James doesn't even know.� But she decided to worry about that later, right now she focused on finding Innocence29. The cool gentle air blew her hair in front of her face as she looked for the man in a red shirt and an expensive watch on his wrist. She was unsuccessful. She looked down, seeing the words "Mike's still Invincible" on her blue T-shirt. She smiled. Somehow this all felt so right. She watched all the fans laugh and chant and wave their banners. As time passed, some people did a little Michael Jackson impersonation for the crowd. When she was watching this, someone's hand tapped her shoulder. She turned around quickly, thinking, for a second that it was Innocence29, but it was another stranger. She had long wavy brown hair, and lively blue eyes. She had a MJ poster in her hand that represented a fanclub of some sort. She gave a welcoming smile.
�� "Hi, I'm Vanessa, from the MJNCI fanclub. I haven't seen you before, what's you're name?"
Crystal smiled. She seemed friendly. "Crystal"
Vanessa extended her hand. Crystal shook it.
�� "Nice to meet you. I'm glad to see you out here supporting Michael Jackson. Every little bit helps."
Crystal started to feel more at ease with the MJ fans surrounding her. They all seemed so nice. "Thanks. I'm actually looking for a friend also."
�� "Really. Maybe your friend is in the club. Do you know the name?"
Crystal shrugged. "nooo, but he is wearing a red flannel shirt, black slacks and a--"
Her words were cut off by a scream. Both Crystal and Vanessa turned their heads to where it was coming from.
James woke up to find Crystal gone. Confused, he got up, only wearing a pair of boxers, to the stairs.
�� "CRYSTAL!" he called.
Silence.
He ran his fingers through his long brown hair, in which he usually puts in a ponytail, but left it down for the night. He grinned. He knew how to find out exactly where the bitch was. He went to the computer and connected onto the Internet. Knowing her password and her screenname, he went into her mailbox. There was an already read email by someone named "Innocence29".
He knew who innocence29 was. He had hacked into his computer system. Crystal thought he was not computer literate. Was she so wrong. She was wrong about a lot of things.
�� Michael is so stupid, he thought.
Then his feelings turned to anger. This is the man his wife had been chatting with on the net all this time.
And he knew it.
He felt a certain urge to go for his gun. He had scared Michael once; he could scare him again. He opened the email.
Hi, yes, I'm still awake.LOL
I just am so excited to meet you tomorrow that I just can't sleep. It's a weird feeling, cuz I really haven't had this feeling in so long.
Really, I didn't want to have this feeling. But I just decided to email you. For no reason. LOL Anyways, just look out for me. Remember, gold watch.
Innocence29
James bit his bottom lip and felt an uncontrollable anger emerge inside of him. That anger seemed to be a part of him for a long time. He jumped from the chair quickly, knocking the chair over, shut down the computer and ran to get dressed.
�� "Oh my GOD!" Vanessa cried and ran through the crowd leaving Crystal confused.
Crystal gazed down the street and saw a stretch black limo slowly, very slowly, riding down the street. That's when it occurred to her that that was Michael Jackson!� The crowd ran to the limo and seemed to attack the car. Crystal ran with them to get a glimpse of her idol. She found her way through the screaming crowd and got very close to the car. The window was rolled down and Michael was touching all the fans' hands. Every person's hand he touched seemed to go into hysterical crying. Crystal didn't get a good view of Michael, but she did see the man with a fedora hat and shades in the car.� Then the sunroof of the car opened and Michael stood up through the sunroof and waved at the fans. Crystal's heart was pounding hard against her chest.
Red shirt.
Black pants.
Fedora.
And on his wrist was a beautiful gold watch.
Crystal just stared up at him with her mouth open. She couldn't believe it. It just couldn't be true.� Innocence29, the man she couldn't stop thinking about on the Internet, was Michael Joesph Jackson. It couldn't be true.
But as she stared up at him, he had noticed her. He looked straight at her, and winked. Tears came to her eyes.
He secretly continued to look at her, as he blew kisses and waved to the fans. No one seemed to notice.
As he looked at her, he mouths the words, "Crystal...follow me."