The Darkest Days

20. All In Or All Out

Vanessa slowly followed the signs to the stage and found a big blue door that had a white page reading Stage stuck on it.

It had a digital code lock keypad near the handle and she had no clue what the password was. It just made her feel more useless.

She backed up, hugging her arms and looked at the people, giving her stares.

"Who are you?" A huge, black man demanded with a loud voice.

"My sister is in there-" she pointed towards the door.

"Did I ask that, barbie?"

"If you don't know me, what's the point of telling you." She averted her wet eyes away.

"If I don't know you, it's for a reason; which being that you aren't allowed to in here. Get out before I drag you myself."

"I'm supposed to be here. I was called by Monica Heart, Aiden Forrester and Willia-"

"Backstage pass." He held his hand out.

Vanessa felt like crying out loud. Why didn't I think of that before? She wasn't used to being here so she didn't know what she could do to avoid such situations.

She held up the card Audrey had given her earlier. The guy examined it and left without a word.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall behind. Her muscles still felt shaky. All for nothing.

She opened her eyes so she could process real visual images and not save one of the senses to give the saved energy to her thoughts. Then a short female redhead with a clipboard passed her and proceeded to enter a long code at the stage door at an extremely fast pace.

"Um, excuse me!" Vanessa sprang up. "Can you please call my sister, Audrey Pierce? She's one of the dancers. Please?"

The girl wearily eyed her. "Okay."

"Thank you very much." She smiled. All she needed right now was her sister but this stupid wall stood in between. Every second around these strangers made her uneasy. She wanted to leave.

"Vanessa?" Audrey walked out with a concerned expression. "She said you're cryi-"

She never got to complete her sentence as she was gripped tightly by her sister. "I-I couldn't do it! I d-didn't get it, Audrey.."

"Hey, so what?" Audrey gently caressed her hair. "It's not the end of the world, V. I know it's very intimidating, I've given an audition too-"

"But you got in first time!" Vanessa pulled apart. "You can't possibly know how rejection feels! My schoolmates rejected me, my boyfriend rejected me, my siblings, my future- every-"

"Vanessa!" Audrey hugged her again. "Calm down, it's alright! You're just overwhelmed, that's all. Trust me, nothing's as bad as you're thinking right now."

"Um.."

The sisters looked to the side to see Natasha Rivers looking uncomfortable while standing still. "I.. was asked to call you both in?" She said with confusion written all over her face.

"Both?" Audrey raised her eyebrow.

"I'm not going back in there." Vanessa shook her head and hid it in her sister's shoulder.

Audrey wrapped her arms around her as she spoke to Natasha, "what happened? Why are they calling her back?"

"Not just her, Miss Pierce, you as well."

"Me? I'm in the middle of a rehears-"

"Please, Audrey." Natasha said. "You don't wanna keep any of them waiting."