[center]
[img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjQ4LmZmZmZmZi5RV0ZzYVhsaGFDQk1ZV1Z5YjNKdS4w/league-script.league-script.png[/img]

[sub]{Sorry 'bout the messy/shitty reply, [@ihinka]. Kind of late here.}[/sub][/center]

She heard the clapping, saw the hands coming together and some smiles on faces here and there, before she realized what was happening. On stage a whole new world opened up to her. She forgot who she was offstage, she forgot who she pretended to be, who she should have been, who she wanted to be. And she just existed for her own sake for a moment.

The clapping died down and Aaliyah smiled a little shy, but bright and thanked the people for listening as she sat down the guitar and left the little stage. She shot Shorty a look. He was wiping a glass that seemed perfectly fine and gave her a nod with twinkling eyes. She hadn't known him for too long, but Shorty had taken her into his heart like no one else before on this planet. Aaliyah was thankful for his small gestures.

She placed her butt on a stool by the bar and leaned her head on her hands. "Soooo... You still want me to come back?" She smiled at him with a thankful expression all over her face. 

"You are extraordinary, Liyah." He gave her a wink and a playful side-smile before putting the perfectly fine glass down finally. "You should consider going out doing exactly this." Liyah rolled her eyes and put her head on the bar. She had heard that a couple of times before, but she hadn't taken him seriously. "You are somewhere else when you're up there. I mean, I don't know 'bout music and shit, but you sure feel whatever it is you're doing up there." He lowered his face a little to be able to look at hers. "Hey, you were fantastic once again."

"You can say that!", she mourned and lifted herself up again. "You're like.... nice and stuff." Shorty gave her a laugh at that statement. "You just can't tell people when they actually suck."

With one raised eyebrow the owner of the little place put some money on the counter and picked up the next perfectly fine glass to polish. Aaliyah smiled at him, took the money and thanked the man with a grateful look. She lifted herself off the stool and walked out of the cozy place that made her feel right at home somehow.

She didn't count the money, it went straight into her purse and she turned into the direction that her heart told her to go to. It took her a twenty minute walk to realize where she even was heading. But when it hit her, she felt like she had known it already.

Her feet had carried her straight up to the Pelham Bay Park and her heart skipped a little. A playful tiny smile curled around her lips and her eyes brightened up just a tad bit. A deep sadness was still hidden beneath it all. In a quick movement she had taken off her shoes and socks and stuffed them - somehow - into her purse. With quick, skilled steps she fastened up her pace until she was running effortlessly into the park. The feeling of dirt and rocks and grass and sticks underneath her bare feet made her feel like she could fly any second. It almost felt like home when she closed her eyes.

A couple of moments later she had climbed up onto one of the highest, oldest, most precious and impressive trees, lying on one of their thicker branches. High enough to feel like she wasn't part of this world, but low enough for people to see her if they decided to look up at the crown. She had chosen that very branch instead of climbing to the highest point because she knew that her mother's face would be around this very area if only she was still alive... still free.

A soft smile played around her lips but it faded with every minute that she lied in the tree and looked up at the green leaves that covered the crown like beautiful hair. She didn't talk, she wouldn't have known what to say. 'Hey Mom, I gave up on saving you and all your kingdom, but I still visit your eternal prison, that's fine right?' 'Hey, Mother, awesome Queen and all that, I was a terrible Queen for ... like ... the two seconds that I was Queen. And now I am a disappointment more than ever, kinda sorry though.'

Aaliyah sighed. She felt her heart sink and suddenly her earlier feeling of being able to fly turned into a feeling of being chained to the ground. She felt heavy. She kept looking up at the crown of the tree, seeing a bit of the blue sky through some holes in the green.

She could feel a slight pulsation in her wrist. It was like a faint heartbeat, but not her heartbeat. She looked at the tattoo on her wrist that she had carried on her skin for so long and that she never knew how she actually got. But she never minded it much, it just was there. But now it was pulsating like a faint heartbeat and a very slight light shone through it. Aaliyah put her arm back down, dangling it off the branch and letting it hang in the air. Whatever happened would happen, there was no use in trying to stop that. She knew that much. Whatever she would do now - stay there, hide, run, maybe even fight - it would all lead to exactly the scene that the universe had intended to happen. It would all play out exactly how the universe wanted. And Aaliyah once more felt like she wasn't in control of her life. Was anyone really ever in control?