One Man Band System

Three days later, very early in the morning, a company-issued BMW X5 driven by Eric rolled into the school driveway and pulled up right in front of the secondary gates.

"Alright... we’re here," Eric said, turning to look at Emma in the passenger seat and the other girls in the back.

"Perfect... I’ll be here until this afternoon because I have piano extracurriculars today," Emma said, leaning over to plant a kiss on Eric’s cheek.

"Yeah... I’ll be late too, because of track club and prep work for freshman recruitment," Monica added, poking her head forward to kiss Eric’s cheek.

"I’ve got drama club... so I’m staying with them," Priya added, taking Monica’s place to kiss Eric’s cheek.

"I have cheerleading... we have to get our routine ready for the upcoming club recruitment drive," Chloe said, kissing Eric’s cheek from the other side.

"Same... I’m in the same club as Chloe," Heidi added, taking Chloe’s turn to kiss Eric’s cheek on that same side.

"I don’t really have any activities, but I’ll just wait around for everyone and read a novel in the library," Laura said, taking her turn after Priya to kiss Eric’s cheek.

"Alright, alright... why is everyone kissing me anyway?" Eric asked, feeling flustered as his heart pounded.

"Hehehe... no reason! Bye, see you back home later," the six girls chimed in.

With that, the girls popped the doors open and piled out. Eric watched the six of them walk in, turning back to wave at him. Naturally, he waved back, and they playfully headed inside toward the school building. Once they were gone, Eric pulled out his smartphone and opened up the video he and the girls had recorded and shared two days ago.

He listened closely to his original song, titled "Enigma Betrayal," reviewing it carefully. He completely failed to notice someone watching him from near the entrance gate, someone who had just walked past his car and eyed it intently.

Eric closed his eyes, soaking in the melody, a melancholy tune that was soft yet fast-paced and rhythmic. After four minutes and twelve seconds, the song wrapped up. Feeling satisfied with the final cut, he checked the stats.

732,991 subscribers, 5,222,114 views, 2,311,880 likes, and 7,301,203 shares. A massive grin spread across Eric’s face; his mellow track had unexpectedly gone completely viral. He scanned the comments, which already topped six thousand.

"Incredible... absolutely incredible... this song strikes a chord at the absolute deepest part of my heart. I can completely feel what the lyricist was going through,"

"Sob... sob... my ears are having an orgasm but I’m crying... sob... sob,"

He read through a few more of them, typing out replies to the ones that seemed worth a response. After a while, as more students started flooding in and his car began blocking the gate, he restarted the engine and shifted into reverse. He didn’t notice Ruby, who was standing right behind the wall of the gate, peeking out to watch him and his car.

"Crazy... just how rich is Eric? Jade said he isn’t Dad’s biological kid... that Mom had him with someone else... is his real dad loaded or something?" Ruby wondered to herself.

Ruby turned around and walked into the school building. Pulling out her smartphone, she plugged in her earplugs and opened up the video performed by The Empress that Eric had shared earlier, titled "Enigma Betrayal." Ruby listened to the lyrics word for word, then glanced back toward the gate. Of course, Eric’s car was already gone. "Sigh." She exhaled deeply, turning back around to keep walking inside.

"So... this is what’s inside Eric’s heart... he wrote a song like this because we all treated him like he didn’t exist this whole time... I’ll admit it... I ignored him too, and only talked to him when I needed something... sorry Eric... I want to be a real sister to you... but... I think it’s already too late," Ruby thought, feeling a sharp pang of regret and sorrow in her chest, as if her heart were being tightly squeezed.

Once the song finished, she hit replay to listen to it one more time. She kept it playing until she finally walked into her classroom and spotted Emma, Monica, Chloe, and Priya chatting casually, completely ignoring her. Her mind immediately began to calculate.

"Maybe if I make something of myself in the future and can stand on equal footing with Eric, he might actually want to acknowledge me... for now, I need to get on the good side of Emma, Monica, Heidi, Laura, Priya, and Chloe... if I can get close to them, they’ll be my bridge to get back into Eric’s life... for today, I’ll just lay low and figure things out. I already made a wrong move trying to approach them, and I can’t let that happen again," Ruby schemed, her head full of calculations.

Ruby sat at her desk in the back of the room, having requested a seat change just to get away from Monica and Chloe. She simply stared at the four girls as they chatted merrily and joked around, all while she listened to the track that The Empress had just released, imagining how amazing her life would be if she could get back together with Eric now that he was rich.

***

Meanwhile, Eric pulled into the basement parking lot of the Stone and Friends law firm building, heading in for an update Katie had told him about. After parking his car, he glanced at the holographic screen hovering beside him.

[Quest: Compose three songs for The Empress (1/3), Compose a solo song (0/1).]

"It’s already been a month, and next month is another one. This is a long quest—it’s going to take four whole months to finish," Eric thought to himself.

He got out of the car and shut the door. Suddenly, someone tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned around to find Richard himself standing there, smiling.

"Are you here to see Katie?" Richard asked.

"Yes, Mr. Stone. Katie told me there’s been a new development," Eric answered.

"That’s right. A very significant one, and we can act on it immediately. That’s why Katie called you in, to discuss the strategy," Richard said.

"What exactly is the development, sir? Can you give me a quick heads-up so I’m prepared when I go upstairs?" Eric asked.

Richard checked his watch, looked back at Eric, and leaned against the car behind him.

"It turns out Melissa’s younger brother is in deep trouble... he owes a massive gambling debt to some pretty dangerous people. Because of that... he accepted money from Paul to eliminate Melissa, who had started getting close to Mason and sniffing around things she shouldn’t have," Richard explained.

Hearing Richard’s words, Eric was completely blindsided. He knew exactly how trashy and completely untrustworthy Blake’s character was, so it was no surprise the guy was mixed up in shady business. But planning to murder Melissa just to pay off a debt was taking it way too far, even if Eric didn’t care for Melissa himself.

"So that’s how it is. No wonder he was so terrified at the hospital, and the first thing out of his mouth was that he had no idea how his sister got into an accident. So, did he run her over himself?" Eric asked, curious.

"No... he didn’t do the dirty work himself. He collaborated with his debt collectors... he told them he’d only get the money once the girl was dead. Well... that’s the gist of it, and the police are handling it. He was initially brought in just to give a statement, but he’s been sitting in a cell for two days now with no one coming to bail him out," Richard answered.

"Wow... so everything he said about being close with Melissa was a total lie," Eric noted.

"Yeah... he only moved into Melissa’s apartment ten days ago after running away from the collectors," Richard said.

"And what about my number being used as Melissa’s emergency contact? Did you get an answer for that yet?" Eric asked.

"Hmm... you’ll have to get the rest from Katie. I need to leave right now or I’ll be late for court. We’ll catch up later," Richard replied, checking his watch again.

"Oh... alright, Mr. Stone. Sorry for keeping you," Eric said.

"Don’t worry about it. See you later, I’m off," Richard replied.

Richard pressed a button on his remote, and the Rolls-Royce Eric was standing next to, the one Richard had been leaning on, cranked to life. He hopped inside and waved as he drove off a moment later.

Eric watched the Rolls-Royce head up the ramp, leaving the basement and disappearing from sight. He then began processing Richard’s words in his mind.

"Hmm... what a highly annoying and painful coincidence... for Blake, anyway, hehe," Eric thought to himself before walking toward the elevator to head upstairs.

Standing alone inside the elevator, Eric just stared blankly at the lights above the door as they lit up one by one, passing each floor. His thoughts began racing again.

"So Melissa was betrayed by her own adoptive brother, harboring a parasite under her roof for the last ten days. No wonder she didn’t list him as her emergency contact... karma really is a bitch, and it’s right on time," Eric thought to himself, a faint smile spreading across his face.