Kent White rushed over to the hospital after he received a teary call from Mel. Xerc had been admitted into St. Augustine Hospital forty-five minutes ago. Apparently, she was assaulted by five bulky men while she was strolling at the park. She miraculously managed to escape and now is lying on a hospital bed. Mel told him there were bruises, and blood.

Damn it, he thought angrily. The Bad Gurlz had done it this time. Ever since the Angel X rose to fame, the former popular rock band had been causing troubles. First, they sabotaged the Angel X concerts, hired people to destroy their costumes, and spread dirty lies about them on the internet; giving Kent a year and a half to convince the media that none of the girls had any affair with a married man.

He parked his car outside, got out, slammed the car door shut, and stormed into the building. He walked as fast as he could, occasionally running.

‘Xerces!’ shouted Kent to a nurse who had noticed him by the counter. The nurse gave him a small frown and retorted, ‘103’.

Without saying thanks, Kent dashed to where the room was, ignoring the nurse who shouted to him not to run. He ran along the corridor, avoiding the hospital staffs and the patients, until he arrived in front of room 103. Drawing a deep breath, he entered.

A doctor was pulling a white cover onto someone on the bed. Kent stood thunderstruck by the door.

‘No...’ he whispered. ‘No, this can’t be’.

Kent walked up to the bed, where the occupant had just died. The nurses and the doctor watched at him quizzically. He placed his hands on the dead person, and shook lightly.

‘Xerc,’ he called, ‘Xerc! Xerc, wake up! You can’t die! WAKE UP!’

He wailed and buried his face onto the white cover, his sobbing were muffled.

‘Uh... Kent?’

Kent lifted his head immediately. The familiar voice did not come from underneath the white blanket.

‘I’m over here’.

Kent turned and saw Xerc sitting on a bed opposite to where he was at. Mel and Go were sitting on each of her sides with their jaws dropped and eyes wide. Someone tapped on Kent’s shoulder. It was the doctor.

‘This man here was homeless. We found him lying outside the hospital door this morning’ said the doctor. It was hard to tell whether the doctor was sympathising with the decease, or suppressing his laughter upon Kent’s mistake.

Kent instantly backed off from the one he thought was Xerc. He rubbed his clothes and arms. Walking over to the girls, he gave them a glare.

‘Don’t-say-a-word-about-it-to-anyone’ he hissed.

Silence ensued for a while. Then they giggled, making Kent blushed. He dragged a small chair near Xerc’s bed, sat down beside Go, crossed his arms, and looked away from them. A different doctor appeared behind him all of a sudden.

‘It seems you’re quite calm after that terrible ordeal’ said the doctor, watching over to Xerc, who tried to suppress her giggle with her knuckle. ‘Young girls like all of you should be careful. There’s a lot of bad men nowadays’.

He smiled at them and walked away. Kent snorted slightly to indicate he was annoyed with them. No one there would have guessed that the three giggling girls were actually members of the famous rock band. They kept their identities secret by exchanging their appearances. It was kind of Hannah Montana thing. The only ones who knew were Kent, their make-up artists, the production crews, and of course, the Bad Gurlz. Their arch-enemies did not expose their identities to the public though. Perhaps they understood the futility of doing so, given that the Angel X would still be famous. So, they ended up trying to hurt the girls in any way they could. Kent sighed.

‘Oh, he’s sulking... Guys stop making fun of him...’ Go said as she tried to contain her laugh. She failed though and continued to chuckle.

‘OK, stop it’ Kent growled. He moved closer to Xerc and examined her. ‘You looked fine. Except for those small scratches. Bruises and blood?’ he threw Mel an angry look. Mel stopped laughing.

‘I got panicked’ said Mel apologizingly.  

‘It was nothing. Those men tried to grab me into a van but I gave them a good fight’ Xerc intervened.

‘Well, one day you won’t be able to give a good fight. What if the Bad Gurlz hire an assassin to kill you three?’ Kent said, leaning back to his chair and crossed his arms again.

‘That sounds a little far-fetched...’ Go said as she wiped her tears from her eyes.

‘Five men tried to kidnap Xerc already and all of us know it’s the Bad Gurlz’s doing’ Kent said curtly.

 ‘The police can do nothing about it since we don’t have enough evidence’.

They were quiet again. The nurses had brought the dead person out from the room. Kent shivered. He really thought that Xerc had died. Jealousy was very dangerous in the industry. And the Bad Gurlz was determined to make sure the Angel X disappear for good. He needed to make sure the girls were safe. But how?

Even hiring fifty bodyguards couldn’t keep the girls away from the Bad Gurlz’s evil schemes. Kent was tormented inside. For a moment, he really thought that Xerc had died. He was grateful that wasn’t Xerc who got covered up with a white sheet, officially dead.

‘Kent, are you okay?’ Mel asked, sounding concern. All of them were staring at Kent, who looked at them and bit his lower lip to stop himself from crying.

‘You know I love you girls...’ he said suddenly.

Xerc, Mel and Go frowned.

‘Kent, you’re doing it again’ said Mel, feeling her hair stood and her skin tingled with disgust. She had never liked it when Kent got emotional.

‘I’ve gotta think of something...’ said Kent.

He started to bite on his nails and pondered deeply. What should he do? Bodyguards were clearly useless. He needed something else to protect the Angel X. Someone they could trust, someone they could rely on completely, someone- someone who could stand against the Bad Gurlz’s evil.

Then he remembered something- no- he remembered a woman.

That morning he had received an e-mail from a friend, Belle Pinky, a stunning model and actress who was also a close friend to Mel. She knew of their secret and of their problem with the Bad Gurlz too. She suggested to him to hire bodyguards from an agency called The beasts. He didn’t know of any bodyguards agencies by that name. But since it was a suggestion from Belle, he had considered.

‘I’m getting you some new personal bodyguards’ said Kent as he dialled the contact number Belle had mailed him. Xerc groaned.

‘We already have way too much bodyguards back in our home and studio’.

‘Belle said these guys are good’.

‘Aren’t they all?’

‘Shush!’

Kent waited for someone to pick up the phone. He felt strangely excited about this. A woman answered coldly.

‘Beasts Agency. I am Willow. How may I help you?’

‘Hello. Is this the place where I can find bodyguards?’ asked Kent politely. Xerc, Mel and Go listened intently.

‘Yes’ replied the woman sombrely. ‘You want our service?’

‘Are you guys good in this job?’

The woman did not reply.

‘Hello?’ Kent called.

‘Do you want our service?’ asked the woman again.

‘I need to know how good you are first’ said Kent, getting impatient.

‘Then, you need to hire our bodyguards to see whether they’re good or not’ said the woman coldly.

‘Listen, I’m not trying to be rude, but I don’t want to hire anyone that is not capable of handling our situation-’

‘Situations like dead threats, stalking, kidnap, sabotage and murder?’

‘Wh- yeah-’

‘You’ve come to the right place. Tell me your name, sir’.

‘Kent White...’

‘Manager of the Angel X band, am I correct?’

‘Yeah... Listen, I want to make an appointment if you can’t exactly tell me how good you are-’

‘I’ll be right over there to talk to you then’.

‘What? No, wait!’

She hung up. Kent cursed and jumped on his feet.

‘This is a prank!’ he bellowed. Seriously, how could she say she was going to come over to meet him when she didn’t even know where he was.

Xerc, Mel and Go nodded their heads in agreement, even though they did not understand what really his conversation with the woman was. Suddenly, the room went dark. And then the light flickered on for a few seconds before flickering off again.

‘What’s wrong with the light?’ Kent said angrily, and went over to the window. When he was about to pull the curtain to let the evening light in, the light flickered on; the room was bright again. Kent snorted, ‘I’m going to complain about this- what?’

The girls were staring at him, seemingly shocked. Kent then noticed they were not looking at him. There was someone at his back. He slowly turned around.

A tall, white-faced woman with half of her face hidden under black long hair looked down at him with a pair of glistening dark eyes.

‘Nice to meet you, Mr. Kent White. My name is Willow’ said the woman with the same cold voice she had over the phone.