The Devil knows my Name

Marilyn Manson’s tour around the USA was starting to come to an end and the next stop was to conquer the Europe. Jackie had to choose between Ginger and her project. She had already recorded eight songs with Ville Valo, Kerli, The Gorillaz, Placebo, Nine Inch Nails, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and Coldplay. Almost half the songs were still waiting in line and Jackie hoped to find the guys from Oomph! from Germany. And of course the fabulous Apocalyptica’s trio from Finland.

Ginger looked Jackie at work in the studio and he noticed that she had changed after the “accident”. Instead of wearing her favorite wine red clothes she had started to wear black and dark emerald green. She had started to take more charge of the music she was creating and her bossy manners surprised him. Even her singing manners had changed from Avril Lavigne-like to something new – darker and sinister. Right now she was doing one of her songs with KoRn. She really hated the bagpipes and tried to convince them to drop that idiotic idea that would ruin the whole album.

Jackie had tried to find a substitute for John who was supposed to be in two of her songs that were written for very talented guitarist who could keep up with her on the piano. She had tried with five or six best guitarists she could have find but no one of them sounded like she needed. And Ginger knew that. She was so ready to drop those two songs and choose something else to hook up with Linda Sundblad or Rob Thomas. The variety of different genres was wide and she needed them to be in right order to create perfect emotions when listening the album.

Jackie finally gave KoRn some break and went to greet Ginger who asked her out for a dinner in a small cafeteria and perhaps a movie later on. She gladly took the invitation and went with him to have some fun. Ginger had noticed that she wore broad heavy golden bracelets to cover her scars on her wrists before they turned completely white and disappeared. Her bracelets always reminded him how close he had been loosing her. From that moment he had promised to spend all his free time with her.

They sat in the cafeteria and just talked about things that really didn’t matter. She was smiling a lot when Ginger was talking about a funny argument between Twiggy and Marilyn when they were trying to find something to wear in their upcoming music video. That reminded Jackie that she had to do at least two or three music videos for her album also. Ville at least had agreed to do one with her.

Ginger reached over the table and took her slender hands in his. She looked at him and smiled sweetly. Her smile hadn’t changed nor her beauty that only had blossomed. He loved her so much that he just had to say that again.

Later that day they went to the movies and watched some action movie that was interesting enough to keep their hands off of each other. That was followed by an animation by Disney Pixar. Jackie loved animations and Ginger just had to bear with her but after a while he forgot that it was for kids and enjoyed it. Jackie was cuddled next to him for the whole movie and for a second he suspected that she had fallen asleep but her sudden giggles every now and then proved him wrong.

In the late evening they finally got home, which was another luxury villa Jackie had rented. Ginger opened the door for her and let Jackie in. Stepping into the foyer she froze in awe. The villa was lit in thousands of candles and red rose petals covered the floor. Jackie walked to the living room and looked around. There were exactly a dozen bouquets of red roses and white lilies in crystal vases all around. The sweet smell made her drowsy when she turned around to look at him.

“Gin, this… oh, it’s beautiful,” she gasped. Ginger stepped closer to her with a warm smile on his face.

“Jacqueline, you are beautiful. I never tire of saying that,” he said and kissed her tenderly. The kiss grew passionate soon and Ginger had to pull away to breathe.

“And I love you. You are everything to me and I want to spend my whole life with you,” he said and stooped down to one knee. He took her hand and looked up.

“Jacqueline Michelle Astoria, will you marry me?” he proposed and took out a red box from the pocket of his pants. He opened the lip with a pop and presented her the 7-carat heart-cut diamond engagement ring. Jackie gasped as she saw the ring that had cost a small fortune.

“Kenny…” she whispered and stared at the sparkling jewel. A billion thoughts ran through her mind right then. She had always expected him to ask her hand in marriage but never had actually hoped she’d hear the proposal. She had been afraid that Ginger had seen too many broken hearts starting with Marilyn.

Ginger looked at her and waited in silent terror for her answer.

“Yes!” she cried and on the next second she almost lost her balance when Ginger hugged her waist and then stood up and kissed her deeply.

“Oh, Jackie, I love you so much,” he whispered and slithered the ring into her finger with a shaking hand. He was so ecstatic that almost fainted. Ginger scooped her up from the floor and carried her to the bedroom.
***
For the next days all the papers and magazines talked about the engagement of Ginger Fish and Jackie Astoria. Photographers were stalking them enthusiastically to capture the moments when they were together.

The news traveled fast and soon John was holding a magazine that had the picture of the happy couple on the front cover. He just couldn’t believe what he was reading from the article. He had to see her.

John started to call people to find out where Jackie resided. She moved from one villa to another so often that he had lost track of her. Soon he found her from the East Coast.