A Stage Played

​Melissa was waiting for her friend Lara and she had been waiting a while so she dialled and rang her friends` mobile which rang and rang. Melissa was worried it was not like her friend to be late or even not answer her mobile so she rang her sister Bella, they talked briefly and Melissa knew then that Lara was in trouble and also she didn`t know where to start looking. She did know that she had to find her she could be lying somewhere injured or even worse so looking at her mobile she looked at her contacts who would know her then her eyes lit up Harry had dated her a few times so she rang him. "Harry?" she asked. "Thank goodness I`ve got hold of you. I hope you remember Lara are you still dating? You`re not..... do you have any contact with her?  I`m sorry I`m not explaining myself but I was meant to be meeting with her and she hasn`t turned up and I`ve tried to ring her, it just keeps ringing. I don`t suppose you know any other friends of hers."  Melissa  stopped listening to what Harry was saying to her. " I`m waiting outside the Brighton Centre, okay thanks I`ll wait for you."

​Melissa went into the foyer of the Brighton Centre and sat down and put her hands into her head.

​"Miss," someone was approaching her.

She looked at up and wiped her face. "Yes?"

​"Are you Melissa Wainwright?"

​"Why yes I`m Melissa," she looked up hopefully at the man who had just spoken to her. "Why?" she asked.

​He took out his hand and introduced himself, "My name is Daniel Masters and I have a young lady who is asking for you."

​Melissa immediately stood up, " What`s her name?"

​"I`m sorry but she never gave me her name she`s in quite a state but she has specificly asked for you."

​Melissa looked at her watch it was 9pm and Harry hopefully should be here soon.

​"Okay can you wait a minute please I`m waiting for a friend. I`ll just go outside and see if he`s arrived."

​"Sorry Miss but you can`t go back outside."

​Melissa looked shocked, "But why i can just open the door...please he`s her brother." she said thinking on the spot.

​"Stay here I`ll go and have a look." Daniel walked to the door

​As he did so Melissa was doubting him and very unsure of his motive so while he went to the big front doors she slid to the side door and made her way out, she wasn`t going to take the chance she didn`t know him and also it was only his word that there was a young lady there and she needed to apprehend Harry before this Daniel.

​As soon as she got outside she saw Harry approaching from her side.  She quickly walked up to him and put her finger to her lips, "Shh, sorry Harry I think I have walked into a trap. There`s a Daniel Masters he says that there`s a "young woman" who has asked for me inside the Brighton Centre. What shall I do?"

​"Go back inside, now and I will walk round but don`t worry if I don`t come in with this Daniel go and find the "young woman" okay. Be careful." he lightly kissed her and hugged her.

​So Melissa slipped back in and made sure that 'Daniel' hadn`t come back in, relieved she sat back down where she was previously.  Unsure how long to wait Melissa stood up after 5 minutes and walked to the front door, then she remembered what Harry had said.

​Unsure where to start she walked round the side where Daniel Masters had approached from and checked any rooms she didn`t dare shout out her name but as she approached nearer to the back end of the stage she felt safer to shout our her name which she did. Melissa thought she heard someone and shouted out to Lara again, she could definately hear and started running.

"Where are you?" Melissa asked.

​"Open the door,"  and "Lara" knocked on the door where she was.

​Melissa eventually got to the door and had to pull quite hard, the door eventually gave way. What she saw gave her a start.  Lara was there definately but then there were more young ladies there, what was going on?  She ran to Lara, "Lara are you alright?"

​She started crying, "I thought you were never to going find me, and all these other girls."

​"Everything is fine, don`t worry Harry is here and so is this Daniel Masters."

​"Harry, my mean my ex," Lara said, she clearly still cared for him.

​"Yes I was so worried about you so I rang him, he should be with Daniel."

"Oh my god no no."

​"What do you mean?"

​"He was the one who locked us up in here."

​"Is he the only one or are there more?" Melissa urgently asked.

​"Yes there is Daniel and there are 2 others i`m trying to remember their names.  2 really big burly men I think one of them was called Nick and the other one it was an odd name Leroy? I`m not sure."

​"Are you all fit to leave now."

​All the ladies stood up including Lara who led them, "Right, we`re going to show who`s boss."

​There must have been at least 30 of them altogether.  Melissa ran on ahead shouting to Lara to look out for Daniels` stooges and that she was going to save Harry but Lara stopped her.

​"No, Harry has come for me."

​Melissa stopped, " He has come because I asked him it was me who came for you," Melissa pointedly said to her.

​"So he now cares for you?" Lara said getting bitchy.

​"No, that`s not true I care for you only you, you must know that." Melissa said, touching her hand.

​Lara stopped. "Oh Mel don`t I`m not that way I`m not.  We`re friends just friends."

​Melissa wanted to hit her and hurt her but she didn`t, " Forget it we`ve got to save Harry."

​They both ran together the other women had gone on ahead and when they arrived at the foyer both Harry and Daniel were mobbed by the women.

"Stop it!" Lara shouted.

​Melissa found a loudspeaker and deafened everybody in to silence "STOP IT"

​The noise was unbelievable and Lara took the loudspeaker of her and lowered the sound and spoke into it. "Thank you ladies, ​"We have found all your belongings in the cloakroom if you want to retrieve them."

​Melissa was feeling emotions rise she thought that she loved Lara but when Harry had kissed her she was feeling very happy in anticipation he was tender, and it was only a few short moments.  But then she saw Steve Wilson what was he doing here? But of course Harry wouldn`t have come alone he would have brought his best friend very clever considering that she thought he came alone. Before she could think anymore Harry was by her side.

​"Told you it would be alright," he was grinning. Catching his eye was Lara, "Wait a minute."

​He walked over to her," I`m sorry Lara, and I`m sorry the way we finished but I see that you have found someone else," he said, looking over her shoulder.

​"Wait," Lara said, leaving Steves` side. "Sorry Mel, we are still best friends and I know where you want to be and I`m not stopping you.  Tonight has been a real drama and what has happened to this David I mean Daniel."

​"He wanted to create his own drama," Harry said, "He was obsessed with women and he wanted to do a play but he was fired and disowned by his employer, but he couldn`t stay away from it. He knows what he wants to do and I`m sure he will get to do his play."

​"You`re not calling the police?" Melissa said indignantly.

​"He hasn`t hurt anyone, none of these ladies want him arrested, he didn`t treat them badly and certainly no one has been hurt. Do you want him arrested?" he asked Melissa.

​Melissa stopped and thought, "Well maybe not, but he should get a caution he should know what he`s done is wrong."

​"He already knows that," Harry said. "And he may very well walk into a police station, but I don`t think he will, he`s going do to that play and funnily enough he will call it "The Women Scorned"