"When the night is dark and stormy, you won't have to reach out for me..."

Tay continued to sing, although he'd seen the girls change positions, disappearing behind the backdrop and reappearing seconds later on the opposite side of the backstage area. He watched them out of the corner of his eye once in a while, but he continued with the song because he had no real reason to believe his hunch that something was wrong.

"We all need somebody we can turn to..."

The girls climbed the ladder toward the rigging. Taylor raised a lovely dark blonde eyebrow. Ike caught sight of what Taylor was looking at and almost forgot his line.

"Someone who'll always understand..."

Liz grabbed the twenty-something blonde bombshell by one thin, tawny-skinned arm and whirled her around. "What are you doing?" She interrogated.

The girl shoved her abruptly. Liz landed hard on her butt, but she got up again and slapped the girl across her overly-made-up face.

They grabbed each other and fell to the surface of the platform, slapping and scuffling. Liz was no priss. She punched the girl squarely in the jaw - a blow that should have rendered her unconscious, but this girl was strong.

Haylee got down on the platform on her knees in an attempt to help Haylee restrain the girl. The girl scratched her with a hand full of horrendously ugly fake nails.

"Bitch!" Haylee reached out for the girl's hands again and finally caught her by one wrist. The girl grabbed a chunk of Haylee's hair and tugged. "Ow!" Haylee tried to squeeze the hand into releasing the hunk of hair, but she had a death grip on it. Haylee grabbed the girl's wrist and forearm and bit her. Nothing. She still refused to let go. Haylee increased the pressure of her teeth on the arm. Still nothing.

When Haylee could taste a wet liquid in her mouth, the girl finally let go and jerked her arm free, but she did it so quickly that Haylee didn't have a chance to unclamp her teeth. To Haylee's horror and utter disgust, the chunk of skin came off in her mouth. She spit it onto the ground and almost screamed.

Liz grabbed the girl's hair and banged her head off of the platform until she lie unconscious.

Blood was only slightly oozing from the gaping hole in her foream. But this wasn't blood. It was black, and it was thick... Liz grabbed the girl's sleeve and stretched it to wipe at the wound.

"OH MY GOD!" Haylee formed a small "o" with her mouth. "What the hell is THAT?"

The torn opening in the skin had revealed what appeared to be five metal rods with red wires woven along them inside her arm. There were no bones, just the rods and wires.

They began to climb down the ladder quickly, wanting nothing more than to be back on the ground and away from the strangeness of what their eyes had just absorbed.

They didn't get a chance to further speculate because they were met at the bottom of the ladder by Lou Pearlman and two blonde-haired, big breasted older teens in leather miniskirts and pink platform sandals. Two more of his henchmen - both muscular young men of about seventeen with big, brown eyes and spiky black hair in CK from head to toe - grabbed Haylee and Liz, hushing their screams before they could escape with their large hands.

Pearlman looked at the two leather-clad blonde girls and pointed up, toward the platform, and the two began climbing the ladder.