The Price of Fame 3 – The Redemption of Elena

The Glowing Embers

‘I think it’s time to provide Elena with the Ultimate Shine’, Laura suggested to Chantal one morning as they planned the day’s schedule together.

‘It is true the interest in her has dropped away significantly. After all, there is only so many variations we can offer our loyal audiences to keep them engaged,’ Chantal reflected. ‘And, knowing what is coming, they always seem to subscribe well to the live stream for an Ultimate, and enjoy what they see.

‘And keeping Elena on side is becoming increasingly hard work,’ Laura snapped bitterly.

‘Have you said anything to her about the procedure?’ Chantal smirked.

‘No, I thought it best not to,’ Laura replied, a hint of regret in her voice but one she quickly dispelled.

‘Quite right too,’ Chantal agreed, sneering. ‘So, let’s get this show on the road!’

= * = * =

Laura had originally contacted Elena, her girlfriend, after watching her display her remarkably long hair on her social media channel. They exploited her long hair even more and made money but, when debts increased, Elena worked with DarkLocks, an organisation staged dramatic makeover videos, run by Chantal. Elena had theatrically lost her long hair and, following increasingly severe and humiliating haircuts, she had become completely bald.

Even bald, an audience were still willing to pay to admire the drained Elena. But even so, the level of interest had been waning rapidly, resulting in diminishing profits. This had resulted in the meeting between Laura and Chantal and, together, they took the weighty decision that would impact Elena’s future.

= * = * =

A short while after Chantal and Laura had agreed that Elena should receive the Ultimate Shine, the heavily advertised show commenced. Two young women dressed in black, with long hair swinging freely, guided Elena, their buzzed model, towards the barber’s chair. In contrast to her escorts, Elena wore a revealing lace minidress in a dazzling white material. Carla, the barber, brought up the rear, wheeling a trolley with an array of equipment neatly laid out on its surface.

The change of procedure mystified Elena. She struggled to look around, but her cohorts held immobile, their strength surprising given their delicate appearance.

Chantal was the host as usual, stimulating the audience with choice words of encouragement. She was delighted to see the count of subscribers for this premium event was already approaching the numbers Elena had had for her first DarkLocks appearance.

‘Trust me, sweetie,’ Chantal purred, her eyes gleaming with avarice. ‘This will be our masterpiece. Now, just relax.’

Laura, standing in shadows, looking uncharacteristically apprehensive, mouthed, ‘Stoic,’ forcing an insincere smile.

Without warning, Elena felt a strange and unexpected warmth on a small region of her bald scalp, accompanied by an eerie slapping sound. The warm area quickly spread as Carla busied herself in Elena’s peripheral vision. Although she squirmed in the chair, struggling to determine what was happening, her two impassive escorts held her firm.

Once Carla had subjected the whole of Elena’s head to the same treatment, there was a pause in proceedings. It was like time had stood still, and silence fell.

Everyone was awaiting the final countdown.

The Shining Crown

With her scalp cooling, Elena peered into the shadows, seeking reassurance from Laura, her girlfriend. They made brief eye contact, before an impassive Laura looked down, feigning the need to check her phone as a matter of priority. Seeing her partner’s reaction caused Elena to have a premonition of something bad about to occur. But nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.

An excruciating jolt of pain seared through Elena’s scalp as Carla forcefully whisked away a wax-coated strip that had cooled against her skin. ‘Yes!’ the barber exclaimed joyfully.

After a shocked pause, a shriek of agony rang out from Elena, her eyes watering.

‘Wonderful,’ declared Chantal clapping her hands together with glee. ‘The Ultimate Shine is such a satisfying procedure on all levels!’

‘It certainly is,’ Carla agreed, her expectant eyes gleaming, as she checked that the next wax strip was sufficiently cool.

‘In purely practical terms, one has only to examine the removed wax strips to see the remarkable quantity of bristles that Carla ripped out, along with their roots. Bristles, that had been barely visible, but had still been present on the seemingly bald scalp,’ Chantal explained with a grin. ‘Well, where that wax once was, is certainly completely bald now!’

‘Is that, er … all?’ Elena whimpered after she had recovered her breath.

‘No, no, no, sweetie,’ Chantal chuckled, nodding towards Carla who gleefully ripped another strip from Elena’s scalp. ‘It’s just the start.’

While Elena could not prevent herself from shrieking in agony each time Carla tore off another wax strip, she forced her mind to float away to a far happier place. In her trance-like state, oblivious to Chantal’s gleeful cries, she cast her mind back to a recent drive in the countryside with her girlfriend, Laura, by her side. Remembering, sitting side-by-side in their open-topped red sports car, singing at the tops of their voices, heading out on their first mini-break. Despite the repeated jolts of pain, the memory gave Elena hope for happier times ahead … and she even managed to smile for her audience.

‘And there we have it,’ Chantal said, giving Elena hope that her ordeal was ending. ‘The Ultimate Shine. Just look at how brilliantly her head shines and believe me,’ she added, allowing her fingers to skate over Elena’s glass-like scalp, ‘how delightful it feels. Even better, it will remain this way for a considerable time!’ she added gleefully.

‘Yes, Chantal,’ Carla confirmed, wiping the wax from her hands. ‘She will have no need for any maintenance on her chrome dome,’ she smirked ‘Well, not until the time that it may start growing again.’

The camera slowly zoomed in to Elena’s bare and glistening scalp before the live stream faded out. Chantal held up a mirror and Elena stared at her reflection in horror. Her scalp gleamed like polished glass, devoid of even the faintest stubble. It was as if no hair had ever grown on her head. Her face, stripped of its natural frame, looked alien, almost inhuman. A freak.

= * = * =

The cash that had flowed in from the hiked-up subscription payments for the ultimate event had been as eye-watering in its own way as the pain that Elena had had to endure during her final humiliation. On the way home, Laura had tried to invigorate her girlfriend with her excitement over the finances, but Elena had been morose and unmoved.

Elena fell into Laura’s arms that evening although they exchanged no words. Laura comforted Elena as they quickly drained one bottle of wine. They were well on their way to finishing the second, when Elena fell asleep through mental and physical exhaustion.

The Bitter End

Laura woke up late the following morning to a silent apartment. She set their newly acquired and expensive coffeemaker to dispense the strongest drink of which it was capable. While doing so, she saw a hand-written note propped up against the empty wine bottle on the remodelled breakfast bar.

I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t stay with someone who looks like you. Someone who is bald. A freak! I have sorted out all the finances and taken what’s due to me for all I had to suffer. But you’ll find there’s a little left for you too, L. PS Do not come looking for me, and do not look for the car keys as you agreed to put the car in my name for tax purposes, so I have taken it!

With those bitter and unloving words, irrespective of what was fair and justified, Laura had shattered Elena’s heart. She was alone, stripped bare, and betrayed by the woman she thought she loved.

The Return to the World

Defeated and humiliated, it had taken a considerable time and too much wine before Elena was prepared to face the world again. Laura, having deceitfully managed their finances for her own benefit, had left a miserly quantity of cash for Elena. So, when she was ready, the first thing she did was contact the secretarial agency for whom she had previously worked.

Elena learnt that the role with her former employer – a temporary position but one she had successfully held for a considerable time – was no longer available. However, the agency was confident that with her skills and experience they would quickly find her something suitable. Elena agreed to pop in to see the following morning.

Secondly, Elena went online and purchased the best quality wig she could afford with her dwindling funds, requesting express delivery. The shining dome was too much to take whenever she looked in the mirror, and using artfully tied scarves simply made her look ill.

When Elena received the wig, before 9am as promised by the courier, it fitted perfectly and hid the dazzling reflection that bounced from her scalp as a perpetual reminder of her foolishness. She would have loved to have purchased something resembling her former long locks, but the cost for such wigs was prohibitive. Furthermore, she reasoned, that once her own hair grew then and it had grown sufficiently, she could have it cut in the same style as the wig. She would then be free to discard the false hair and begin growing her own hair once more.

She accepted that the wig’s short severe style, despite it matching her own hair in colour, gave her an uncanny and unfortunate resemblance to her grandmother! However, better that, she mused than resembling a bald freak as Laura had alluded to.

But with the greatest regret, she recognised that people would no longer admire her in the street as that unique woman with the remarkably long hair. From that moment on, she knew that she would simply merge indifferently into the crowd and disappear.

The New Opportunity Knocks

‘Oh, it’s you, Elena,’ Amanda, the boss of the employment agency remarked as Elena stepped into her office later that morning.

‘Yes, I know,’ Elena replied dryly from under the short wig hiding her bare dome.

Amanda looked flustered. ‘Sorry, it’s just your hair it’s … it’s …’

‘Short?’

‘I was going to say different … but, yes, short too. Remarkably short,’ Amanda commented, patting her own layered and highlighted locks to assure herself they were still there. Amanda continued with her pointless observations. ‘It used to be very long …’

‘Yes,’ Elena confirmed. She had hoped for Amanda to move the conversation along, but eventually she felt obliged to fill the silence. ‘And now it’s short,’ she sighed, causing Amanda to raise a questioning eyebrow. ‘I fancied a change,’ Elena snapped, bringing an end to Amanda’s worthless speculation.

‘Ah … right …’ Amanda finally acknowledged. She had also been studying Elena’s attire with equal measure of alarm. However, after remarking upon the changes to her hair, she elected not to comment further on her appearance.

In the past, Elena had always dressed smartly for work. Never too fashionable or too provocative like other secretaries. But she always presented herself well, either sporting a smart suit with a knee-length skirt and a modest blouse, or wearing a conservative dress paired with a tailored blazer.

For her return to office life, Elena had seriously considered one of the “sexy secretary” outfits that Laura had bought for her to wear in her later long hair videos. She had looked amazing in them when flaunting her stunning long hair. But with her boring and unsexy short wig, the contrast with the provocative attire was simply too jarring.

Instead, on the way to the employment agency, she had popped into an unfashionable clothing store. The tweed skirt that covered her knees, the cream blouse buttoned up to her neck with a modest bow, and a smart beige blazer, complimented the style of her wig. Unassuming. Uninteresting. Unnoticed.

Elena felt comfortable wearing her outfit but, at the start of her new life, that word did not sit well with her. Amanda, after showing surprise at seeing Elena looking so changed, had been wise to say no more.

Amanda handed Elena a list of the current vacancies that matched her skills and experience. Elena, having dispensed with her contact lenses, donned her new, but unfashionable, spectacles. Although they were not particularly strong, she found they helped when reading in artificial light, even if they did make her look even older than her grandmother.

Elena did not care too much where she worked provided it was not a long commute from her apartment. But as she browsed the list of indifferent organisations, one name caught her eye more than all the others.

It was only a matter of minutes on the phone before Amanda had negotiated a rewarding placement, and secured Elena her new opportunity. Their office was located close to the employment agency which was convenient. However, they did not require to interview her, and they did not expect her to start work until the following morning. So, rather than popping in to visit her future employer, Elena decided to celebrate her new job by treating herself to lunch at a nearby riverside restaurant.

Epilogue

‘We did it, darling,’ a recognisable voice purred, from the table next to Elena’s in the restaurant as she studied the menu. ‘We bled her dry.’

A familiar giggle sounded from the woman with her back to Elena. ‘Another long-haired beauty bites the dust,’ she claimed, clinking a champagne glass with her companion.

‘You did well to hide your true identity from Elena, Fiona, or should I say “Laura”, Chantal chuckled. ‘And not disclosing that you and I were together must have been difficult.’

‘Thanks, darling, although I nearly slipped up a few times,’ Laura continued thoughtfully. ‘I don’t know how many times I had to resurrect your DarkLocks email from the Trash folder before she would even read it,’ she laughed.

‘Well, that doesn’t matter now,’ Chantal concluded. ‘You’ve earnt us more than enough to fuel our expansion, and to pay for some help on the administrative side of things.’

‘My pleasure, boss,’ she giggled. ‘So, what time this afternoon are we driving off into the sunset in my lovely new red sportscar, for our well-deserved minibreak?’

The deceit of Laura – or Fiona, or whoever – astounded Elena. She could not believe how gullible she had been. Tricked into sacrificing her hair, and for what? For love and their future, she had hoped. But it had been to earn a small fortune for the two fraudsters and allow them to expand their business. She did not want to hear any more.

The disgruntled woman stood up and looked directly at the two of them. They glanced in her direction as she passed, but they ignored her. Her wig and her bland outfit, together with the unfashionable spectacles that she had donned for reading the menu, served as an unintentional disguise. Even in the eyes of someone she thought she had loved, Elena now merged unremarkably into the crowd.

As Elena stepped outside the restaurant, her mind was on just one thing. She had already begun to formulate a plan for how she was going to manage her next work assignment.

It had been fortuitous that DarkLocks required temporary secretarial support to aid its expansion. Elena had been thrilled when she had seen the vacancy on Amanda’s list. But learning what she just had, the situation had become doubly appealing.

Not only would Elena be in a perfect position to enact uncompromising revenge on Chantal, but she could also target Laura with unsympathetic retribution!

The End