The Conspiracy Next Door - Part 3
Here's part three of this little side project, in which 'Dave' tells his story to Julie and her family.
Title: The Conspiracy Next Door
Author: shinigami518
Rating: PG-13 (but will go into the R territory at times)
Warnings: Swearing, violence, some racism, alcohol drinking, it all depends on what happens with what I'm writing.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything in this story except Julie, her family and her friends. All music used is owned by their respective owners, writers, and singers. This is also, in no way, a slam against Michael Jackson in any way. I respect him and really like him, his music, and his kindness. This is also somewhat based on the rumors and conspiracies over his death. There is evidence of something weird going on. It may just be crap, but you’ll never know…
Summary: Late 2009, a young woman named Julie Shields, a late bloomer Michael Jackson fan, meets her new neighbor, a enigma of a man named Dave Michaels. What starts off as innocent friendship and a moment of kindness suddenly takes a very strange turn as Julie finds herself involved in a very big conspiracy... one that involves drugs, rock and roll, Michael Jackson, and haters.
Links to past parts (at my journal)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 - Revelations from a not-dead guy
If anyone told Julie a year ago that she would be sitting next to Michael Jackson on her couch in her living room, she would’ve asked what drugs they were on and if she could have some.
And yet, there he was, sitting next to her on the couch in her living room, looking nervous and troubled as her family sat down to await what he had to reveal. Janet was sitting in her recliner, Robert in the easy chair, and Will in the old wooden rocking chair, his laptop resting on the wicker table in front of him.
“Alright, Dave, if you are really Michael Jackson, what really happened to you on June 25th?” Janet asked, getting straight to the point. Julie reached over and took Michael’s left hand in her right, repeating the same action she had did outside, to give the older man some assurance. Michael looked at her, his brown eyes having a mixture of fear, sadness, nervousness, and loneliness in them. Julie gave a tiny nod, letting him know it was ok. He then took a breath before speaking.
“It all started a while ago, before I started planning This Is It. I felt like… like someone was trying to get me. All the accusations, the allegations, the lies, everything the filthy, tabloid trash printed about me, it was really starting to get to me, along with the pains in my back and from my medical problems. I just felt like someone was trying to personally attack me.” Michael began to explain, clenching Julie’s hand in his.
“Ah, you’re probably just paranoid or something.” Will shrugged indifferently, not really paying that much attention.
“That’s what some of my bodyguards and family thought when I told them. This was back when I was doing my search for dancers for This Is It, they told me that same thing.” Michael told Will. Will looked at him in surprise for a moment, his mind telling him “Dude, Michael Jackson just talked to you, say something!”
“S-so, what happened?” Will asked, now paying more attention. Michael sighed, looking down at his free hand, which was resting on his leg. He gripped his pants leg for a second, working up the courage to talk.
“I do want to admit something…. Something I don’t like to admit….” Michael went on.
“You did have sex with little boys, didn’t you?” Janet asked bluntly. This caused Julie to slap her free hand against her forehead and let out an “Ugh, damn it mom” under her breath.
“MOM! They never convicted him, both of those kids lied, and all they wanted was money, especially their parents.” Julie snapped in annoyance. She then sighed. “And besides, I don’t think that’s what he was going to say, right?” Julie asked, looking at Michael. He nodded slowly, licking his lips before speaking.
“I… I was addicted… to pain meds…anxiety meds, and sleeping aids. My doctor during that time, Dr. Murray, was an enabler to my addiction. He kept giving me medicine… not just for my back pain, my anxiety, and for my… lupus, but also for insomnia.” Michael explained, feeling nervous and troubled as he spoke about what happened during that time.
“The insomnia w-was probably from working on the concert. You know, the excitement from rehearsing, dancing, singing, that sorta thing might’ve caused it?” Julie noted innocently. Michael nodded softly, acknowledging her idea.
“I think that might’ve been one of the causes. I often have trouble going to sleep after a concert because my adrenaline is going and I’m still pumped from performing. It’s been a long time since I put a tour together and work on things like that, I almost forgot what it was like…” Michael’s words trailed off.
“So what happened on the 25th?” Robert asked as Tug climbed onto the ottoman and lay down in between Robert’s feet. Michael felt a cold chill race up his spin as he remembered what happened. He was still very nervous about talking about himself, especially in front of people he didn’t really know that well.
He felt Julie tighten her grip on his hand, giving him some silent encouragement to help him go on. Michael looked at Julie, who looked at him with kind brown eyes, silently giving him strength. He smiled slightly, feeling her warmth and comfort through her look and her grip. He then looked back at everyone else in the room and spoke about what led to that faithful day.
“It all started the night before. I had this… horrible nightmare that seemed almost… prophetic. Shadows… shadows were chasing me down this hallway with no doors. I couldn’t get away from them. Then… these shadowy hands grabbed my ankles, making me fall, and then… they started to grab me everywhere, pulling me down into this… this black water. I could hear people calling my name. My mother, Janet - my sister, Janet - , my children, my friends, they were all calling my name, trying to help me. Save me. But I couldn’t break free. The shadows… they were too strong. And I could hear someone laughing. It sounded so… familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it. The last thing I remember from that dream was the water changing to this… milky white color and it was going into my lungs as I went under. I woke up and immediately ran to the bathroom, throwing up whatever was still in my system before I went to bed.” Michael recalled, his face becoming very pale as he remembered that nightmare.
“Jesus H. Christ.” Janet whispered in shock.
“That’s a hellova dream. Sure beats all those dreams of Aunt Mary, Aimee, and Tara breaking into our house and stealing everything and all those zombie apocalypse dreams.” Will muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Absolutely. Puts all my fears of people breaking into our house to shame…” Julie nodded, also pale as a sheet.
“Did you tell anyone about this dream?” Robert queried.
“I told one of my bodyguards, Alberto, about it. At first, we both dismissed it as being overanxious and worried about the upcoming tour, but it still was on my mind during rehearsal that morning and later on into the night. That night, leading into the 25th… I couldn’t sleep. That nightmare was playing back in my mind over and over. Dr. Murray began giving me some sleep medicine to help me sleep, but… for some reason, it wasn’t working right. Something was wrong.” Michael went on.
“I… I saw on the internet of what was in your room, you… you had a whole lot of medicine in your room, half of them some form of sleeping pills or sleeping aids. That stuff he was giving you, I don’t think he should’ve been giving you, especially in short intervals.” Julie noted nervously, remembering what she had read.
“Is that true?” Will asked, looking over at Michael and Julie.
“That… that’s what everyone has been saying on the net.” Julie told her brother.
“So what happened?” Robert asked Michael.
“Without Dr. Murray knowing, I talked with some of the night guards, including this one guy who I use sometimes as a double to get out of places, and we decided to test something out. I knew something was wrong because I was having so much trouble sleeping and nothing was working. So my double, Dave, pretended to be me in bed. It was quite early, around 5 in the morning, and… Dr. Murray gave him the last bit of medicine, including the Milk- the Propofol, that’s what we - Dr. Murray and I - had nicknamed it, Milk. The only problem was that instead of watching Dave, who was still pretending to be me, he left me- him- alone and went off to do something, I didn’t know because I had started to get sick from the medicine that was already in my system. One of my guards took me to the bathroom, that was around 11 AM, and then…,” Michael trailed off, starting to tremble.
“When everything went crazy and you - or in this case, Dave - died.” Janet completed the thought.
“Dr. Murray finally went to check on ‘me’ after several minutes and noticed that something was wrong. Dave as me wasn’t breathing. I… I wanted to go in there to see if he was ok, but everyone was panicking, especially Dr. Murray. He tried to perform CPR on Dave, still thinking Dave was me, but…,” Michael shook his head, shivering in fear and pain as the memories of that day coming back. Julie frowned sadly, her thumb rubbing against Michael’s knuckles as she gave his hand another comforting squeeze, sending another small wave of comfort and love to the older man.
“I heard… that he was doing the CPR wrong, that he was performing it on the bed instead of putting Dave on a hard and firm surface like the floor. I couldn’t believe he could do such a thing. He kept on trying to save him. I hid with one of my guards and had to listen to everything going on with trying to revive Dave, still thinking he was me. It was horrible; I’ve known Dave for several years and the fact that he died pretending to be me to see if something was wrong. It was my fault. My addiction was what led to his death. I felt sick to my stomach and I ended up passing out shortly after the ambulance took Dave to the hospital.” Michael went on mournfully. He took a few seconds to gather himself, lowering his head so he didn’t want to look at the others, to see how they were reacting.
“When I came to, the guard I was with, Leon had contacted the FBI about what really went on and they decided to hide me in witness protection. First, they wanted to deal with my addiction to pain meds, so they brought me to a rehab center in a remote part of the country. I stayed there for about two months, trying to cope with all that had happened. Once I was done, the FBI relocated me to here, where I would stay in hiding as they figure out more about Dr. Murray and the medicine he was giving me, to see if it was an accident or on purpose, and if it was the latter, did he do it on his own or if he was working for or with someone else.” Michael went on. He took a moment to gather himself once more.
“Does… does anyone outside the FBI and those guards that did the switch know about this?” Janet asked hesitantly, trying to swallow everything she had heard.
“No. My parents, brothers, sisters, friends, and family. Not even my children.” Michael answered, growing more and more upset with each passing second. He closed his eyes tightly, fighting back tears. “God, I wanted so badly to tell my family what happened, especially mother and my children. I still do, but I can’t. The FBI, they don’t want me revealing who I am to anyone. The fact I’m telling you four about this is putting all of you in danger.” Michael confessed sadly.
“Then why are you telling us?” Will asked abruptly, getting a little worried about what kinds of danger he and his family could be in at that moment. Michael smiled slightly, glancing over at Julie, who was staring at him with a look of shock, sadness, and sympathy.
“I don’t have that many friends as both myself and as Dave, so when I met Julie and she started to befriend me, I at first didn’t want to, but…,” Michael took a deep breath, “the fact she didn’t seem to care who I was as Dave, it… it really helped me cope. She saw that I was alone and she wanted to help me, even though she didn’t seem to trust me when we first met. Then, we did become friends slowly. Then there was that one day when she told me that she liked, well, my real self and mourned my apparent death, saying she wished that she had known me. I almost lost it after hearing that, nearly blowing my cover.” Michael explained, his chocolate brown eyes shinning with tears.
“That’s why you ran off after I talked with you, and why you didn’t want to talk about that day next times I saw you? You were afraid that you’d reveal that you were really Michael Jackson. You didn’t want to lose me as a friend, right?” Julie asked in surprise. Michael nodded with a frown.
“This does sound somewhat… farfetched. The fact you had someone pretend to be you, who ended up dying instead of you sounds like something out of a movie or a book.” Janet noted disbelievingly, frowning at Michael. She, as was Robert, was a little wary of Michael’s story, not believing it completely.
“Whether you believe it or not, Mrs. Shields, it’s real. It happened just the way I described it.” Michael looked up at Janet, speaking sternly.
“But how do we really know that you are really Michael Jackson and not some nut spewing something I’d read in a bad fanfic or something?” Will asked bluntly. Julie looked at Michael, seeing he was starting to really tense up, and decided to take charge.
“Do you have Native American blood in you?” Julie suddenly asked Michael, taking her parents and brother by surprise. Michael turned to stare at her in surprise.
“Yes, from my mother’s side.” Michael answered, nodding.
“He does?” Robert asked in amazement.
“I read it on the net. I didn’t know it was true or not, but I guess it is. Then…,” Julie explained, then paused to think for a moment, “What did you have planned for the Dirty Diana performance for This Is It?” Julie asked, leaning slightly towards Michael, placing her other hand over her own which still held his hand.
“I’m sure you heard that I was going to have a bed involved in the act. I was going to sing, then the girl who would be playing Dirty Diana would appear and then tie me to the bed with help from Orianthi.” Michael answered honestly.
“You’re joking? You were going to be tied to a bed by a woman for a song?!” Will exclaimed in disbelief and shock. Michael nodded.
“Who’s Orianthi?” Robert asked.
“The female guitarist for This Is It.” Julie replied.
“TWO women were going to tie you to a bed as you did a song?” Will corrected his exclamation.
“And I could handle it and the 50 concert dates, too.” Michael nodded again, speaking truthfully and proudly. Will let out a low whistle, impressed by Michael’s boldness.
“You’re 51 years old!” Janet exclaimed, looking a bit disturbed.
“And he was dancing way better than his backup dancers who are, like, half his age. Plus, guys older than him are doing even nastier and crazier stuff, like Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, the guys in The Who, Ozzy Osbourne, and Gene Simmons from Kiss.” Julie noted, removing her left hand from her handclasp.
“So let me get this straight. We’ve got a dead famous guy who isn’t really dead living next door to us under another identity because some doctor fucked up and now we’re involved in some kind of crazy ass conspiracy?” Will summarized slowly to make sure he got all the details right.
“That’s pretty much the basis of it, Will.” Julie stated with a shrug. Will, his mouth hanging open, fell back against the back of the rocking chair, letting it rock him back and forth.
“This is fucking incredible.” Will breathed out in disbelief.
“So now what? Do we forget this ever happened, do you have to move away, or something else?” Robert asked curiously.
“I wish I knew, Mr. Shields. I want to stay here, but with all of you knowing who I am, I don’t know what’s going to happen now.” Michael answered truthfully, blinking back tears. Julie felt her heart ache, watching as this man at her side after spending several minutes telling a story of betrayal, drugs, and loss, a man that for years she didn’t really care about, but now realized that there was so much she didn’t know about him. A man that had to leave everything and everyone he loves because of something that might’ve been done on purpose or by accident. A man separated from his family, his friends, and his children and forced to take on a whole new identity.
She released her hold on his hand and placed her right arm around him, wrapping slowly around his back and planting her hand on his right bicep. She then leaned against him until her head gently touched the side of his head. She closed her eyes and placed her left hand on his left hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Michael let out a small hiccup, then hitched his breath as she finally let the tears begin to fall, letting them roll down his face. Julie winced, feeling a stinging pain in her heart after hearing Michael’s sob. She was never good with comforting people, especially family, but right now she knew that right now Michael needed some comfort and she was one of the only people that could give at least some of that.
“It’s going to be alright, Michael.” Julie whispered softly. Michael let out a small cry, nodding slightly in response.
“Julie…” Janet started to say, moving to stand up.
“Mom, we can’t let anyone know what’s going on here.” Julie stated, her eyes still closed as she nuzzled her head against Michael’s.
“But-!” Will began to protest.
“I know it’s risky, but what can we do anyways? We can’t tell anyone, right? Who’d believe us? No one. They’d think we’re nuts or something.” Julie looked over at her family, her eyes falling on each member one by one as she took in their looks. Will looked worried, Janet was frowning, and Robert was concerned.
“Julie…” Robert started to say.
“Dad, mom, this is a chance for me to be part of something big. A way for me to repent over all the things I said and thought about him all these years. I want to help him in any way I can…” Julie stated. She then looked back at Michael, who was sitting back up and staring at her with tear streaming down his face. He stared at her in amazement, mostly over the reason why she was doing this.
“It sounds selfish, yes, but everything I said about you on Halloween was true. I hate what I said about you, especially after learning more about all the things the media said about you. Helping you is the least I can do… to redeem myself for what I’ve done.” Julie told him honestly.
“R-really?” Michael asked weakly, another tear falling down his face. Julie nodded, moving her right hand from around his shoulders and then used that hand to stroke the side of his face, wiping a few tears away from Michael’s face.
“It’s the least I can do, like I said.” Julie repeated softly. Michael was silent for several seconds, taking her right hand in his own and slowly lowering it from his face. The two stared at each other, two sets of brown eyes looking into one another. He then smiled, and lowered his head in a small bow, his eyes closed.
“Thank you.” He said finally, holding Julie’s hands in his own.
“So, we keep this all a secret from everyone?” Will asked.
“Yes. I won’t even tell Sam about this.” Julie replied bluntly. This caught the family by surprised. Julie often would tell Samantha a lot of things, confiding in her over things ranging from fears, family problems, and weird things. To keep this from her own best friend was quite a shock.
“No one else will know unless we know we can trust that person and we’re all in agreement over it.” Robert put in, agreeing with that idea.
“But if we do tell anyone else, we keep the circle small. We don’t want this to be blown out of proportions or people to think we’re batshit insane or something.” Will offered.
“Good idea, so don’t tell your friends in Australia, Bob.” Janet nodded, shooting her husband a stern look. Michael blinked a few times in confusion.
“He has friends in Australia?” Michael asked Julie softly.
“The last place he worked had their main headquarters in Australia. Or was it New Zealand. I forgot.” Julie told him with a crooked smile. She then shook her head. “But yeah, we’re keeping this a secret. The only ones that know the truth are in this room. You’re secret is safe, Michael, I swear it.” Julie promised, still holding Michael’s hands. Michael gave a weak smile of relief.
“Just when I thought things were boring, along comes this…” Will muttered to himself, slinking further into the rocking chair. He then sighed, looking at his sister with Michael Jackson. She was smiling at him and being so open and kind to him. At first he hated the thought of her befriending this man. He remembered all the rumors, the accusations, and all the controversy about him.
He then remembered what the man had just told him and his parents and started to change a few of his thoughts. He furrowed his brows, leaning forwards with his elbows resting on his knees. His mind was filled with mixed feelings and thoughts, one side arguing over his weird Michael was, the other starting to feel sympathy towards him. The fact that the man was separated from his family, friends, and everyone he loved and cared about, including his children. Will couldn’t imagine what he could be going through right now.
He sighed, shaking his head. “Things are going to get quite interesting from now on…” Will commented softly.
So that's Part 3. Still tinkering away on Part 4, which will deal with the aftermath of Michael's storytelling and also will deal with Michael and Julie revealing more truths to Julie's parents and brother to break the tabloid rumors they believed.