Cassie was being distracted by the studio lights, and the cameras trained on her, like hungry eyes. She had no idea it would be this nerve-wracking. The judges were looking at her in expectation.
"Well", said Cyrus Jaye, the most notoriously harsh judge on the panel, "why are you here today?"
Cassie swallowed hard. She could feel the immense anxiety welling up in her chest. "Because I can bind the hands of fate" she said.
"And what are you gonna sing for us today?" Sydney Aristokrato, a slightly less well known judge, said.
Cassie swallowed nervously again. "I'm going to sing 'the agenda' by factor 8" Cassie said.
"Factor 8, interesting choice" said Alisha Play, the only female judge on the panel. Cassie was shaking with nerves at this point.
"What does that mean? Is that bad?" she thought.
"Well, get into it" Cyrus Jaye said.
Cassie swallowed nervously one more time, and began to sing. As she sang, she reassured herself that this was the same singing voice that brought her mother to tears. When she was done, she waited anxiously for the responses of the judges.
Cyrus Jaye began to speak. "I have to be honest Cassie, it's one of the worst I've ever heard." Cassie's heart sank.
"Absolute garbage" said Sydney Aristokrato.
"Yeah, I'm sorry sweetheart" Alisha Play began "there seems to be disconnect between what you sound like in your head and what you sound like in reality."
Pure terror was welling up in Cassie's heart. "Was I really that bad?" she said softly.
"It was absolutely terrible" Cyrus said with a smirk. "Okay, let's judge. Sydney?"
"It's a no from me," said Sydney.
"Absolutely a no from me" said Cyrus.
"I'm sorry sweetheart, but it has to be a no from me too" said Alisha. Cassie felt tears welling up in her eyes. She knew what happened next. "Send in the clowns" said Cyrus, motioning with his hand. Two men in clown make-up holding metal baseball bats advanced from the corner of the room.
Cassie screamed, and ran to the door, only to find that it was, of course, locked. The clowns advanced on her and raised their bats. They quickly cracked her skull, and began scooping out the brain and shoving pieces into their oversized mouths.
"Why do they always have to run?" Cyrus sighed. "Okay, next contestant!"