Running On Empty - La série

(VO) Trice Under the lights, amongst the jazz shoes, blistered feet and caked faces of the dance troupe, you pretend you’re someone else. The melody begins and your body responds. You allow it to weave into your skin until it’s made itself home in your soul. It is that dance that drives you. It is that dance that will continue to save you. It is that dance that will release you. Until him. Until your heart can no longer shut him out, even after he’s pushed you away. You can’t let him in again, can you? There’s only so much of your heart left to give. Alex She is the reason I can’t stay. The reason that the covered bruises, the lies and the hurt are too much. I am no good for her. But when I see her again, I can’t stay away. Like Dante said, “The path to paradise begins in hell.”

(VO) Hazel I’ve spent my younger years acting, safe in a world of make-believe. I learnt to transform into roles to hold onto a sense of harmony in my life. Years later, still in that moment, I am another face. Another mask. I am not me—the forgotten daughter, the quiet friend, the unrequited love. Until the pretending becomes meaningless. And my life hardens again. I’m tired of acting for my friends when my parents ignore me. I’m tired of acting for myself when I want the world to stop being so hard. I’m tired of holding back from the only man I’ve ever loved. Even though being drawn to him petrifies me above all else. When I act to him, he sees right through me. Each and every time. Robbie She has haunted my dreams for years. The girl I teased to watch her blush. The girl I watched in quiet agony. The girl I had a chance with, one I ruined when I pushed her away. Now, after all these years, she’s returning to work for me. A ruse to make her mine. I will show her that she deserves to be cherished, and loved. I’ll bring back that goddess who took my breath away when I was twenty. You only live once. Side by side, I only want this final lifetime spent with her.

(VO) Trinity If love were a battleground, then we waged a war upon it. We’d been best friends for years, and then we were wayward lovers. It was meant to just be an itch to scratch—some harmless fun. But once he had me under his thumb, tied in his binds, he became my undoing. These days, he consumes my thoughts. I’m powerless under his touch. He makes me ignore the guilt from my past that consumes me when I don’t deserve to forget. With him, I am raw and exposed, yet he continues to move closer to me. He’s willing to fight, but my armour has been dented enough. Theo Secrets have the power to make or break you—mine have the power to do both. After being lied to by my own family, I know the power of deception. Now, I’m afraid that withholding the truth will be my ruin. Especially when all my secrets are attached to her. She is my muse. My salvation. The reason my past didn’t destroy me. She makes me feel. She makes me want. She’s the gasoline to my fire. All’s fair in love and war. For us, it’s time to strike the match.