The Nosferatu Adventures
page 217, chapter 217
Out of Time
Edward scratched the back of his skull as he entered the studio. Taking a deep breath, he tried not to look like he felt, which was not wanting to be there. But, the publishers weren't giving him a choice. They had him locked in contract. So here he was, standing on set of a day time soap opera My Gothic Kitchen where he'd be one of the new writers. He hated the whole idea.
It, he was told, was the hottest show at that moment, mostly it would seem because of the show's star Montgomery Spencer. Montgomery played billionaire T.R. Colt and his twin brother J.J. Colt III. Edward had been there all of fifteen minutes, and he'd already witnessed Montgomery's slippery charm on the make-up lady, the costume designer and even the caterer. He felt dirty just being in the same building as him. Rolling his blue eyes, it was obvious this dude was no David Canary. Then again who was?
"I'm sorry, no press today. It's a closed set for the nude scene." a demanding female voice said just to the left of him. Edward turned around to stare at the woman, his mouth forming a perfect 'o'.
"I'm the new writer." he said tilting his head to the side beaming at her in that too charming way of his, before running his right hand through his hair. "They sent me over from the..."
"Oh right. Sorry." she flipped through her notes not looking at him. "Totally forgot they were doing that. Just head on then down the hall to the first door on your left. That's where the rest of them are." she said turning on her heels moving away from him. Clearing his throat the dark haired male did as ordered actually glad to remove himself from the cast. He stopped midway down the hall, turning pointing back to where the main room was.
"Nude scene? Since when do daytime television....nevermind." he continued on to the first door on his left.
The room smelled of stale coffee and cheap nicotine. It made his nose twitch. He was about to introduce himself to the other writers already in the room when he thought better of it. Two of the women were standing beside the coffee maker whispering, while the one guy was sitting a few feet away on a beat up looking sofa, his foot crossed over his knee, picking his teeth.
"You must be Tony." a man said as he clapped Edward's shoulder. "Nice to meet you, I'm Phil, and you've already met Janet, Barb and Kurt." he squeezed past him in the doorway dropping a box of donuts on the table by the coffee maker.
"Actually it's Edward and I just got here so no I haven't..." his sentence died in midair as everyone turned to look at him.
"So you're the guy they brought in to replace Robert." Barb huffed shifting her weight just enough to lean her hand on her hip, her orange curls frizzing out around her head. "You've just better be half as good as he was cause I need this job. I've got two kids to feed and I don't need some pretty boy hotshot hoarding in on my time..." she hooked her thumb at herself then pointed at him. "Stealing all the glory."
"Yeah. Robert might have been a complete drunk, but he knew his stuff. So if you're here thinking you can just replace him like it's nothing, you've got another thing coming." Janet snorted as she moved a few feet opening the window, lighting a cigarette.
"Basically kid; what those two are politely saying is keep your head down, your nose clean and just write the mumbo jumbo voodoo crap to the standards we're used to okay. Don't half ass it" Kurt chimed in as he wiped his hands on his thigh. Edward made a sound as he lowered his head, shifting from one foot to the other.
"I think I can handle it. Who's Tony?"
"I don't know? They told me your name was Tony." Phil replied shrugging as he stuffed a donut into his face.
It was nearly midnight before Edward was able to get out of there for the night. He had spent the majority of the previous seven hours listening to Janet and Barb complain about how the scenes they'd written for the lead actress had been thrown out because she was so high the woman never remembered her lines, and just ad-libbed everything. He'd barely gotten out of there with his sanity.
The dark haired male just made it into his apartment, locking the door and removing his shirt when the buzzer went.
Knitting his eyebrows in confusion, he checked the peeper to see who it was. A woman dressed in a pair of red flannel pajamas, her hair up in two braids, and a pink bathrobe, stood there holding a stack of mail. Opening the door just an inch, Edward asked what she wanted.
"Hi, I'm down the hall in 14F. Um..." she licked her lips as she held out the stack of mail to him. "They stuffed your envelopes in my box..." Edward couldn't help but grin upon hearing that. "I mean, your letters were jammed in with mine...I ..." he opened the door fully for her nodding for her to enter. He noticed the pattern on her pajamas were of little cartoon bats and wolves and Hallowe'en monsters with the words Happy Hallowe'en.
"Sorry what?" he closed his eyes pinching the bridge of his nose, a sudden migraine pounding causing his ears to ring and his eyes to burn.
"I didn't say anything."
"Are you sure? I could have sworn..." his ears began to hurt as he strained to hear around the suddenly ringing. Grunting, he doubled over his hands now on his knees as he told himself silently to calm down. To focus. All at once he could hear the neighbours all over the building, a cat somewhere down the hall scratching to be let in a window, birds flapping their wings on the roof, the hooker two blocks away hustling her customers, and the traffic layering itself over all of it. And somewhere under it all, the sound of her heart thumbing beside him.
Standing up straight, Edward licked his lips as he smirked at her tilting his head just a half inch, smoothing down his dark hair. "I was just about to have a glass of wine. Care to join me?"
He woke clutching both hands to the sides of his skull, as he realized he was on the floor under the bed. Reaching a hand up he grabbed the edge of the mattress pulling himself out from under it. As he did, he spotted something red in the doorway. Crawling towards it, Edward half way recognized the Hallowe'en pajamas the neighbour had been wearing. Too bad he didn't remember taking them off her. But guessed if they were still there, she must be as well.
Turning, he saw her pale leg tangled in the bedsheets and made his way back to the bed, thinking they could have another round. Leaning in to kiss her neck, Edward froze. The neighbour was cold lifeless.
The dark haired male threw himself across the room shutting the bedroom door behind him as he fell to his knees trying to remember what had happened.
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. And that's why shacking a sidhe is bad for your health...)
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