by Janie Crouch
Chloe squeezed Nadine’s hand. “It’s not a tumor, okay? I had a CT scan a couple of weeks ago. A full neurological work up.”
The two women stared at each other for a long moment. Nadine knew just about everything there was to know about her. Chloe might have two biological sisters who she loved very much—and who were just as weird as Chloe when it came to their own mental gifts—but she’d lived most of her life without Adrienne and Paige around.
Nobody knew why three six-year-olds, whose mother had died and had no other relatives to speak of, were separated into different foster situations. It would be unheard of now. Maybe it was because all three of them had “special” needs… Chloe hearing voices no one could, Paige seeing auras no one could, Adrienne feeling evil no one could. Once they grew into adults, they each came to understand that their abilities made them unique. Different from others. But at six years old that difference must have seemed an awfully lot like trauma or emotional scarring to would-be foster parents.
So Chloe had lost her mother and sisters in a very short period of time. If it hadn’t been for Nadine, who had no other family and had come from a pretty traumatic situation of her own, Chloe might have shut herself off completely. It was a testament to Nadine’s innate kindness that Chloe had any tenderness at all. Growing up Chloe had the mettle, the spunk. Nadine had the compassion, the warmth.
Chloe didn’t know what she would do without her friend.
She squeezed Nadine’s hand again before pulling the other woman—a sister in every way but blood—in for a hug. “The neurologist didn’t find anything. I promise.”
Nadine pulled back. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve gone with you.”
“I know. But I needed you here with the show. The only way I could let myself take the time away was to know you were here to handle anything that might happen.”
Nadine didn’t make Chloe feel bad about the decision. They’d been friends long enough for her to know what was truly important to Chloe. That Chloe cared more about Day’s End than she did her own health.
“And no tumor?” Nadine whispered.
“Nope. My brain looked fine. At least from what their scans could show.”
“Then what is happening to you?”
Because they both knew Chloe was dying. Like, literally dying, not the dying-only-to-be-reincarnated-as-something-else kind that sometimes happened on the show.
The debilitating headaches, nosebleeds, and full-body muscle seizures that seemed to be happening to her more and more often over the past few months. And in the last three days had gotten even worse, especially at night.
Chloe had always heard voices in her head, and had generally ignored them. But this one she couldn’t ignore. It was like someone had turned his volume up as loud as it would go inside her mind.
Not his voice, but his emotions too. His obsessive thoughts burned through her brain like someone was stabbing the inside of her head with a hot poker.
We’ll be together.
You’re the one.
His thoughts were always short like that. Bursts of focused obsession. The man, whoever he was, was in love with a woman. Or maybe love wasn’t the right word. He was consumed with her. His need for her overwhelmed him. And therefore, Chloe.
We’re meant to be.
I’m coming for you.
Soon.
Chloe had taken to calling him Conversation Hearts, since the emotions he blasted into her head reminded her of the saccharine phrases written on the tiny Valentine’s candy. They might have even been considered sweet, in an excessively engrossed stalkerish sort of way, if they didn’t burn like agony through her brain every time she heard them.
His thoughts weren’t about Chloe, or if they were, it wasn’t because the guy was nearby. Most of the time her head got bombarded by his emotions when she was completely alone. Her brain was just picking up the frequency of some whackjob’s thoughts—just like she did everyone else in the world—but for some reason his volume was at an intolerable level.
Literally, as in, her body shut down when it happened, almost like a seizure.
“I hadn’t seen you in pain on the set the last couple days, so I thought maybe it was getting better,” Nadine said.
Chloe always tried to hide it if she was having some sort of mental “attack” by Conversation Hearts while she was with the cast or crew. But Nadine was too perceptive.
But it was true, while Chloe had been working the last couple days, there hadn’t been any attacks. “I think I’ve been so focused on the pain in my ass, the pain in my head didn’t have a chance to break in.”
She glared at Nadine daring her to say something about Shane.
So, of course, Nadine did. Grinning, no less. “I’m just wondering when he’s going to pull your pigtail so you can chase him around the playground, peanut.”
By the time Chloe finished her sentence concerning her feelings for Shane Westman, where he could go and what he could do to himself and his mother, she owed Nadine another five dollars for the curse jar.
Nadine just ignored her rant. “He is super sexy, isn’t he? I mean, I’m happy with Travis, but Shane looks like something they pulled off a sexy soldier wall calendar.”
Chloe forced herself to stop staring at Shane. Again. Just like she had for the past two and a half days. It was like he had some sort of homing beacon she couldn’t escape.
And now he was standing with Alexandra Adams, who had evidently decided to paste herself to Shane as soon as he’d gotten into her general vicinity.
Shane hadn’t tried to get away, not that Chloe could blame him. Who in their right mind would try to with Alexandra Adams? With all her perfect skin, mega-watt smile, and huge boobies?
She’d talked with him right up to the point where she was needed for the scene and had once again attached herself to his body now that she’d finished the hour’s worth of shooting it had taken them to get the ten seconds she was on screen.
The way everyone applauded one would think Alexandra had truly saved the young boy in the back seat of the car from a drowning death in icy water as the car they were in submerged lower and lower. In reality, they’d said their lines with the car sitting on a platform well above the lake as temperature controlled water was sprayed on them.
Okay, unfair. It had been a harder scene than usual. Alexandra had needed more emotion since not only was her character Tia in danger, she had someone else’s life on the line too.
And all the water being sprayed in the actress’ face couldn’t be comfortable. So Chloe should cut her some slack for running straight to Shane after she finished her scene and dried off.
Chloe reminded herself that she had met Shane only a few days ago and she did not care what he did, or who he allowed to leech off him. As a matter fact, they had a scene coming up in a couple weeks about a character who offered his blood as payment for protection against the hunter mafia. They still hadn’t cast the role. Maybe they should see if Shane was interested…
If they could drag him away from Alexandra who was once again laughing sweetly at something he’d said, looking up into his aviators as if he was her personal hero.
Chloe was disappointed in him.
It was ridiculous, she knew it. She had no reason to be just because he was paying more attention to a beautiful, world-renowned actress and her flirtation rather than doing his job and focusing on what was around him.
She was disappointed because he was a man, responding to a beautiful woman. How ridiculous was that? Just because Chloe wanted him to respond to her that way instead. Fat chance if Alexandra had her sights set on him.
It didn’t matter. He wasn’t what Chloe wanted or needed. She refused to look at him again as she watched Alexandra’s stunt double get into the car that would be submerged.
The rest of the team was getting set up, the safety scuba diver was already in the water, and the camera crew was in place. They would only have one good chance to get the shot right.
Normally shots like this would be done in a pool, but the entire cast and crew had wanted to do it in the lake because it was such a central aspect of the story of Day’s End. Not to mention they were all a bunch of daredevils.
Chloe wasn’t worried about safety. They had some of the best safety crew in the country. The stunt double, Suzie, had her own private supply of oxygen if she needed it, not to mention the other scuba diver ready to assist.
The question would be getting the shot.
Chloe walked down so she was close to the water one last time to take everything in. Forget Shane Westman. She had an award-winning show to create.
Soon Noah, the intern, headset attached to his face, was moving all non-critical personnel away from the lake’s edge. Chloe moved back to the monitors. It was time to start.
Everything was going like clockwork, just the way the creative and stunt teams, as well as the directors, had mapped out on paper. The front of the platform holding the car was lowered slightly with hydraulics, which on screen would make it look like the car was sinking engine first. Soon the car was completely submersed in the murky lake water.
This was going to be some fantastic footage. A grin she couldn’t stop covered her face as they all huddled around the monitors showing the different footage the digital cameras were catching.
“I know,” Nadine said, grinning also, as if she was the one who could hear voices. “I can already smell another Emmy.”
And then the laughter started.
Chloe spun around, trying to figure out who would dare laugh so loudly and potentially ruin such an important shot. But everyone was studying the scene intently. No one was laughing out loud.
It was in her head.
It wasn’t a chuckle, a giggle, or any sort of sound meant to express actual joy.
It was a laugh of pure evil.
Chloe took a step away from the monitors, closer to the water, trying to break the sound in her mind. What was going on? Whose laughter was stuck in her head? Someone far away or here on the set?
The car was now completely submerged on the platform, and Suzie was doing her part for the scene. The car was slowly filling with water, and she was using a metal pipe to look like she was cracking the window. In reality, it was a special breakaway material.
“Okay, give Suzie the signal that we are good for her to break the window.” The director said into a walkie-talkie. The signal would be given to her under the water by special camera operators who were trained to get the shots needed while wearing scuba gear.
The laughter in Chloe’s head got louder.
On screen she watched as Suzie mimed a motion of hitting the inside of the car window with her pipe. It immediately broke away, as it was supposed to, and water began flooding the car in earnest. Even knowing there were safety measures around her, it was still jarring to watch. Especially with some crazy person’s maniacal laughter providing a soundtrack in Chloe’s head.
But Suzie was a professional, and they had planned the stunt meticulously. She pulled on her seatbelt, jerking just a little when it seemed not to come off—also planned—then finally escaped the belt. Suzie constantly looked over her shoulder at the child the audience would assume was still in the backseat based on clever editing.
Suzie didn’t panic, just like Tia Day wouldn’t on the show.
Until there was a sudden lurch in the platform, definitely not planned. The director cursed and immediately got on his walkie-talkie, as multiple members of the crew began talking at once.
“What the hell happened?” The director asked the stunt coordinator. “Please tell me this was just something you decided to slip past me.”
The stunt coordinator shook his head, already communicating with his own team.
The platform was sinking lower. Now, instead of being seven or eight feet under the water, the car was slipping past twelve. And still moving.
They could all see it on the cameras. Everything was sinking. This very definitely shouldn’t be happening.
“Get Suzie out,” the director said. “Cut the shot and get her out.”
Everyone was moving frantically now. The underwater cameramen backing away from the scene, no longer trying to keep to the scheduled shots, although all of them kept their cameras running.
Suzie’s features, so much like Alexandra’s, were definitely pinched. She still had to wait for the car to finish filling with water before she could get out. But now the car would be much deeper than she’d expected. She grabbed her oxygen canister and had it in her hand.
“Okay, she’s almost completely submerged,” the assistant director announced, obviously being given feedback from under the water. “After that she’ll just swim through the window.”
It’ll be too late.
The words were clear in Chloe’s head. Then more laughter.
Evil is so easily distractible.
Chloe closed her eyes and concentrated on that one particular voice in her head.
They’re going to miss it. They’re going to miss it.
The words were sing-songy, almost childlike. Chloe could envision someone jumping up and down and clapping their hands with joy, like a kid on Christmas.
This was the stalker.
“Suzie is out of the car,” the assistant director was saying. “She just gave us a thumbs up. It looks like we’re all clear.”
Going to miss it. Going to miss it. Going to miss it.
Chloe left the director’s area, walking closer to the lake. Everyone was running around a little chaotically as Suzie swam towards the lake’s dock and the underwater camera operators began to make their trek towards shore.
Even the costume and makeup crews were giving off a panicked buzz. Everyone was caught up in the mania. Normally, Chloe would love something like this, it made the noise in her head even out. But right now she was trying to find one specific voice.
What were they missing?
Someone ran past her at a full-out sprint and dove into the water.
Shane.
It only took her a moment to realize where he was going. About twenty yards out was the scuba safety diver, floating face down.
Chloe didn’t waste any time. She yelled for help then kicked her shoes off and ran into the cold water of the lake after Shane. He was stronger and faster and had already reached the unconscious man and was swimming back towards shore by the time Chloe caught up.
Silently, she grabbed for the man’s other arm, taking some of his weight from Shane.
“Hang on.” She’d been scuba diving enough times to know that getting the diver’s weight belt off would help move him faster. She dove under and unhooked the belt from the man’s waist then just let it fall.
She and Shane worked together silently to get the man back to one of the docks. Help was pouring out by the time they were close. Medics pulled the man from the lake out onto the dock.
Chloe just held on to the dock, trying to catch her breath as the medics began performing CPR on the man. Shane moved next to her in the water.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“How did you know that guy was there? Hurt?”
“That’s my job. Not just to watch the obvious, but to watch everything.”
Her teeth were beginning to chatter. She heard the medic yell that the diver was breathing again. Then Shane called to get them assistance. A few moments later he helped hoist her from the water as someone else grabbed her arms and pulled her up to the dock. A blanket was wrapped around her as she watched Shane pull himself up.
“You were already walking towards the water before I passed you.” Shane said. “Did you see the diver?”
She shook her head. “Not until you ran past me.”
“Why weren’t you focused on th
e car scene and malfunctions?”
Because the voices in my head were pointing out there were other problems.
Attempting to explain to straight-laced super-soldier Avalanche that she heard voices in her head would not go over well. Nobody else on the set would care. They’d all probably heard the rumors about Chloe. But weird stuff happened in Hollywood all the time.
Chloe had learned the hard way multiple times over not to try to tell people about the voices she heard. Especially to someone like Westman, where everything was so black and white. Logical.
“I just thought maybe something else was going on. I don’t know why.”
Shane stared at her, both of them wrapped in their blankets, for a long moment. He didn’t believe her. Knew there was something she wasn’t telling him.
He’d have to learn to live with it.
The medics were taking away the diver in the ambulance. She and Shane made their way back to shore from the dock, immediately bombarded by people.
“Thank you,” Chloe said to him as different people fluttered around them, replacing their soggy blankets with towels. “That diver would’ve died if it wasn’t for you. Nobody else saw him. Honestly, I’m surprised you did.”
“Because everyone’s attention was on the sinking platform?”
“No, because—” She stopped herself. Damn it. Why hadn’t she just said yes. Yes, Shane, because everyone’s attention was on the sinking platform. Perfectly logical and much better than, because I noticed Alexandra Adams had herself all pressed up against you and men tended not to notice a nuclear bomb when that happened, much less something in an isolated section of a lake.
“Because what?” Shane’s eyes narrowed.
“You just seemed busy…guarding Alexandra. I didn’t think you’d have much attention span left to be focused on anything else.”
He took a step towards her, the ice in his eyes freezing out everything in her mind except the two of them. She could see all the people skittering all around them but for the first time couldn’t feel them in her mind.
