Hope Falls

by Jamieson Wolf

  The actor playing the cop had the gun in her face, through the rolled down window. The lights on the set made the car hot, like a small oven. Miriam could feel her make up beginning to slip off her face.

  "Step out of the car, please, ma’am." The man probably didn't know that the bullets were real. He probably thought he was still acting, Miriam thought, when she was fighting for her life. She looked around the set, wildly. Who else was in on this? She knew Howard was, but whom else? She had to find out whom and take them down.

  "No, I don't think I will." Miriam said in Sylvia's whispery voice. "I'm not feeling well, officer, I don't think I can get up." She coughed unconvincingly. "Ahem."

  "Ma’am, it's just a routine traffic check, but we need you to get out of the car." He stood in front of her now. "We need you to check the trunk of your car, it’s all part of the stop. We’re checking all cars for anything suspicious.”

  Miriam knew with a certainty that they would shoot her when she got out of the car. The only thing keeping her alive was her refusal to follow the script. Who knew she was going to die today? The director, certainly. Who else was keeping the secret? She knew the other actors on the show weren't, that the light techs and the make up artists didn't know. But could she be so sure? Did she have any allies here, any friends she could count on? She didn't think so.

  She couldn't trust anyone. She had to outthink them before they killed her. Whoever They were.

  "I don't want to get out of the car." She said. She reached into her purse, took out her can of mace. With lightning quick movement, she sprayed the cops face, closed the door of the car and started the engine. She almost wept with relief when it started.

  It was real, it was a real car. She gunned the engine and pressed the gas pedal.

  Everyone screamed and jumped out of her way. She got the car off set and ended up crashing into one of the sets walls with a blinding crash. The windshield broke, shattering her with glass. She felt as if she were being bathed in diamonds. The glass felt cold on her skin and she blinked her eyes, feeling blood begin to pool there.

  "CUT!" the director yelled. "Oh, god Miriam, that was fantastic!" he ran over to her. "That was SO MUCH better than what was written, how did you ever think of that? To think they wanted to kill you off today!" He took her hand. "Great job today honey, let's get you cleaned up…"

  FOURTEEN

  Miriam receives a mysterious present

  Miriam went home after the shooting, the sun setting in pinks and reds in the hills. She stood on her balcony, sipping a glass of white wine. Traffic blared below her. She could hear the horns blaring. It always reminded her of children screaming in the streets, all the needless noise. Still, she welcomed the noise.

  After her husband, Chad Winthrop, had left her when her career had begun to shine, she had changed back to her maiden name and got this little apartment in downtown Burbank. It had been home ever since. She lived alone, had no time for pets and was very lonely. Noise could be a friend as much as a person could.

  The director hadn't known. She was sure of that. Larry hadn't known what was going on, that she was close to death on the stage.

  She wondered again if anyone else besides Howard on the show knew what was going on. Larry was only the director; Howard was the producer. There were a lot of things that directors didn't know.

  She would need to find out some more information. If she was going to fight for her life, she needed to know what she was fighting against. And she needed a friend. She would try DeDe again, talk to her. See if she could convince her friend, even though the very act of talking could mean her downfall.

  Miriam was about to pour herself another drink when she heard a noise in the hallway. She stopped what she was doing right away. After the fake head that had been left in her dressing room, she was on constant alert.

  She heard the floorboards creak outside her front door. She tiptoed to the door, careful not to make any noise. She needed to look through the peephole. She leaned forward and looked and was shocked to see that the glass eye had been covered with white tape, in the shape of an X. Miriam could not see the hallway, and could not see

  anything but the white tape. She heard more noises outside her apartment door and held her breath, waiting.

  Someone tried her doorknob again, rattling it but not turning it. It wasn't locked and Miriam prayed that whoever it was, they would not open the door. The handle wiggled again for a bit, shook, it's gold handle jittering; and then stopped. Miriam heard footsteps and tried to look through the peephole, but it was still covered over

  with the white tape.

  Miriam hoped whoever it was would go away and was rewarded with the

  sound of footsteps now moving away from her apartment. She let out a breath and breathed deep. She could feel her heart racing and jumping in her chest and she hugged herself.

  Should she open the door? She had to, if she wanted to see out of her peephole ever again. She closed her eyes, counted to ten and ripped the door open. There was no one there.

  Cursing herself for acting stupid, Miriam peeled off the white X that had been left over the peephole. She was about to close the door when she noticed a small box, wrapped in crinkled black paper. The same black paper as the envelope the other day. It was sitting in front of her door. She bent down and picked it up.

  On the top was a little white card. On it was her name, written in black. She opened the little card and looked at the words written there.

  "Open me”

  She frowned to herself, took the box into her apartment with her and closed the door behind her. She turned both locks, put on the chain and went to find the vodka.

  FIFTEEN

  Miriam thinks about the past

  Clutching the box to her chest, Miriam grabbed the vodka bottle and a bottle of coke from the kitchen and went into the living room. She placed the box and the bottles on her glass topped coffee table. Her stomach growled at her and she realized that she hadn't eaten in hours. She went back to the kitchen, grabbed a large bag of corn chips and a jar of salsa and went back into the living room.

  Ripping the bag open, she shoved some of the chips into her mouth and crunched down hard. She felt like a fish in a bowl, her curtains open to the black night around her. She could see lights in other apartments, other houses, could hear voices raised in conversation on the street. She felt alone and vulnerable and her apartment made her cold.

  Miriam went to the windows and pulled the curtains across the glass panels with a swish of her wrist. Soft panels of cream-colored Egyptian cotton stared back at her, a tapestry pattern roving over the lengths of fabric. They closed out the world, helped her cocoon herself. She had to be sure she was alone. Someone could be watching her. She poured herself a glass of vodka, added a splash of coke and sat on the couch in front of the box.

  She reached forward and lightly touched the crinkled black paper. It was the same paper as the envelope delivered by the mysterious X. Dare she open this box? What if X meant her harm? She picked up the box and shook it lightly, before putting it back on the table. She recoiled from it, as if it would explode. It remained on the table, no ticking coming from the inside. She picked up the box again.

  X seemed to be a friend. She had been warned after her talk with DeDe, and X had been right. The severed head in her dressing room had been proof of that. Even then, X had taken pains to write that note on the copy of her script. Who was they mysterious X? Could this box hold a clue to X's identity? With shaking hands,

  she reached forward and plucked the top off the box.

  Inside were three things: A photograph of Caroline, an envelope

  and a small jewelry box, covered in soft black velvet.

  "Someone is playing tricks with me." She said out loud. "Someone is playing games." She shook her head and took another sip of vodka to soothe her nerves. The stuff would be the death of her.

  The black envelope was the same as the other one, made from crinkly black paper, exc
ept there was a white piece of paper glued to the front, where her name was written. It seemed X was getting a bit more fancy. The script was curvy; it flowed over the piece of paper, making her name look like music notes.

  She opened the envelope and removed the single white piece of paper inside. On it were written the following:

  Do not let your fate be like hers

  X

  Miriam closed her eyes and felt the tears well up. The woman had been like a mother to her, more than her own mother had ever been. Caroline had been more than an actress playing a part.

  She had been Miriam's friend.

  Miriam flashed back to Caroline Brady, to what had happened to her. She remembered it was if it were yesterday.

  SIXTEEN

  Miriam receives a deadly script

  They had been on set. Caroline played Miriam's mother on the show, Prudence Stevens who was a woman made wealthy by her large family fortune. Caroline had and Miriam loved working together and the two women had formed a fast friendship.

  Again, though, Caroline's ratings were falling. Her storyline had faltered and Caroline had not been on the show much. It was as if her character had become dead weight and the show had wanted to get rid of her. Caroline Brady a Lifetime Contract. At this time, Miriam had been on the show for eleven years.

  Two years after Bruce's death, Miriam received a script one morning in her dressing room. Instead of all white pages, there were blue pages at the end of the scene. There had been a rewrite. She flipped to the end and read:

  *

  … (Int: STEVENS MANSION, Night. PRUDENCE is standing on the second floor landing of the STEVENS mansion. She stands in front of the staircase, talking to SYLVIA, MARK, ALISON STEVENS who are standing below.

  PRUDENCE: Oh, my family, I am weary of this life!

  (She moves to place her hands on the second floor landing railing. The staircase is large, almost too big.)

  MARK: What are you talking about mother? You look beautiful, not a

  day over sixty.

  PRUDENCE: Oh, you flatter me, darling, my darling Mark. I am so happy you found happiness with Sylvia. Let her be the matriarch of this family now; let her reign in my place, let her lead the family. She will keep you safe, my son.

  PRUDENCE: Oh, Prudence, what are you talking about? You are going to

  outlive all of us!

  PRUDENCE: Oh, I am not, my darling. I can feel it, I can feel my time

  coming!

  ALISON: Grandma! Stop it, please grandmother, you're scaring me!

  MARK: You're scaring the child, mother!

  PRUDENCE: I'm so sorry, Mark! Ever since I was hit on the head during that freak winter storm accident, I have been able to see things, you know of this! You have heard me talk of visitations, spirits! They come to me at night, Mark!

  (PRUDENCE begins to twirl, her arms raised at her sides, spinning madly like a top.)

  PRUDENCE: I can feel the spirits, Mark! They are coming for me!

  (PRUDENCE trips slightly, losing her footing. She falls into the second floor railing, which splinters and gives way under her weight. With a SCREAM, PRUDENCE falls two stories down onto a glass-topped coffee table. The TABLE shatters, impaling PRUDENCE with glass shards.)…

  *

  Miriam had dropped the script as if it had spit at her. She looked at it, lying placidly on the floor at her feet. Caroline would die today, she remembered thinking. Caroline would die today and she was helpless to stop it.

  On set, Caroline had died just as the script said she would. She could tell the other actors, Toby, Anna, they didn't know what was going on. At the time, Miriam did not know who had a lifetime contract and who did not. They were just acting. The other actors thought Caroline was acting. Miriam knew she was dying.

  As she watched her friend bleed to death, Miriam promised herself

  that she would not let the same fate come to her, would not let the same fate end her life. She would fight for it. This thought brought her back to the present, where she looked at the black box sitting on her table. And the warning not to let her fate be like Caroline's.

  She took out the picture of Caroline, her red hair full and thick, a smile on her face. She set the picture on her table, so that she could look at her. She kissed her fingertips and pressed them to the picture and then opened the velvet box.

  Inside was a small silver ring with a diamond in its centre. Miriam recognized the ring instantly; it had been Caroline's when she had been alive. How it had ended up in her box, how the mysterious X had gotten a hold of it, she had no idea. She slipped it on to her right hand ring finger and it felt good there. It made her feel safe. She cried at the memory of her friend.

  Do not let your fate be like hers, the note had said. She knew what she must do. It was so simple, she wondered why she had not thought of it before.

  She would infiltrate the Hope Falls Studios; she would go into the belly of the beast to see what she could find.

  But first she needed a disguise.

  SEVENTEEN

  Miriam remembers her skills

  Miriam couldn't believe that she had not thought of it before. This entire time, she had been trying to formulate a plan, something to do to get her life back. All she had to do was discover the secrets Hope Falls held. It was so simple, how could she not have thought of it?

  People were always telling her to use what she knew. Well, she knew how to act, knew how to act like a different person. Had she not been a different person, Sylvia Stevens, for her entire acting career? Surely, she could pull of being someone else. Miriam smiled; this could work, this could really work.

  "My name is Sylvia Stevens." She said in her wispy actress voice.

  Sylvia Stevens had worn many masks. During her thirty-year stay in Hope Falls, Sylvia had been a psychologist, an explorer, an antique hunter, a kidnapper, a detective, a policewoman, an assassin and many other professions. Each time she was to portray another skill; someone would be hired to be her educator.

  Like when she had to have a karate fight with one of the old evil characters, a karate instructor had come to show her the art of self- defense. She took to it like a natural. Or, when she had had to play a cop, she had ridden around with a real policewoman, watched her in action and learnt a bit about the law.

  This didn't make her an expert in anything, she knew that; but it gave her an edge. It gave her something to fight back with. She would not take all this lying down. She would stand up and fight; something that they were not expecting from her. She knew that they probably considered her a patsy, a push over, a helpless woman fighting for

  her life.

  Well, she wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

  Miriam thought again of Caroline lying bloody and still breathing on top of the glass table. She had screamed and screamed a sound that chilled her blood and all the while, they filmed her. All the while, the camera was still rolling. She ran to Caroline and put her arms around the woman. And for the second time, someone died in her arms.

  She would not allow herself to end up that way. She would not allow herself to be at the mercy of these evil people. She had to find out who was behind all this, all the Lifetime Contracts. Miriam knew she wasn’t the last, that there were more. Who else had a Lifetime Contract? She that her days were numbered. She could not let everyone else's death be in vain. She could not allow it.

  She couldn't just become Sylvia Stevens though; that would be too easy and too many people would see through that disguise. Who could she become? What kind of disguise should she take on?

  The night crawled on outside her apartment. She could see the shadows crawling across her floor, could hear the buzzing of the street lamps that lit up. Her vodka and coke was on the table; she went to it and took a sip. It steeled her nerves, made her stronger.

  She couldn't phone DeDe again, not yet. She had to think of a way to convince her. She knew someone who would help her, though, who would believe her. And she needed help if she was go
ing to pull this off. She needed a shoulder to cry on. She picked up the phone and called Naomi.

  EIGHTEEN

  Miriam is almost shot

  Naomi Jones was also an actress on another popular daytime soap.

  All My Children had been her home for several years and the two women had bonded during a soap fan convention. They had become fast friends and were like sisters. At least Miriam hoped they were. She could not stand to be devastated again. The sound of DeDe's laughter sounded in her ears.