by K. B. Draper
Lexi laughed. “Oh, how I’ve missed your sense of humor, Kanyon.” She reached out, took a lock of Kanyon’s hair, and twirled it in the fingertips of her free hand. “I also miss your–”
“Don’t you have a boyfriend waiting for you?” Kanyon swatted at Lexi’s wandering fingers, untangling them from her hair.
“Vance? Please!” She scoffed. “He’s merely a cute, temporary necessity.”
“So, this is all just one big elaborate scheme.” Kanyon said more as a statement than a question. She scoffed. “And I played right into your hands.”
“Yes. Rather perfectly. But it’s nothing personal.” She moved in so her lips were next to Kanyon’s ear. “You have to admit, it was rather fun at times.” She took a quick nip at Kanyon’s earlobe. “No hard feelings, sweetheart. It’s just business. Plus, I don’t remember you complaining.”
Kanyon took hold of Lexi’s biceps and moved her back to arm’s length. “It wasn’t business to me. It was personal, very personal. It affected a lot of people. You’re acting as if this is just some game. You can’t toy with people’s lives like this. People aren’t here to be pawns in your little Make Lexi a Star chess set.”
Kanyon stepped past Lexi to leave. “Well, since I’m the new Queen, it appears I can move any which way I want and can take anyone I want.” Lexi smiled as Kanyon froze at her last jab. Lexi’s voice lowered, becoming more ominous. “Oh, and Kanyon, I like playing games. When I play … it’s winner takes all.”
Kanyon was shaken, but willed herself to move again. She pulled open the restroom door and was met with a fury of camera flashes and a rush of questions. Lexi came out behind her holding her cheek, freshly conjured tears, and a victimized look. Kanyon spun to take in the scene unfolding around her. Lexi had done it again. She had set her up to walk right into another well laid trap. Her mind quickly ran through the scenario: Lexi had followed her into the bathroom, cornered her, after dropping a few well-placed tips beforehand to the paparazzi, of course, then intentionally worked her up so she would exit the bathroom visibly irritated, with Lexi following with tear-filled eyes. She knew immediately the paparazzi would portray her again as the out of control, violent, alcoholic. Kanyon turned back to Lexi.
Lexi dropped the “poor abused me” act for a brief second to mouth, “Checkmate.” Then just as quickly, the victim face was back on and she fled dramatically from the scene.
Kanyon’s next move was quickly made for her as the crowd started to move in, hurling their questions and thrusting their cameras in her face. She felt trapped. She needed to get out, needed to run. She started pushing back, fighting her way through the crowd, throwing out “no comments” in her wake. Her head began to spin from the shock of the situation and the effects of the demon banishing juice. She felt her legs go heavy and her vision start to blur.
She finally pulled away from the crowd as security guards responded to the commotion. She ducked under their arms and ran, cutting through a couple of waiting rooms, finding herself back in the hallway where she’d left the Ghostbusters. They were still there, slouched on the floor. Apparently, feeling the effects of the juice as well.
She stopped and three wobbly, grinning heads looked up at her. “Hey, back so soon? Wanta ‘nother shot of DBJ?” At Kanyon’s confused look, “We shortened the name, ‘cause … whoa, my tongue is heavy,” Ray slurred.
Kanyon glanced back to see if anyone had followed her, surprisingly there wasn’t anyone. Kanyon leaned up against the wall and slid down, coming to rest next to the guys on the floor. “Here you go, we ran out of cups,” Ray said as he raised the nozzle of the proton pack above her head.
She looked up. “Wait, no I’m go–” Her words got drowned out by the green liquid hitting her in the mouth. Kanyon swallowed, gasped, and sputtered to keep from drowning as she finally found the nozzle and took it away from him. She gulped for air and coughed several times before she could speak. “For God’s sake-” She coughed again as she rubbed her burning throat. “What’s in that stuff?” She finished as she looked down, figuring she’d just taken another three or seven shots and her shirt had taken a good twelve.
He smiled drunkenly. “Basically, every clear alcohol I had in the cabinet; Everclear, Vodka, Peppermint Schnapps, and a couple of other things, then I put in green food coloring for effect.”
“That stuff could kill someone,” she rasped.
“Just demons,” Egon replied with the same stupid drunk grin.
At the burning feeling in her throat and her stomach, she started to question her true origins but stopped when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. A group of paparazzi was headed her way.
Damn it. “Guys, you think you could help me out?” She nodded her head at the camera welding hunters. “Demons.” She wiggled her eyebrows, stood, swayed, caught herself and took off in a half-run half-swerving dash to the other end of the hallway. Several steps down, she glanced over her shoulder and saw the drunken pack of Ghostbusters standing and blocking the hall as they sprayed the green liquid at the paparazzi. The first few cameras went down, causing the ones behind them to go toppling over them. “Damned if it wasn’t demon banishing juice,” she said, laughing as she continued to run and watch the chaos behind her. Her head was still turned when she broke out of the hall and slammed into something hard. Her feet went out from under her, causing her head to crack on the cement floor. Everything went black.
She woke with a jerk and her eyes flew open. The room was spinning so she slammed them shut again. “What the–?” The back of her head was throbbing. She reached around to rub at the soreness only to find her head being held up by someone’s lap. She slowly opened her eyes again and a quick flash of déjà vu hit her as she looked up at Daylen.
“Crap.” She closed her eyes again. “What happened?” Kanyon moaned.
“You successfully took out a procession of Stormtroopers, Conan the Barbarian, and Buffy.”
Kanyon laughed weakly, lifting her head enough to see several Stormtroopers trying to stand up in their stiff costumes. “Not exactly thieving warlords, but it looks like I still got it.”
Not amused, Daylen asked, “Do you want to tell me what led to this massacre?”
“I don’t know. I was–” She stopped, deciding to skip the bathroom encounter and the demon banishing juice. “I was running from–” Kanyon diverted her eyes to look down the hall. The trio had managed to hold off the paparazzi for a good bit, but she saw guys breaking through their line and running in her direction, cameras flashing.
“Get me out of here. Please,” Kanyon whispered desperately.
Daylen followed Kanyon’s eyes down the hall and although she didn’t know the start of the story, she could see how it was going to end. Daylen looked back down into Kanyon’s pleading eyes. She was momentarily struck by the drastic contrast in the eyes she looked into now as opposed to the nearly black eyes she had spent so much time staring into on the set. She had gotten so used to dark eyes she had nearly forgotten that Kanyon had worn contacts to change her eye color to fit the writers’ image of a beautiful, dark-eyed, powerful warrior Queen. Though they were currently radiating fear and desperation, Daylen found the depth of Kanyon’s natural steel-blue eyes, far more alluring and powerful.
“Daylen, please,” Kanyon pleaded, snapping Daylen back.
Sighing with resignation, Daylen knew she was going to regret this, but she pulled Kanyon up and over the laid-out Buffy wannabe. “Come on. I have a car out back.”
Chapter 5
Ex-Warrior Attacks! the headline read. Daylen scanned the accompanying photos of Kanyon. She hadn’t known the domino that set the chain of events off yesterday, but she had a pretty good idea now. She studied the photo of Kanyon coming out of the bathroom. The blurb below it accused Kanyon of being in an angry rant, but she didn’t see anger in Kanyon’s eyes, what she saw was frustration overlaying fear. Her eyes moved to Lexi staged in the background, the perfect picture of a poor helpless victim.
“Whatever,” Daylen growled as she flipped to the next paper. Sidekick Now Saving the “Hero”? The headline was strategically staged over two photos this time. One picture was of a pile of Stormtroopers with a Conan and a disoriented Buffy mixed in while the second was of her helping a stumbling Kanyon into her car. “Good morning, Regret. I was expecting you,” Daylen said as she slid the paper away.
Daylen took her coffee out to the porch, wanting to distance herself from what she had willingly gotten drawn back into. She sat and looked out toward Los Angeles, unable to keep her mind from yesterday’s events; Kanyon, The Dark Savior, and her former life. She didn’t miss Hollywood or the things that came with working there. She thought it was ironic there had been a time when that was all she wanted. When she was eighteen she ran away, if you can call an eighteen-year-old moving twenty miles south of her family’s home to be a big star, “running away.” Even at the time, she hadn’t really cared about being a big star. She just wanted to make her own way. She wanted to decide her own career rather than buckling to the pressure of joining the family business. The “family business,” she laughed, was the exact thing she came running home to and where she found her destiny and fulfillment.
She liked Freya, loved playing her actually and she would have continued to do so until the show itself came to a natural end. But she hadn’t been upset when Kanyon’s actions killed them both off unexpectedly. She wished for a better ending for the two heroes, but she wasn’t really upset about being written off the show. Over the last year especially, a growing desire to go home and work with her Aunt Ruby had taken root. Aunt Ruby said it was “the calling” but Daylen thought there was a more natural explanation. As much as she liked playing Freya, she didn’t like the price that came with it. Sure, playing Freya allowed her to meet a lot of good people, her fans for instance, who for the most part were happy, friendly people who only wanted a minute of her time. It was the ruthless part of Hollywood she didn’t like, people using people to get ahead, a place where someone always wanted more and took it, no matter the cost. She blew on her already cold coffee as a distraction.
Though Hollywood wasn’t her intended destiny, it had provided her a lot of things. She had saved a nice nest egg that she could live comfortably on for a long while. She learned a lot of new skills while on the show, the foremost being she had become a somewhat proficient fighter, thanks to Dodge. She enjoyed the training and even asked Dodge to work with her during down times on the set. But she paled in comparison to Kanyon. She remembered sitting in pure awe while watching Kanyon and Dodge practice. Kanyon took to the training like a natural athlete, no, like a natural warrior.
She glanced over her shoulder back into the house at the thought of Kanyon, another real thing Hollywood had afforded her. If she was being honest with herself, that was another reason she had wanted, needed, to get away from Hollywood.
She thought of the photo again, the one of a seemingly scared Lexi fleeing from an angry Kanyon. She knew there had to be more to the story than what the photo captured. In the five years she had worked with Kanyon, unlike so many leading actresses, she had never once seen Kanyon treat anyone poorly. She kept everyone at a distance but she wasn’t a self-aggrandizing diva, as the papers had recently begun to portray her. Kanyon actually seemed more comfortable with the crew and everyday people than she did with stars. To Daylen, Kanyon seemed uncomfortable with her own fame, her talent as an actress, and even more so with her breathtaking beauty. Kanyon had never acted like the world-famous actress she was or the subject matter that every magazine cover craved. That was, until Lexi.
Lexi. Daylen felt her anger rise. Unlike Kanyon, Lexi wanted fame and all that came with it and didn’t care who she’d hurt to get it. Daylen met Lexi shortly after she’d gotten the part of Raya. She had seemed nice enough on the surface but Daylen distrusted her the moment they met. Lexi was calculating with a cold and cunning air that Daylen had seen as clear as if Lexi’s intentions were written on her shirt. Her Aunt Ruby called it Daylen’s “special gift” but Daylen didn’t think it took a special gift to see beyond Lexi’s mask. Anyone who looked into Lexi’s eyes could see the bitter darkness within them.
Daylen’s dislike only grew the more she was around her. Fortunately, that time had been limited to the set. She’d turned down Lexi’s repeated invites to dinner, until Lexi finally stopped asking. Daylen was relieved at first, but then noticed Lexi turned her invites to Kanyon. Kanyon accepted Lexi’s offers and that’s when Daylen started to see the change. Kanyon started going out excessively. The late-night adventures resulted in Kanyon being late to the set, often tired and hung over. Daylen tried to talk to Kanyon, but every time she caught Kanyon alone, mysteriously Lexi would appear, sweeping her away with one urgent excuse or another.
Daylen thought of Kanyon’s frustration with her apology yesterday. Kanyon didn’t know she was harboring a significant amount of guilt of her own. Sure, Kanyon’s actions were the ultimate cause to them being written off the show but she had known Lexi was a predator and she failed to protect Kanyon as Kanyon had once protected her so many years ago. She stood, uncomfortable with the memories, and turned to the door that separated her from Kanyon, who was now the vulnerable victim lying passed out in her bed. The guilt washed over her again in waves.
Kanyon woke in an unfamiliar bed. Not necessarily a new predicament, but still an uncomfortable one. She reached out cautiously to feel for anyone else sharing the sheets with her. Nope. Thank you, God. She took a mental inventory of the clothes she felt herself wearing. Shirt? Check. Underwear? Check. Some kind of pants? Check. All a good sign. Now that just left the little mystery of if at some point she had become unclothed and then at some other point she had re-clothed. She groaned.
She couldn’t readily remember going out drinking and going home with anyone. She hadn’t done anything like that since ... ugh. But being in a strange bed with a pounding headache, what other explanation could there be? She pinched the bridge of her nose. “What the heck happened?” She grabbed her head as the sound of her own voice caused it to pound even harder. What the heck happened? Still drawing a blank, Kanyon rolled over and pulled the pillow over her face, attempting to mentally rewind last evening’s events.
She had gone to the Comic-Con. She and Daylen had done their question and answer session. They signed calendars, T-shirts, swords, a couple of boobs, biceps, books ... Then she got a mental picture of Thor, the comic book hammer wielding God in a fishing vest? What the …? What did I drink, liquid ‘shrooms? She put the strange image away and searched for what had happened next. There had been a large ruckus and then– She groaned, pulling the pillow down harder across her face. Then Lexi happened. Things were hazy, but she had a flash of a fat guy wearing a tan jumper, a backpack, and some kind of green liquid. She’d been attacked by her TruGreen Lawn Care guy. She knew he looked shady. Of course, that didn’t explain her sore throat and retching stomach. Unless … he’d forced me to drink liquid fertilizer? Whatever. She wasn’t making any sense. She mentally shook the images away and tried again. Ghostbusters? Then a few more memories found their way through. Yeah, a group of guys dressed like the Ghostbusters, well three out of the four anyway, had found her hiding in the back hallway. Then instead of admitting she was a big chicken-shit coward hiding from Lexi she had chosen to live up to her other illustrious reputation of being a drunk. She’d had a couple of drinks with them. A couple drinks from the nozzle of a garden hose? Her stomach heaved at the memory.
She flipped back over, her face smashed into the mattress. How had my life come to this? I couldn’t possibly sink any lower. She laid there in her self-pity until her mind decided to torture her with a scenario that could be lower. God, did I go home with one of them? Despite the nausea and the throbbing, she flipped over and sat up. She quickly scanned the floor for tan coveralls or anything that looked like a proton pack. Nothing. She felt a little bit of relief, but scanned the walls for Sigourney Weaver posters as additional reassu
rance.
She fell back in relief and pulled the pillow back over her head. So, what happened? The events began to slow-mo in her mind. She’d left the ghost hunting wannabes and gone to the restroom and … Lexi. Lexi had set her up again. She squeezed her eyes more tightly as she remembered the camera flashes. She ran then got drenched in more … demon banishing juice. Totally not effective. The images came faster. There were a lot of stinky, white clad men on the floor with a smelly, hairy guy and a sprawled-out vampire slayer. Then she remembered Daylen’s eyes. The image of her gaze was burned into Kanyon’s mind.
She grabbed the pillow tighter and engaged in a quick one-person pillow fight. Exhausted by the recollection, Kanyon’s head pounded as if a church bell was going off in her skull. She pulled the pillow back over her face. Why did Daylen have to witness her screwing up again? To make it worse she’d pleaded with Daylen to help her. She should’ve just walked out and dealt with the horror of her mother releasing a sex tape.
Kanyon finally put the pillow aside and sat up. The situation wasn’t going to get any better. It was time to face the inevitable. Maybe she could just escape out a window and move to Jamaica. Kanyon slowly rose from the bed and scanned the room, nothing but skylights. Damn. She should really start carrying a grappling hook.
As her eyes continued to roam, she suddenly realized she’d never been to Daylen’s house. It was a simple yet elegant room, neat and warm, exactly what she would expect. Her eyes fell onto a set of shelves that held several photos. Regretfully, she also realized of all the years she and Daylen worked together she didn’t know much about her.
Kanyon walked over to the photos which appeared to be pictures of Daylen’s family. One showed a middle-aged man and woman with a younger Daylen tucked under the man’s arm and a teen-aged girl under the woman’s. The family resemblance and cozy intimacy of the scene made it clear it was Daylen’s mom, dad, and younger sister. There were a couple more photos of the same people at various ages and poses. The sister was apparently now married with two little girls. She leaned down slightly to take a closer look. The sister looked happy with a baby bundled in her arms. The assumed husband, though smiling, she could tell his patience was being tested by the wiggling young blonde girl, pinned tightly to his hip.
