Dawn of Revelation

by A N Sandra

  Molly didn’t necessarily like her employee referring to her in such a familiar way, but he was charming, and he was doing a wonderful job as far as she could tell. He really understood what she was trying to achieve.

  “This, or this?” another editor wanted to know. Molly watched the two advertising clips to promote One Tough Customer.

  “The second one,” Molly answered after scrutinizing both of them.

  “If this show had a winner last night, it would have been Maddy,” noted Spencer, another one of the editors.

  “I’ll make sure to take her down a little during the next show,” Molly noted. Or a lot.

  The night wore on into morning and by seven a.m. the promotions for One Tough Customer were airing with the promise that the first show would premiere the next week. For the next eight weeks of summer, two episodes would air every week. One on Tuesday, one on Thursday. The fact that all the contestants were coerced into their roles was not mentioned anywhere. Also, not mentioned was the lack of experience in front of an audience that most of them had. Sadie was the only contestant with real acting experience, although Tilly’s stints in the fashion world make her a performer of sorts.

  Just before she went back to Hollister Towers to sleep the day away Molly secured Becky’s promise to make several phone calls. The most important call was to Doctor Justin Morris, a famous surgeon who would be her celebrity guest on the next One Tough Customer.

  Doctor Juss, as he was affectionately known by his fans, was everything restaurant staff hate embodied in a tall, fair, handsome man. A doctor, a celebrity, a vegan, he was sure to have every head turning toward him. Molly had learned all his hot buttons from his personal assistant and was going to make sure that each of them got pushed during his appearance. He had refused to entertain the idea of being on a reality show but had given in when the Hollister Foundation promised to donate an obscene amount of money to his research. The Hollister Foundation actually did not have any money left. They were operating on credit and spending money as fast as the businesses they were running could make it, but no one would ever know. Money would soon cease to matter; there was no point in having any left at the end of the world.

  Maddy, Tilly, and Sadie were no longer on the same team, but they were still playing the same game. They went for a long walk outside the Hollister Manor to discuss everything they could. They discussed next week’s teams. The Front of the House would be back in the front of the house without Maddy, who would remain on the Back of the House team leaving the Front of the House team shorthanded—their punishment for losing the first round. Next episode, a new menu would be in effect. One that Molly had already designed to be challenging, though neither side would know the menu before the morning of the show.

  Molly’s spy shadowed them in the distance as they talked.

  “I’m going to miss the start of the fall semester if I don’t get voted off by the middle of July,” Maddy fumed.

  “I had auditions lined up, and I won’t be in anything this season,” Sadie agreed. “Losing six months of my career for this crap—”

  “I’m wearing my own clothes on the next episode,” Tilly interrupted. “They may have moved us here, but Dan is bringing my things when I ask him.”

  “You’re so lucky to have Dan,” Sadie said.

  “He’ll have you anytime you want him,” Tilly promised. Not that Tilly was sure of that. Dan hadn’t had a girlfriend in years even though he was definitely straight. He liked video games and trekking through foreign lands more than girls as far as Tilly could tell. But if Dan thought he was immune to Sadie… no, no man was immune to Sadie, even in the hardened atmosphere of Manhattan.

  “We’ve all given up our lives for this summer. We’ll just have to play along and get what we get,” Maddy said. “But that doesn’t mean we have to lay down and let ourselves be foolish.”

  “Who do you think she has lined up for famous guests?” Tilly asked.

  “We said we didn’t want doctors, so we’ll get one,” Maddy said, wisely.

  “If only Doctor Justin would come,” Sadie gushed. Normally Sadie was not the gushing sort, but Doctor Justin made her a little melty inside. “I watch all his Ted Talks—”

  “No way, he’s too classy,” Tilly said. “Somebody like Dr. Oz, or—”

  “That rap star, Dr. Pony.” Maddy giggled like a teenager.

  “Dr. Pony? There’s no way Molly knows who he is—”

  “I could handle Dr. Pony,” Maddy said. “My little sister loves him. I know all his songs—”

  “Those aren’t songs,” Sadie said firmly. “I’m holding out for Doctor Just—”

  “Keep holding out.” Tilly shook her head. “That way when Dan finally makes his move you’ll be desperate enough.”

  Ever aware of her own importance, Molly Hollister made sure to meet Doctor Justin Morris before he entered Crackhouse. In the staging area next to the restaurant where people signed waivers and different backstage preparations took place, Molly had made a small nook for herself with wing chairs and tea service behind a thick curtain. Doctor Justin was shown there immediately after he signed the pile of paperwork necessary to be on air.

  “Thank you so much for indulging me,” Molly graciously extended her hand to Doctor Justin, who took it in both of his. Nothing in Molly’s twenty-four years had prepared her for the electric shock that ran through her body when he took her hand in his. It was a clearly felt bolt of energy that started at her hands and sped through her, leaving a feeling of perfect calm in its wake.

  “Somehow you knew my price,” Doctor Justin answered. His voice soothed her tired nerves; his touch thrilled her. The navy suit the doctor wore was cut perfectly against his extremely buff physique. Molly didn’t come up to his shoulder, and that was just the way she liked her men. Tall, muscular, and clean cut.

  His voice soothed her tired nerves, his touch thrilled her, his eyes connected to part of her soul she had thought was dead. He was perfect.

  “Have a seat?” Molly offered, hoping her voice didn’t sound over anxious. She would do anything to stay near him and didn’t want to sound weird. He had unsettled her, something that rarely happened.

  Doctor Justin sat in the wing chair with easy grace. Molly looked for some kind of flaw in the man, but he was dressed perfectly casually for the lunch he was about to consume. His smile made her weak and his green eyes sparkled with wit. She tried not to shake as she poured his tea. No male had made her this unsettled since her first year of college when the starting quarterback for Yale had walked by her at a house party. Molly had killed the butterflies in her stomach by ruining his junior year in college after he spurned her. The party with the super exotic stripper she sent had gotten national headlines… but Doctor Justin was on another level. The butterflies were not fluttering, they had gone to her head and were holding her hostage with tiny butterfly guns.

  “You don’t have to treat me differently than other guests just because I’m a doctor,” he said graciously.

  “I want to make you comfortable,” Molly said. That wasn’t true at all. She had wanted to annoy him, get him irritated with the staff, and use him to punish others. But now those wants had all changed. He was bringing out a part of Molly that she had not known existed. Possibly the new part that was enthralled with this man had just been created by him. “The Earl Gray is fair trade and organic.”

  “You have a fierce reputation,” Doctor Justin said as he stirred the tea he was given. “But in my experience people who are considered formidable are often protecting a very soft core.”

  Molly had been killing her core since early childhood and was pretty sure she had succeeded long before college. Still, she smiled as if he might be onto something. Her main strength was that most people want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and Molly knew how to take out someone’s metaphorical jugular during their moment of kindness.

  “I am a strong woman,” she finally said, trying to sound vulnerable, yet mysteriou
s. She didn’t want this man to guess how strong she really was, but she didn’t want to sound weak either. “People villainize strong women.”

  “Yes, they do,” Doctor Justin said, drinking his tea. “I have strong women who surround me, and they do not have easy lives. My own mother, the strongest of women, was often treated poorly.”

  “My life is not as easy as people might think,” Molly said, then regretted going too far. She did not want pity or sympathy from this man. She wanted his full attention. Also, her life had been easier than most people’s and she was well aware of it. She used energy she didn’t have to spend navigating the world to dominate other people. That was her way.

  “I’m sure you have a lot of responsibilities no one knows about,” Doctor Justin said. His blue eyes gleamed. Was his hair red, or brown? Hard to be sure in the artificial light indoors.

  “Yes, I do,” Molly lied. Her biggest responsibility she’d been given in her twenty-four years was not to tell her father’s world-shattering secret. Other than that, she was free to wreak mayhem with an unlimited budget. Because the Hollister Foundation knew that money was about to quit being important, so there had been no limit to spending at all. Not for the foundation, and not the Hollister family.

  Doctor Justin reached out, took her hand, and held it in sympathy. Molly felt her breath catch unexpectedly. She must have this man. His touch spread a sense of peace all the way through her. If his polite caress calmed her to her very inner sanctum, she could not imagine what an intimate moment might be like. The most important part was that he was sympathetic to her. His sense of empathy was big enough to include her, even if he was wrong. He believed her to be a woman deserving of serious attention.

  “We need you, Molly,” Becky said from behind the curtain.

  “I need to go,” Molly told Doctor Justin, as if she were going to a noble calling and not to a reality show designed to torture innocents. “Just stay here and relax with your tea. We’ll call you when we are ready for you.”

  He squeezed her hand, and Molly would have done anything he wanted in that moment. She was his, captivated completely.

  “He is probably the most handsome man I have ever seen,” Becky breathed when she was sure they were out of earshot of anyone.

  “Sure,” Molly said, trying to sound jaded.

  Becky shook her head, annoyed that Molly wasn’t impressed enough. “He is something else.”

  He is something else, Molly thought. She was shocked that she was glowing from the five minutes of interaction the two of them had had. The control she had fought for over her feelings had left her entirely while she was with him. His touch had caused her more calm than any illicit substance. That man is the perfect drug.

  As Molly directed everyone around her she realized that she was going to have to have Doctor Justin. There was no other way around it. He was rich and famous, the sort of person that Molly couldn’t manipulate easily, although she had caused other rich and famous people great suffering when she really wanted to. If she did harm Doctor Justin, he would be broken, and he wouldn’t be worth having. He had been excited to meet her and form his own opinion of her, unlike so many people who had an aversion to her based on her reputation. That was good. If Doctor Justin feared her it would have hurt her in a way she hadn’t thought she could be hurt.

  Guests streamed into Crackhouse, and since the Front of the House team was back in the front of the house, Tilly greeted Doctor Justin and seated him in Sadie’s section. Doctor Justin settled into his seat and Tilly walked away from him. Sadie approached him calmly although any viewer who knew what they were looking for saw her stop and center herself when she recognized him.

  “What can I bring you to drink with your meal?” Sadie asked Doctor Justin in her gracious voice.

  “I’m not sure what I’m having yet… water will be fine for the moment,” Doctor Justin said while perusing the menu. He didn’t look up, and Sadie was too nervous to force him to.

  “I’ll be back in a few moments,” Sadie told him. She turned toward other tables, and anyone who was watching untouched footage could have seen Justin Morris look up and take an appreciative glance at Sadie’s profile as she took the drink orders for the table next to his.

  The only people watching untouched footage were Molly and her two editors. Molly’s heart almost stopped when she saw Justin looking at Sadie as she waited on the table next to him. She’s a waitress! A wannabe actress! Molly screeched inside when she watched later. No doctor falls in love with a waitress! Molly retrieved her emotions long enough to remember that looking at someone with appreciation is not falling in love with them. People do it all the time. Earlier in the day Molly had seen several men bite their fists when a large busted blonde woman walked across the crosswalk in front of the building. It was only lust.

  “Can I help you now?” Sadie asked Doctor Justin when she was finished waiting on the people next to him.

  “I would like the squid salad with no squid,” Doctor Justin told her with a trace of a smile looming over his face.

  “Perfect. Would you like some almost chardonnay to go with your almost squid salad?” Sadie smirked at him.

  “I’d like some Riesling,” Doctor Justin rejoined.

  “Are you joking?” Sadie burst out, unable to hide her disgust. “Riesling isn’t really wine, you do know that, don’t you?”

  “I had been under the impression that Riesling was wine.” Doctor Justin grinned back. “But I did just order the Riesling to get your attention.”

  “You got your wish.” Sadie shook her head. “You have our house Riesling coming right away.”

  “Really?” Doctor Justin was surprised.

  “No, we don’t keep Riesling at the bar, but I’ll send to the corner store for some. It’ll come in a paper bag,” Sadie told him. “That’s how I’m going to serve it, too.”

  “No need for that,” Doctor Justin said. He had a very small smile hinting at the corners of his lips. “I’ll go with whatever chardonnay you recommend.”

  “Now you sound as smart as you do on those Ted Talks,” Sadie rejoined.

  “Oh, you’re a fan?” Doctor Justin looked hopeful.

  “Well, I was worried about you for a second, but maybe I can be your fan,” Sadie said. As she walked away Doctor Justin clearly melted, and the cameras caught the whole interaction.

  Molly comprehended the situation immediately. Justin just reacted to Sadie the way Molly had reacted to him. Even angels can’t unscramble eggs. For Molly there was no way around any of it. She would have to make Justin forget about Sadie. The public shaming Sadie had been scheduled to endure was off the table. It would either make Doctor Justin angry with Molly or feel sorry for Molly’s small character. And Molly simply couldn’t accept either of those options. Sadie would have to die a little sooner than the rest of the world. Molly had never planned a personal death before, so that would take time and strategy. Fortunately, Sadie was about to die sooner than she had planned. Unfortunately for Molly, Justin was also scheduled to die sooner than he had planned. Many fates were moving forward, but Molly hoped that if she worked carefully enough she would end up with Justin in a new world with few distractions.

  The rest of the day went by in a blur. Molly read her cues, she spoke to people and made decisions, but she was in a sort of altered state that made everything around her seem not quite real. Other times in her life had been like that, times of stress when she needed to suspend her baser reactions and glide through the moment. Often a plan to deal with the problem she faced at such times simply occurred to her when she woke up in the morning. Molly hoped that would be the case now.

  “I’ll see you back in the studio,” Tad, the associate producer, told Molly as the contestants piled into limos, pulling away from the Crackhouse.

  The all-nighter… Last week it had been intoxicating, this week it seemed meaningless. The whole show was meaningless except that it had brought Molly into contact with Doctor Justin. She would take h
er Mexitrin and power through the night with the staff. In the morning, she would worry about Sadie.

  Meeting Doctor Justin had realigned all of Molly’s inner settings, and she engaged differently with her professional team as they worked on the edits. Without the need to control them, they loosened up and everyone had a pleasant night as they worked with efficiency and friendly banter. For once, Molly allowed herself to enter in with the group, and they were willing to accept her.

  As she left in the early morning with Rodger, her security guard, she thought about saving the media people, so they could join her in the new world. After all, most of the Global Forces would be there, at least for a bit, and her father’s friends. The new world would not be completely empty, although it might seem like it. Of course, there would be the creatures—

  “Would you like me to come to your room?” Rodger asked as the car pulled to the curb of the Hollister Towers.

  “No, just take me to the penthouse door,” Molly told him. Rodger was more than her security guard. He met all her personal needs. His wife would be relieved to know that Molly simply had no more use for him at all now that she had met Doctor Justin. No one else would do. There would be no one else, and Rodger could go back to just keeping her safe from harm.

  At the door Rodger turned and Molly watched him walk away, his perfectly chiseled form didn’t cause her any regret, just a strange sense of completion. He was the last man to satisfy her until Doctor Justin was all hers. She had never managed to fall in love or convince someone else to fall in love with her, but she hadn’t felt such a deep need before. With a life of experience in manipulating people and getting what she wanted from them Molly was certain that she would be with Doctor Justin. Hopefully soon enough to walk down a church aisle on her father’s arm in a floating white dress.

  The housekeeping staff of the penthouse had opened the blinds and brisk morning sunshine brightened the large rooms the way artificial light never could. Molly had lived a life surrounded by opulence but was still impressed by the home her mother had created in the sky. Tasteful, and yet lavish in every way. Drifting toward her own room to sleep all morning, if not most of the afternoon, she could hear commotion from her father’s office. The entire penthouse was well sound proofed, so it was unusual to notice noise at all. She turned toward the office to check on her father.