by Cecilia Gray
“Honey, look at the time. You need to get to makeup! Go, go—call me later to tell me how it went. I need to tell your aunt.”
“Thanks, Mom. Love you! Bye.” As they hung up, Kat sent Fanny a quick text then ran out to the tents. She found Izzy sitting in one of the tall canvas chairs, wrapped in a robe and sipping a cup of coffee while Ceecee ran product through her hair.
Izzy reached out her arm overhead. “Who deserves a high-five?”
Kat grinned and slapped her hand. “You’re unbelievable. Ceecee, did you hear what Izzy did?”
“Mmm hmm,” Ceecee said with a yawn. “Take a seat.”
“Let me grab you a coffee,” Kat said. She practically skipped her way to Megan and came back with a warm cup, which she set down on Ceecee’s worktable next to her open case of tubes and tins of makeup.
“Thank you,” Ceecee said. “You up next, hon?”
Kat waved the call sheet. “I think so.”
“Lemme see!” Izzy beckoned for the sheet with her fingers.
Both Ceecee and Izzy leaned over to study the page.
“Two scenes!” Ceecee said. “Not bad, Kat. Not bad. It means you survive the first one, which is a plus.”
“The first is the chase scene,” Izzy said. “It will be the most fun. The second is just the hostage scene. You’re definitely dead after that.”
“You nervous?” Ceecee asked.
“Terrified,” Kat said. She pressed her hands to her face, felt the flush of her cheeks. “But so excited. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.”
“You just gotta look terrified, so I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Ceecee said with a laugh.
“Do I get blood and stuff?”
“Not for the first scene. It just says to make you pretty for the first call. You’ll be running down Main Street a lot.”
“Can you make sure I don’t get too sweaty and gross?” Kat asked.
“That’s my job.” Ceecee smiled at Kat as she tousled Izzy’s hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’re the prettiest one on camera.”
* * *
An hour later, the sky was still brooding and dark. With sunrise approaching, Ben yelled through a megaphone, “Scene forty-two rehearsal blocking. I need everyone on set. Repeat, Scene forty-two rehearsal blocking. Get your bodies moving.”
Kat’s legs shook even though she was still sitting in a canvas chair in Ceecee’s tent, having just finished with wardrobe. Ceecee’s sisters had dressed her in an incredibly tight pair of pink skinny jeans with a white halter top that skimmed her belly button. Her hair, which she’d worked so hard to straighten earlier that morning, was riotously curled and flowed down her neck and shoulders. Ceecee had pancaked Kat’s face with more makeup that she’d ever had on in her entire life and applied a heavy set of false eyelashes that made Kat feel like constantly winking.
“The camera will barely show it,” Ceecee had promised when Kat had stared in horror at her reflection. “It will look natural.”
Kat took a breath and looked toward the set. Henry, Josh, and Izzy had been filming a scene for the past half hour and were congregated by the dolly on Main Street. Kat’s breath hitched when she saw Henry. He wasn’t in a hat this time but instead wore his character’s costume—a dark-gray, fading three-piece suit. He hadn’t looked at her once, although there hadn’t really been an opportunity.
She desperately wanted to explain that she hadn’t stood him up for hot chocolate, but all her explanations seemed lame now. It wasn’t like Izzy had done it on purpose, right? It had all been a miscommunication where she ended up looking like the bad guy.
“Kat.” Ben snapped his fingers in front of her. “Get moving.”
Kat and the three other extras, all dressed in tight clothing with tons of makeup, made their way to Main Street and waited patiently. And waited and waited, arms folded across their chests, hopping from foot to foot to contain their shivers. Kat tried to hold herself still. She kept glancing at the director, who was deep in conversation with Henry, Josh, and Izzy.
She glanced around and realized that almost everyone was at a standstill, waiting. Ben studied his clipboard. The boom operators held still behind the camera, the long poles with mics at the end tucked to their sides.
She had a flashback to her play rehearsals and how it was always about her and her co-stars blocking the stage routes. She’d never considered before what the rest of the cast and crew were doing, but they must have been waiting for her, too.
Finally the director beckoned them over. Kat and the other three girls had barely reached him when he said, “I want you guys to run fast but never in front of the camera until you pass the haunted house. Get that? Stay behind the camera. Once we reach the house, right there at the stair, turn. You’ll do two steps to run in front of the camera then fall behind with screams. The camera will continue up the stairs with Izzy.” The director looked at Ben. “Was that a no-go on the railing removal?”
Ben shook his head. “Historical society loves them some haunted staircase.”
“All right, we can get in one blocking, maybe two, but I want to film during magic hour, so make it quick.” He glanced at the still-dark eastern horizon. “That’ll give us two takes, tops.”
Kat assembled at the end of the dolly tracks with the other extras, who quickly introduced themselves as UCLA film students. They explained they’d come up with a whole backstory for their characters, who were friends from the same sorority at a hazing weekend gone wrong.
“I think Josh’s character and I used to date before Izzy’s character stole him,” one of them explained.
Kat smiled and nodded. “How about Izzy’s character and I are best friends, and I’m just hanging out with you guys because I know you’re trying to steal him back?”
“Ooooh, I like that,” one of them said. “Adds a little spice and intrigue.”
Kat knew none of their character work would make it on-screen, but it was still fun to pretend.
“Now, remember,” the director said through his megaphone. “I want the running frantic but realistic. You’re in heels, I get that. When Henry gets to you, he’s going to make a move like he’s knocking you out. We’ll CG it in later, but go down hard.”
“Not too hard,” the stunt coordinator chimed in. Everyone laughed.
The girls lined up behind the camera track.
Kat closed her eyes. She was vaguely aware that Izzy had joined their group and Henry was standing close behind them, but for now, none of that mattered.
They weren’t Izzy and Henry anymore.
And she wasn’t Kat.
She was a sorority girl, away on a weekend with her best friends. It was her first time out on her own. She had overprotective parents and was finally living her life. It was all turning out so wrong. She just wanted to go home.
When she opened her eyes, she was ready.
She sprinted forward but couldn’t help a glance back. God, where were her friends? She could hear them running beside her but couldn’t see them.
The only person she could see was him.
The killer pursued her, moving coolly but somehow fast. She turned back but tripped and fell to her knees. The killer was in pursuit so she clawed forward, crying, and got to her feet. The house was so close! If she could just make it inside maybe she could find a weapon so she could fight back. But his hand was on her neck, and black fear overtook her.
Kat rolled onto her back, breathing hard as the blocking continued up the stairs. Once the director called “Cut!” she got to her feet and dusted off her pink jeans. Within seconds, Ceecee’s sisters were all over them with double-sided tape, which was used to lift the dust off their clothes, making them look like new again. She locked eyes with the other extras, who seemed all smiles and claps, but she still needed time to shake off the residual fear running through her body. She bent at the waist to catch her breath.
“Great job,” one of the extras whispered.
“You, too,” Kat sai
d. She finally felt like herself and dusted more dirt off her hands. Then it hit her.
She had just been acting on camera! Her smile was impossible to stop.
“Gather, gather,” the director shouted. “We only have a few minutes left! The sun is rising faster than I’d thought it would, so we’re going straight to the first take. Great rehearsal. A few quick notes. Izzy, I want more intensity in the face—like we talked about. Uh…” He glanced down. “Kat? Kat!”
“Yes,” she said, looking up as her heart pounded.
“Perfect. I like how you fell. If it feels natural in the next take, do it again.”
“Thank you,” Kat said with a grateful smile. Her hands flew to her chest. She’d just been singled out! Her mom would flip! She couldn’t wait—
“Actually…” Izzy cleared her throat and raised her hand. “I’d planned on tripping and falling while going up the stairs. Once Kat did it, I felt like I couldn’t repeat it, especially after she did such a great job.”
Kat’s stomach dropped as the director glanced at her, then Izzy, then back to her and back to Izzy.
“You want to take a dive on the stairs, Izzy?” he asked.
“I didn’t feel too safe on that last run up the staircase. Maybe if I could choreograph a fall onto the steps and crawl up them, I’d feel safer. But that would be repetitive and Kat did such a great job…” Izzy shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
“No, no, you’re right,” the director said. “I want you to feel safe on the stairs. Okay, you take the fall. Kat—you can come up with something else, right?”
“Of course,” Kat said, nodding. “No problem.” It had felt so right, though, when she’d fallen. Like that’s what would happen if her character really were being chased.
But Izzy was the star—and the one who had gotten Kat the gig. She wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for Izzy. She’d have to think of something else.
“Let’s set up!” Ben yelled, which pulled everyone back into their spots. “Magic hour’s approaching. Can we get the final lighting solution, please?”
Kat fluffed her hair out and walked back to the starting point of the dolly track. Ceecee ran out to reapply everyone’s lipstick.
“Kat, I’m so sorry,” Izzy said as she reached the group. “I didn’t mean for that to get taken away from you.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Kat said. “I’ll find something else to do.”
“If it weren’t for the staircase… It just felt really dangerous to run into it at full speed.” Izzy flashed her stiletto booties.
“Of course, of course. I don’t mind. I’m only in this scene because of you anyway.”
“Thanks for understanding.” Izzy gave a smile as she walked forward to take her place at the front of the group. “You’re the best,” she called back.
Kat breathed deeply, getting back into character, remembering who she was. A sorority girl out with her friends in the middle of the worst nightmare she could ever imagine.
By the time Henry walked past, he wasn’t Henry. He was a psycho killer, and she was terrified of him.
Magic hour hit with the sun peeking over the horizon, casting a soft glow.
Then the director yelled, “Action!”
She ran, faster than she’d ever run before, until her lungs felt like they were tearing apart inside her. Then—she lost her heel. She felt a pop in her ankle but kept running, kept pounding hard into the ground and dragging her injured foot behind her. She reached down to take off her other heel, and in a flash of anger—that she was being chased, that she might die—she chucked her shoe at the killer. He looked surprised for a moment, but it bounced harmlessly off his chest and she turned, crying. The house! She just had to make it to the house—it was right there. She could find a phone and call for help or find a knife and—She felt his hand at her neck and went down with a sob.
Kat rolled onto her back, breathing hard as the scene continued up the steps with Izzy. She watched Izzy take her fall—she looked great. She’d been right—it was better for her character, and the fall was more dramatic against the stair railing than it had been for Kat. Besides, she still felt her moment had been awesome.
She had nailed her character perfectly.
“Cut! Perfect! We got it, folks.”
Kat sat up and clapped along with the rest of the cast and the crew. She’d noticed they clapped at the wrap of each scene.
Izzy was the only one not clapping. She walked toward the director. “Can I have a word?” Izzy asked, stepping away to speak privately.
“That was amazing,” Kat said to the other extras, who agreed.
“Did you notice I did half the run backward?” one said. “I was totally inspired by your fall and thought I should mix it up, too.”
“I didn’t see it, but maybe they’ll let us watch playback,” the other said.
“I’m sure we were all great,” Kat added.
“All right guys, gather up,” the director said. “We’re going to do one more take with just Izzy and Henry. Thank you, ladies, you can take a break.”
Kat pulled her hair into a ponytail so sweat wouldn’t make it stick to her neck and fanned the back of her neck as they reset the scene.
She watched Izzy rerun it, this time taking off her shoe and chucking it at Henry, then tripping up the stairs. Kat frowned, trying to figure out what to make of the tight feeling in her chest.
* * *
Kat’s feet were shredded. First from running in the chase scene in heels, and later, having to wear them while she huddled in the haunted house’s basement being terrorized by Henry’s serial killer. Then she’d hurt them again running lunch back and forth for Megan and the others. By the time she sat down next to Megan to help set up the dinner trays, she felt blistered and exhausted.
“He wanted double the beef?” Megan asked as she watched Kat pile more beef patties into Josh’s burger.
“Triple,” she said.
“I guess he’s a growing boy.”
Kat studied Megan a little more closely. She chewed on her lip ring when she was stressed, as she was now while preparing dinner for almost a hundred people. Kat had thought they were close to the same age but now she realized Megan was probably in her mid-twenties.
“Do you own this business all by yourself?” Kat asked, nodding toward the catering truck.
“Yep.” Megan piled side salads on each of the trays. “Started with hot dogs at Venice Beach. Moved up.”
“Did you always want to be a chef?”
Megan laughed and rested her hand on Kat’s shoulder. “Chef? Way to sugarcoat the job. No, I didn’t want to be a chef. I wanted to be an actress.”
“You did?” Kat swiveled in her seat. “Why didn’t you tell us? Maybe you could have gotten a scene as an extra, too!”
“Oh no,” Megan laughed and then pointed to the tray to get Kat back to the assembly line. “Acting isn’t for me. It was all a great idea, but I figured out really fast that I didn’t love it. Not like you love it. You’re not bad, either! Watching you, I was so nervous you were going to get caught.”
“But I did get caught.”
“I know!”
They burst out laughing as they handed out trays to the crew who came by to grab their dinner before heading back to video village to run through the dailies. Izzy, Josh, the director, and the production staff were bundled in puffy jackets as they surrounded the screens and reviewed the shots from the day.
Kat glanced around to see if she could find Henry, but he wasn’t anywhere near catering or the set. “I wish I could see the dailies,” she said with a sigh.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in the dailies,” Megan said. “The real decisions about which frames stay in the final cut get made in the editing room.”
Izzy pointed to something on the monitor, and Kat felt that tightness in her chest again.
It was silly, but all Kat could think was that Izzy was trying to cut her out of a scene. But she didn’t know why. Izzy
had been the one who had tried so hard to get her on camera to begin with. Izzy was the one who had spoken to the casting director and taken her to the haunted house to help her acting. And it had helped—she had totally drawn on those emotions when she had been running from Henry.
“Can you take this to Henry?” Megan asked, sliding one of the trays across the table towards her. “Hair and makeup aren’t done with him yet, and he’s probably hungry.”
Kat glanced down at the dinner tray, her nervousness mounting. “Sure,” she said uncertainly.
She didn’t feel she could just show up with his dinner, not after the way they had left things when she’d missed their date. She walked over to the beverage stand, grabbed a paper cup, and filled it with hot water. After a quick search, she found a few packets of hot-chocolate powder among the tea bags.
She balanced two trays of food in one hand and held the hot chocolate in the other as she walked to the beauty tent.
“Hey, Kat,” Ceecee said, applying a cut wound to Henry’s cheek.
Henry opened his brown eyes, but otherwise his face remained still so that Ceecee could finish her work. His eyes lit up, friendly, and Kat felt the tension ease inside her. She hadn’t realized until just that moment how worked up she had been over whether he might be angry with her.
She set the trays down on the edge of the makeup table. “Hi, Ceecee. Hey, Henry. I bought you both dinner.”
“Thank you,” Ceecee said.
Henry made two thumbs up.
“You’ll be able to talk in a moment, hon,” Ceecee said to him. “I’m almost done.” She whipped out a small brush from the apron of makeup tools tied around her waist and applied red streaks to the corners of his mouth. “There you go.”
“Awesome, Ceecee. Thanks for the meal, Kat.”
“And this,” Kat said, shaking the cup of hot chocolate at him.
He grinned as he took it, but as he brought it to this mouth, Ceecee whisked it away.
“No eating for you,” she said sternly. “Not until the makeup dries.” She picked up a tube and squeezed something onto his cheek then held still. After a moment she sighed. “Kat, honey, will you hold the glue stick here? I need to run to the bathroom.”