Hope Falls

by Jamieson Wolf

  The woman leaned in close. The woman smelled pretty; she was wearing a floral scent that was vaguely familiar. "You're next." The woman whispered. "Whatever you do, watch your back. I've been watching the show, and you're next. They're going to kill you off, Sylvia."

  Miriam was now trying desperately to pull her arm out of the woman's grasp. "It's just a storyline, ma'am. It's just make believe."

  The woman's face tightened and Miriam saw something hateful pass over her skin. "Make believe?" The woman was whispering softer now. She leaned in closer to Miriam, so that Miriam could feel her breath on her neck, smell her scent.

  "You think this is all a game? You think that this is all play-acting? Haven’t you figured out what they’re going to do to you yet?"

  Miriam gasped and pulled away from her. “Leave me alone please.”

  “You don’t get it do you?” her face softened. “You’re going to die. I’ve been watching the show and it all makes sense. They’re going to kill you off too.”

  Miriam turned and ran towards the safety of the studio. Before she entered, she turned and looked back at where the crazed fan had been.

  The woman was gone.

  FIVE

  Miriam is haunted by her past

  Miriam looked up when someone snapped their fingers.

  "Miriam honey? You with us?

  Miriam blushed. "I'm sorry, what was my line?"

  "You were supposed to say 'But darling, what about Paris?'" Gene said. He was the rehearsal director and had a soft spot for her. She knew he liked her, that he wanted to have more than a working relationship with her, but she had no room for that in her life.

  Especially not with her skeletons.

  "I'm sorry, Gene." Miriam shook her head to clear it. "I guess I'm just not myself today."

  Gene nodded and turned to the other actors on set. "Take a fiver guys." He waited until the other actors had left and moved closer to Miriam, taking one of her hands in his. "Is something wrong Miriam? You seem all shook up. Is there anything I can do?"

  Miriam was touched at the concern in his voice, but she knew she couldn't say anything. She knew she couldn't tell him what was bothering her. “I got jumped by a crazy fan that thought the show was real.” She smiled weakly. “Just shaken up is all.”

  Gene smiled. "The Crazies, huh?” He squeezed her hand. “Happens to everyone. I still get people trying to hand me scripts. You just got to shake ‘em off, Miriam.”

  "Yeah," Miriam said weakly. She felt cold all over. The woman had frightened her but she wouldn’t let Gene know this.

  They both looked up when they heard footsteps. Peter Enman, the new Dr. Kincade, stood a few steps away from them. "Miriam?" he said "Howard wants to see you."

  Miriam felt that knot in her stomach tie itself into a million more knots of worry. She felt as if she were going to vomit; but she would never give Howard the satisfaction. "Tell hi I'll be about five minutes, okay?"

  Peter nodded and walked away. Miriam watched him go and wondered how this day could possibly get any worse.

  SIX

  A disturbing discussion takes place

  Miriam knocked on the large wooden door of Howard's office. His nameplate was attached to the front and etched in gold leaf. Miriam had hardly ever been in his office.

  Except for that conversation years ago; it still kept her awake at night.

  "Come in!"

  Miriam opened the door with a shaking hand and stepped inside. Howard's office always reminded her of a lions den; dark and moody and poorly lit; there was bad art on the walls and the smell of cigar smoke was heavy in the air.

  Howard Kowalski, the producer of Hope Falls, was responsible for her paycheck; he also frightened Miriam. She knew what he was capable of. "You wanted to see me, Howard?"

  "Your ratings are slipping." He went straight to the point.

  Miriam looked at Howard across the expanse of his large oak desk and frowned. The chill in the air had nothing to do with the air conditioning. "I'm sorry?" Her reply came out little more than a whisper.

  "You heard me." Howard narrowed his eyes. "Your ratings are slipping." He took a file from the filing cabinet behind his desk and laid it on the desk. It was a red file with her photo on the front. A large black and white head shot, 8x10, standard size.

  "I don't understand."

  "What's there to understand, Miriam? Your ratings are slipping and that's a problem."

  Miriam felt her heart catch in her throat. "Surely you don't mean-"

  "You're in a lifetime contract, Miriam. We own you." His eyes glinted at her like steel. "Don't forget that."

  "I still don't understand what you want me to do about it."

  "You know the rules, Miriam."

  "Yes, I do, but you certainly don't think you can threaten me like this-"

  "I'm not threatening you, Miriam." Howard regarded her shrewdly. "You know the rules; you knew the rules when you first signed on, when you signed your name on the dotted line. You know what happens."

  "Yes, Howard, but that was before I saw Bruce gunned down in cold-"

  He raised a hand, cutting her off. "You know the rules." Howard said again. He opened the file. "Your ratings have fallen steadily ever since that serial killer storyline."

  "I told you that was a stupid storyline!" The injustice of being set up had nearly killed Marion. She’d realized then that he wanted her ratings to fall, that he wanted her off the show. For good.

  "Nevertheless, your ratings have been falling ever since. It seems no one likes to see the matriarch of Hope Falls get her hands dirty. It upsets them."

  "You knew that would happen."

  Howard smiled. "Is that what you think?"

  Miriam told herself not to back down and kept looking Howard in the eye. "Yes, that’s what I think."

  "What else do you think, Miriam?"

  "I think you chose that storyline because you knew it would ruin me. I know what you like to do to actors whose ratings drop.”

  Howard smiled. “Honey, you know how ratings work for soaps, right? Ratings normally measure the popularity of a show. On a soap, they also measure the popularity of an actor or character. If a character’s ratings go down, the character goes. Simple as that. Since Sylvia has become a serial killer, not only have your ratings gone down, but so have the shows in a big way. We have to save the show.”

  “You don’t think I’m stupid enough to believe that, do you?”

  Howard regarded her coldly, smiled again and closed the file. He stood up and opened the door for her. "Have a good day, Miriam."

  The conversation was over.

  SEVEN

  Miriam gets blind stinking drunk

  Sitting on her deck, surrounded by flowers, Miriam took another swig of vodka. Bottle in hand, she thought back to when the horror began. She drank a toast to the dearly departed. She drank to dead people; she had so many, she made enough toasts to finish the bottle.

  She remembered the day perfectly. She had been offered another part on a competing soap opera, a reoccurring role on Days of Our Lives. She had been thrilled with the offer and felt that the character of Sylvia wasn't going anywhere. She had wanted to try something new, so she had told her agent to say yes, that she would accept the offer. She had been playing Sylvia Stevens for eight years.

  Miriam remembered how Howard Kowalski came into her dressing room.

  She had just finished shooting for the day (her character had amnesia at the time from being struck by lightning. She was recovering in the hospital) and was taking off her make up when there had been a knock at the door.

  "Come in." she said.

  Howard came in and closed the door behind him. "Miriam."

  Miriam smiled when she saw him in the mirror. He had always been friendly to her. "Howard, how are you?"

  "Not so good, tell you the truth." He pulled out her folder from under his arm. It had her head shot on the front, a black and white 8x10. The folder was a lovely blue color, she re
membered that.

  "What's the matter?"

  "I just got a call from your agent." He said by way of explanation.

  Miriam frowned. "Oh, Howard," she turned to face him. "I meant to tell you, I really did, but I only said yes this morning, Days of Our Lives has offered me this wonderful part"

  "You can't take it."

  "What do you mean? Of course, I can take it! I'll work until the end of my contract."

  "That's not going to be good enough, Miriam." Howard stepped closer. "You signed a lifetime contract."

  "But Howard, contracts are made to be broken. You gave me a lifetime contract when I stayed on after five years. I love the show, but…"

  He cut her off again. “You don't understand. You have a Lifetime Contract." He opened the folder, stepped over to her vanity and spread it open. The lights around the mirror glowed, giving Miriam a kind of aura.

  Her eyes tracked Howard’s finger to the bottom of the contract. It read:

  Agreement to the contract insists that each lifetime contract be for said lifetime. By signing on the dotted line, the studio, Callaway ENT. Inc. (of Hope Falls Studios Inc.) has ownership of character and above-mentioned actor. This is in agreement with the lifetime contract clause outlined on page twelve

  Miriam’s face turned white. "What does this mean?" Her voice trembled.

  "It means we own you." Howard sneered and walked out of her dressing room.

  EIGHT

  In which Miriam learns her fate

  Miriam took another drink, and let the vodka burn her throat. She remembered running after Howard, catching him in the hallway. She had grabbed his arm and spun him around.

  "What do you mean you own me?"

  "Exactly that." Howard said. "I thought you knew."

  "I have no idea what you're talking about. I never saw that clause when I signed my contract!"

  "It’s there Miriam. I just showed it to you. Could it be that you weren’t paying attention?"

  They were standing in the hallway that connected all the dressing rooms. Pictures of the stars of Hope Falls adorned the walls. Miriam’s face stared down at her from the wall. Disgusted, she turned away. "That clause wasn't there when I signed my contract."

  Howard smiled. "You did sign it and it's a legal binding contract. All the actors with lifetime contracts have this clause." He looked behind her. The door to Toby's room had opened and he came out into the hallway.

  He had shoulder length, curly black hair and he made Miriam feel as if she were floating along on a cloud every time he smiled at her.

  "Hey Parker." Toby said and flashed a grin.

  Miriam felt her pulse double. "Hello Toby." She smiled back.

  "How about we continue this conversation inside my office?" Howard interrupted and Miriam knew it wasn't a request.

  "I'll see you around, Parker." Toby said. "Did you want to run lines later?" Toby played Mark Dashing, police commissioner and Sylvia's husband. Playing husband and wife, it was only natural that she and Toby had started an off screen relationship as well.

  "Sure, Toby. I'll come and find you later." She said.

  He smiled again and went back into his dressing room. Howard grabbed Miriam’s elbow. He half dragged her down the hallway to a big oak door at the end of the dressing rooms. The sign on the door said "Producer".

  "Sit down," he said. "Would you like a drink?"

  "No." Miriam spat at him. "I'd like to know what the hell you mean by saying you own me."

  "I've already told you, Miriam, why do we have to go over it again?"

  "Because I need to hear it again." She kept her cool gray eyes fastened on his and waited for an answer. Finally, he shrugged.

  "There's not much to tell. When an actor is offered a lifetime contract on Hope Falls, it really is a lifetime contract. We own the character you play, and the actor who plays that character, until the person dies."

  "That's barbaric!".

  "It was necessary. All of our best actors jumped ship when they were offered something different?" he grinned at her. "We couldn't have that. So, we introduced the Lifetime Contract Clause." He pushed her file towards her. "Here, read page twelve. That will make everything clear."

  Miriam’s hand shook as she drew the file towards her. Turning to page twelve, she began to read. Half way down the page, the "Lifetime Contract Clause" caught her eye. It read:

  A) 1 Should said actors ratings drop for any reason, Callaway ENT. Inc. reserves the right to terminate said contract.

  "There!" she said. "That means if my ratings fall, I can leave, right?"

  "Yes, but not in the way you are thinking."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You really haven't read this thing at all have you? God, I remember you that day you came in; you were so desperate for work, you would have taken two dollars an hour."

  Miriam flinched. "I don't understand."

  "If you had bothered to read the contract, you would."

  "Howard, that was eight years ago."

  He held up his hand to stop her. "There are only eight cast members that have lifetime contracts, including you. We needed to make sure that we would give you the right motivation to stay with our show, to keep it popular, so that the actors would never change. We wanted to give our viewers a sense of family and we couldn't do that with the lead actors wanting to leave."

  "What do you mean by motivation?" Miriam was getting awfully tired of repeating herself and wished that Howard would just get to the point.

  "Well, what do people value more than anything? Life. So, if your ratings drop…" He let the sentence hang in the air and the silence was deafening.

  "Yes?"

  "…we kill you." Howard finished.

  Miriam's eyes widened in surprise; she wasn't sure she heard him right.

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "Your ratings drop, we kill you. You try to leave, we kill you. When we say lifetime contract, we mean lifetime contract, Miriam." He took out a copy of the contract and gave it to her. "Take this home, read it." He gestured at the door.

  Tears burned Miriam's face as she remembered that day and thought back to the moment she began to fight for her life. She took another sip of vodka and went to the fridge to get something for her depression.

  Her ratings were dropping. Her days were numbered. The blood moon was her only company, the red of its face burned like fire on the horizon.

  NINE

  someone from the past dies

  Miriam looked at the clock on her bedside table. She smashed the alarm with her fist, ending its pitiful wailing and sat up in bed.

  The first thing she saw was the empty vodka bottle. Never again, she told herself. Her head felt as if it had been dragged through a field of clouds. She had had nightmares all night, dreaming of the past, which she couldn't change.

  Grumbling, she went to the bathroom, splashed water on her face and then back to the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker.

  While the coffee brewed, she popped a bagel into her toaster and stood waiting for it to toast. She was trying to keep her mind focused on other things, but all she could think about was Howard in his office.

  "Your ratings are slipping." She whimpered.

  Even spoken to the empty room, the words had a chill to them. She wiped at tears that sprouted quickly and jumped when the toaster popped.

  In the light of morning, the words were more frightening. They should have seemed garish, even funny, in the sunlight. Instead, they made Miriam shiver.

  She remembered when she realized that Howard was serious about his claims. It was almost a year exactly after the conversation in his office. She remembered Bruce; his kind face and his deep, brown eyes.

  Bruce. God, how she missed Bruce. He had played her son Jackson on Hope Falls from day one. She had watched him grow from a child actor into a stunning man. She loved him as if he were her own son.

  Bruce was getting on though and he wasn’t as good an actor as he had been. Rumors started
around the studio that his character was going to be killed off. Miriam knew that Bruce had a Lifetime contract too and thought of talking to him. But she never believed for an instant that Howard was serious.