She thought she had figured it out. She had waited in the women's washroom for a few hours until the receptionist went on her lunch. She wracked her brain, trying to figure out what this was all about.
Why would someone kill actors and video tape them? Why would someone keep files on all the different actors. Why would they be killed off if their ratings dropped? None of it made any sense to her.
She made sure to take her time, looking as if she had a purpose here, as if she knew where she was going. The studio had a lot of staff. She should be able to go unnoticed.
When she arrived at the desk, however, something was waiting for her. A white card with a black border, nice thick stock. On it were the words: I'm in the file room. Look beyond the wall. Please trust me. I am a friend. X"
Miriam tucked the card between her breasts and ran to the closet. She knew her time was limited. She opened the door, but at first didn’t see what X had meant by going beyond the wall. But then she saw.
There was a soft light glowing around the back wall of the closet. Steeling herself, Miriam pushed around the edges, hearing a soft click. The door behind her closed and she heard the door lock from the inside. Another door opened in front of her.
A soft, pulsing light glowed within. On either side of her, the walls were covered with red file folders. They lined both walls on either side, high to the ceiling. File folders were stuffed with folders, some of them over flowing. Black and white faces stared out at
her and she felt self conscious in their stare.
Miriam recognized a few faces. Actors she had known. She saw her face on one of the main boards. The board was labeled "MISSING". Other faces stared out at her. Toby's, Caroline's. Extra's she had seen, others who had played bit parts. Through her thirty year career, Miriam had acted with a lot of people. She never forgot a face.
All these actors were gone. None of them were on the show anymore and it saddened her to be around so many people who were gone from their
life.
"They're all dead, you know." Said a voice.
Miriam started and turned around. "What?" She saw a shadow in the back of the room. "Who's there?"
"Don't be afraid, Miriam." Said a voice she recognized. It was a decidedly female voice.
"Who are you?" Miriam knew that voice.
"It's me, X. I'm a friend, Miriam, I would never hurt you." X stepped out of the shadows and Miriam was shocked to see DeDe standing before her.
"Oh my God." Miriam breathed. "Oh, sweet Goddess..."
"I tried to warn you to keep quiet, Miriam, I tried so hard. You wouldn’t listen to me."
"DeDe?" Miriam reached out a hand in recognition.
"I tried to tell you to keep quiet and than your ratings fell." She shrugged, her blond hair shining in the pale dark. "But you started asking questions. I did what I could to watch over you, to protect you when I found out they started watching you. I was to watch you, you see."
"Watch me?"
"I was to make sure you didn't start asking questions, to make sure you didn’t suspect. But...the contract. You signed your own death warrant by talking. I warned you."
"You work for them?" It suddenly dawned on Miriam that her friend was a traitor.
"But I've been following you, making sure you were alright. Keeping watch over you and your friends. I want to keep you safe, Miriam."
"What is this place?" Miriam whispered.
"This is a place of death." DeDe said. She stretched out her hands so her two black gloved hands touched the walls. "Everyone here is dead. They have all passed on. Each actor has paid their price."
She ran her hands down the wall, over the slick glossy pictures, as she made her way towards Miriam. "One by one, they all went. Their ratings fell. They had death scenes written into the show."
"You've killed so many people." Miriam whispered. "Forty years of killing, forty years." Miriam scanned the red files in the room. "There aren't enough people here for forty years."
"Of course not." DeDe snapped. "Do you think it occurred to Howard to start killing people right away? Do you think it was done right from the start?" DeDe huffed, moving closer. "Of course not. Use your head, Miriam. I know you have one. If he had done that, Hope Falls studios would have closed a long time ago."
"But what did he do?" Miriam asked. "In the beginning. What did he do instead of killing?"
"He made a soap opera." DeDe laughed. "Simple isn't it? He started with a radio show and when that took off, he moved Hope Falls to television."
"And you've been working for him all this time." Miriam whispered. "All this time."
DeDe slapped her. "How old do I look, Miriam? How old do you think I am?" Miriam thought that she was going to slap her again, but she didn't. "I started working here ten years ago. In fact, I think it was just before they killed off…now what was his name…"
"Bruce." Miriam said. It almost hurt her to say the name.
"Oh yes!" DeDe smiled. "Bruce. And your precious Toby." DeDe laughed. "Did you like finding him? I had to help; I didn't like getting blood on my shoes, but it was alright. Howard gave me a bonus and I got my first pair of Jimmy Choo’s."
"You always did love shoes more than people."
"Shoes can't leave you. They can only love you."
"You're sick." Miriam spat. "You're a sick woman."
"I'm a rich, sick woman." She waved a finger at Miriam. "There's a difference."
"But why?" Miriam's voice was stretched thin with anguish. "Why? Why all the killings and the death scenes and the murders? Why bump someone off if their ratings fall? I still don’t understand."
"You still don't know why, do you?" DeDe asked.
"You know I don't." Miriam was crying now. Tears slid down her cheeks but she paid them no heed. "None of this makes sense. None of this makes sense to me."
DeDe waited a while before speaking. Miriam could hear voices outside in the hallway. Finally, DeDe spoke: "Do you want to hear a secret?" she whispered.
Miriam nodded.
"Do you know what we really make here, Miriam?"
"What?" Miriam could barely speak.
"Think about it. What involves filming the dying and making a profit?" At Miriam's blank look, DeDe huffed.
"SNUFF FILMS!" DeDe spat the words out. "Each death is recorded and sold to those who enjoy such a thing. And there are plenty. The more violent, the better. Some pay big money."
Hearing this seemed to break something inside her. Miriam felt something shatter. "I don't…I don't understand."
"Of course you don't. But it didn't start that way. Howard got an idea though. He saw that once, when someone was killed gruesomely on screen, ratings for the show went through the roof. And why? Because all the men wanted to watch along with the women. Suddenly, his audience was doubled. Double the audience, double the money, double the fun." DeDe laughed. "He thought of the idea of filming the death scenes to make money with the show and then sell copies of the snuff films, actual snuff films, to the highest bidder. It was quite a genius idea, really." She smiled. "Don't you think?"
Miriam shook her head. "No, no I don't think so. But why, DeDe? Why are you involved?"
DeDe shook herself. "I was given a choice once: help, or they'd kill me too. They needed someone to act as a friend, a confidant. I value my life, Miriam. And what choice did I really have?" She waved her hand around the room. "Did I really want their fate? They told me it was a big industry, that others would pay. I didn't want to die. I didn't want the next death those people saw to be my own."
"All these people?" Miriam whispered and reached out and touched her own photograph in front of her. She had not realized that she had been standing in front of it.
"Yes. Men have sick fantasies. Some women do too. They get off on seeing people die. And what better fantasy than a soap opera? None that I can think of."
"God, and I-"
"Yes." DeDe said. "You would have been next. But they won't get you now. You have to come with me,
we have to-"
There was the sound of a lock being engaged, a door swinging open.
Suddenly, Miriam and DeDe were flooded with light as a stage light was entered into the room, a boom mike on a long, silver rail was pushed into the room.
"You've both been very bad girls." Howard's voice growled. It came from the darkness behind the shadows.
"Shit." DeDe said.
EPILOGUE
~
AND THE WORLD KEEPS TURNING
SEPTEMBER, 2005
Two weeks later, a small group watched Naomi's coffin slowly find it's way below ground.
There was only a few people to see her pass on. Aside from the priest, who left them as soon as the body reached the bottom of the grave, only Derrick, Susan and Cleo were in attendance.
Miriam was still missing. She had never returned and the only outcome they could think of was that Howard had gotten Miriam too.
That she had not survived.
Susan took Derrick's hand. "I keep waiting for her to come back, I keep waiting for Naomi to come down in the mornings. How is it we lost both of them?"
Derrick was silent for a moment. The effort of speaking hurt. But he did anyway. "I don't know." He said. "She must have gone off on her own after Naomi was killed."
"Why didn't she wait for us?" Susan said. "Why didn't she wait? We could of helped her."
"This was Miriam's battle." Derrick replied. "It was hers to fight alone."
"This is not over." Cleo said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Derrick asked.
"This is not over. There is more to come yet, but this is only the beginning."
"How can you be so sure?" Susan said.
"Because, darling girl." Cleo sighed. "I know."
* * *
Miriam woke up on a cold metal table. She looked up at the light shining down on her, the fake walls that surrounded her. Miriam recognized the set. She was on the hospital set of Hope Falls.
Miriam heard a noise and she looked around to where the noise had come from. "You've been a very bad girl." a voice said.
Miriam knew it was Howard. He had won after all. He had won. Despite all the fighting they had done, he had beaten them. He had beaten her. A tear slid down Miriam's cheek. She thought of Derrick than and hoped he could feel her.
"Did you think I wouldn't see through your disguise?" he said. "Did you think I wouldn't recognize you when I wanted you for my very own?" He chuckled softly. "You're my trophy, Miriam. My final prize."
"What are you going to do to me?" Miriam asked.
"Lots of things." Howard said. He came towards her. A large hypodermic needle was held in his hand, dripping with a clear liquid. Miriam shivered at what might be in that needle.
"Lots of things." Howard said again. "You've been a very bad girl."...
STAR SCOOP WEEKLY, SEPTEMBER 2005
STAY TUNED FOR EAGLE VALLEY: HOPE FALLS SEASON TWO…..
Turn the page for a preview….
Prologue
FROM: THE BURBANK POST, Entertainment Section, July 1st, 2007
SECTION A5
…and Hope Falls is enjoying another ratings boom. With the introduction of the demon Alexander, there has been higher ratings than they've had in a long time on the show.
Viewers were also delivered another blow on Tuesday when they witnessed another shocking death in a continual bloodbath! Viewers are left wondering where this story line can go, what with so many beloved Hope Falls residents diminish one by one!
In other Hope Falls news, the introduction of Miriam's great niece from Paris, heir to the family fortune and her butler Darian make quite the pair. It looks like us loyal viewers are in for quite a treat this year!…"
SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST OF BURBANK CALIFORNIA
The lights were dim.
The sand felt dry and coarse along her palms and still she ground her hands into the sand, so glad she was to feel dry ground under her feet.
She lay on the sand, sure that no one had seen her, sure that she had not been noticed. She was able to rest a moment, let her wet clothes bake in the hot summer heat. They would dry quickly. She had dressed for practicability. Her dress, its simple cotton soft and clinging to her body, would dry soon. For now she could rest.
Closing her eyes, she calmed her heartbeat, put a hand there to feel it beating under her skin. Eight hours in the water, eight hours. She could remember little except the body numbing cold of it, the bite of the water as it carried her.
She tried to make sense of what had happened, what had happened after
she had left the tunnels, but it all blended together into shadows. Part of her mind was closed to her now and she didn't have the key to unlock it.
Stretching, she turned over on her back and stared up at the sky. It shone down on her, it's stars like blessings. She could remember the stars from her childhood, knew what color her hair was, but she could not remember other things.
But she had a plan. She knew that she had to get to them, she had to find them. And when she did that, than she could figure out what to do.
It didn't help that she had this extra baggage to carry around, as if she had a whole other person inside of her. But it had been helpful in the past, so she let it be. It couldn't hurt to have a voice in your head once in a while.
Standing, she looked around.
She was in a secluded beach, along the coastline. She could see trees near by, but could hear traffic. Thank god, she was near civilization. Where there was a road, there was traffic.
She shook out her dress checked to see that no one had followed her. Before she revealed herself from the darkness, she had to be sure she was safe. It would be a game she had to play from now on. Just like checking both ways before you cross the street, she thought wryly.
She walked across the beach until she got to the road. It wasn't too well lit at this time of night, but it was quiet. It felt foreign to her, after the rushing of the water. She had to sleep. She had to find somewhere to sleep. She had to get money.
Standing at the roadside, she waited for a car to show its headlights before she stood partway into the road. She pulled up the dress so her leg showed. The car slowed and she saw it was driven by a man. He smiled at her as he rolled down the window.
Smiling back, she bent down to address the driver, so some cleavage would show. "Could you give a girl a lift?" Miriam asked.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jamieson has been writing since a young age when he realized he could be writing instead of paying attention in school. Since then, he has created many worlds in which to live his fantasies and live out his dreams.
He is the author of many best selling novels (he likes to tell people that a lot) and many other works in a variety of different genres including non fiction, young adult and short fiction. When he counted recently, he realized he had written over forty books. This surprised Jamieson quite a lot.
Recently, Jamieson also designed a natural men’s cologne named after the Number One Best Selling Hard Series. He is also an amateur photographer. He wonders if he should tackle music next.
He currently lives in Ottawa Ontario Canada with his cat, Mave, who thinks she's people.
You can learn more about Jamieson at www.jamiesonwolf.com or visit him at his blog at www.jamiesonwolf.blogspot.com
COMING SOON FROM THE PRODUCERS OF HOPE FALLS
December 2011
Hope Falls Season Two Eagle Valley
January 2012
Hope Falls Season Three Dragons Cove
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Thank you for purchasing and reading this Books We Love eBook. We hope you have enjoyed your reading experience. Books We Love and the author would very much appreciate you returning to the online retailer where you purchased this book and leaving a review for the author.
Best Regards and Happy Reading, Jamie and Jude
Books We Love and Books We Love Spice
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ublishers.
Hope Falls Page 17