Chapter Five

Jess picks up the script on the table. She was part of this movie too. She was going to play, a minor role of Victoria, the white queen. She wasn’t much of an actress, but she did well with her reading of it to get her the role. And knowing the writer did help too.

She hears a knock on the door of John’s apartment. The knock becomes a bang.

She gets off the bed dropping the script. She runs to the door. She looks in the peephole. She knows the person.

She fumbles with the knob but opens the door.

“West? What are you doing here?” She asks.

He is shocked to see her here, “I could ask you the same thing. Are you f*****g this dude?”

“No. We are just friends.”

“Then why have you been here all night and not home with me?”

“Because I didn’t want to home with you.”

“Is he here?” His blood is boiling.

“No.”

A big smirk on his pale skin hits his face, “I came here to beat his a*s but I guess I’ll have to settle for you.”

Jess snaps, “No, never again. We are done. Leave here now before I have to call the cops.”

“I would like to see you try,” He pushes the door fully open and starts to walk in.

Jess didn’t expect it and falls to the floor, “Please leave me alone.”

“No,” He strikes her across the familiar spot of her chin. He hits her twice more.

Jess refuses to cry out for help, she won’t be the victim anymore. No tears. No fear.

West gets her to her feet, “why don’t you cry?”

“I’m no victim!” She screams back.

He pushes her to the floor and hits her twice more. Unsatisfied. He needs her to cry.

“F*****g cry, you b***h!” he yells out.

“No!” She snaps back.

West grabs her and pulls her to his level. He starts to shake her, “CRY!”

Suddenly he stops. He drops her back to the wooden floor.

Jess looks up to see a steel tip out of West’s chest. Red surrounds that tip and the red spot gets bigger.

Jess goes to scream but she doesn’t know if this is foe or friend who saved her.

She gets to her feet as West’s body smashes against the floor in which she just was at.

She looks at her savior.

She goes to scream but is quickly silenced with a stab wound of her own.

She falls back to the floor next to West.

The figure stands over her, “You won’t die. I’ll call the cops now so they will get here in time. But you must do one thing for me. Can you do this for me? If not I’ll kill you now. Okay?”

Jess blankly looks up the figure, holding on to her wound.

“Nod if you understand.”

She nods.

“Okay good. Tell him, that the time is near and he needs to be prepared. Alright? Understand that?”

Jess nods. And tries to speak but her own blood is flooding up from her stomach.

A cough of blood fills the air, “who?” She is referring to who is the message for.

The figure looks at her and replies.

~…~

I walk to our meeting spot on the casting lot. Alice. Ironic that she will be playing Alice in the movie. I guess she was typed casted for it from birth.

I’m going to meet her at the cast party. I wasn’t planning on going but fate changed that.

I see her. Her brown hair moves in the wind. She maybe didn’t fit the character she was going to portray in the movie but the personality she did. She notices me and smiles.

“How is my future Derek and on screen partner doing?” She giggles. I loved it when she giggled and smiled. At least one of us needed to smile all the time.

“I’m good, long day. How’s Alice and the onscreen Alice doing?” I laugh. Always trying to hide my crush on her. But in the end, if we weren’t together it would be okay, I loved our friendship.

“I’m good too. I need to talk to you.”

“Alright.” I say but don’t have a clue what is about.

We talk for bit then decide to go inside.

We look around at all the smiling faces. Most of the cast was here.

They look at us and someone raises their glass and yells out.

“This toast is for wonderful writer of this amazing story of Alice and the Gravedigger.”

The people look towards us, and clap. A few of them probably don’t know which one of us wrote it.