Chapter 1
Chloe's perspective
Oh my God! I am so late. Again. I can't believe that I misplaced my keys. I mean who does that? And I don't mean the "Oh! It was in my purse so it's all good". I mean the whole situation where they got in the fridge for no apparent reason and I have been looking for them for over an hour now!
The moment you know that normal people won't understand your situation is the day that you know that you are weird without redemption. But, this is what makes me who I am and it is why I am producing the movies that I do. In the last 2 years, I have been making successful movies one after another and I have become one of the most sought after movie director in the supernatural branch. I live it every day, so it's only normal that I produce films about it.
As I am about to leave the house, the vase on the table crashes to the floor.
« Rodney, come on! » I said to the poltergeist that make my home his as soon as he discovered that I could see him and talk to him. « You know that you don't have to break everything in the house to catch my attention. » I sighed « Could you please fix the vase while I am gone? »
« Yes, I will. » He says pitifully « I am sorry, you know that I hate being alone. »
« I know but I really have to get to work. And you could try the puzzle that I gave you last week. You told me you would try it. It would make you less lonely for a while. You probably won't even notice that I am gone. »
« You know, I have forgotten about that! » He said with a big smile. « Have a nice day Chloe. »
«You too, Bye! » I said as I closed the door.
Rodney is special. He is a poltergeist but he has been cursed by a witch at his death, his sentence was to stay in this house for the rest of his ghost's days. Even my pretty little house gets destroyed, he won't be freed. He is just going to stay confined on the field and he is not going to have furniture like a TV or a computer. So, I kind of adopted him. Each night I buy a little something that can keep him busy for the next day. He is my best friend and I can't even begin to think what my life would be without him. Even if he doesn't really have a choice, he still talks to me every day. If I ever want to talk about something, he is there for me.
« Finally, you are here! » Said my assistant Anya. « We have been waiting for you for about an hour. Since we couldn't reach you, we gave a new part of the script to the actors so that they could learn it. But I am warning you, they are not the happiest bunnies in the house. »
« Well, that is good to know. Did you have the time to do the scenes 36 and 40 like we were supposed to? »
« No, I just gave them the script because I wasn't sure if you changed your mind about how you wanted the take to be done. Oh, and I also forgot to tell you that someone named Simon called for you this morning and he insisted to talk to you. I told him you would call him back around noon since he said it was important. »
« And did he precise what is important? » I asked her anxiously.
Simon has been keeping a radio silence with me since Derek and I broke up. He said that he was uncomfortable talking to me. So, for him to call me, it must be one hell of a problem.
« He just said to call him at noon on the dot. I told him not to count on it but he didn't … »
« Make sure you tell me when it is 11:45 AM. I don't want to miss him. He probably said that because he is boarding a plane and he won't be reachable until a few hours after that. » I said to her.
I know that lying is wrong, but in this case I did not have a choice. If he opens his phone at a specific time only, it's because someone is trying to find him. And that could also mean that they are trying to find me too since we were in the same experimentation process. And it's not like if I could tell Anya all that. She would admit me to a mental ward, believe me I know that for certain, and the last thing she would do is believe me.
«Will do. » She answered as I walked to the rehearsing room.
« Hey guys, » I said to all the actors that were present. « I am very sorry that I am late this morning, but we need to get going with the scenes. So, you need to go refresh your hair, makeup and clothes and be in the studio as soon as possible. »
I got mumbled answers but at least they were not arguing. I don't have that much patience for diva starlets. There is one on set and that is one too much. I get some of demands but I don't get their attitudes. Why would you try your best to become a famous actress and then make sure that no one wants to work with you? It is way beyond my comprehension.
Aside from the usual tantrums, everything on set went well today, which is a miracle. Usually, we always have something to change in a scene like the décor or we need to redo the whole script of a scene because it does not work at all. We were also lucky enough to finish by 11:40 AM and no later than that. I had plenty of time to find a spot where no one would bother me while I made my call. I found a perfect spot in an alley just across the set 5 minutes later.
As soon as noon hit, I dialed the phone number that Simon gave to me a few years back. Let's just hope that he didn't change numbers.
« Chloe? » He said as he answered the phone at the second ring.
« Yes, it's me. What's wrong? »
« I-I-I can't find Tori. I think someone took her. » He said sadly and he seemed anxious. « Derek and I tried looking for her the best we could but we could really need ghosts help on this. And we are also afraid that whoever went after Tori will go after all of us too. We didn't want to worry you at first but they got Rae too. When Tori couldn't reach her, and was starting to worry, she went looking for her. We haven't heard from her since. »
We found our friend Rae 1 years and a half after we successfully ran away from the Edison group. She was hiding with her biological mother and she has been in contact with us ever since. Rae lives in New York, for now. We usually call each other a few days a week. I was supposed to call her tonight. She wanted to come down in LA for the weekend and we were going to make arrangements for her to come here.
« Are you sure that she didn't just went hiking. Sometimes she leaves for a few days at a time without telling us. I was supposed to call her tonight. »
« With the state her house is in, I can definitely tell you that she didn't went hiking. Unless she has a habit out of ransacking her house that is. » said Derek as he probably took the phone from Simon's hands. « So you better hurry and get down here with your favorite invisible friends before it happens to us all. » He said as he hung up the phone.
So, he had changed. Never in all the time we were together did he hung up on me or shown any trace that he had a temper. Even when we escaped the Edison group, I have never heard him utter these kinds of remarks.
O.K., there is no time to think about this right now. I will have all the time in the world during the car ride right? So I really need to get the day rolling at the studio and give my daily plan to the realization team. And I also need to go get my things. I also should do …
« Everything alright? » Said Anya from behind me.
« God! You scared me, don't do that again. » I told her as soon as my heart started beating a normal rhythm normal again. « But yes, everything is alright. Just a friend that needs my help, you know. You are going to need to finish the scenes on the plan that I e-mailed you this morning. I want you to give them my notes and explicitly tell them that they are not to deviate from it. Now, I really need to go get my things and get going. »
«What? You can't leave! Everyone needs you here. Your friend is probably important, but so is your career. And you know that this movie is going to be the "make it or break it" of your career. You can't miss the rest of the day specially since you have been late this morning! »
« I know but I still have to leave. » I said to her as I made my way to the studio. « but I am confident that you and the team are going to make a great job with it. The instructions are quite simple really. All they need to do is the scenes and I already arranged everything. »
As I turned to walk away from her, I felt a sharp hit behind my head and I fell to the floor.
« You really should have listed to me and have gone back to your work. Now, I am going to have to take care of you and I was just starting to appreciate you. »
As soon as she finished talking, she started dragging me in the alley. I couldn't move and I could feel the darkness trying to close in on me. I did my best to fight it but, after a few minutes, my body gave at the same time as she said the most atrocious words I have ever heard.
« Now, Chloe, we can continue what I didn't have the time to finish can't we? »