I woke early the next morning, got dressed and walked in to David's room to wake him up. As soon as I walked into the room I felt the first signs of a gas attack, and I had an idea. I walked up to where his head was and let loose the foulest smelling fart possible. He wrinkled his face, sat up and said "You're an ass."

"Thank you for noticing. Now get up, we've gotta get to work." I said. Once we had eaten, and David had dressed himself we left. When we got there we were greeted by Zig Zag. She led us into the studio and introduced us to a lynx named Tina, and showed us where we would be working. My workspace was just down the hall from the set, and it had the latest editing software and hardware. My first project was called "Star Whores". I finished editing most of the movie, but I kept hearing this weird thumping sound during the sex scenes and I just couldn't figure out what it was. Eventually I took a break from the movie to edit some of the extras on the DVD. At around four in the afternoon Zig Zag came to check in on me.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Well enough" I replied, "but there's this weird thumping sound I keep hearing during the sex scenes and I can't figure out what it is. Listen for yourself."

She took my headphones and said "I hear it too." As she was listening I took at the actors on the computer screen and noticed something on Tracey's breast.

"Was Tracey wearing a microphone by any chance?"

"Yes she was." Zig replied, "Why do you ask?"

"I think I've figured out what that sound is."

"What is it?"

"Her heartbeat."

"Really?

"Yeah, if you listen closely you can hear that when the actors go faster so do the thumping sounds, and when the actors go slowly the sounds follow suit. Should I take the sound out?"

"No, leave it in it sounds cool."

"You sure?"

"Yup. Hey, a bunch of us are getting together at McGinty's after work, wanna join us?"

"Sure."

"Great, see you there." She said as she handed me a piece of paper with the address on it.

I had a bit of trouble finding the bar, but I did find it eventually. I noticed everyone outside waiting for me.

"Sorry, had a bit of trouble finding the place."

"It's alright." Sheila said.

When we walked in I looked around and saw my mother sitting at one of the tables with a bottle of vodka and about eight empty shot glasses around her.

"Be with you guys in a second." I said. I walked over to where my mother was seated and said "Boy, it must have hurt like hell when you fell off that wagon huh?"

"Pfft" was her only response.

"I thought you had sworn off that stuff. Why are you drinking again?"

"I'm drinking to celebrate our arrival here." She said as she turned to me. I noticed a fain purple bruise around her eye and two bruises on her cheeks.

"Are you really drinking to celebrate, or to forget something that happened to you?" I asked as I pointed to the bruises.

"It was an accident. I ran into a door."

"A door or a fist?"

"A door."

"Oh so the door, not Chase, gave you the bruises?"

"Exactly."

"Bullshit Ma, in order for that to happen, you would have had to hit the doorat an impossible angle, not to mention the fact that the bruises on your cheeks look distinctly like fists."

"Just go and be with your friends, leave me alone." I did as she said, albeit reluctantly.

When I got to the table I saw a black cat sitting amongst the group. I walked up and introduced myself.

"Hi, I'm Jason Camerell." I said.

She looked at me with what seemed to be cold, calculating eyes and said "Darke Katt." as she shook, or rather, crushed my hand.

"So, you work at the studio too?" I asked her quietly.

"Yeah." She replied, "I'm the janitor."

"That must be um…"

"Totally disgusting?"

"Yeah."

"It is, but it gives me a better life than the one I had."

"What was your life like?"

At that everyone at the table stopped talking and stared right at us.

"I don't like talking about it." Was the only thing Darke said.

"It's okay, I'm not really comfortable talking about my past either."

As the night wore on, I was introduced to a Lynx named Tina who also works behind the scenes at the studio. Aside from that conversation consisted mostly of movies that were being shot, celebrity gossip, and current events. I did contribute to the discussions a few times, but I mostly stayed silent. When we turned to leave I noticed that my mother was no longer at her table. I went up and asked one of the waitresses where she had gone.

"Oh, we called her a cab." The waitress said, "I stayed outside with her until the cab arrived."

"Thank you." was all I could say.

"No problem."

I walked out to my truck, put it in gear and began to drive home. I had only had a couple of beers so I was okay. When I got back to the house I saw David sitting on the couch with his video camera beside him and a DVD in his hand.

"Where'd you find that?" I asked, pointing to the camera.

"In the trunk of my car." He said then he pointed to the DVD "Do you know what this is?"

"It's a DVD."

"Obviously, but do you know what's on it?"

"If I did I would've said so. What's on it?"

"Do you remember that party we had when we turned nineteen and Mom and Sarah were out with their friends?"

"You mean the one where all those cops had to come?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"I remember some things from that night…that's what's on the DVD isn't it?"

"Yep, wanna watch it?"

"Alright."

David walked over and put the DVD in the player. The footage showed us answering the door and welcoming people, but that quickly changed to footage of some guy that was so drunk he thought he was spider-man and was trying to climb the wall of our mother's house, someone wearing a grapefruit on their head, some guy walking in with a stray cat under his arm and asking people if they wanted to pet his dog. It also showed me drinking innumerable beers, six jello shots, two coolers, three vodka shots and a lot of whiskey. The footage then showed one of our friends, Billy, talking to the cat under the kitchen table. I also saw Joe, another one of our friends walking out the door with a chainsaw and our neighbor's tree come crashing down to the ground. Then a cop car showed up, but the officer realized he needed back up and he grabbed his portable radio. Soon the camera showed dozens of cops screeching onto the scene. David(with the camera in hand) followed a group of about twenty of us as we somehow snuck out through the backyard. That was when another of our friends named. He, along with Billy and Tommy snuck up to a police car and started playing with the lights and siren. This didn't last too long though because one of the cops saw them. Soon, all of us were running down the street. David turned the camera around to show about forty to fifty cops chasing us. One by one people were tackled to the ground. Eventually the camera hit the pavement as David was tackled. The camera showed me tearing past with about seven cops chasing me.

"Run Jason, run!" David yelled from behind the camera.

"What the fuck do you think I'm doing?" I yelled back. Then I heard me yelling in the distance "You can't catch me, I'm faster than a fire truck! Wee ooh! Wee ooh! Wee ooh!" then the camera cut out.

"Wow." was all I could say.

"Yeah." David said, "By the way, I sent a copy of this to Zig."

"Why?"

"She wanted to see just how 'loosened up' we could get, so I sent this to her to prove that we could loosen up."

"Well, you proved beyond a doubt that I can loosen up, but you I'm not so sure."

"What do you mean?"

"You never drank anything, not one drop of alcohol entered your body that night and you never spoke to anyone either."

"Two things, first: I didn't drink because I knew people would do dumb shit that night and I wanted to be sober enough to capture it and second: I didn't talk to anyone because I wasn't entirely comfortable in that situation back then."

"Well if you weren't.." I started to say, but was interrupted by the phone ringing. "Hello?" I said.

"I can't believe you drank that much and were still standing!" Zig Zag exclaimed, "I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair! You should challenge Sheila to a drinking contest."

"I might just do that." I said.

"By the way, I don't mean to sound nosey but where are you from?"

"We are from Canada."

"I should've guessed, considering you have a Canadian flag on the back window of your truck. On another note, there's an industry trade show next week, and guess where it is?"

"Where?"

"I'm not going to just tell you, you have to guess."

"Okay, Atlanta?"

"No."

"Los Angeles?"

"No.

"Is it in any American city?"

"No it's not."

"Is it in a Canadian city?"

"Yes."

"Vancouver?"

"Yes! And I want you to join me there."

"Okay, but why me though?"

"I make a point of taking every new person that I employ to at least one trade show. Your brother will get his chance next time."

"When do we leave?"

"Next Wednesday, the flight is at nine AM."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." And with that I hung up and went to sleep.