TRAGIC MARKER.
It was about to begin. The shoot of Tragic Marker. Ren couldn't risk being seen as Cain Heel, so he planned to meet Jelly Woods at Takarada's place the night before.
When he arrived there, he found the President talking to someone over the phone. As usual, Ren wasn't surprised to see him dressed in the egyptian traditional attire.
When the President noticed the actor, he hung up the phone to welcome him.
"You're finally here. I was just talking to Mogami about tomorrow."
"You're being over-protective as usual," Ren sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "By the way, I don't see Jelly?"
"She'll be here. Till then, there's something I'd like to talk to you about." His tone turned serious.
"What?"
"I indeed asked Mogami to look after you, but I didn't get a chance to ask you the same thing."
"What do you mean?" Ren frowned.
"You did warn her about that rule where she's not supposed to date a co-worker, didn't you? Only I don't remember ever creating such a rule. So that's the kind of person you are? In front of me you pretend to be Mr Righteous, and behind my back you use my name to your advantage."
Ren's face contorted into that of disbelief. His jaw hung, and his eyes widened. When he finally did speak, his voice was thick with curiosity. "How... how on earth do you know about that? Who told you?"
"No one. I saw the whole thing myself."
"That's impossible! No one was around when we were talking. I made sure of it. How could you have seen us when you weren't even there!"
Takarada smirked, dramatically placing a hand on his gold headgear, which resembled a crown. "I've been blessed with a third eye by the Egyptian God, Amun!"
This madness can't be helped, since he's in Egypt mode right now, Ren thought with a sigh, when something occurred to him making him gasp. He suddenly remembered that weird wooden statue around the stage. Now that he thought about it, it was of some Egyptian God as well.
"It can't be! You were there, weren't you?"
"Bingo!"
"Inside that thing? That statue?"
Takarada grinned. "You finally realized."
Ren slumped down on the couch opposite the President. "I thought it was odd. It looked so out of place."
"It was all because of Swara," Takarada scowled. "He said if I attended the party, I would hog all the attention."
Ren didn't admit it, but he thought so too.
"I told him I would go there without anyone noticing. Since that statue was mobile, I was able to move around on my own, but," he pinched the bridge of his nose. "It was so lonely not being able to talk to anyone! I'm never doing that again!"
Though he didn't say it, Ren was glad that the President realized how it pointless it was to attend a party in that way.
"Now back to the topic," Takarada said. "I just wanted to make sure that you didn't," he used his fingers to put double quotes on the next part, "'have your way with her.'"
"That goes without saying!"
"The way you flirted with her, I was honestly quite surprised by your openness. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about. I know you'd have to share a room with her and all, and your characters are supposed to act all lovey-dovey, but still, make sure you never cross that line."
"Obviously! Who do you think I am?" Ren couldn't not be offended for being treated like this.
"A man ruled by his desires, who else!?" Takarada grinned.
Before Ren could snap an answer, the door opened and Jelly entered. "Darling!" She squealed at Takarada. "I just love your new look!" Turning to Ren, she waved enthusiastically. "Everything's good to go! Let's start!"
On the set of Tragic Marker, the whole cast was seated around a rectangular table in a darkened room, with their eyes fixated on the large projector-screen on the wall. Almost the whole cast, since there was one exception who was missing, with his chair staring emptily at others.
It was Cain Heel's. The whole team had made it to the meeting except for the main antagonist of the movie. The others didn't take lightly to the fact that they were kept waiting just because this Cain Heel was a foreign actor. They couldn't help but be offended at this insult. So they protested on starting without him.
But the Director was adamant on waiting. He insisted on not starting the shoot until all of the cast was introduced to each other and that included the actor portraying BJ. In order to drag out the meeting longer, he played a clip on the screen which contained the plot summary of the movie in a video format.
It started out with an ominous music, followed by the sound of thunder, until eventually, a dangerous and metallic voice started narrating:
"It the year 1986, a series of murders occured in England." Some images of very grizzly and grotesque corpses flipped through the screen, as the voice commenced.
"Although the victims were varying in age and gender, a similar message written from the blood of the victims was always found at the crime scene.
"This perpetrator, who committed these murders solely out of bloodlust, was said to have taken the hearts of his victims. Those who became familiar with his cases started referring to him as the reincarnation of 'Jack the Ripper'.
"His real name: Jack Darrell, age 25. Using his cunning and intelligence, he was able to break out of jail and continue his heinous crimes. After his time in prison, the number of his victims increased and so did the brutality of his torturous method of killing, as the corpses he left in his wake were found to be decapitated, castrated, or even severed into pieces.
"It wasn't long before his crimes extended overseas and Darrell topped the list of the most wanted international criminals. The CIA and FBI, all joined forced to look for him, but the man was like a ghost. Because of which, he was given the name Black Jack.
"With half the world looking for him, Darrell didn't stop. The murders he committed turned into massacres.
"At long last, one lucky cop was able to get a hit on the devil. Darrell was shot, but somehow, his corpse disappeared. And now, thirty seven years later, in the year 2021, a corpse was found with a bloody message."
A very disturbing image of a corpse popped up on the screen with the following bold letters scribbled beside it in gore:
JACK IS BACK...!
The video ended and the already dimmed room was consumed by total darkness for a few seconds until the lights were switched on again.
Taira Murasame, the protagonist of the movie, a young man with dark wavy hair and looks good enough to kill, raised in his seat. "Now can we start with the shoot?" His co-stars nodded in agreement, looking at the Director questioningly.
Director Konoe raised his beefy arm to glance at his wrist watch. "He'll be here any moment. I'll be back with him." With that, he exited the room, leaving behind a very angry cast.
"Who the hell does he think he is?" Tohru Manaka, the leading lady of Tragic Marker complained to her friend beside her, who was an extra with a minor role. "Cain Heel, I've never even heard that name before!" Manaka was a sightly chubby girl with short, pale hair and a playful countenance, which seemed not so playful at the moment.
Before her friend could answer, Murasame dragged his chair closer to the two girls, and they sat up straighter trying not to blush.
"You're right," he nodded to Manaka. "Even if he's a Hollywood actor, he must have had really minor roles, because I tried to look him up on the internet and I couldn't find anything. Anything at all!"
"Is that so?" Manaka asked.
"Yes," Murasame went on. "Im striving to go Hollywood, just like Kuu Hizuri, so I see a lot of English movies as case studies. But never once have I come upon the name of this supposedly famous actor Cain Heel."
"I'm pretty sure he's treating us like this just because he thinks he's better than us. Typical westerners!"
"Right. For him to be so late and on the first day, it shows how sloppy he is."
"You said it."
Listening to the two leading stars, one of the extras prointed out shyly: "If that's the case, then why do you think the Director is even bothering with him?"
Before either of them could provide her with an answer, a gofer ran inside. "Excuse me! The Director asked all of you to get over to the Studio. Mr Cain Heel is here."
"Finally," Murasame rolled his eyes, picking himself up from his seat before filing out, and the others followed his suit.
The actors chatted with each other along the way as they crossed the long path to the studio. When they arrived, they didn't find Cain Heel there, only the Director, who for some reason appeared to be quite disturbed.
Gesturing to the cast to take their seats, Director Konoe said: "Everyone, I would like to introduce to all of you a very special actor who had come here all the way from England to join us in this project, Mr Cain Heel." He waved towards the door and all the heads turned in anticipation.
The sillouette of a man dressed in black from head to toe appeared outside the door, and Murasame immediately noted with resentment how this man was even taller than him.
Light was cast upon his shadowy face the moment he entered, and taking in the sight of him, the entire team was left staring in aghast horror.
Not only his skin was unusually pale, and his colourless lips thin and parched, but his rough and messy hair were covering the top half of his face, revealing his cold blue eyes between the creases of his pointy bangs in an ominous way. Still, the worst part about him was the sinister aura surrounding him and the nefarious glint in his eyes.
He didn't say a word, though his sparkling blue eyes did travel around from the room not focusing on anyone in particular, as if no one he saw seemed worth his time. He looked like the kind of man who wouldn't hesitate to kill.
Not even bothering to offer a single hello to his teammates or even the Director, he strode in like he owned the place and flumped on one of the chairs.
What surprised them even more was when a teenage girl with strawberry blonde hair and pink highlights followed him in. She also appeared to be dressed in black leather, but unlike her acquaintance, who was almost entirely covered up, the clothes she was wearing were a lot more revealing.
Almost all the eyes immediately left Cain Heel to be set on this strangely underdressed but irresistibly intriguing companion of him. Judging from how she so casually walked in half-naked, they could gather how she must also be a foreigner as japanese people weren't normally used to this kind of behaviour.
The cast gaped at the two newcomers with naked curiosity before the Director ushered to them to take their seats as well so he could start the meeting and then get on with the shoot. Before he started, he gave a short and quick introduction to Setsuka, whom they learned was here as Cain Heel's translator since he himself didn't know much japanese.
The cast took this little detail as another insult and found it offending since both of them, despite being foreigners, evidently were from a japanese descent. Despite their unearthly clothing, it was quite apparent through their features that they had at least some japanese blood in them.
As the meeting went on, Cain Heel didn't utter a single word. Unlike him though, Murasame noted, the girl kept muttering something in english into his ear everytime someone spoke.
Murasame himself didn't have much to contribute in the meeting since his mind was occupied in partly analysing his new costar and partly in checking out his hot translator.
When he had first noticed Cain Heel, he had almost panicked assuming him to be a real criminal because of his evil gaze. But then he figured that the reason of the sinister aura emanating out of him must be because he was already in character and was method acting. Since BJ was supposed to appear evil, his suspicions dropped though his curiosity remained.
After he was done with Cain Heel, his full attention was transferred to his younger companion. Murasame didn't particularly have a history with younger girls, but this one he found himself to be immediately drawn to. Maybe because she was a foreigner and was a lot different from the girls around here, or maybe it had something to do with her cleavage sticking out of her low-neck top and her mesmerizing legs which he couldn't stop himself from staring at.
Throughout the meeting, he couldn't manage to keep his eyes away from her. Even if he forcefully tore them away, they would somehow end up landing back on her.
After a little while, Setsuka herself noticed him staring and for a brief moment their eyes met. Murasame blushed and looked away. As for Setsuka, her face remained impassive like she didn't care a fig if someone stared at her, until she finally looked away again herself.
The meeting was almost at it's end when Murasame threw one last glance at Cain, and he was suddenly caught off guard realizing that Cain was shooting him a death glare. Stiffening, Murasame felt his heartbeat slowly rise and so he sat up straight in his chair and made effort not to look at either of those two again.
During lunch break, the team gathered in the cafeteria with only two exceptions. The others weren't really surprised that the two newcomers chose not to join them. Infact, they were happy to use this opportunity of their absence to gossip about them.
"I was literally scared of him!" Manaka exclaimed at the round table, with a bunch of people surrounding her. "Is he even an actor? He doesn't seem like one." The others nodded in agreement and remarked their views on the matter.
They were all chatting, however, Murasame was seated alone quietly lost in thoughts. When he was asked to join the others, he excused himself saying he needed a drink, and went over to the vending machine to get himself one.
He wanted to be alone for a while, the reason being that evil glare Cain Heel had shot him earlier. He couldn't forget about it. To his shame, instead of staring back at him, Murasame had actually flinched away.
The reason it had hit him so hard was because of his past. Before he became an actor, Murasame used to be a bit of thug himself. He had a few good years of what he used to refer to as 'his rough and wild days'.
Back then, he was known throughout his hometown because of his nefarious activities. People used to genuinely fear him. They even gave him a flashy nickname.
It had been three years since he retired as the local yakuza and discovered his hidden talent in acting. Since then, he had been able to make a name for himself in the whole japan.
Today, what suddenly reminded him of his old days was Cain Heel. To be precise, it was the fact that he actually did something as shameful as flinching away.
Just because I've retired, does that mean my courage has left me completely? He pondered long and hard about it.
The worst part was, as far as Murasame knew, Cain Heel was only acting when he sent him that glare, but for a moment, he actually felt genuine fear coursing through out his body and it sent a chill down his spine.
Before he could spend more time regretting being scared, all of a sudden, he was pulled out of his thoughts, when he noticed, standing by the vending machine was that girl again. She bought a couple of drinks, and as she bent down to pick them up, Murasame couldn't help himself from stairing at the fine shape of her buttocks. He gulped.
It's her! What should I do? Should I go and talk to her? What even would I talk about? What was her name again? Setsuka maybe?
Struggling to come with a quick response, Murasame wondered why he was having so much trouble approaching her. Normally, he would just be himself and women were more than interested to seduce him. This was the first time he was on the other end of the spectrum.
Before he could come with anything, Setsuka straightened and began to leave. Desperate to stop her, Murasame decided to talk to her about whatever came to mind, and unfortunately for him, the only thing currently in his mind was how much he disliked Cain Heel.
Slowly inching closer to her, he cleared his throat. "So, where on earth did that freakshow of your boss come from?"
Setsuka turned. Her pretty eyes narrowed at him. "You said something?" She spoke in japanese, though with a kick of british accent.
Murasame's lips stretched into a harmless, easy-going smile. "I was just wondering, if you know whether your boss is really an actor?"
Setsuka's eyes turned cold. She didn't bother with presenting him an answer, so he went on:
"I don't mean any harm. It's just that I've never heard of him. I tried to look him up, but there was nothing I could find. If he's actually as impressive as the Director says, then he must have been in some quite big projects?" Something sparked on his face and he snapped his fingers. "Or maybe he used to work in theaters? That would explain a lot since there was literally nothing about him on the internet." He chuckled. "Of course. Being a foreigner, even second rate actors like him could use this–"
He failed to get the rest of the words out, as he was cut off by Setsuka, who used one of the bottles in her hand to slap his cheek.
Placing a palm on his newly inflicted would, Murasame stared at her in astonishment. The impact had hurt a lot more than he was thought was possible. For someone so small and petite, this Setsuka chick turned out to be quite strong.
"My brother isn't a second rate actor!" she hissed. Her eyes burning with cold fury.
Murasame didn't get a chance to get over the shock of being slapped by a girl, when this news hit him like another blow. "Brother? He's your brother?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
He pondered on it. "Well, you two do radiate the same energy, but you don't look anything like each other! My first guess had been you two were a couple."
Instead of replying, Setsuka looked down to hide the blush suffusing her cheeks.
Why the hell is she blushing like that? He thought. Wouldn't normal siblings be disgusted and creeped out if someone called them a couple?
Without a word, Setsuka turned to leave again.
"Hey, wait!" Murasame ran after her, but as he took a turn, on the other side of the corridor he found awaiting whom he had been thrilled to see again, but was also dreading it at the same time. It was Cain Heel.
To be continued.