Nine Years Later
Chicago, May 23rd 2022
Glenda Ray looks right into the camera, making sure to keep her facial expression as serious as possible. Nathan Price had insisted that filming the final scene of Lost in the Shadows on her birthday would bring good luck for everyone, guarantying that the movie would be as successful as The Dark Mind had been. No amount of begging or pleading could convince him otherwise.
And so there she is, standing around the dark studio in the black dress that is her character's signature outfit, waiting for Nathan to say the scene could begin.
"Are you ready, Lisa?" he asks.
Her stage name is Lisa Hunter. Once she and Glen had gotten diplomas when they were technically fifteen (twenty when going by their original birthday as a doll, which they were celebrating today) after years of homeschooling, their mother had said that based on their appearance and skills, they could probably pull off living as adults. Since going by their real names was out of the question, the twins decided to go by the names Lisa and Leroy Hunter. They had taken their first names from one of their favorite childhood novels, Lisa and Lottie, which was the original source material for The Parent Trap (with Leroy being one of several male equivalents they came up with for Lottie), and their last name being what their mom claimed was their grandmother's maiden name. That had been three years ago, and the two of them have been doing quite well since then, with Glenda working as a horror actress while Glen is a photographer, all while living in a condo in downtown Chicago.
"I've been ready for a while, Nathan," she says.
"All right. And action!"
She starts running across the dark studio, which is set up to look like a fancy bedroom with no lights on. "Sarah?" she calls out. "Sarah, where are you?"
A door opens up, and Sarah James, played by Julie Kushner, walks up to her. With her jean jacket, dark slacks, and her light brown hair in a ponytail, she seems much more innocent than Glenda. Upon discovering who's there, her face reflects a mixture of relief and shock as she embraces her.
"Katelyn! Oh, Katelyn! I almost thought I'd never see you again."
Katelyn Hartley is supposed to be the best friend of Sarah James. She'd disappeared a year before after being turned into a vampire by a vicious vampire gang. Sarah unexpectedly comes across her again after nearly being attacked by the vampires herself. After saving her life, Katelyn takes Sarah under her wing and shows her what it's like living as a vampire. Sarah's fascinated by her friend's new life and identity, but also frightened over the ways she's changed. Throughout the film, Katelyn desperately wants to turn Sarah into a vampire so they can remain together forever. Sarah's at first willing to consider it, but the more she learns about the dangerous lives of vampires, the less willing she is to try. A vicious attack from a wayward vampire puts an end to Katelyn's desire to do this, but she's still willing to do whatever it takes to protect her closest friend.
Katelyn now turns to Sarah. "Sarah, I'm here to say goodbye to you. I'll be heading off for Canada as soon as I leave."
Sarah gasps. "But why, Katelyn? I thought you wanted to us to remain together."
"It's dangerous for me here, Sarah. The gang that turned me has struck again, and if I stay here any longer, my days will be numbered. I must go while I still have time."
Sarah's eyes fill with tears. "I understand, but will we ever see each other again?"
"There might be a chance, but for now, I want you to move on with your life. You have a good family and other friends that will still be there for you. Continue with school, go on dates, and screw up sometimes. That's what I want you to do for me."
"I…I'll try. I'll still miss you."
"And so will I, but as I said before, we might still have a chance of seeing each other again. Hang on to that hope, and maybe we'll both be fine."
Katelyn now gives Sarah a small, gentle kiss on the cheek, and they remain in each other's arms for a long time. It ends when Katelyn steps away and says, "See you again soon, Sarah" as she slowly exits the room.
"Oh, Katelyn. I'll always remember you," Sarah says in a low voice.
A slow metal song plays in the background, and the studio goes dark.
"And cut!" Nathan shouts. "One more take and we're done."
They do the scene one more time, and after Nathan says cut, he says, "And this is it! We're officially done with Lost in the Shadows."
Several crew members clap, as do Glenda and Julie.
"Well done, ladies. We couldn't have gotten through this without you," Nathan says.
The two of them smile at each other, knowing exactly why their performances came off so well.
Julie Kushner had dated Glenda for eight months, making it the longest relationship she'd ever been in. She and Glen had tried dating a few times before without much success. Glen's longest relationship only lasted three months, and it had been with a woman who was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. They'd mostly gotten along well, but they didn't remain together long because Glen hadn't been willing to take the relationship to the next level. In addition to the complications related to their ambiguous age, both twins shared their mother's attitude on romantic relationships: to only have sex with someone they really loved, and it was hard for them to find people who could commit to such relationships.
Glenda was at first less lucky than Glen when it came to dating. While Glen was generally easy going with everyone, she'd always been more difficult to get along with. She may have been better at keeping her violent impulses in control now that she was older, but that didn't mean she was anything close to a nice girl. If it wasn't her bad temper that bothered a potential partner, then it was her constant swearing. If they didn't dislike her obsession with horror novels and morbid poetry, then it was her inability to cook or keep her place neat. It had gotten to the point where she thought she'd have to settle with remaining single forever.
Then during her last days working on The Dark Mind, she'd met Julie as she was leaving the extras room. Upon seeing Glenda, Julie had gotten excited and said, "Hi there. I'm Julie Kushner. I know I'm going to sound like an obsessed fan right now, but I really love the way you play Penny. Proud goth girls who know what they want but aren't always taking themselves seriously are always characters I can relate to."
"Thanks. That's pretty much the reason I took this role in the first place."
Julie then noticed the book she was carrying around with her: My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. "Oh, my gosh, I love that book! I don't think I've ever seen anyone else reading it before."
Now this impressed Glenda. "Are you serious? No one else here seems to have read this book except for Nathan."
"I sure am! There's nothing quite like a book of a girl in the 80s trying to figure out why her best friend seems to be losing her mind that comes along with popular 80s pop tunes as chapter names and a cool chant in the end. Of course, I also like 80s horror movies. That includes the more popular ones like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, but also movies like Scanners, Slumber Party Massacre, and the original Prom Night. I've lost track of how many…"
Glenda gave her a surprised look, and Julie, not understanding why she did so, looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Lisa. When I get excited about something, I can ramble on for hours. I didn't mean to waste your time."
"Who said anything about wasting my time? You're probably the most interesting person I've talked to here! So many other women here seem to only be interested in The Bachelor, Netflix romance series,TikTok, and their social media followers. For them, horror is just a stepping stone for some fucking teen drama series. But based on what you've told me, you sound like a true horror fan. Knowing both horror movies and books is always a plus for me."
Julie smiled. "Thanks! Are you coming in tomorrow?"
"Of course. As the lead, I'm here almost every day, but I'll be getting off early tomorrow. Will you free by three o'clock?"
"I think so. I'll be getting off at one."
"Would you be interested in going to this vintage bookshop that's not too far from the studio? They sell a ton of horror novels that have gone out of print there, so I go there all the time."
"That sounds like a great idea! I'll go with you for sure."
And it was this conversation that kicked off the best eight months of Glenda's life. Julie had turned out being bisexual just like she is, and they officially became girlfriends three weeks later. During that time, they spent almost every day together, doing things like going to book shops and horror merchandise stores, attending rock concerts and hanging out at Navy Pier, and of course, watching horror movies at home until dawn. Julie hadn't minded when Glenda told her she wanted to take things slowly, telling her that she preferred it that way too, making it easier for their relationship to continue. She liked Glen too, and she often said she liked seeing how well they got along despite being quite different.
It had been great, but Glenda knew from the start that their relationship couldn't last long. The same things she'd told Glen back when she'd beaten up Ashley Winslow during their brief stay in Santa Monica would sometimes run through her head at night when she struggled to sleep. She'd wonder if Julie would eventually betray her someday, if she'd find some other woman or man whom she liked more and cheat on her, or if she'd find out exactly how much Glenda had been hiding from her and dismiss her as the freak she truly was. Perhaps it was possible to love Lisa Hunter, but she knew it was nearly impossible to love Glenda Ray.
Or worse, she worried she'd hurt Julie herself, getting so mad at her one day that she'd find herself yelling or cussing at her, or even hitting her. These were things she'd usually feel no remorse towards doing if it involved anyone else who offended her, but the thought of possibly doing such things to Julie filled her with genuine terror.
And after one of their only fights, where Glenda had gotten mad at Julie after she'd made them go to a party with some costars that had gone much worse than either of them had expected, they finally did break up. Glenda had felt so guilty afterwards for the way she'd treated Julie that she broke things off with them three days later. And when she did so, she admitted everything she could about her old impulses (while making sure to leave out her occasional desire for murder, of course), her trust issues, and her constant fear that she would someday hurt Julie, which was why she thought it was best if they stopped being a couple for at least a while. Julie, despite feeling sad over the breakup, had taken it surprisingly well, and they still remained friends four months later, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't often wish things could go back to the way they were before.
As many more actors and crew members enter the room, Nathan gives a long gratitude speech, where he talks about how not so long ago, Bleak Alley studios was a struggling company making low budget horror movies. Studio executives hadn't been sure they could pull off The Dark Mind when Nathan originally pitched it, but still decided to give him a chance to see what he could do.
The film had gone on to be an unexpected success thanks to word of mouth from horror fans, resulting in Nathan being hailed as one of the most promising horror directors of the decade, and Bleak Alley studios having their first major hit. Now, with this second film of his, they had a much larger budget and higher expectations from fans to maintain, yet he felt that thanks to all the work the cast and crew had put in, they should have no problem succeeding.
Everyone claps in response, and Nathan smiles. "And of course, today is our brilliant star Lisa Hunter's 23rd birthday. It took some convincing for her to come in today, but she eventually agreed to it. She was an unknown actress back when I cast her to play Penny Harrington in The Dark Mind, and I still find it cool that she's become as well-known in the horror community as I am. She's as much of a badass as the characters she plays, and I don't think I could have asked for a better scream queen than her. I wish you nothing but the best today, Lisa, and may you on to do many more great movies in the future."
More clapping follows, and Glenda says, "Thanks a lot, Nathan. I don't deserve this much praise, but I don't want to complain about it too much either. After all, I've always wanted to be a scream queen. I feel like I was practically born for it."
"And I have no doubt about that," Nathan says.
If only he knew how right he was.
…
As she prepares to go home, several cast and crew members give her gifts, including Olivia Olsen, one of those big Bachelor and romancefans whose main goal was to get a part in the next season of You, and Erin Vance, who had slightly better media taste but still loved checking her social media accounts every few seconds. Even Rex Stanford tries giving her something, but Glenda turns it down. "What makes you think I'd take something from a loser like you?"
"Oh, come on, Lisa. I promise it's nothing related to lesbian porn."
"There are worst gifts out there than that, Rex. And remember that I still have copies of those naked pictures you took with that stripper you spend spring break with. Perhaps it's time I finally reveal them to the world?"
Rex frowns. "Don't even think about it! I'll be screwed for good if you do that."
"I suppose I can still be generous since it's my birthday. Just be sure to keep your end of the deal we made and leave me and Julie alone and you can maintain your phony reputation for at least another year."
Rex shakes his head and walks away. If there was anyone that was constantly tempting Glenda to take "just a little sip", as her mom liked to say, it was that nasty pervert. He was always cheating on his girlfriend, and back when she and Julie were dating, he'd often made snarky comments about "weird lesbos" to annoy them. However, since he was a dumb guy who understood nothing about cyber security and how easy it was to catch him messing around with other girls, it was easy to keep him in line with blackmail threats. He'd do anything she said if she threatened him strongly enough, and she figured that was enough for now. Maybe once all promotional work for the movie was done, she could finally take that sip and get back at him one way or another.
Not long afterwards, Julie came up to her. "Hey, Lisa. I hope you and Leroy have a great birthday celebration tonight."
"Thanks, Julie. I would have invited you over, but we want to save this event for ourselves only."
"I understand, but do you guys have any plans to do something with friends later this week?"
"We might spend tomorrow downtown with Leroy's friends, maybe even stop by Navy Pier for a while. I think you could join us if you want to."
Julie smiles. "Thanks. I'll consider it. Also, I've got gifts for both you and Leroy. It took some time for me think of the best things I could get you two, but I think I came up with some good gifts in the end. "
She then hands two-medium sized boxes to Glenda. The first one is adorned with black wrapping paper covered in glitter and tied up with a red satin bow, which she knows is her own gift because black and red are her favorite colors, while the other is blue velvet with a gold bow, the former color being Glen's favorite. Julie was always remembering even small details like this, which is why she's sure they can look forward to seeing what gifts are inside these packages.
"Thanks a lot, Julie. You know you didn't have to get anything for me, especially since I'm no longer your girlfriend."
"You may have broken up with me, Lisa, but you were still honest with me over why you did it. Some people would never have the guts to admit they suffer from anger issues and they are afraid over how these problems might cause them to hurt other people. I still think it's amazing that you're that considerate, and you should certainly think twice before thinking you're a terrible person who doesn't deserve birthday presents."
"Oh, Julie, you really are the best friend anyone could ask for."
They then hug each other, enjoying the moment a little more than they probably should. When they're done, Julie says, "Have a good night, Lisa. Be sure to send Leroy my best wishes."
"I will. I hope you have a good night too, Julie."
They wave at each other as they leave, and Glenda already feels so happy that she wonders if anything else can make this day any better.