In a bed room…
When the sun was saying good morning through the window, Kasuka opened his moody eyes and started to yawn. It seemed that he didn't have a good night of sleep and as he got remember to that awful fight yesterday's evening, he expressed a faint painful smile, while his hair wasn't suited for today's event. As normally this would look for almost every other person, is seems that there was something off with this whole scene, a tiny but noticeable issue.
"Cut!"
That didn't go well, there is a better face for this situation. My brother has described me the face of his friend after an enthusiastic night with his girlfriend.
"It looks good, but it can better. I can't put my finger on it, but it seems that still to light hearted for this whole scene," the conductor of this movie said. Matt Parterico was a close friend of Sandshelt and their reunion was completely odd to outsiders.
That's said lightly, my character will agree with you.
"Okay Hanejima, are you ready for take two?", he shouted with the same excited volume and pitch as Max did.
A simple nod from Kasuka and a simple finger snap from Matt did reset everything on the stage.
"And start!"
There's a remarkable phenomenon in the world, a seemingly anomalous observation around the activities in the brain and where they occur. The brain is a huge mystery to the scientific community and due to that, there is a vast amount of research going to our fatty control room.
Two things or tasks, who are closely linked by the logic in this world, are separated entities in the brain, as it was a secret dimension with a twisted sense of logic.
For instance, people who are stuttering while they were having a conversation, could tell their stories, experiences and emotions clear without that hurdle when they were singing about it. The scans of the brain were the evidence that they occur in different areas of our brain.
For Kasuka, it was the same with another subset of concepts, that were logical connected in this world, but not in our minds.
Playing and expressing were words that match their descriptions and were smashed together by the film industry. However, it appeared that they were also disconnected in the same way as singing and speaking did.
A yawn appeared on Kasuka's face, it was the sign of bad sleeping or having a nightmare. Though, it wasn't his own yawn, it was the yawn of his appointed character. The character that he played by following his script, with a personality divided from his own stale one.
It was a lonely detective, who only got love from his fiancé, who was also his colleague and was embodying the post-modern idea of a detective. An isolated and silent detective, passive in his manner and his methods, because why wouldn't he, the lady was taking the active lead, trying to drag him out of his own misery.
The laid-back or the almost mentally broken detective has got his own heavy luggage of emotions and feelings: The feeling of meaning nothing to the world, a sparkle of joy deeply in his head, his moderate sense of romance and passion about his work.
All these traits were stored inside the character, while Kasuka acknowledge that he lacked all of them. He could play his written character in detail, with all the right emotions and feelings. He could smile, burst out in laughter, feeling envy to a specific person and could be sunken desperately into his own so-called dark hour, if the script and the plot of the film was asking for him to act in that way.
He, as Kusaka Heiwajima, so as himself, didn't have that ability to express himself emotionally. He couldn't laugh when a friend is making dirty and bad jokes, he couldn't cry when a family member has passed away. He could understand why people do certain things when they were in a specific mood, however, he found himself incapable of reproducing emotions, like if he was a robot.
Because for him, playing a feeling is different than expressing that exactly same emotion. Of course, he could play his emotions like how he did with his assigned characters, but his principals were completely against it.
This is how I turned out in the long run, because I am honest about myself, I wouldn't lie to my own family and friends, or even colleagues.
"Great shot, we take this one for the scene," the director said passionately and turned to the man behind him, who was looking satisfied with Kasuka's performance. Heiwajima was not for nothing one of Jack O'Lantern's nation-wide talents.
"Hanejima, you can take a rest. Let's hope that miss Hijiribe is prepared for her first action scene."
The film set wasn't advanced, the city gave the film crew two large warehouses next to each other. When Sandshelt heard that there wasn't an office or a private room the actors, he acted and arranged two mobile houses to introduce privacy to the set.
The vast door of the left warehouse opened, the heavy low sound of metal scraping over the concrete and a nicely suited man appeared in the opening.
It's agreeable to assume that he is the councillor who made this all possible.
"I haven't heard your voice yet, but I can bet that you're the councillor of the city who made this happen, am I right?", Matt's tone was relaxed, like if he met an old good friend after a huge amount of time.
"Okay everyone, let's take a break!"
The man appeared to be in his fifties, his hair started to get grey and they were enough signs that his body was getting old.
"I just want to see how it's going, nothing more and nothing less. This isn't meant as an unplanned checking," he apologized.
"It's an honour to meet you, mister…", Max didn't know the name of the visitor and due to that he fell flat with his welcoming speech. With the open arms of Sandshelt full in his sight, he sighed deeply
"The name is Berker, Henry Berker," he said with disappointment. That wasn't an expression that people often used when they met the president of the talent agency, they chose more often for a face that expressed unease.
"So, it's Henry-kun!", reacted Max with bursting enthusiasm.
The councillor displayed disgust and unease for this shaming reply.
It would be earlier Berker-sama, however, Sandshelt-kun is getting the hang of the honorific system. It's already better than the Honey-chan that he uses for me all the time.
"Well, you see, Sandshelt is living in Tokyo, Japan and he's pretty fascinated with the culture over there," Matt explained it to Henry to comfort him, which didn't seem to work.
Maybe, Sandshelt didn't know the meaning of the 'chan' after a name or he just used it for the teasing. Over the years he learned that the honorifics were the equivalent of the English nouns for mister, madam and miss. However, 'chan' is normally only used when you show a huge affection to the person. 'Sama' is the safe spot, it would be never completely wrong.
The chairs who were reserved for the actors where made of plastic and to ease it a bit, they had pillows on them. While Kasuka was taking a seat and was drinking from the cheap looking water bottle, he observed the man in suit.
There's something that I can't pinpoint, a small detail that won't fit into the picture.
"You don't like him, is that it?", a lovely voice suddenly said.
Ruri wasn't talkative today and communicate with him by expression. It was almost three years, since they were spotted together in his Ferrari. If they excluded their work, then they have lived two years in company of each other.
For them, it happened to be long enough to see just the other's face to communicate. Even Ruri, got the hang of reading his expression, which never switched. However, it would be much harder if he didn't have a head.
"Something feels off, that's all," Heiwajima responded. Not liking the councillor already was a step too far for him. He didn't want to prejudge somebody on their first impression, it's was noble and understandable principal for someone like him. For this case, he only marked the visitor as suspicious.
Kasuka's emotionless expression drew the attention of that very same man to himself and he heard the question that came out of Berker-sama's mouth.
"May I ask who that actor is?", Henry said and only nodded with his head to Kasuka. It appeared that pointing towards someone was rude over here.
"That's Yuuhei Hanejima, one of the big talents of the Jack O'Lantern Agency over in Japan," Max responded with a smile of a fanatic fanboy. In some cases, he could be even more ludicrous than Yuuhei's female fans.
However, he respected the actor's privacy and wished and kept his real name secret. The councillor wouldn't notice it and it will be easier for Kasuka if nobody over here knew his real name.
"And I suppose that the lady close to him is Ruri Hijiribe."
"An excellent observation mister Berker," Max hold himself in to don't spit the same kinky name.
Henry Berker was a film lover and due to that passion, he heard many times of the talented make-up artist, who was called Ruri Hijiribe. He had admired her work in the special effects department of the industry and was thrilled to see her in action with his own eyes. What kind of person was she really? Did she have stage fright or was she going to be an attention-freak?
"All right, the break is over guys, let's starts with the first fighting scene. I know that you have been on television before and played some minor roles in tv-series, that's what Max told me. However, you still can be nervous for your first major role, so let's make this recording a fun time," Parterico said to cheer her up.
Kasuka couldn't read minds, however, he had observed people long enough to know what was going on in their heads.
He is feeling uncomfortable with me staring to his back, he would probably don't like me for that very specific reason.
Hanejima went back to the mobile house between the two warehouses, trying to contact his older brother to told that everything was fine over here.
At a primary school...
"Look what I have made!', a girl with short blond hair and a healthy coloured skin shouted over the school square and ran straight into the hands of the tall man to show him her work.
"That's looking amazing, do you have a nice day with your friends?", the father said, with the bass voice that he possesses.
Your profession doesn't determine your personality, which counts the same for the reverse of the two. There are lots of people, whose job don't match with their attitude and for Yvan, that's a good thing.
Nothing is set, everyone is free to go where he wants to and you can choose your own path in life. I've already decided mine and I hope for my daughter that she will walk her own path.
He lifted her off the ground with his hands, like if it was nothing and gave her a small kiss on her cheeks.
There's nothing rarer and more precious than the cheerful and energetic spirit of my own daughter, she's almost a threatening nuke from the fallen Soviet Union. My daughter, Stefana, is my own holy relic of which I can't thank God enough.
"Yeah, can I visit them next week?", the child said, when she sat on the shoulders of the intimidating looking man. His face was full of happiness and didn't notice the suspiciously staring of the other parents on the school square; or did he notice them, but did nothing against it?
It was the second guess; he didn't mind what these adults thought about him. Why should he do that in the first place? He knew the truth about himself. There were naturally rumours around him being a dealer, a merchant of the dark side, selling drugs, weapons or other illegal products.
He couldn't deny that he sold weapons, because that was true. He had a decent arsenal of rare weapons, limited edition's guns and custom made fire arms. All of them were waiting to get bought by the right client for the right price, a good price.
However, as much as people will tell others about it, he never touched drugs and if his principals were standing high like they always did, he won't take any form of illegal and or dangerous drugs.
His methods may be rude to outsiders who don't know of from who he got the methods from, but they were never dirty or nasty and the people he fought had deserved the hard hitting and well-balanced punches that he gave to them for free.
He was a salesman, a merchant, someone who trades in antiques, rare items and extraordinary products.
However, people could easily see that his daughter was dearer to him than an object with the price tag of over the one trillion, because Stefana was priceless.
"You can, this week is a bit busy for me, so if you want company at day, I can bring you to your mom," he answered her question on the way back to his home.
To say that Stefana's parents were divorced wasn't that much of stretch, but they only lived apart from each other. She just didn't want to be associated with the man who's known for his 'shady' business, so they lived separated while they had a healthy romantic relationship.
"Can I get a cookie?", his daughter requested gently, when he closed the door behind them. She ran through the living room to the kitchen where the cookies were stored in one of the high placed shelfs. He sighed while he smiled, he couldn't say simply no to her, but he doesn't want to give her everything see asks for.
"We are just home," he commented. "But okay, only this time."
At least I can give her small life lesson with this opportunity.
With an eager face, she saw how Yvan opened one of the shelfs in the hypermodern kitchen. The whole interior wasn't that luxurious, the most expensive objects in the house weren't the electronics, but rather the high-quality leathered bank and the old antique book shelf, who was standing at the wall.
The box with cookies was visible in his hand, grabbed with his vast right hand. However, he held it right for his eyes on his length, what was unreachable for his daughter.
"That's unfair daddy, I can't reach it," Stefana said with an annoyed expression on her lovely soft face. The reason why she was annoyed was that he did this on purpose.
"That's right, you can't. You haven't grown enough by yourself or I am too tall for you, maybe even both," he simply commented calm and it made him smile even more.
At the moment that she started to form tears under her eyes, which will lead to an outcry, he patted her on the hat and took her to traditional couch in the living room. He had putted the box back on the shelf, that wasn't going to be the focus anymore.
"Listen Stefana, not everything will go easily in life, it's just like now. Even I have sometimes days where everything turns out different than I had planned."
Speaking of which, I heard that there was a Japanese actor laid in the hospital. Could it be him, he did look like a foreigner.
"In response to these obstacles in your life, you could do three different things:
First, accept that it isn't in your reach. Maybe you don't have the talent for it or you've tried it, but it makes you more annoyed.
Second, you need to grow and develop. You could take that literally, like with the box of cookies, you need to physically grow to be able to grab the box from the shelf. You could it also interpret figuratively by obtaining skills to achieve your goal, growing stronger as a person.
And as last, you can wait until the box comes closer to you and then grab it. Sometimes, there will be only one chance for the thing that you want. So, you wait for tit and take the opportunity with both hands when it happens."
She was startled by the small lecture that her father has given to her, it seemed like a lot of choices to her, even when they were three simple options.
"So, what will you do in the current situation?", Yvan questioned her and waited patiently for her response. The small silence that felt in the room, indicated that she was thinking about these choices. Her mind was sorting the options into categories and boxes, examining her current limits and abilities to come up with a reasonable conclusion.
"I'll wait for it and try it another time when I am taller!", she said cheerful with an almost bursting spirit.
"That's right, don't give up, only delay you dream of that delicious chocolate chip cookie and maybe I will bring it closer to you in the future, because you never know when it's going to happen," he applauded her and gave her another pair of kisses.
"By the way, I asked Emily to come by. She also likes your company and she's eager to talk with somebody, I heard that she had an encounter with the new resident of number 14."
"Yeah, Emily!", his daughter shouted enthusiastically through the whole room, you could even hear it on the toilet.
At the local supermarket...
It was Friday, which meant that there was discount at the local supermarket. As the cheap speakers played one of the general radio stations through the filter of their spectrum, a man started to become relaxed, while he was shopping for the weekend.
I couldn't find her yesterday's night, but she couldn't be one of them, Joey saw her too, which means...
"Can I help you?", an employee of the supermarket spoke to him in a common honest fashion. He has stood by the vegetables for almost five minutes, a time long enough for the employees to worry about him and ask if he was okay.
He himself, didn't know how long he stood there, he could only think about one person, someone who wasn't an acquaintance of him. He was more like a stranger to her, she didn't anything about him and for him was it almost the same, he had a reason to see her.
He stared confused to her and after that he looked on his watch.
For how long have I been here?
"No thanks, I can find it by myself," he said.
He resumed with his planned activities, grabbing a finished salad from the cooling for today's dinner and taking the vegetables for next few days.
On the way to the cash desk, he grabbed a few dried sausages and few bottles of soda for the evenings.
After this, I need to go to the therapist and maybe the drugs store, however, first I need some sweets to pep myself up.
The well-known chocolates and candy bars were on the discount and because of that, they were stalled separately from the rest of the products.
"!"
Abruptly he dropped his shopping cart out of his hands and started to distant himself from the chocolate bars. In his haste, he fell and hit the rack with the crisps behind him, causing a cascade of falling crisps bags onto his head. The whole accident started to drew the attention towards him and bystanders looked in shock to the thrilling legs of him, wondering what was wrong with the poor man. Some costumers claimed to have seen a terrified expression on his face, which started to become white as bleach.
No, no, they-they are co-coming back. Th-this cou-couldn't be true, they-they said.
Unfortunately, nobody saw the pitch-black creatures crawling from between the candies and the chocolate bars, like if they didn't even exist.
However, he knew it better, he could see them and he could almost feel the sensation of these insect-like demons walking over his back. Their eyes were small portals to hell, the underworld, the domain of the dead.
He was lucky that everything what he had picked was still in the shopping cart and went immediately to the cash desk. His feet steps were irregular, even a hurry couldn't describe the state of his walking cycle, as the tempo changed with a second. While he was hearing his fast pumping heart, his body started to work on almost only adrenaline.
The-they are e-e-everywhere, from a-all sides.
The female cashier didn't believe when she saw him nervous waiting for her to scan all his products, while he looked after him in undefined intervals of time. With a small notion of unease, she spoke the sum of his products, so that he could pay.
"That's fourteen euros and eighty-nine cents please."
The man had already picked a carton box, who were free to take and started to pack all his groceries in. He gave the cashier a bill of twenty euros and when she wanted to give him his spare change, she witnessed him bumping into a woman, which causes to drop both of their groceries. It was startling to her that the accident was happening almost twenty meters away from her, which displayed the fact that he was walking on a high tempo, like if he was trying to escape.
"Are you alright, sir?", the lady asked friendly.
Wha-what's going on with he-her?
His eyes were registering the dark blood eyes of the woman after they found the sharp teeth in the corners of her mouth. As a matter of fact or fiction, he could sense her bloodlust for him.
"I am alright, I can handle it by my own!", he said unexpectedly loud, he collected his products with an extremely feeling of danger and rushed outside to the street. He wanted to go left, but due to an uncertain reason, he chose in an inch of second for going right.
Damn, I was right all the time, he was wrong. For as long as I have feared, for as long as I have hoped for this to be true, they've hiding the truth all the time from me. Screw them, if I need to defend myself from them, then I must take the challenge, it will be for her sake.
He headed for his home, already picturing the exact location of her everlasting bed.
At the local supermarket...
She waited for the ATM machine to distribute her selected amount of money. The long-waited currency came out in the form of paper partly made of cotton.
That is great, our bank account isn't blocked.
She could breathe calmly now, there was no rush anymore for her. She could relax herself, knowing that she would be safe for a time.
The night has done her wondrously good and she was confident that she was unrecognizable for the Rotters to go outside on the street, doing the shopping for tonight's dinner.
"I can treat him at least a healthy and delicious meal," she talked to herself as she was carefully looking to the quality of the displayed vegetables in the cooler.
What shall I cook tonight? I want to let him enjoy the food.
She could take the time, all the make-up she normally wore was washed off. She took the long nails off after she left the pub the other day and didn't wore them after her choice. It was surprising to see how much a person could appear differently after cleaning themselves. The long whimpers were detached, she chose for a variant set of clothes and as the result, her look was friendlier and as mundane as everyone else.
I am going to cook something that will satisfy our stomach for a long while, maybe I will go with mashed potatoes.
If they left his place tomorrow morning, then she would have at least the resources to live without food for almost a whole day. It was better for her if she stood hidden for a few extra days, a time long enough to completely cool their anger about her.
Apples would be good too; I can cut and peel them always if I want to.
She still felt the presence of her kitchen knife, which she holds always in her handbag, no matter what. It was knife that her husband had given to her, however, she wouldn't say that it was a gift.
I like a steak of quality, maybe I am getting used to the almost top-notch dinners of my clients, who want to squeeze some extra enjoyment and entertainment out of me. However, by the diverse seasonings of the steaks, I prefer the Mediterranean spices the most.
She chose for the discount steak with her preferred seasoning, she could afford a more expensive edition, but she really liked the taste of the cheaper ones.
As she heard a shopping cart falling in the distance, she proceeded to the cooler for the desserts.
What would they like for the dessert? Tiramisu, simple ice cream or maybe cheese or chocolate cake?
She decided to go for the latter option, as it was almost proven by science, every woman will fall in love with sweet chocolate, even when she preferred the bitter variant more.
There were a few pitstops on her route to the cashier, with one of them being the pastries department. As a preparation for the next few days, she picked four packages of breakfast bars, crunchy bars made of walnuts, dried fruit and grain, where were sticking to each other by the syrup and honey, serving as the glue of the whole thing.
Money doesn't matter, but as a simple matter of fact, surviving does.
The last pitstop was juice, she took two plastic bottles of freshly squished orange juice, the bottles could also function as bidons, being able to refill them with water if it was necessary and that was surely going to be the case.
With the debit card in her hand, she went to the cash deck to get let her groceries scanned and paid it without any problems. She almost knew that there was enough money on their bank account, she would make sure of that, while her husband brought the extra's in, which was sometimes a huge sum of money.
The carton boxes were perfect to transport everything as nothing will fall out of her hands.
Everything is going fine; no problems have occurred.
"!"
It seemed that faith didn't like her last thought and due to an incident on purpose of life itself, she was forced by the shock that she experienced to drop the box. She had bumped into someone, and both of their boxes fell on the ground, with her groceries still in it.
As she observed the man, who was transpiring like if his life was on the edge, she started to worry if everything was as normal as they seemed. They could be spying on her, could they?
That's strange, I see nobody of them in the supermarket. How could it be possible to get that nervous and stressed only of work?
Her thought lasted only for a couple of seconds, though, the man has changed from a hurried man to a desperate figure of fear, as he looked her with scared eyes to her.
"Are you alright, sir?", she asked politely, while her voice was surrounded by a calming motherly vibe.
"I am alright, I can handle it by my own!", his voice was trembling and the real reaction was a rude version of that sentence. It sounded like a homeless and drug addicted man who was defending his last property, before he would fall into the dark pit of the society.
She noticed that with a remarkable speed, he had recovered his purchases and rushed to the exit, where after he displayed some serious decision-making difficulties by pretending to go one way, but going the other way.
She paused every activity of her body, except the essential heart, to process the whole event. This was an odd accident, the anxiety around him was immensely tense, which combined with the almost hollow staring eyes, wasn't a sign for a good faith.
"He could at least say sorry, that was awfully rude," one of the bystanders commented with basic English vocabulary on the whole accident.
"Yes, you are-"
She was thrown off guard by the appearance of the man, who was in his early twenties, but was rather mature in his way of speaking. In addition to that, she clearly saw how a girl was sticking as glue to him.
These two aren't from here, they both wear already a cap and autumn has just begun. Furthermore, even fanatic couples around here aren't explicit as these two.
"-right," she finished the sentence who got interrupted by the odd looks of the strangers.
While the young man looked to her with a calm and blanc face, the girl was beaming all her toxicity and hate towards her.
Don't worry about me, I have my own rules for choosing clients, he won't be one of them.
The eyes of the girl seemed to sense competition in Astrid, as if she could hijack the boyfriend in a small period. However, as Astrid holds to her principals, she won't pick any man without a reason.
"Well that's great, it's raining outside and Shingen-sama, who asked us to go shopping for tonight's dinner, sits safely and dry in our hotel room, it almost seems like he had planned this," a new woman said with a cold and cynical voice. Her eyes stuck to Astrid's mind, like what the eyes of the exchange cop did with her, but in a completely different fashion. Instead of the wondering she got from his black holes, she felt a sense of danger and anxiety from hers, an impression that you shouldn't mess with that person as her cold eyes would freeze you from the inside.
Normally, you wouldn't get that vibe from a person who worked at the laboratory, which seemed to be her job due to the lab coat she wore. However, there was a tiny change that her combination of a green turtleneck and a short red skirt underneath the coat made the almost threatening atmosphere around her.
When the couple was out of her sight, she approached Astrid very closely, with a simple and clear message for her:
"If you ever, ever lay a hand on my Seiji, then no matter where you live and hide, I will find and kill you."
The voice didn't quiver and indicated that she was really going to do it, which give Astrid an astonishing feeling of unease. She couldn't tell who of the two was that 'Seiji', but it sounded like a male name to her.
The rain outside has calmed down and urged the woman to ran outside, so that she could attach herself to the other side of the young man.
It seems that she already has a competitor, so why does she make a fuss out me?
Life seemed trying to warn her for the dangers ahead, though she was already aware of it and the lady was only remembering her of the situation. The thing that came up in her mind after that thought was heading home to the bar.
"This wasn't needed; however, I appreciate it very much," Edwin apologized after he finished the steak. All three of them were sitting on improvised chairs at the table in the kitchen.
"See it as a part of the payment for our nights here," she explained it to him in a business matter and continued to eat.
This feels weird, even disturbing in some ways. Eating dinner this way has an odd and strange sensation to it.
It was yesterday, when she had eaten with her husband for the last time in her life. The silence which she felt here, was in sharp contrast with the turned-on radio and the inappropriate calls to her husband at home. The quiet atmosphere was further enhanced with the reserved personality of Edwin, while her husband would shout almost aggressively to the incoming calls from the telephone.
William Frandward, who got the title of Astrid's husband, was always a doubled coin. From his aggressive side to intruders through the electronic devices to the caring questions about her clients, out of pure curiosity. Astrid and William took both responsibility of the house hold, as he would deck and clean the table, while she was preparing the food for their dinner. His normal job would end almost automatically around four o'clock and so, they always were in each other's company around the dinner, which had a status of being a tradition that they both didn't want to break.
"Are you tired? Your dish is starting to cool off," the voice of the bartender took her out of the state of wandering off to the realm of nostalgia, the realm of the past.
"Oh, thanks for reminding me," she said uncontrolled, as the reaction was an automatic response when she was startled about her return to reality.
"No thanks, what do you say, shall I wash the dishes tonight, because you've cooked for us," he offered to her.
"Yes, please," she replied with a faint smile of nostalgia on her face. While he and the girl were cleaning and washing the dishes, she walked to the improvised bed on the ground, where she closed her eyes to focus on her heart, which started to fill with regret.
"Is she doing okay?", the girl asked to Edwin, who washed the plates with soapy hot water.
"I can't tell if she's mentally okay, however, she seemed more worn off than a normal person. Nonetheless, I don't know what's going on in her mind."
He paused his activity with a bland face towards the blond girl, who was helping him with the dishes by drying the glasses.
"If you don't mind, may I ask you what your name is? I know her name from earlier visits at the bar, but I have never heard yours."
"Could you tell me her name first, then I will give you mine," the teenager responded with the same bland expression as his face.
"It's Astrid Frandward-Meijster, she's married."
"Denise Stirlo is mine," she immediately said and resumed her drying work.