=================BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 3=========================

48 hours, one deceased

[FLASHBACK] December 12 1938, Marrietta, Georgia

As Daisy walks from her hairdresser to the set, she is once again "greeted" by the smug look of her co-player Edward.

"Hello Edward."

"Daisy, what a surprise. I hadn't expected you quite so early."

"Oh, you hadn't? For whatever reason?"

Edward looked at her surprised. Did she really not remember what had happened in her dressing room, just days before?

"What's wrong Eddy? Cat got your tongue?"

Edward didn't know what to say, he just turned around angrily and walked away.

This marked the beginning of 48 hours.

Later that afternoon, while cast and crew where taking a break, Daisy was talking to some of the crewmembers while an angry Edward told everyone but Daisy to go somewhere else.

"Well, Well, Edward. What a.." she coughed sarcastically "...surprise."

Edwards anger only rose. "Listen to me, stupid whore." He said while he pushed her against a set-wall and put his hand around her throat. "I am the one that brought you on this set, I can take you off of it just as easily."

Daisy pushed the man back and tried to regain her composure. Eventhough he had now released her throat, she still felt the pressure of his hand against it, chocking the air out of her body.

Her anger began to rise as well. She had enough of his male pride, his chauvenistical ways and his stupid mustache.

"You fucking coward." she sneered as she launched for a kick to his testicles.

Once the first one landed, she turned around and used her stiletto to get a second one in.

Edward tried to evade Daisy's second kick but he was too late. A burning, agonising pain seered through his groin area and he fell on his knees.

"Bitch" he said with a painful sound coming through his tonsils. "You'll pay for this."

Daisy didn't say anything. She just turned around and walked back to the people she had been talking to before Edward's interruptions.

"Hey Guys."

The group looked towards her and made room in their circle to let her in.

Edward just looked at it, he didn't belong to a group, actually he spent most of his offscreen time alone in his dressing room.

As more female cast and crew members joined the group Daisy was in, more and more strange, if not evil looks, glares and pointing fingers where directed to the main lead, Edward.

LATER THAT DAY

Edward retrieves in his dressing room. Revenge for the earlier humiliation still fresh on his mind.

He takes out a little notebook from his desk and begins a rigorous study of what seemingly looks like building plans of some sort.

A knock on the door.

He doesn't pay any regard to it and continues his study.

A harder knock, now several times.

Edward got up annoyed and opened the door angrily. "What?!"

A young man looked at Edward in awe. It was one of the set runners. "They need you on set pronto".

Edward sighed. Went back inside his room and closed the book he was studying in before. He put it in one of the dressors and locked it securely. He than grabbed his coat and followed the runner to the set.

LATER THAT DAY

After a long day of work, Daisy returned to her home. It wasn't a big apartment, not by far a Frank Lloyd Wright building, but she liked it.

Her entire family had suffered greatly during the Great Depression that seered through the world at the end of the '20s, early '30s. She had been dealt a rough set of cards but did whatever she could to get that so-longed Royal Flush.

[FLASHBACK DURING FLASHBACK]

As so many men in the 20's, Daisy's father, Luke, had worked in the cotton industry. He worked long hours and got little in return, yet they managed.

Daisy's mother, Rosemary, had worked in a clothing manufacturing factory for 25 cents an hour until 1924. During a rare visit to a doctor, she found out that the dye used to color the clothing was slowly but surely poisening her. She didn't want her daughters to grow up without her so she quit, much to her employer's dismay. Thus, he made sure she wasn't able to find a new job.

There were 5 children in the Adair family. From oldest to youngest: Warren, Adrien, Daisy, Lee and Lilly.

Warren had died during a gas attack in the trenches, 2 weeks before the end of World War 1.

Adrien worked on a farm in Wisconsin and sent in some money for the family every now and than. He was married to a girl called Rose.

Lee and Lilly still lived at home. They came a while after Daisy was born. 7 and 8 years respectively.

During the depression, Daisy's dad lost his job when prices of the massive cotton-production had risen while the selling price dropped tremendously. They lived off his measly paycheck he received every now and than when he took on dead-end jobs.

Mining, picking fruit, working in a store, working in a steel factory, he had done it all, none of it successfully, barely making 200 bucks a year.

Southern Georgia, where the Adairs lived, was one of those regions that were hit even harder by the depression.

She didn't like to think about that time anymore.

Daisy had left her elderly home in Georgia in 1932 when she was 22. She had heard many tales of life in California, how everything was possible in Hollywood-Land, because that's what they called it back than. She had made up her mind to become a celebrated actress.

She had found leaving home difficult, especially since her little brother was still young and her family needed all the help they could get. Still, her mother and father had supported her. Ofcourse she didn't tell them she wanted to become an actress. That would be absurd! She told them she was going to look for a job as a secretary.

[END OF FLASHBACK in the FLASHBACK]

Now here she was, back in Georgia. She had worked in several productions in California and thought taking an acting job in Marietta would give her the chance to visit her family. She wanted to see her mother, especially after she heard Lilly had been killed by her boyfriend.

She was living her dream, however difficult a life it was. She had more things than she could imagine during her childhood. She kept some of the money, most of it she sent to her parents, who were still struggeling but slowly doing better.
Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would one day own her own apartment.

There wasn't much in her apartment, not because of povertess, but because it was the style to have so little. People didn't put stuff in their homes they didn't need.

As it was the style back than, tones of green and blue were mingled in with more earthy colors. She had one of those new two- and three piece couch suits that everybody wanted. A lot of her kitchen equipment where chrome, as where some of the subtle lights that hung on the walls or stood on closets and tables.

Daisy went to the bathroom and filled the bathtub with water. She took a cloth out of a small cabinet and soaked it in the luke-warm water. Than she slowly stroke it through her face and neck.

Her face was red and her eyes were burning. She was coming down with something but didn't know what. "Probably just a cold." She had told herself. "Nothing to worry about."

She put the tap off, undressed herself and lowered herself in the tub. The water soothing her skin. She lay down and put her head back while she re-soaked the cloth and put it on her eyes.

THE NEXT DAY

December 13 1938, Marrietta, Georgia

Daisy woke up and got ready to go to the studio. She got dressed and quickly went through her hair with a brush. She picked up a stack of papers from the table and left.

She closed the door behind her and stepped towards the elevator. As she approached it, a man came out of the apartment adjescent to Daisy's and they bumped into eachother.

Daisy dropped her stuff, the man helped her pick up and they went down in the elevator together.

The man quickly introduced himself in the short way down. "Hey, I'm Jim."

Daisy took a quick glance at the man. He wasn't terrible-looking, handsome even. "Daisy. Daisy Adair." She said, as she presented her hand for the man to shake.

The man looked at Daisy approvingly. "Nice to have met you Daisy Adair. You have a nice day now."

"You too."

Once in the studio, she did her usual morning routine. She went to her dressing room to drop off her stuff, then went to Hair & Make-up.

Once finished, she went back to her dressing room to review her scripts and half an hour later she was expected on scene.

Today was different, felt different. It had everything of a normal day but it clearly wasn't.

She tried to shake the feeling but was unable to. Something was off.

Than she saw Edward coming towards her. He seemed to smile viciously.

"Daisy." He said quietly as he passed her.

"Edward." She replied.

She went on to the set.

IN THE EVENING

Daisy packed up her stuff. Tomorrow, she had a day off. She would take the train to her hometown that night at 9 PM and she'd get "home" at 3 A.M. She'd spend the night in a hotel, not only as to not wake up her family, but also to surprise them.

As she was standing with her back towards the door, she heard it squeek. "Daisy."

She recognised the voice, it was Edward.

The first thing on Daisy's mind was what had happened a few nights before that. She didn't want a repetition of it.

"Edward."

The scene of that morning seemed to be repeating itself. Cold looks back and forth.

All of a sudden, Edward launched for Daisy's throat. He grabbed it with one hand as he used the other one to take a knife out of his belt.

Daisy had no where to go. A feeling of loneliness creeped in her mind as she was felt ever more affraid.

She was alone.

Edward put the knife at Daisy's throat. "Whores don't fight back." He mumbled.

"Edward, let me go."

Daisy squirmed as to escape her attacker. He held her back. "Not this time." He said while he pushed Daisy to the floor.

Once again he beat on her, hands and belt.

When there hardly was anything left to beat up upon, he put away his belt and sat down to his knees.

Daisy felt an excruciating pain in her wrists as Edward sat his knees on the bones that seporated wrist from arm.

More beating.

Daisy was bound to loose counsciousness, but not if he could help it.

She sunk unconscious, he woke her up.

He carved in her arms several times, each time felt more painful than the other.

More pain.

She began thinking of her family. What they'd do when they heard about her demise. She had so many plans, she was gonna visit them that night, she'd talk about her adventures with her parents and her brother. There would be hugging and kissing. She'd be home.

Instead of that, there was emptyness.

A hollow feeling consumed her.

He continued to use his knife, this time on her abomen.

Daisy started to wonder what people would say or do when they found her, dead on the floor.

For just a millisecond she thought she saw Jim, the guy she met only that morning, in the doorway. Just looking at what was going on. Than he was gone.

The last bit of breath was taken away from her by Edwards smuttering hands. He had put down his knife and put his hands around her neck again. Each second his hands where there, they seemed to squeeze harder, taking away more and more of her oxygen.

One suffocating sigh.

She gave up.

Her eyes rolled away and her body went limb.

Edward finally released her. His torture was over.

He took a lock of her blond hair, quickly locked the door from the outside and ducked to the floor. He took out a book of matches and used a napkin to make a fire.

The carpet quickly went ablaze. Daisy's door cought fire.

Daisy didn't care. She didn't wake up, eventhough she wasn't dead yet. She could hear what was going on, she could feel the heat...but she didn't care.

Than a cloud of black smoke entered her room.

She felt her lungs bursting under the pressure of the smoke but didn't care. She didn't want to wake up. Didn't want to give him the pleasure of her screaming for help.

She was dead before the fire reached her, before it consumed her whole.

But it didn't.

One of the nightwatchmen saw the smoke and pulled a fire alarm. He was able to extinguish the fire before it reached Daisy.

It didn't matter, she was dead anyway.

Daisy saw the young watchman kneeling down at her pale body. His eyes turned moist as he carefully took her in his arms.

He saw the cuts and the bruises, but it didn't matter. He fixed her clothes, made her decent.

The watchman couldn't see Daisy, but she could see him.

Than she looked at the doorway and saw Jim, for a blink of a second, than he was gone. He had smiled at her briefly.

A beautiful woman came towards Daisy.

"What's going on?"

The woman smiled. "You passed away."

Daisy didn't know why, but she trusted the woman.

She took a good look at herself and saw that the cuts and bruises where gone.

"Thank God." She said softly to herself.

"Oh, God has nothing to do with this." She heard the woman say.

Daisy looked at the woman in surprise. "Who are you?"

The woman smiled again. "Oh, sorry. I'm Elizabeth. The guy you just saw was Jim. You're gonna take his place."

Daisy shook her head in disbelief. "Take his place on what? How can I be dead? What is going on here?"

Elizabeth took Daisy's arm and led her out of the dressing room. Daisy saw the amount of destruction the fire had caused and than she saw the watchman carrying her limp body out of the dressing room.

Elizabeth than took Daisy outside.

This marked the end of 48 hours.

[Back to the Present]

=====================END OF CHAPTER 3===========================