Chapter Two: Reunions and Decoys
Sonny stood outside the large cluster of buildings that were Condor Studios. She'd just been driven from her hotel in a limousine provided by Mr. Condor, and she was trying to gather the nerve to walk through the front doors and face all of the characters from her relatively recent past. But it had been three years now.
Her hands flexed out of the tight fists she'd been making as she pictured going in and who she would inevitably see and have to spend the next three days with. There was Chad Dylan Cooper to start with.
Her brown eyes rolled at the thought of Chad.
There was also Tawni to face. Not that her and Tawni hadn't been… friends of sorts when So Random got cancelled and they went their own ways. Just the fact that Tawni had been there and witnessed all of Sonny's relationship issues was one reason. Another was that there was no doubt in Sonny's mind that some of the first words out of her mouth would be "how do I look?" and "who are you dating now?" It was simply how Tawni had always been and Sonny doubted three years had done much to help that.
And then there was the cast of Mackenzie Falls to deal with. Things had been rocky to start with between Sonny and the rest of them, but after Sonny and Chad split like shrapnel, icy behavior didn't even begin to cover the way Chad's Falls friends acted towards her.
Sonny rocked back onto the heels of her shoes and looked up at the sky in exasperation, wishing she could just not go into the studio. "Ugh, I can't do this," she muttered under her breath.
"Sonny!" a voice called from behind her.
Sonny rotated her head around and when she saw who it was her face lit up with a big smile. "Zora!" she squealed happily.
Zora had changed a lot in three years. For one, she was taller than Sonny now. Also, her hair was a much darker brown with one strand of hair on the right side of her face dyed lime green and her hair had then cut so it hung to her jaw line. One startling difference to Sonny was that the high-pitched squeak that used to be Zora's voice was now deeper and sounded less like a (devious) mouse, and more like a sixteen year old, young woman. Comfortingly still the same though, was her random taste in style and colors.
A soon as Zora was close enough Sonny threw her arms around her for a much-needed hug.
"I've missed you so much," Sonny said in an excited voice.
"Can't… breathe…" Zora choked out.
"Oh, whoops, sorry," Sonny apologized, releasing Zora.
While Zora tried to subtly straighten the sleeves on her t-shirt Sonny couldn't help feeling overly bubbly again despite all of the trouble going on.
"I'm so happy to see you, Zora. And you're so old now. You're what, sixteen? Wow. Do you have your driver's license?" The words all just poured out of Sonny's mouth as she walked with Zora into the building.
"Yep," Zora said with a grin. "And as soon as I'm old enough and have the time, I'm also getting a special license for driving forklifts and a pilot's license." Her grin widened to show off all her teeth, reminding Sonny of her evil smiles from back in the day.
Sonny chuckled nervously. "Wow, Z. You in control of a car, forklift, and airplane… That's kind of a scary thought."
Zora raised her eyebrows and nodded. "I know."
"You really haven't changed much, have you?" Sonny observed as they reached the main office and entrance for Condor Studios.
"Not at all."
"Still got a cold cut catapult?"
"It works with basketballs now."
"Wow…" Sonny said in shock. "It feels good to be back," she finally said with a wide smile.
"What do you mean there's some psycho killer on the loose?!"
Sonny and Zora turned at the only voice they knew of that got especially whiny when she was scared or upset.
"Tawni," Sonny and Zora said together.
Skipping hello hugs altogether, Tawni whirled around and marched over to her old friends. Sonny could see herself flinching as she took a step back in the reflection of Tawni's sunglasses.
"Did you know about all of the murders?" Tawni questioned intensely.
"Yeah, there've been four. Marissa, Riley, Jamie, and Grady," Zora responded, her mouth turning down into a frown at the thought of Grady and the other three victims.
Tawni frowned also and crossed her arms with a huff over her chest. "So, let me get this straight. I came to a stupid reunion special so Condor Studios can make more money off my talent only to find out that there's some psychotic killer that's doing away with people from Condor Studios?" Tawni shrieked, her voice climbing towards dog whistle pitch with every word.
Zora and Sonny merely nodded at Tawni.
"Well this is horrible! I packed white clothes to wear!" She pulled off her sunglasses and pointed the folded up pair at Sonny. "Do you know how awful blood looks on white clothes?" Tawni's face crumpled and she let out a whimper. "I don't want to die!"
"Tawni, you're not going to get any blood on your white clothes, or any of your clothes. You'll be fine. We'll all be fine," Sonny reassured her. She hoped that Tawni wouldn't ask how she knew all of this, since she didn't. At all.
Tawni took a few moments to recollect herself, breathing in slowly with a troubled look on her face. Finally she looked back up at Sonny and Zora. She opened her mouth to say something but snapped it closed when she saw Nico outside through the glass doors getting out of a limousine. "So, Grady… is gone?" she checked.
Sonny swallowed and answered her "yes."
"Does Nico know?"
"I don't know, probably… Maybe…"
All three of them exchanged a look.
Tawni held her hands up defensively and took a step back. "Well I'm not good with tears or people in my bubble, so… not it!" she yelled, turning and speed walking away down the hall to Stage One, where she'd been told they were all supposed to go.
"Not it!" Zora shouted as well, following after Tawni.
Sonny's mouth opened in half horror and half shock. "Hey, wait a minute! I don't want to tell him if he doesn't already know!" Hurrying to catch up to them, Sonny quickly walked out of the front entry room and towards the hall. "I want a do over! Not it!"
Sonny rounded the corner and smacked into something hard, biting down on the inside of her mouth and almost drawing blood. She'd hit Chad Dylan Cooper. Well… sort of.
While rubbing the outside of her right cheek even though it did nothing to help, she stepped back and found herself looking at the airbrushed face of a Chad cardboard cutout. She soon found what had kept her from falling and knocking the cutout over when the real Chad appeared from behind his other, cardboard self.
Chad raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw who had nearly crushed his "ingenious" decoy. "Sonny," he stated, his surprise leaking into his tone.
"Chad," Sonny said, her tone mirroring the sound of his. She moved her hand away from her cheek and shoved it into her jeans pocket. "Hi."
"Hi," Chad replied in a voice that still sounded uncomfortable.
"What is this?" Sonny gestured to the cardboard cutout standing on her right side and tapped the paper arm with one knuckle.
"Oh this. My CDC Decoy," Chad stated proudly, breaking out of his awkwardness at seeing Sonny again.
Sonny couldn't help snorting at the official sounding name Chad even had for it. "Is that patented?"
"I figure if I just carry this double around with me and stand it up any place in the room that I'm not, if the killer is looking for me, hopefully they'll find this guy first and cut his head off instead of mine," he explained logically, tapping the shoulder of it lightly with the back of his hand while he spoke.
"And you really think that'll work?" Sonny questioned doubtfully.
"I'm willing to try anything at this point. It wasn't until I was on a plane to this stupid thing that I heard two old ladies talking about all of the murders going on." Chad rolled his eyes and picked his cardboard cutout up and carried it sideways as he walked down the hall towards Stage One.
Sonny followed him, figuring it would probably look stupid of her to go outside and take the long way to Stage One just to avoid walking with Chad. "And you were standing directly behind that thing because…?"
"I had to stop and tie my shoe."
"Oh."
With their original topic out of the way, there was suddenly silence between them.
Knowing they would have to get small talk out of the way sooner or later, she continued looking straight ahead as she asked him "so how have you been?"
"Good," Chad replied, relatively pleasantly. "How's the college thing working out?" His acting was proven not half bad since only a third of how bitter he felt came out in his tone during that one question.
"Good. And movies for you?" she asked back, nicely.
"Good. Dating life?" Chad threw out there.
Sonny raised her chin a little and pursed her lips. "Fine. Yours?"
"Fine," he said curtly. "Not that it's any of your business," he muttered.
"Well, you brought it up. I was getting ready to fill you in on Wisconsin weather until you jumped in on dating." Sonny looked over at him in annoyance and saw that his expression was as annoyed looking as hers.
"Fine. How's the weather?"
"Fine," she snapped back.
"Good."
"Good."
There was a tense pause in their conversation as they continued walking through the hall at a relatively slow pace.
"You act like I have no reason to be upset," Chad finally grumbled without looking at Sonny.
"That's because you don't," Sonny replied shortly and they both came to a sudden stop when they walked through the doors of Stage One.
Chad turned towards Sonny with an incredulous and irritated look on his face, but was still careful to not hit her in the side with the life sized cutout Chad. "Oh, really, Sonny? Really? I have no reason at all to be upset?"
"That's right. You don't," Sonny said, her voice raising in volume a little.
Chad narrowed his eyes and smiled bitterly at Sonny, shaking his head in disbelief. "You just suddenly packed up and moved away. You ran away."
"I told you I was leaving and it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise to you anyway. You knew why I was leaving," Sonny stated without showing any remorse.
"And do you think maybe the reason you left was why I was a little upset? I mean come on, Sonny, I…" Chad rolled his eyes up at the ceiling and then decided to not finish his sentence when he noticed most of the people in the room were shamelessly listening to their argument. "Okay, forget it. Have a nice life, Sonny."
"Fine," Sonny said curtly. "Have a great life!"
"Fine, I will!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
They both turned away and stormed off to different sides of the large stage.
Off to the side, Zora smirked at Sonny and Chad while Tawni brought out a bottle of hand sanitizer and squirted a big glop into her palm.
"Some things never change," Zora observed thoughtfully, not having picked up on the fact that this fight was more serious than the others used to be.
"I'll say. This place is still just as germy as ever. Ugh." Tawni shuddered delicately and rubbed the sanitizing solution in quickly.
----
"Okay people listen up," Mr. Condor announced. Once he had complete silence, he did the equivalent of a smile for when he wasn't looking at his precious daughter. "Thank you all for coming out here for the Condor Channel's Special Premiere Weekend taping and photo shoot. Now I know you all know about the recent murders of four individuals. Marissa Beckett, Grady Mitchell, Riley Newman, and Jamie McAdams, all of whom used to work here, and two had very recently been working here at Condor Studios. I also know that some of you are concerned by the connection between all of their deaths being their previous workplace, and who are now worried that you're in danger now."
Sonny looked up from her shoes and started paying closer attention.
Mr. Condor clasped his hands together and looked around at the faces of his past star actors from Condor Studios' four most popular shows three years ago. "I can assure you though that you are not in any danger here. We have security stationed throughout the studio. However, I must ask as a precautionary that you not wander off on your own far away from the group-"
Two boys from Mackenzie Falls rolled their eyes.
"-and to use the buddy system when you're in Condor Studios, and outside of Condor Studios, again, just as a precautionary," Mr. Condor continued, oblivious to the eye rolls and the groans about "being treated like babies."
Tawni turned to her right to make a comment to Zora but when she looked, Zora was gone and the life sized cutout of Chad was in her place. Startling, she jumped and hastily stepped forward to see what it was since it was facing her sideways. When she saw Chad's face she rolled her eyes and pushed it away with disgust.
"Now the studio has changed a little bit as a few of you already know. Recently, we had a bit of a problem with a freak accident and the roof caving in on Stage Three, where So Random used to shoot, so for safety reasons, I'm required to tell you all to not go into Stage Three. If you have any questions ask our new head of security, Murphy Malone." Mr. Condor didn't bother pointing out Murphy wherever he was. "And now I'll turn you all over to the capable hands of your director and executive producer for the next three days." He turned around with one arm extended to gesture towards them, but there wasn't anyone standing where everyone could guess they were supposed to be at this point in Condor's speech.
No one dared snicker at something that Mr. Condor didn't plan well enough, but plenty of them wanted to.
"Alex! Marshall!" Mr. Condor snapped to somewhere behind the large green screen set up behind a slew of comfortable looking chairs and couches.
Sonny, Tawni, Zora, and Nico all brightened a little at the sound of their old producer's name.
Alex and Marshall came from the opposite direction Mr. Condor was expecting, instead walking away from the Kraft service table. Alex had a piece of cheese in his hand while Marshall reluctantly had a piece of celery, though the powdered sugar dusting on his chin and tie indicated he'd ditched the donuts at the last second.
"Marshall!" Sonny blurted excitedly.
"Hey, kiddo," Marshall greeted, waving the celery stick in the air.
Mr. Condor had a look on his face that looked like he was thinking something like "and this is my crack staff?" while he glanced from Marshall to Alex and then at the easily excitable Sonny, practically hopping from seeing her old producer.
"Alright, get to work," Mr. Condor finally commanded, marching off the set with his personal body guards following after him.
Everyone immediately scattered, pretending they all had something important to do right that second while they were still under the scrutinizing eye of Mr. Condor.
----
"So don't touch that remote," Sonny said in a cheery voice while sitting comfortably on the small couch positioned right next to Chad Dylan Cooper.
"Because Sally with a Choice will be right back," Chad added in, flashing a toothy grin at the camera.
"And so will we while we hang out during the Condor Channel's Special Premiere Weekend," Sonny finished, resisting the urge to flinch or flip him over when Chad casually laid his arm over the back of her seat.
The two held their smiles for five more seconds until their director, Alex, finally called "cut."
Immediately, Sonny sat up and away from Chad's arm with a disgruntled expression Tawni could read from across the room while Chad scooted quickly away from Sonny.
Tawni hurried over to Sonny, practically pulling her arm out of its socket as she dragged her off the set and the next rotation of stars went up there to tape a part.
"Jason and Andrew left," Tawni rushed out once they were by the empty Kraft service table.
"The two other guys from Mackenzie Falls?" Sonny checked, glancing out of the corners of her eyes for the boys.
"Yes. They left like thirty minutes ago because they said they doubted any killer could be after them, and when Cameron asked them about that, they said they'd prove it. So they told us they were going to the old stage, our stage, and were going to 'prove it' to us," Tawni frantically said.
Sonny's eyes grew wider with shock and she gripped the edge of the table. "How stupid could they be? How many people have to die before they realize this is serious?" She turned away from Tawni and headed for the closest security guard with Tawni on her heels.
"I don't know but they've been gone a really long time now." Tawni's eyes widened even more than Sonny's suddenly. "Do you think they're dead, Sonny?"
Sonny slowed down and glanced over her shoulder at Tawni. "Uh…" she hedged.
"Do you think we're going to die? Sonny." Tawni broke her own bubble rule and gripped Sonny's arm to stop her. Sonny came to a stop and looked at Tawni, seeing the plain fear in her eyes. "I'm scared, and I don't want to die. I'm too young to die. Aren't you scared too?"
Sonny opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the sound of Cameron's loud screaming by the stage entrance.
Sonny and Tawni turned to look, realizing they were the last to realize the commotion going on around them. Jason was standing in the doorway in front of Cameron, and from where Sonny was standing, his palms and shirt were red, though he looked unharmed. Several security guards rushed through the door, most likely in the direction of Stage Three.
Sonny's heart sped up as she watched Cameron start sobbing into her hands. Her head fit the puzzle pieces together quickly and felt like screaming herself when she found the solution.
Cameron had screamed and was now sobbing. Jason had blood on his hands and his shirt, but didn't look injured, meaning it was probably someone else's blood. Andrew, Cameron's boyfriend, wasn't anywhere to be seen. All of this could only mean-
"Andrew's dead," Tawni whispered in shock.
