"Wow, that's more people than I thought was gonna show up," Trent muttered as he peered into the movie theater. It was packed. Full up. And there were more people waiting around for the next showing. "Um, how many times we gonna show this?"

"As many as it takes," Lori replied, but he could tell she was very nervous. "I want to show everyone who wants to see...although the flyer says four times."

"Hell yes, girl," Mae said, grinning broadly. Trent glanced at her. She looked absolutely crazy, decked out in her Gasmask outfit. "Where's Bea? Or Ann?" she asked.

"They're seated already," Lori replied. "Speaking of which, like, you two should get to your seats, too. They're all in the front row. Sorry if that's annoying, it's just kinda how it worked out?"

"No way! Front row is awesome!" Mae replied. "This is gonna be so cool."

"Okay, we'll head in. You're gonna be good to open up?" he asked.

"Yeah." She paused, frowned. "I think so."

"We'll be right there for moral support, Lori," he replied.

She nodded. "Thanks. I seriously couldn't have made it without you."

"You're welcome, Lori. Come on. Let's get this show on the road."

The three of them headed into the movie theater. There had to be a hundred people inside, and there were more waiting outside. The three of them walked along the aisle and the whispering quickly intensified as everyone realized that Lori had come into the theater. They came to the front row where they found Lori's family, as well as Bea, Ann, Candy and Stan, and Gregg and Angus. They all waved to her and welcomed her.

She smiled awkwardly and waved back, then hurried up onto the stage, where a microphone was waiting for her in front of the screen. She stepped up to it and cleared her throat.

"Hi everyone, um, I'm Lori and this is my movie and oh my God there are so many people," she said, trailing off, staring with wide eyes. "Oh boy. Um. I can't do this." She looked suddenly at Trent. "Help, please."

"Aw shit," he muttered, hopping up and then jogging up to the stage and hauling himself up onto it. "I got you, Lori."

"Thank you," she said, retreating from the mic, "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault at all," he replied, stepping up to the mic. He wondered if she'd stay but she quickly quit the stage and hustled back down to sit next to her mom, who took her hand and murmured in her ear. Trent's and Lucy's eyes met briefly and she quickly looked away awkwardly. Trent cleared his throat. "Hi, everyone. I'm Trent Sinclair, I'm in the movie and I helped make the movie and I'm dating the star of the movie.

"Lori got freaked out by public speaking in front of a hundred people, which is a very natural reaction, so I'm up here to, uh...introduce the movie, I guess. It's a horror movie. A slasher. Lori has been into horror movies for a while and this is her first serious attempt at a movie. On behalf of Lori and her family, and on behalf of the Borowski family, thank you very much for being here today. All the proceeds go towards helping them out. Which, for the record, we officially did it yesterday! They are no longer in danger of losing the house!"

There was a great cheer and a lot of clapping from that, several people near Candy and Stan congratulating them.

He kept going once it had died down. "So, on their behalf, seriously, thank you for the support. The rest of the money collected is going towards helping finish paying off the house so that this bullshit doesn't happen again." He paused. "Oops, uh, probably shouldn't curse...on the other hand, you're all here to watch someone in a gasmask slaughter people for an hour, so...it would be kind of hypocritical to get offended by a bad word. Um. I'm getting off topic, I'm also bad at public speaking. Lori made this, it's amazing, thanks for the support, enjoy!"

He grabbed the mic stand and brought it down with him as he got off the stage. Setting it out of the way, he took his seat between Mae and Bea.

"Trent, oh my God," Mae whispered. "That was hilarious."

"Hopefully I didn't make too much of an ass of myself," he muttered.

"No babe, that was great," Bea said. She glanced over as Ann tapped her and then she whispered something. Bea smiled and turned back to Trent. "Lori says that was awesome and thank you."

He looked past Bea and Ann and saw Lori looking at him farther down the row. She waved awkwardly. He gave her a thumbs up and then everyone fell quiet as the lights dimmed almost to nothing. The screen lit up and within a minute, the movie was going.

Trent watched closely. She'd established a new intro sequence and it was pretty effectively haunting. He recognized a few of the final shots that they'd gone out to get and saw several new atmospheric shots spliced between text. She'd found a new song, something atmospheric, discordant, and ominous, like something out of Silent Hill. And each time it cut back to actual footage, the sound of someone breathing heavily in a gasmask played. Overall, it was very effective and unsettling. It slowly built, getting gradually louder, until…

Abruptly, all the sound cut off and then a distant shot of the abandoned building he'd shot his scene with Bea in appeared. There were a few ambient sounds: the hum of cicadas, the distant noise of traffic, the wind blowing eerily.

He had to admit, it was weird but also kind of cool to see himself making out with Bea up on a big screen. It was pretty obvious that she was into it. He was just glad he hadn't had any real lines. As Trent kept watching, he saw that Lori had spent the past few months refining the film. It looked a bit sharper and he finally realized that she'd muted the colors just a tad and had done something else to it, some kind of filter.

He sat back and settled in to watch.

When it was over, everyone applauded. A lot of people stood up. With a bit of gentle prodding from her mother and father, Lori went back up onto the stage and just stood there for a moment. Trent hopped up and passed her back the microphone stand.

"You got this?" he asked as she accepted it.

"I think so, yeah. I'm less freaked out now," she murmured.

"Good. That movie absolutely fucking killed by the way. Like, the adjustments? Great. And that new intro was seriously inspired."

She laughed awkwardly. "Really? It wasn't too much? It felt kind corny when I was doing it…"

"No, seriously, it was really unnerving."

"Okay. Awesome. Um. Thanks."

"Good luck. We'll all be here."

She just nodded, adjusted the mic stand a bit more, then cleared her throat. The applause died down, everyone waited.

"Hi again. Uh, I'm feeling a little better this time. Thank you everyone for watching, and the applause. That was really nice. Uh, I hoped you liked it, but if not that's cool. Uh. I don't really know what else to say?"

"Is there gonna be a sequel?!" someone called out.

"Uh...I mean I've thought about it and like, maybe? I mean if Mae is down for it…"

"I am so down to be Gasmask again!" Mae yelled, eliciting a lot of laughter and cheers.

"Is there gonna be a book!?" someone else asked.

"Uh...I can't really write," Lori replied. "And, I know...a writer, but I don't really wanna put him on the spot…" she murmured awkwardly.

"You think I should say something?" Trent murmured.

"Yeah," Bea and Mae said at the same time.

He sighed. "All right." He stood up, looked at Lori. "Want me to say something?" he asked.

"If you want to," she replied.

He hopped up onto the stage with her and joined her at the mic. "Hey again. So, this is something we've kicked around a few times, but we never really settled on anything. Lori, how would you feel about the idea of me officially novelizing Gasmask?"

"After reading Demontower, I think that would be amazing," she replied.

"Well all right then. We'd need to actually hammer some stuff out, and I've got other writing responsibilities right now, but honestly? I'd be down to at least give it a shot."

"Do it!" someone yelled.

He gave the stage back up to Lori. She fielded a few more questions about the movie, then glanced down at her mom when Lucy tried to get her attention. She tapped her wrist.

"Oh!" Lori said. "Uh, sorry everyone! The second showing is gonna be soon so, like, I guess we gotta clear the theater? Thanks for coming!"

She went and sat down with her feet hanging over the edge of the stage as everyone began getting up and shuffling out of the theater.

"How many showings did she agree to again?" Bea asked.

"Four," Trent replied.

"Holy shit. Are they sold out?" Mae asked.

"Last I heard three of them were," he replied.

"That's so nuts. That's like...two grand per showing," Ann muttered.

Mae nodded. "Yeah, and-"

"Hey, Mae!"

They looked over, finding a pair of what seemed to be high schoolers standing together. One was an orange cat guy with gauged ears and a pierced lip, and the other was a short brown mouse girl with huge blue eyes.

"Hey, tunnel teens," Mae replied, standing up. "So am I cool now?" she asked.

"Uh...yeah," the guy replied awkwardly. "Sorry about...what we said last year."

Trent stood up and their eyes went to him. "What'd you say to my girlfriend?" he asked.

"Uh...I mean, nothing really bad," the teen replied with growing worry.

"One time you literally interrupted me with 'nobody cares' when I was trying to talk," Mae replied. She patted Trent gently on the arm. "But let's not intimidate them, dear."

"We just, um, wanted to see if you'd give us an autograph?" the mouse asked.

"...seriously?" Mae replied.

"Yeah, if you don't want to, that's cool-" the cat began to say, but Mae shook her head.

"No, no, it's fine. I'm just...surprised." Trent studied her. She looked...disappointed? Or maybe he was misinterpreting that. She took the flyer when they offered it and studied it. "Shit, man, this came out so fucking sick," she muttered. "Uh, anyone got a pen?"

"Here, I got a marker," Bea said, reaching into her purse. She fished out a small black marker and passed it to Mae, who looked around for a moment, then walked over to the stage, pressed it against the side, and signed it. "Uh, you want the actual creator to sign it, too?" she asked. "Since she's like...right here."

"Yeah!" the mouse replied. "Hi, Lori!"

"Oh, man, uh, hey Erin," Lori replied awkwardly.

"This is so cool! I didn't know you could do that! Like, that felt really close to, like, a Hollywood movie."

"Here," Mae said, passing her the marker and flyer.

"Really?" Lori asked, taking it and signing it.

"Yeah! It was so awesome! If you really do a sequel, like, can we be in it? I've always wanted to try being in a movie."

"Probably yeah. Here."

"Could, uh, Trent sign it?" Erin asked.

"Really?" he asked. "I was in the movie for like...thirty seconds. I mean I'll do it." He accepted it from Lori and signed it. "How about Bea?"

"Yeah, that'd be cool," Erin replied.

"Come on up, babe," he said.

"All right then," Bea replied, coming over.

"Wait, um, so...like are you two dating?" Erin asked as Bea came over and started signing it.

"Yep," Bea replied.

"But you said you and Mae-"

"He's dating me, too," Mae said. "We're not really hiding it anymore."

"Uh. Oh. Wow. Okay. Um...cool," Erin murmured.

"It's pretty cool," Bea agreed, passing the flyer over to Erin and her friend.

"Thanks a lot, everyone. Like...really, this is awesome, and the movie was awesome. Okay, um, bye," she said, and they headed up the aisle.

"You doing okay, Mae?" Trent asked.

"What? Oh, yeah," she replied, watching them go.

"You don't seem like it," Bea said.

Mae sighed. "I'm just a little a disappointed. I tried talking with them when I got back into town and, I mean, eventually we kinda got a little cool, but...I dunno. They didn't give a fuck about me. Like they asked me how old I was once and all they heard was 'not old enough to buy beer' and 'don't have a car'. And now they want my autograph? It's just disappointing, is all. But it's not really surprising. It's how people are. Especially teenagers."

"Yeah...I guess I don't really have anything to cheer you up with," Trent replied after thinking about it for a moment. "Sorry."

She sighed. "That's just life sometimes. But whatever, I'm not gonna be down right now. This is an up time."

"That it is," he agreed.

"How long we got?" Bea asked suddenly.

"Like fifteen minutes I think?" Trent replied. "Why?"

"Let's run over to the Snalcon and grab some snacks and shit, I'm hungry," she replied.

"That's a good idea, and it's not like anyone will take our seats. Let's see if anyone else wants anything," Trent said.

"Is that it? Is everyone gone?" Lori asked in a weary voice.

"Yep," Trent replied. "Well, everyone but, like, staff."

He looked at her for a moment. She and Mae were sitting in the back of his jeep, their legs dangling over the edge, the rear door open. They both looked pretty haggard in the evening light, but Lori looked worse for the wear. Her mom had wanted to take her home after the third showing but she had insisted in sticking around and finishing it out.

"So we can go home?" Mae asked.

"Yep. I mean I need to collect Bea and Ann and make sure everything's wrapped up properly one last time, but yeah, we could be on the road in ten minutes max," he replied.

"Cool," Mae said, laying on her back in his trunk.

"Hey, Trent...um...sorry for like putting you on the spot about a Gasmask book," Lori said awkwardly, not meeting his eyes.

"You don't have to apologize," he replied, "I meant what I said in there. I like the idea. I want to do it. And I don't feel pressured."

"He means it," Mae said. "I know we're all conditioned to say 'we're fine' even when we aren't fine, but Trent has gotten better about being honest. Thanks to me," she added, giggling.

"Yeah, entirely thanks to you," he replied, rolling his eyes. "But for real, I'm down for this. Honestly I've been thinking about doing it almost since we began filming. And now more than ever."

"I'm so curious what it'll come out like," she murmured.

"Once everything quiets down and I've got all the side stuff for Demontower properly edited and prepped, and I've finished the writing for Demontower Three, I'll talk with Tabby and take a real crack at it. Also, I was thinking, you could totally sell Gasmask online. Like digitally, and I know there exist services that are basically print-on-demand blu-rays and DVDs."

"...really?" she asked.

"Yeah, totally," Trent replied. "Honestly Bea could help you get your own website set up and we could work with your parents to figure out the specifics of money. I think it'll have to be technically in their name since you're fifteen, but yeah, this is totally a thing that could happen."

"I'll definitely think about it," she murmured. "And I guess I'll get to work on a script for Gasmask 2. I mean I've had ideas, I've been getting them ever since. Man, this is crazy…"

Mae yawned. "Yep, definitely crazy. Ugh, I need to get food and crash out for like an hour or two."

"Same," Trent agreed. "I'll go get the others."

"Okay. Also, like, I wanted to say it again, because it's really important, but like...thank you. Both of you. I really don't think any of this would have happened at all if you haven't helped out and encouraged me. My mom told me...that people who actually go out of their way to help you are pretty rare. Like, people will usually show up to a big thing, like this, and come together in times of great need. But like most of life isn't just great need, it's just average need but like all the time. And the people who will actually keep showing up are rare.

"And she also told me that I haven't really figured this out, not because I'm dumb, but just because I'm too young, and there are some things you can't really grasp until you live for long enough, and I think about stuff I know now, that I kinda-sorta knew when I was like nine, and realizing that yeah, it's just not the same. I didn't really know back then, but I do now, and so it makes sense that that's gonna happen again later. So I guess I'm saying, I believe her in recognizing that this was actually a pretty big deal, and that I should appreciate that. So...thanks."

"You're welcome, and your mom is right," Mae said.

"Yeah," Trent murmured. "And the saddest part, I think, is that it's not even really people's fault. Like, yeah, we tend to get wrapped up in our lives as we get older and like yeah there's totally people who are all 'fuck off', but for the most part, it just seems like society is designed to keep people busy and unhappy and it's so much harder to help other people with things when you're super burned out."

Lori sighed. "Yeah. I really hope I can figure something out like what you guys have going on. Like, you don't have any jobs? I mean like jobs you gotta go to like an office for or something?"

Trent nodded. "Yeah, we're really lucky. If you want something similar, well...I dunno, I'd say you've got a good start with Gasmask. Like I hate to be all 'monetize it', but that's what we're doing and it's working. I mean, again, struck gold on an insane gamble, but the sooner you get started on something, the sooner it might pay off. I think we've talked about it before, but I'd say like get yourself a website, a YouTube channel, a maybe. It helps if you look at it like infrastructure, you know? It'll take time to build and you can't work on the whole thing all at once, you gotta build it in pieces, and some before others, but it'll take time and the best way to do it is consistently. Put in a few hours most days if you can, but don't push too hard, you're still pretty young...I dunno, I'm kinda rambling."

"No, I mean, that makes sense," Lori replied.

"Whatever you do, good luck with it, and we'll help when we can," Trent said.

"Yeah! I'm seriously so super down for Gasmask 2," Mae said.

"Awesome, I think-" Lori paused, blinked a few times, shook her head. "Aw man, okay, this is getting to be too much. I gotta go home."

"Don't let us hold you up, and let us know if you aren't okay," Mae replied.

She nodded. "I will. Thanks! Bye!" She hopped up and scurried off.

"About time for us to head home too," Trent said.

"Yes, fuck," Mae groaned.

"Stay here, babe, I'll go get the others."

"Thank you. I love you," she groaned, rubbing her face.

He laughed. "I love you, too."

Trent headed back into the theater. All in all, this had gone really well.