Chapter 8
“You’re looking palerthan usual, Sonya,” Marion said as she pulled out her makeup brush. “Are you getting enough sleep?”
Seated in the makeup chair, Sonya looked up at the woman who’d been doing her makeup for the past weeks. “I guess I’m not going out into the sun as much as I’d planned.”
“I know what you mean. I don’t get out in the sun nearly as much as I’d like.” She looked around the wide counter. “Where’s my iridescent green?”
“Are you feeling a little crowded in this room? When did they bring the wardrobe in here?”
Marion glared up at the ceiling and clucked her tongue in irritation. “Something about a pipe bursting and they had no other room to put it in. Look at the space I have left to work in.” She reached out to the far end of the counter. “Oh, here it is. You can’t be a convincing bird without this gorgeous iridescent green.”
Despite being a little crowded, she worked expertly, applying one color after another, turning Sonya into the beautifully colorful bird that was once queen.
“There you go,” Marion said after an hour and a half. “All set.”
“Thank you. A wonderful job as usual.” Realizing that she was a bit late, Sonya rushed to the set where the cast waited.
“Beautiful as always,” Betty said. “Marion really does work miracles. You’re even more splendid than usual. Perfect for this all important scene.” She turned to the cast. “Okay, everyone. Let’s get into place.”
Connie, Yolanda, Sonya and a handful of minor actors took their marks.
“Kitty,” Betty called out to her assistant. “I’m going to need Eddie for the next scene. Make sure he’ ready.”
“Yes. Right away.”
Betty turned to the cast again. “Ready, and...action.”
The music slowly crept in and built up and Sonya delved into what was her favorite song. It was so poignant and heartbreaking, and the emotions gripped her. She plunged into the deepest, lowest notes, her body shaking with the pain. Then her voice slowly rose to hit those soaring highs that promised so much hope. Just as she prepared for the finale, a whisper of a wish for humanity, a loud scream cut through the air.
“Cut!”Betty called out, annoyed as she looked around for the source of the scream. “What the hell was that?”
The answer came in the form of another loud scream. “The king! The king!”
“What the...?”Betty rushed away from the set and headed to the makeup/dressing room. The cast and much of the crew followed.
“What’s going on?”Betty said to Kitty, who came quickly to the door of the dressing room. She was hysterical.
“Eddie!”the poor girl shouted. “The king! Something horrible has happened to him.”
Betty grabbed Kitty’s shoulders and moved her aside to enter the dressing room. Sonya followed close behind her.
Eddie, slumped over in the makeup chair, was eerily motionless.
“Eddie?”Betty said gently as she approached his limp form. “Eddie?” She leaned in to listen to his breathing. “Oh, heavens. This can’t be real.”
Sonya hurried to him, grabbed his wrist and checked his pulse.
“He’s not breathing,” Betty said.
“And there’s no pulse,” Sonya added. Her heart pounded as she looked carefully at the lifeless king. Her vampire eyes saw more than just a lifeless man. She saw the lack of blood flowing through his veins. Damn it. There weren’t even any veins to speak of.
He’d been drained, completely. She wasn’t the one to have fed off of him. It could only be the Bat.
“Oh, my God,” Betty said. “What am I going to do now? What in the world am I going to do now? So many scenes have been shot with him. But now I don’t have a king. How can I finish this movie without a king?”
Connie, Yolanda and a few other cast members stood at the door, baffled and shocked.
