Page 54 of The Devil of Hollywood

“But not anymore. I want you to give me your pain. Collect every memory you don’t want anymore about what happened here and imagine pushing them right towards me.” Foreign words I didn’t understand poured from Elec. He snapped twice, moving to her opposite ear to snap next to that one. “Do you have them ready for me?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“See yourself push everything my way. See it, Marian. Give it to me and feel the heavy emptiness and pain leave you. You don’t need it. Deep breaths. Keep looking into my eyes. Push.”

Snap. Snap-snap.

Her hand reached out, gripping into his suit’s jacket. Marian’s lids suddenly looked so heavy. A deep excel left her and she swayed.

“Good girl. There we go.” More foreign words I couldn’t understand. As he traced his finger in the air, Marian followed it. No words. No sound. Just a snap right in front of her face… and she was out. Unconscious. Yet, she still sat on her own.

Elec glanced at me, his face hardening.

“There’s resistance. A lot. I have her under, but I don’t think it will be for long. I’ll try but… Fuck. We have to take advantage of this while we can. Let’s get the truth.”

“The truth?”

“It’s time to see just how guilty your chosen is. How involved was she in your fall? How much of a role did she play in her mother’s games? Do you want to know what really happened or not? It’s now or never, Drayton.”

Something in his stare had me swallowing back the questions that wanted to come. He’d done that finger trick to me. And he worked alongside the one woman he’d brought down. One… who was accused of things he’d just demonstrated himself.

“You’re positive what she says will be the truth?”

“Absolutely.”

“I want to know.”

He nodded, pushing his finger under Marian’s chin to tilt her head up.

“Open your eyes, Marian. Look back into mine.”

A delay followed as she obeyed.

“I want you to think back for me. Let your memories go back all the way to the night you accused Drayton of raping you.”

Tears raced quickly down her face as she slowly blinked.

“I said that.

“Yes, you did. Did you say it on your own free will?”

“No.”

“Did you want to say it?”

A sob. “No.”

Snap.

“Go through that entire day and night with me. How did the day start off?”

“Happy. Drayton was coming over. We were going to be alone in the guest house. Together, finally. I’d been pressuring him. I wanted him.”

Elec slowly nodded. “Good. And when he got there, what happened?”

“We immediately started… making out. I was nervous. I asked him to pour me a drink. I had a little. I couldn’t get enough of him. He asked if I wanted to stop. I said no. We went to the bed. He… was so… gentle with me. We—It was… perfect.”

More tears as I clenched my jaw and moved around wider to watch her every expression.