Hollywood After Dark Ch. 10

"Oh Alex, do you have to do that TONIGHT?" Rachael pleaded.

"Yes. If I wait too long, he'll be gone and we will miss our chance.

"But how do you know that he isn't gone already?"

"I don't. But I have a feeling that he knows that, one way or the other, it ends tonight," I replied.

Katherine, on wobbly legs, walked over to join us.

"Do you have any clothes I can wear Rachael?"

"There might be some upstairs," Roger said. "I'll go check,"

Katherine moved closer to me, laying her head on my shoulder. Even after everything, she still managed a small smile for me.

"I guess 'thank you' doesn't really cut it tonight does it?" she said.

"Don't worry about it. This is my mess, I just need some help cleaning it up," I replied.

Roger returned with a pair of dirty men's overalls and a very large t-shirt.

"It's not much, but it might do," he said, handing them to Katherine. She took them and looked at me awkwardly.

"Oh, right," I said, turning away. Everyone else in the room did too as she changed into the clothes. For some reason, this moment of privacy struck me as funny and endearing at the same time. When I turned back around, Katherine was ready to go.

We all stood there for a moment in awkward silence. Finally, I spoke.

"No matter what happens tonight, I want you all to know that your help in all of this is beyond heroic. It's something human and natural, and is something I will love each and every one of you for, forever. For being a person. For knowing right and wrong, no matter the distance it took you to get there. For being someone that can be counted on. Thank you all," I said.

There was nothing else left to say really, after that. Katherine and I headed towards the door and out onto the street, Katherine stealing a glance over her shoulder as we left.

The sun was starting to just barely rise in the distance, and I knew that before long, the city would be waking up, which would create all sorts of headaches. Taking Tony's car, Katherine and I drove in silence towards Antamount headquarters. As we went through a string of green lights, Katherine stared out the window the whole way before finally speaking.

"I love you Alex. I want you to know that, no matter what might have been said," she said.

"I know. I love you too Katherine,"

There was another moment of quiet before I spoke again.

"Anything coming back?"

"My strength, a little bit. Don't try any funny stuff down there anytime soon though," she said with a slight chuckle.

As we pulled onto the street where that cursed building stood, I got a flashback of the first time I stepped foot in those doors. How naive I was, dropping off a script like that. If I had only known.

Getting out of the car, we walked the deserted streets towards the entrance. The door was open, but the elevators seemed to have been turned off as we stood in the lobby. I wondered if Katherine could make it up the stairs, but she didn't hesitate in moving towards the stairwell. Slowly we climbed the steps, to the 8th floor, where Antamount world headquarters lay.

Opening the door to their lobby, the lights were all off except down that familiar hall leading to Wilton Willis office. Reaching into my pants, I pulled out my gun. Katherine recoiled a bit at this, but didn't say anything. She knew as well as I that things had come to this. Moving down the hall, we stopped just short of the office. The door was open, if only a crack.

Katherine walked behind me as I slowly stepped towards the door, gun in hand and in front of me. Gently, I pushed open the door, ready and willing to die for anything. Love does that to you.

My eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room, but right away I knew something wasn't right. There was a wet, gasping noise coming from in front of me. As we walked closer, I saw what the source of the noise was.

Sitting in his chair behind his desk, was the man himself, Wilton Willis, looking pale and fragile and very very old. On the desk next to his hand was a gun, and leaking down the front of his shirt from his stomach was a maroon stain.

"Hello Mr. Hilt," he wheezed at me. "It took you long enough,"

I was speechless as to what to say. The old man, in his cowardice, had tried to kill himself but obviously not done a very good job of it.

I stepped closer to the desk, not saying anything.

"You know I'm going to let you sit there and suffer, right you old fucker?" I said after a moment. Katherine lingered a step or two behind me.

"Fitting and fair, I have to agree. I suppose you want me to talk, just like any of the super villains in my movies, eh?" he said with a weak smile and cough, spots of blood flying out of his mouth onto the desk.

"Sure. You don't have long, let's hear it,"

WILLIS' STORY:

The pain was horrible, but surprisingly, when Hilt himself showed up before me, my mind still managed to focus on him. I hated him for being here, and for causing all of this, but I probably did bring it on myself. A memory flashed through my mind then, of my youth spent in Sunday school, reciting the seven deadly sins. Pride. That was my sin, amongst so so many others. Pride and sloth and avarice and the whole lot of them.

Part of that pride still burned strongly in me, which is why I couldn't go, couldn't head to my fiery afterlife without at least getting my last word in. My mother had always said I was an eloquent speaker who took command. This was my waterloo.

"I came up with the idea for the Rose Petals while I was fucking Sharon Stone back in the 80s. She was so wild, and yet so gentle at the end of everything, that it made me think of a rose and it's thorns. Sharp and deadly till you get to the top, then so fragrant and sweet. And with a system of my own design in place, I could control my own destiny," I said.

"Of course, I came up with that idea while I was just a lowly producer, but it served me well later on when I came into some investors who wanted to help me see my dream. You have to dream as big as possible in this town Mr. Hilt, or else you'll get crushed by the weight of illusion around you. So when I was able, I set it up. Ms. Stone was in charge first of course, but she was too nuts to really run things and I dropped her like the hot piece of ass she was back then. It rotated till I got to Ms. Hayek. I found her in Mexico through a couple of my scouts there, and brought her under my wing and into my pants, so to speak. She was happy to oblige of course. Never doubt a woman who wants it all. She'll get it," I said.

"Fine, but that has nothing to do with the horrible shit you do to them Willis. For that alone, you should be tried for crimes against humanity. I saw it. Katherine lived through it. How could you ever do something like that?"

"When you get to the top, you can't always see the bottom. Besides, women deserve it. If I had my way, they would all be going to a Beardsley college of my own design. But this is America, the land of dreams. And more importantly, Los Angeles. The place where dreams are made,"

"Made and crushed. Just like you did to mine. That was your mistake Willis. You never should have lost your morals,"

I laughed. It hurt like hell to laugh, what with the bullet in my stomach slowly working it's way through my organs, but I did anyway.

"Morals? Oh Mr. Hilt, people lose those here quicker than Kansas farm girl loses her virginity. I lost mine a long time ago. It's amazing what can happen when they are gone. Look at your girlfriend, Petty,"

This made him rankle a bit, which I enjoyed totally.

"Fuck you Willis. I'm not the one bleeding here," he said.

"No, your not. But if you haven't figured out why I am yet, you haven't learned anything from this at all. But you know, it's ok. You don't have to know it all in this town. You just have to know the right people,"

Hilt and Heigl looked at each other for a moment before he stepped closer to my desk (such as it was. Shortly it would be my coffin.)

"Hapsboro,"

"Exactly. It's all about friends and connections. Like I said, I was a producer who came into some investor money. You don't think they actually let me run this place do you? I'm just an old man with a fiery voice and a penchant for pussy,"

Suddenly, the building shook for a moment and a loud explosion sounded from somewhere. Good old Gordon, had to make sure the job was done right. A bullet in the stomach when your not expecting it just wasn't enough. The fire alarm started ringing then, and I knew that things were finally over.

The two of them were torn with what to do. The alarms were loud and piercing, and smoke was now starting to filter in through the roof of the room. They said something to each other but I couldn't hear it. The alarms were getting softer now, and my vision started getting fuzzier with each passing second, my head feeling very very heavy.

Leaning forward, I laid my head down on the desk, watching them as hand in hand they darted from the office.

The smoke was thick now, but I didn't care. I watched them go, thinking to myself just one thing: in a perfect world, that would have been a great way to close a film. Final frame, end shot.

ELIZA'S STORY:

The light from the fire was amazingly bright as we pulled up out front of Antamount. The top floor where the studios office had once been, was now aglow with flame. Some of the windows had burst outward from the heat, while others kept the flames prisoner inside. Salma and I had just shown up, with Jaime in tow, hoping to get Willis to punish her or kill her so that I didn't have to. But all of a sudden, that didn't look very realistic.

Salma stood next to me, her face pale and shocked, a realization coming to her from the billowing smoke and flame, fire engines drawing closer and closer now. The same thought hit me at that time too: it was over. Antamount, and the Rose Petals, were through. Without the studio's backing, we were powerless. Salma and I were just actresses, actresses who had went dyke for power. Kirsten had been right. The power wasn't worth it, because now I was left with nothing. We might all be blacklisted for all I knew.

I could hear Jaime laugh hysterically next to me, leaning back against the car as she kicked her legs outward in joy, doing a little butt dance on the hood of Salma's car. Her pants looked wet too, which was even more bizarre considering that had it not been for the light from the fire I wouldn't have even seen it. I wanted to smack her for laughing like that, but I knew it would do no good. No good at all.

Salma took me by the hand and led me back towards the car.

"Come on, we need to go," she said. Jaime stood up, but continued to laugh as we climbed into the car. As I got in and buckled up, I was startled to see two people running out of the front of the building. As they got closer, I knew who it was. Hilt and Katherine Heigl. Some how, amongst all of this, they had both survived. That was the biggest fuck you of all. Jaime danced as she saw them, clapping her hands behind her back as they stumbled over to her, coughing and out of breath.

Throwing the car into reverse, Salma peeled away before they got too close to us, close enough to identify us anyways, and did a U-turn right there in the middle of the early morning LA street.

The fire engines had arrived as I looked through the back window to see the building in flames, the fire consuming it all.

_____________________________________________________ "The entertainment world is still reeling from a loss of one of their own. Wilton Willis, the founder and CEO of Hollywood powerhouse studio Antamount, perished in a fire late last night at the studio headquarters. Investigators are still looking into the source of the fire, but believe that faulty wiring was the cause of an explosion that took out the building's sprinkler system and prevented firefighters from containing the fire for more than five hours.

Friends and studio rivals all over the world expressed their condolences over the loss, including some powerful members of the US Senate and House.

'It is always a loss to the American dream when an entrepreneur like Mr. Willis perishes so tragically. I join the rest of the country in mourning a leader, a business man and a gentle human being,' Senator Mitchell from Kansas said today.

Funeral services for Willis will be held later this week, as well as a service for a body believed to be that of Willis' assistant, Gordon Hapsboro. Police are still seeking dental records for this second victim of such a strong inferno.

Back to you Mary" _____________________________________________________

EPILOGUE

HAPSBORO'S STORY:

The plastic surgery still smarted some, especially the invisible sutures under my chin, but they were nothing that a little Caribbean sun wouldn't fix. Besides, I knew they were a necessary evil after all of this. I couldn't be popping up on anyone's radar any time soon.

With the sun beating down on me, and the waves crashing just a few feet away, I felt happy in knowing that I had gotten out when I did. Sure, I didn't want it to really go that way - losing access to pussy like that was like losing an appendage (so to speak) - but I knew that the money I made from Antamount would buy me whoever and whatever I wanted.

I felt a bit guilty for ruining Willits like that, but that's how it goes. He was too old to run things any ways. I just beat the cancer to it.

Setting my magazine down next to me, I intended to get some more sun, when I noticed a vision of beauty moving towards me from the beach.

Still very coltish, she had all the makings of a beauty. Long legs, toned stomach, long wavy hair and a sexy, full chest. She couldn't have been any older than 17, which meant she was perfect for molding.

"Excuse me, Senorita?" I called to her as she grew closer. She walked my way and a smile crossed her lips. The surgery certainly had some extra effects, I realized.

"I couldn't help but wonder," I said to her as she stood over me, a goddess in the making. "If you've ever considered a career in show business?"

THE END