Davida holds up a hand. “Emmet, as far as I’m concerned, there’s not one line in the script that isn’t open to negotiation. I should have made that clear earlier. It’s your voice I want to hear, not mine. If ‘badder’ is what comes naturally to you, then ‘badder’ it is.”
“I can change the line?” Emmet gawps.
“Absolutely.”
A big smile works its way across Emmet’s face. Across from us, Abe and the other Kooniarts are glowering. They couldn’t hear the conversation, but they can see the fear fade from Emmet. They’ve lost their chance to bump Abe up the pecking order. I want to thumb my nose at them and stick out my tongue. But that would be childish, so I settle for a smug wink when I catch Bo’s furious eye.
They shoot the early exchanges several times, from a variety of angles. A fake corpse is placed in the alley, close to the manhole cover. Emmet starts the scene crouched over it, pulling bits off and stuffing them in his mouth. He’s so convincing it’s hilarious, and Salit keeps laughing when he comes upon him.
“‘Matt!’” he cries, calling Emmet by his screen name. “‘What are you doing with Mr Litherland’s nose in your…’ Sorry!” he shouts, doubling over. “I can’t help it! He looks so crazy!”
“Don’t worry,” Davida says, smiling patiently. “We have all night. Keep trying. The joke will wear thin eventually.” She grimaces at a cameraman. “I hope!”
→Salit finally gets through his lines without laughing and they move on to the next scene. The cameras and lights are redirected, the make-up artists make sure Salit and Emmet are looking the way they should, Davida has a last few words with Emmet, then they’re ready to go.
“OK, people,” an assistant director yells. “We’re going to try and get this right first time, so we want absolute quiet!”
When everyone settles down, the technicians do their final checks, Davida looks around slowly from one member of the crew to another, then nods. A man calls out the title, scene and take, and snaps the traditional clapperboard shut.
“And… action!” Davida roars.
“‘How could you do it?’” Salit cries, in his role as Bobby Mint, boy-hero.
“‘What?’” Emmet protests. “‘It’s not as if anyone liked Mr Litherland.’”
“‘But he’s human!’” Salit cries.
“‘He was,’” Emmet corrects him. “‘He’s yummy for my tummy now!’” Emmet rubs his stomach with a sick laugh. “‘I’ve always wanted to eat human flesh. I mean, it’s not an obsession or anything. I wouldn’t go out of my way to kill, skin and cook somebody. But I’ve always been curious, wondered what it would taste like. So, when the opportunity dropped into my lap, yeah, I took it. Does that make me a bad person? I don’t think so. At least, not much badder than a guy who gives in to temptation and steals a bar of chocolate. It’s not like I killed him myself.’”
“‘But you let it happen!’” Salit cries. “‘You knew about the demon!’”
Emmet shrugs. “‘What’s done is done. No point crying over spilt milk—or a butchered headmaster.’” He holds out a severed, bloodied arm to Salit. “‘You should try some, Bobby. You might like it. It…’” The ground begins to rumble. A foul stench fills the air. For a second, Emmet falters and his gaze flicks to the open manhole. Then he recovers and continues like a true professional. “‘It goes down super sweet, especially if you add a dollop of ketchup. Tastes a bit like–’”
That’s when the demon bursts out of the manhole and grabs him.
It happens in a blur and is so fast, so violent, so shocking, that several people in the crowd gasp aloud.
The demon is green, slimy, with fierce yellow eyes, four long arms with claws at the ends, a mouth full of fangs. There’s something wolfish about its face, long and lean, with patches of hair here and there.
The demon whips Emmet off the ground. He screams, not having to fake it, caught off-guard. Salit falls backwards, yelling with genuine horror.
My world goes red with fear. I’m thrown back in time… that night in the cellar… earlier… my old home… walking into my parents’ bedroom to find Lord Loss, Vein and Artery at work. Feeling the exact same thing in my gut now as I did then.
The demon screeches and vanishes back underground, carrying Emmet with it. There’s a moment of hush. Then Emmet’s face appears, sheer terror in his expression. “Help!” he cries. “For the love of –”
Blood erupts around him, shooting up through the hole like a geyser. The howl of the demon drowns out his final words. His eyes go wide, then dead. As his head slumps, the demon pulls and Emmet disappears again, this time forever.
It all happened so swiftly, I’m in a state of shock. So’s everybody else. Stunned silence. People with hands over their mouths and disbelief in their eyes. I sense screams building in a dozen throats, ready to erupt at once, a chorus of terror.
“Now that’s what I call a death scene!” Davida Haym roars triumphantly, shattering the spell of fear. “Cut! Did you get that? You’d better have! We’ll never top that take!”
And suddenly everybody’s laughing, relief flooding through them. They thought for a few seconds that the demon was real, that Emmet was really being attacked. Now the moment has passed and they’ve remembered—this is make-believe, horrific fun, a movie. They’re embarrassed at having been caught out, but since so many of the others reacted the same way, they’re not left feeling too red-faced.
“I told you!” Dervish laughs, clapping loudly. “Wasn’t that the most vicious, coolest thing you’ve ever seen?”
“My heart!” Juni gasps, fanning her face with one hand. “I didn’t expect it all to happen so fast!”
“That was amazing!” Bill-E exclaims. “Did you see it, Grubbs? That spray of blood—like it was coming from a fireman’s hose! It was… Grubbs? Are you OK? Hey, Dervish, I think there’s something wrong with Grubbs. He looks like…”
I block out Bill-E’s words and the other sounds. I experienced the same sense of terror that many of the people around me felt. The same jolt of fear. The same moment of belief that this was real. But whereas they’ve got over that moment, I can’t.
Because I’m remembering the look of the demon. Its movements. The hate in its eyes. The effect it had on me.
And I’m staring at the open manhole, all the blood around it, no sign of Emmet or the monster.
And I’m thinking… every part of me is insisting…
That was no damn guy in a suit.
That demon was real!
→“It was just a movie monster,” Dervish says.
“No. It was real. It killed Emmet.”
We’re still in the alley. The blood’s being washed away and people are chattering about the big scene with the demon. I grabbed Dervish as soon as I could move. Told him what I thought. He thinks differently.
“Grubbs, come on, I said it was going to be realistic. You’re –”
“I know what I saw!” I retort, voice rising. “That was a demon, like Lord Loss! It killed Emmet!”
Juni looks at me oddly. Bill-E is gawping openly. Dervish smiles crookedly at them, takes