Monstress Read Free Page B

with you?”
    I knelt down beside him. “Maybe we should go home today. Just take the twenty-five hundred before he changes his mind.”
    â€œIs your head broken? We have almost a week left. The American will need my guidance. This is a Gazman-Rosario Production, don’t you know?”
    I slammed the mannequin hand against the ground; the pinkie finger broke off. “ ‘Gazman- Rosario Production?’ Gazman- Idiot Production! You’ve already done the work he needs. You finished it years ago!” I took a deep breath, made my voice gentle again. “You were finished years ago. Don’t start this nonsense again. If you do . . .” I should have stopped there, but the poster in Gaz’s kitchen hung in my head like a fateful welcome-home banner, and I couldn’t go back. “If you do, I won’t forgive you this time.”
    Checkers set the mannequin’s right arm on the ground. Then he got to his feet, took backwards steps toward the wall, the way my victims would in his movies, right before the kill. “Checkers.” I held my arms out to comfort him, but he wouldn’t come to me. “Checkers?”
    Suddenly there was cursing and shouting as Gaz came running down the stairs. “Crap!” he said. He kicked a computer console and it flew across the basement. “I lost my Lorena Valdez! She decided she’d rather do some bimbo role for a guy named Roman What’s-His-Face than finish my movie.” He leaned against the wall, slid down to the floor, put his face on his knees. “Where am I going to find another actress who’ll work for free? Crap!”
    Then Checkers started pacing too. “Crap-crap!” he shouted. He went on about the money he would lose, and he wondered how someone who once was great could slip away into a life as dead-end as ours. “I’m sorry,” I said, reaching for him. But he just pushed my arm away, told me to leave him alone. So I went to Gaz instead, and patted his shoulder to calm him down. This was the end of things, I was sure of it; the loss of Lorena Valdez was a sign that this collaboration was never meant to be, and it was time for Checkers and me to return to our real life back home.
    Gaz inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth several times, then took my hand from his shoulder and squeezed it tight. His head rose slowly and he stared into my eyes, almost lovingly. I thought he might try to kiss me, so I freed my hand from his and stepped back.
    â€œWhat size space suit do you wear?” he whispered.

    I never wanted to be Lorena Valdez. But Gaz insisted that I was born to play her, and besides, this was the only way to guarantee the deal he’d made with Checkers. “Think of the money,” Gaz said, and though Checkers stayed silent, I finally agreed that it was the only thing to do.
    It was 102 degrees the day we started filming. We were at the bottom of a canyon in Los Feliz, and all morning long, E. Noel, Prescott, and I ran back and forth, pretending to flee from Checkers’ monsters, while Gaz followed us with a handheld camera. Checkers was alone at the top of the canyon by the NO TRESPASSING sign, looking out for cops.
    At noon, we filmed a crucial scene that required me to run up the side of the canyon. “Now you’re fleeing from the stinkiest, oogiest, bat-winged pygmy you’ve ever seen,” Gaz said, “and it wants you for breakfast.” He put his hands on my shoulders, leaned in close. “Think about that as you’re running away. Understand?”
    I had never taken direction from another man before. “I do,” I said.
    Gaz set up the camera at the bottom of the canyon, then called action. I ran. I visualized myself from years before, chasing after me now, fangs bared and claws ready to shred, tentacles wrapping around me, squeezing me to my final breath. I could hear a hiss in my ear, and I shivered in