The Cabin Is Always Hungry

DEAD PACIFICA

Part 21

The cast and crew slept poorly again.

I told the clowns not to give them the kind of nightmares that would give a person a freaking heart attack. Just enough of a dose to linger in their minds as they woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant like a bunch of sad and depressed little gremlins.

Surprisingly, it was Collette Quezada who voiced her doubts about the show. The clowns clawed out a dark time in her past, one that she had never thought about for a long time after years of therapy. It was about her and her late grandmother during a family trip to Miami. A rip current pulled both out to sea, and her grandmother had to keep seven-year-old Collette afloat. A lifeguard on a jet ski finally rescued them and dragged them back to shore, but it was already too late for her grandmother, who had turned so blue on the sand as multiple lifeguards tried to save her life. Collette had to watch until the light in her grandmother’s eyes slipped away while her tight grip was still around Collette’s ankle.

In her dreams, they were still at sea, her dead grandmother still clutching her ankle, and threatening to pull her beneath the waves. Dozens of spectators on boats gawked with their phones out, so near to help, yet refused to do so. Once the waves crashed over her head and the dead weight pulled her deeper beneath the surface, she looked down to find her grandmother smiling, her legs melded into the tip of a giant fish’s tongue. No matter how fast Collette kicked, her grandmother pulled her closer to the jaw of this horrifying sea-beast. She woke up covered in sweat and the salt of the sea under her tongue.

If I had dreams like that twice in a row, well, fuck sleep. When I told the clowns not to make it too intense, I probably needed to sit them down on what that meant. Better yet, I might need to do some training courses for my archetypes on how to season the delvers with the right measurements, you know? We didn’t want them to accidentally die before the delve even began.

Anyway, the crew didn’t have much sleep, but that didn’t stop their excitement. Finally, today was the day!

It’s Delving Day!

Yes, yes, I know that the delvers didn’t know that term, but I couldn’t help but be super excited as well. My archetypes, too, and even though I couldn’t read their minds, I could still sense their excitement and their nervousness. But I dismissed it as performance jitters. They get that sometimes.

We never had this many delvers in one night. Forty delvers by my last count, although that number wasn’t set in stone yet. With the game starting several hours away, a lot could still happen. People might drop out, or new delvers could potentially be pulled into the night’s chaos.

Two newcomers arrived last night. Tanner Brooks and Jesse Henshaw were both from California and winners of the raffle that Dead Pacifica put out. Dylan claimed that the top members who engaged the most with their channel get to round out the cast via a raffle. Two “normies” rubbing shoulders with Dylan’s famous friends. Another way to bring hype to the show.

But it wasn’t a matter of chance that these two guys were picked. Tanner and Retto went to the same high school and grew up in the same neighborhood, and Jesse was a friend of a friend of Dylan’s ex-girlfriend, who he only bumped into at random house parties because he had weed and other party drugs. Like Dylan, Jesse was a trust fund baby, unemployed, and liked to spend a lot of cash wherever he wished. Dylan liked him enough to invite Jesse to the show. He planned a big part just for him (that Jesse was already in on) for tonight’s festivities, playing as a dead body for a prank.

On the other hand, Tanner Brooks was just a tennis instructor who worked part-time at a museum and, to my surprise, was actually quite a nice guy. I didn’t find any childhood trauma or dark thoughts and secrets that I could use against him. The only memory I could find was him running over a raccoon when he was sixteen, and that still deeply affected him. Still single at twenty-six, he had loving parents, two older brothers, and one sister who he hung out with constantly. They had lovely, non-confrontational Thanksgiving dinners. They were always present during Christmas and had yearly summer vacations. They randomly called each other just because they missed one another, ran a marathon together as a family, and he and his sister volunteered at soup kitchens for the homeless every other Saturday. He had a paleontology degree, and he wouldn’t shut up about dinosaurs.

Oh, what the fuck? I couldn’t eat this guy. I mean, I could. I’ll just be very guilty about it. People like him had essences beyond comprehension.

So, I gave him three chances. Oracle flooded Tanner’s social media feed with the weird and horrible things happening in McLaren Forest, especially the missing-persons cases covered by other true-crime channels. Well, it turned out he was a big fan of true crime and Dead Pacifica, and it only made him more excited. He planned to drive up to Oregon, so we drained his car’s battery. He bought a plane ticket instead. The clowns gave him a higher dose of nightmares than the others, which bothered him deeply because it involved his family. He went to Retto with these doubts; he was this close to leaving the production, but Retto tried to convince him to stay.

So, he stayed.

Heidi passed around the call sheet to the rest of the crew.

Oracle downloaded a copy from her laptop and passed it to the archetypes and me. The cast needed to be on set by 2 PM, three hours before the cameras would start rolling, to get their wardrobe and makeup done in time. The crew behind the cameras would be there by 10 AM to iron out any remaining audio or visual bugs before the stream. Interestingly, they wanted to start shooting while there was still daylight, even though the bulk of their “scripted” antics would take place at night.

I reckoned they wanted to film the sunset and the dramatic transition of darkness falling over the forest, juxtaposing the cast’s plight and their slowly dwindling sanity as they exaggerated (with possibly some terrible acting) the horrors unraveling throughout the shoot. My guess was correct. There was a call sheet for the whole cast to gather by the lake at 6:40 PM, right at the peak of sunset. It was supposed to make it feel scary or sinister, or something that would tickle the brains of people watching comfortably from home. It was Heidi’s idea and whatever Dylan Griffin cooked up for pranks. Oh boy, he had plenty in store, which I was planning on sabotaging anyway.

Sorry, Dylan.

The whole cast was in on it, too, but they didn’t know the details. They expected Dylan to be, well, Dylan. This was his show. They knew how to fake it and play it up for the cameras when needed. The audience didn’t care if they couldn’t act as long as they gave enough plausibility that the things happening on the screen were real. Half of the audience were kids and teenagers, who would eat this all up.

Speaking of Dylan, he had another bout of nightmares; it didn’t stop him from waking up looking fresh, or at least pretending to. There were a lot of things a hot shower, pomade, a hair dryer, spritzes of cologne, and good makeup could hide. He was the star of the show and all eyes would be on him. In show business, that attention was like heroin. Sure, Retto shared the podcast chair and mic, but Dylan was undoubtedly the main attraction.

Now, he didn’t want to downplay Retto’s many contributions while claiming in his head that Dylan was more handsome and more stylish, and had a more pleasant narrator voice than his co-star. Still, he wanted the world to know that his fans were the ones who drove Dead Pacifica to the stratosphere of success. He was the one who started it in the first place, ignoring the fact that it was Anton and Retto who first brought the suspicious missing-persons cases to attention since my Death Core was born.

But now that the delving night drew near, it was clear to me that Dylan wanted this livestream to be a roaring giant that would blow everyone out of the water. Like he was trying to prove himself after he was canceled last year when he discovered Bryan Greely’s body. This show was a big “fuck you.”

He almost got me to think that he didn’t care about all of this, understating the supernatural aspects that Retto and Emily had brought up, but it was all for show. A lot of his pranks involved the supernatural, and he was very giddy, almost shaking when he planned and imagined tormenting his castmates with his hijinks.

Dylan Griffin was a true fool that any Death Core would love to have in their dungeon, and he was in his element.

His fans loved him for it.

So, at breakfast, Dylan gave a hearty speech to the whole crew, thanking them for a whirlwind year but mostly talking about himself, only to be overshadowed when Kurtis Darlington crashed into the room.

“Prepare yourselves, mortals of Earth!” He introduced himself. “Tis I, Kurtis Darlington, arcanist of the holy fire, traveler of the veil beyond, and master of the dreaming world, ready to tackle the wonders and fearsome marvels of this cursed world. My question is, are you ready?” Kurtis said this in his transatlantic showman’s voice, the way he always introduced himself at the beginning of his TV show.

Phones flew out as the cast filmed his introduction, no doubt posting it to their social media.

“Ah! Oh my gosh! Dudes, you guys got a buffet table? No one told me that!” Kurtis quickly added, dropping the transatlantic accent, replaced by someone who sounded like he smoked too much weed and had lived on a couch for a long time. “And are those chocolate chip pancakes?! Wonderful! I’ve been starving since last night! These are all for us, right? I can’t believe they don’t have room service after ten PM.”

Dylan’s speech was ignored as the whole crew gathered around the newcomer. He arrived last night with Lydia and Oaklynn, his two assistants (on a private jet, mind you), and this was the first time the whole crew met him. Everyone was excited.

Dylan pretended to be.

Unlike the others, Kurtis was the most recognizable celebrity on the cast. He had been on multiple talk shows, had three seasons (and ongoing) of his popular magic reality TV show where he talked to dead people and did stupid magic to strangers on the street, and was now enjoying a decade-long Vegas residency that earned him millions every year. Even the old people from the nursing home knew his name. Not to mention the handful of comedy films he co-starred in that generated enough profit to be considered box-office successes domestically and overseas.

With his wealth and star power, this livestream should be beneath him. There was no way Owen or Heidi could even book him for Dead Pacifica. Kurtis came to them of his own accord, and Dylan saw that as trying to steal his golden egg.

It was clear to Dylan that he made a big mistake. After learning that Kurtis listened to the podcast, he accidentally pitched the idea of an anniversary special when he met Kurtis at some A-list celebrity’s party in the Hills months ago. Dylan wasn’t inviting him per se; He was bragging that he and Retto were doing something totally crazy.

You know how it goes. Have you ever tried to impress a celebrity because you’re surrounded by other famous celebrities who were a lot more recognizable and more successful than you? Yes? No? Okay.

Well, Dylan couldn’t even remember what he said—something about needing a psychic, and he just needed to one-up the other people in the room—but Kurtis definitely remembered, and he approached Owen about it!

Dylan expected Owen to reject the casting since the production company probably couldn’t afford him. However, Owen was the producer—a nepo producer with a millionaire father who already owned a handful of studios in LA. Owen would shut Dylan down just to get the opportunity to make more money from Kurtis Darlington’s face on the screen, even if he had to sell both of his kidneys for it. Dylan could still say no to Kurtis joining the cast, but even he wasn’t blind to the large audience the psychic would bring. Last night, one post from Kurtis alone already drew two million eyes to the stream. He didn’t even want to look at the metrics on the audience discrepancy between him and the walking dinosaur. At forty-six, Kurtis was the oldest cast member.

Fun fact. I learned that Kurtis Darlington wasn’t even his real name. His given name was Joseph Roger Belenky.

Yup. It made total sense why he changed it.

As the others fawned over Kurtis, Dylan slipped away for some fresh air to the private terrace adjacent to the restaurant. A section of the restaurant was reserved for them, but thankfully, no one had access to this terrace except the crew. A few minutes later, Heidi followed.

“Not a Darlington fan, are you?” she asked jokingly.

“Nah, I hate the guy,” Dylan said, also in a joking way, though it was a lot closer to the truth. Heidi knew it, too, but she didn’t want to press further on the matter.

“It’s a big day. I know I have been telling you not to read the comments online, but so far they’ve been generally positive. Big Mac’s tracking a lot of noise before the cameras even start rolling,” she laughed, but Dylan didn’t.

“It better be. We spent a lot of money promoting this thing. In my opinion, I don’t think it’s enough.”

“You don’t give the show much credit, do you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I think Dead Pacifica speaks for itself. You seriously don’t see it?”

“See what?”

“Darlington asked to be on the show because Dead Pacifica is that show. You should be proud. We built this behemoth, and it’s coming down to this moment if it can grow any further. After this, all the studios in Hollywood will be begging us to secure the rights to stream it on their platforms. People in our industry would kill to have something like this.”

Dylan shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. We’re desperate enough to have Mister Psychic as a casting stunt. Owen’s practically jerking himself off to it.”

“Oh, come on, Dylan. You can’t always hog the spotlight. Leave some room for the rest of us.”

“Oh? Like your boyfriend?” Dylan wiggled his eyebrows, but he also said it with just enough venom that Heidi could sense it.

She tried to keep her face from frowning. “Anton is chill.”

“Huh. Is that your type these days? Someone chill? I thought you were more of a bad-boy type of girl.”

“We’ve been dating for more than a year. It’s been great. And Anton can be a bad boy. Have you seen his muscles?”

There was a brief pause.

“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me all week?” Dylana asked. “Because everything’s been great with your mid bad-boy situation?”

Heidi sighed. She didn’t want this conversation, but it was here now, and she had to rip the band-aid at some point. “Listen, Dylan…a month ago, Anton and I were on a break, and I thought it was going to be a permanent thing, but—”

“—But you got back with him anyway,” Dylan finished. “What? Is his game that good?”

“Dylan, I wasn’t thinking clearly, and we were very drunk that night…”

Dylan laughed, although he exaggerated it just a tad. He remembered he was the one who had plenty to drink that night and was still lucid enough to stick it inside her, and she had only one. “It’s okay, Heidi. I’m an adult. We’re adults. So what if we fucked? It was fun. We had a good time. And…that’s it. There’s really nothing we should talk about.”

Even I didn’t believe what he said. There was a lot of baggage there that made me scratch my head. That gave me an idea. Maybe I could use that tonight.

Heidi doubted his words, too, but she wanted to believe him; she forced herself to accept it. “Okay, Dylan. This is an important night, and I didn’t want to continue tiptoeing on the subject, especially when we’re working together.”

“I’m not going to tell Anton anything if you’re worried about that.”

“I’m not. We were on a break.”

Dylan wanted to ask her if Anton saw it that way, but he held his tongue. “Hey, you don’t have to check up on me because Darlington crashed the middle of my speech.”

Heidi pursed her lips. “Actually, Owen sent me out here to check up on you.” The moment it left her mouth, she knew it was the wrong thing to say.

And it felt like a stab through Dylan’s stomach. For a moment there, he really thought Heidi came out on the terrace because she might still have some feelings for him, and he couldn’t help but say, “Oh, wow. Owen, huh? That tracks for you. He’s forcing his fucking assistant to keep me in line.”

Heidi opened her mouth, but closed it again. She took a moment to breathe out through her nose. “Owen wants you to get along with Kurtis. You’ll be spending a lot of time with him in the cabin, especially the séance sequence. It hinges on you both working together for the setpiece to be believable. Also, Owen wants you to post a photo of you and Kurtis on your Instagram page before ten AM.”

Dylan scoffed. “And why would I do that?”

“Because it will literally cost nothing and will only take two minutes of your time. And it will freaking benefit Dead Pacifica. Frankly, I don’t care what you do with the picture after the livestream.”

Heidi wanted to say more. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry for leading him on for a couple of weeks after they hooked up. Although she held back from admitting she also enjoyed the sex. Had even thought about being with him; it probably wouldn’t be too bad. She wanted to say sorry for ignoring his calls and texts, too. She had a lot to say in her mind, but she couldn’t find the right words.

Her savior was Anton Lozano, of all people. Her boyfriend came out to the terrace when he noticed her and Dylan were talking. Even through the window, it looked heated, and the others were beginning to notice.

“Hey, babe. Everything okay?” Anton asked after he opened the sliding door.

Heidi plastered her best smile. “Yes. I’m just talking work with Dylan.”

Dylan turned around and gave him a nod and a smile. With that nod, he also sized Anton up. He was a couple of inches taller than him, and as much as Dylan hated to admit it, he was also way more jacked, especially when he was only wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts. For a man whose job was to play video games all day, Anton should not look like a baby-faced dork who suddenly fell into a gym and the little shit hadn’t found his way out.

Now there were two people he couldn’t stand in this production. Well, three, if he included Owen, because he often turned into such a bridezilla during important shoots. He hated that English pompous fuck.

Stolen from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Well, Megan’s about to eat the last of the Eggs Benedict, so if you still want it…” Anton said, giving her an out.

Heidi patted Dylan’s arm and excused herself back into the restaurant. She swore she felt Dylan’s gaze fixed on her back.

Billy Swanson signed the release form that Collette gave him yesterday and returned it to her, along with his driver’s license. Collette took a photo of both on the table, and tapped a few buttons on her phone.

“Aaaaand…done! Easy-peasy, right?” Collette said, sliding his driver’s license back to him.

“Why do you need his driver’s license again?” Megan asked from across the table, massaging her temples with her fingers as she nursed a hangover.

“That, and the form is just to make sure that he’s over eighteen. Well, good news, he’s twenty-two.”

“Really? Damn. I missed a lot of birthdays. I thought I was six,” Billy said, making Collette and Megan laugh. “Are you sure you’re gonna blur my face?”

“Definitely! We have an app for that. It’s got a good tracking feature that not even your momma is gonna recognize you. I take my scene partner’s privacy very seriously, and in several videos of mine, I have their faces blurred. They’re still anonymous to this day.”

“It’s just that…I’ve never done porn before.”

“Listen, even I get nervous before a shoot. My trick? Do what feels natural, you know? But also don’t be afraid to play it up, too. Be verbal. Be aggressive. Be…I don’t know, passionate. A good percentage of my audience are women, and they love passionate guys. The audience wants us to be engaged even if it’s just for thirty minutes. What matters is that both of us are comfortable and relaxed. If something happens that you don’t like, or I don’t like, we can always stop.” She extended her hand out to hold his hand. “Let’s think positive thoughts, okay? Tonight, we’re gonna have fun. It’s gonna be great and exciting, something we’ve never done before. We don’t have to talk about your kinks. We’ve discussed it plenty enough.”

“Stop. Please, don’t. I don’t want to hurl all the eggs and bacon I just ate. No offense, Billy,” Megan said. “This headache is freaking killing me. I should not have gone for those tequila shots with those Brazilians last night. Those girls are crazy, and I think I have alcohol poisoning.”

Collette, concerned, scooted over to her. “I have ibuprofen in my purse. Do you want some?”

“Oh my gosh, yes.” Megan nodded. “You’re a walking pharmacy. Thank you.”

As Collette rifled through her purse, a comically large lighter fell out.

Megan chuckled. “I didn’t know you smoke.”

“Oh, this? No, I don’t smoke.” Collette grabbed the lighter and opened the cap. It was a taser. “See?” She pressed a button on one side, and blue sparks lit up on the tips.

“Wow. Is Billy gonna get tased?” Megan teased.

“Hm. If he’s a bad boy.”

“Let me be the first to say, I don’t want to get tased tonight, please,” Billy said.

“You know, everything will be on camera, Billy,” Megan warned. “Like…everything. Are you sure?”

Collette shot Megan a dirty look. She had trouble enough finding a scene partner who was willing to be on camera. The others she frequently collaborated with didn’t want to fly out to Oregon unless they were part of the cast. Owen rejected that idea.

Billy smirked. “So? I’m not shy with my size.”

Collette and Megan guffawed until another dull slap struck behind Megan’s eyebrow, making her wince. She gulped down the pills Collette handed her.

“Look at you!” Collette said, impressed. “That’s it right there! That is the confidence we need on the camera.”

“Wait, you’re not filming it in the ritual chamber, are you?” Megan asked.

“Okay. So, Dylan loved the idea and was so down for it…”

“But?”

Collette frowned. “But Owen and Heidi shut it down. They think it will be super disrespectful to the Castle family and to the victims, or something like that.”

Megan breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good! Girl, you had me worried you would get canceled. Where are you going to film it then?”

Collette gave her a sly grin. “Well, there’s this abandoned summer camp nearby…”

On the other side of the restaurant, which was open to the rest of the hotel guests, Vivian watched the crew carefully through the glass partition. They seemed…normal. As if they were not under the influence of a malevolent entity, and she had searched for signs since her arrival.

Searched to see if I was present.

Nothing.

She barely touched her plate, and Karen already stole a few pieces of bacon without her noticing. Karen insisted that she and Chloe eat as much as they could, since she had paid for the damn suite at a very expensive hotel, and Vivian wanted to be as close to the crew as possible. Vivian suspected Dead Pacifica would trigger the death game, as her uncle and his crew had done a year before. She had warned Chloe and Karen about the doors and told them never, ever to open them.

Karen poked Vivian’s arm. “They’re not gonna suddenly disappear if you turn around and eat your food, you know,” Karen said. “And I paid six hundred bucks for our room, which included this awesome breakfast, by the way, so gobble up.”

“As they say, food is fuel,” Chloe chimed in. She slathered a big dollop of butter on top of her pancakes. “If we are gonna be spending a lot of time in the woods, now’s the time to eat.”

With a slow exhale, Vivian forced her gaze away and tried to forget about Xavier, her grandmother, and Dead Pacifica for just five minutes. The rich scent of maple syrup, butter, bacon, and fried potatoes finally broke through to her, making her stomach growl. The long drive had worn her down, and she didn’t feel guilty working her way through the hash browns, scrambled eggs, and fluffy pancakes.

“We need to find my brother,” Vivian said. “If we find him, we find my grandmother.”

“There’s like forty thousand people in this town. How hard can that be?” Chloe said.

“But Dead Pacifica is streaming the show tonight. We don’t have much time,” Vivian said.

“Do you want to go to jail?” Chloe hissed. “How is that gonna help your grandma?”

Karen interrupted. “First of all, we have no idea where Xavier is keeping her. Do you have any idea where that might be?”

“I can think of two places: The Sawyer farm, or maybe the manor? They’re closer to the road. If we have to search further, then the summer camp and the amusement park. Maybe Hell Rock itself.”

“That’s the cabin, right?” Chloe asked.

Vivian nodded.

“Hm. That’s a lot of ground to cover with just the three of us,” Chloe paused. “Didn’t you say there are werewolves and vampires? We haven’t fought them before.”

“Not exactly,” Karen said. “This was before you joined us, Chloe, but the coven had fought a vampire nest in Seattle and drove them out.”

“Really? Alone?”

Karen shook her head. “The Brotherhood was there to help us. Well, it was more like we were helping them. They did the brunt of the fighting and whatever. Our magic wasn’t as potent as it is today.”

Chloe nodded as if she understood what that meant. Vivian was lost. “Who’s the Brotherhood again? None of you mentioned them before.”

Karen took a big bite of her pancakes. “Vampire hunters. Well, mostly vampire hunters, but they also hunt poltergeists and demons. Total freaks. They also hate witches, but they tolerate us covens who don’t do, um, the bad stuff. There’s not a whole lot of them in Seattle.”

“The Vatican also sponsors them,” Chloe added.

Karen snapped her fingers and tapped her nose. “Hm. That’s the rumor, they say. Those boys don’t tell us shit.”

“Well, it’s too late to call them for backup,” Vivian said. “What am I thinking? We can’t do this with just the three of us.”

“Girl, you’re the one who drove us here,” Karen said, laughing.

“You jumped into my car! If you two are having second thoughts—”

“—Will you relax?” Karen placed a hand on Vivian’s shoulder. “I was just kidding. Look, if magic doesn’t work, I have my guns.”

Chloe frowned at that. She never liked guns and would rather use her own magic to blast the bad guys away. When they drove off the Krane residence, they stopped by Karen’s house, where she grabbed a bolt-action rifle and a revolver that she inherited from her late father. They had been ignoring the calls from the rest of the coven. Karen had a feeling they were on their way.

“I don’t know, Karen. Bullets will probably tickle them,” Chloe said.

“Obviously. But it might stop them on their tracks if they’re charging at us. Might give us enough time to get the hell away.” Karen finished the last bit of her pancakes. “Anyway, lucky for you, I have silver bullets for the revolver.”

“Since when?” Vivian asked.

“There are a couple of permanent lycan packs around Seattle, you know. If one of them decides to go feral, hey, at least I have protection if they come after witches. Centuries later, and those idiots are still blaming us for their fucking curse. It’s not true, by the way. A friend of mine made the bullets for me like ten years ago as a gift. I never thought to use them until now. It cost me a ton of money, too. At the end of the day, I’ll get my money’s worth.”

“Hopefully, we don’t have to use them at all.” Vivian was still impressed. “Well, at least that gives us some protection from the werewolves. Do you have anything against vampires? Demons?”

“Hexes can take care of demons,” Karen said flippantly. “We can easily cast them out.”

Vivian wasn’t so sure about that. Karen hadn’t seen the demon that possessed her friends, and from what she had seen, neither of them were adept at casting hexes. Adrian or Lauren could do it as easily as breathing. Vivian wished they were here, too.

Chloe grinned and cleared her throat. “I have something for the vampires. The Mother Supreme always praised me for my telekinesis. I might be able to warp a tree branch into several wooden stakes in under ten seconds and throw them from thirty yards away. There’s also that spell where we can summon the power of the sun. Joanna taught us to use it for our garden.”

Karen scoffed and folded her arms. “Except we can only hold it for three seconds. Joanna can summon concentrated sunlight for seven minutes at least, but she’s not here.”

“We can use it as a deterrent, for sure,” Chloe said, nodding. “And we can also use the tried-and-true method: all creatures hate fire. And look who we have?” Chloe gestured to Karen. “We have the best pyromancer in all of the Northwest.”

Karen forced an exaggerated smile. “Aw. Thanks, guys. How nice that I’m gonna be doing all the freaking work.”

The sliding door opened from the Dead Pacifica side, and two girls stepped out. Vivian, Chloe, and Karen sneakily watched them disappear into the ladies’ room.

“Are you really sure the game is gonna happen tonight?”Chloe asked Vivian. “Thousands of people are gonna be watching, and this looks like a big production. It’s not just a couple of YouTubers running around the woods being imbeciles. From what you’ve told us, it prefers smaller groups. It’s way too… I don’t know, open? Too public? Why reveal itself after all this time?”

“It’s planning something big. I know I’m not making any sense, but my dreams have gotten way too intense over the past couple of weeks, and I think it’s telling me something. Lauren theorized that since I’m a survivor of a past game, I have a connection to the entity in the mountain.” Just like my brother believed, she thought. Vivian dropped her fork on the plate. She couldn’t stomach more of the food and had lost her appetite. “But it’s not a game, Chloe. It’s not what you imagine it to be. No, this will be a massacre.”

“It’s not too late to warn them,” Chloe said.

“I tried that, and they blocked my number and my email,” Vivian said. “Even if we do, those dumbasses covered all of those missing cases on their podcast, and they are still going up there. They’ll think we’re crazy. They’re never going to shut down the whole production since they obviously spent a lot of money. We can go to the cops, but there’s already an APB out for Grandma, and…well, I doubt Chief Dilworth and the PHPD can do anything.”

“It won’t hurt to try,” Chloe said. “At least the cops will be in the woods.”

“No,” Vivian said, shaking her head. “I’m not sending more people to die up there when the game starts.”

“If they even trigger the game. That’s a big if. Until that happens, well, we discussed it last night,” Karen said.

Chloe grimaced. “Urgh, I know.”

“Let me hear you say it then,” Karen insisted.

“Come on. Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.” Chloe’s lips pressed into a tight line. “If they trigger the game, they’re bait. The monsters will be busy with them while we look for Vivian’s grandmother. Until we find her, we are not going to help. Happy?”

“And? You’re missing one important part, sweetie.”

Chloe sighed. “Helping them will get us killed.”

It was Karen’s idea, and Vivian wanted to protest. However, she wouldn’t be able to save Margie if she was busy running around with the crew of Dead Pacifica. They needed to focus on their goal first. Only Chloe was against it.

“Good. I know it’s cruel, but this will help us survive.” Karen leaned back in the chair. “We need to get up there while we still have daylight. First, we have to get to a hardware store to buy a few things. Maybe some hiking clothes because Chloe is not walking in those flats. We’re gonna be walking a lot. And it’s gonna be cold; it might fucking rain; it’s going to be very awful…”

“Yeah, yeah. We get it,” Chloe grumbled.

Karen took a deep breath. “And then we go to the cops. Present ourselves to Chief Dilworth that we’re in town. If he and his boys find Margie before us, then they’ll know where to find us. Until then, we go to the Sawyers.”

“I still don’t like that plan,” Chloe pointed out.

“It’s just recon. Obviously we can’t sit in the hotel room all day waiting for the police to call. With the sun up and no full moon tonight, we don’t have to worry about them turning into werewolves.”

“People can be dangerous, too,” Vivian said. “If not worse.”

Dylan couldn’t believe his eyes.

He couldn’t help but laugh and be amazed at the cabin before him. Sure, the production crew did an awesome job turning the cabin into something you’d walk into in a horror movie, but it felt so strange as its shadow loomed over him. He felt the chill run up his spine; he couldn’t help but shudder.

Big Mac stepped closer, zooming in on Dylan and Retto’s faces reacting to seeing the cabin, in the flesh, for the first time.

“This is so bizarre, us, in these woods,” Retto said, hands over his mouth. “This is the cabin. Hell Rock. This is where the tragedy happened. A year ago, we started something.”

Dylan paused dramatically. “Yes, to uncover the truth. And now it has come to this moment.”

“Dude, this is so scary. I don’t think everyone watching at home knows how scary this is to be here for real.”

“There are a lot of stories here. We’re going to uncover them,” Dylan said. “This is it. Look at my hands. I’m shaking.”

Retto grinned. “Moment of truth. Shall we go inside?”

Dylan matched his grin, paused to let the moment stretch, and then he quickly dropped the smile, turned around, and yelled, “Cut! Cut!”

Big Mac lowered the camera, looking tired of it, as Heidi, Owen, Billy, and Kim stepped out from behind.

“What? What’s wrong?” Owen asked. “That was perfect! We almost had it. Why did you stop?”

“I don’t know. I’m not feeling it. It seems a bit much that my hands are shaking, you know?”

“What’s wrong with your hands?”

“That’s the thing. I’m not a shaker, Owen. I don’t shake. And what’s with the cringy dialogue?”

Owen heaved a sigh. “It’s just a promo, Dylan. We’re hours away from the stream. This is like the fifth take. How hard can this be? Just shake your hands, please.”

“You don’t understand. My fans will mock me for this. I don’t want to be a meme tomorrow.”

Retto’s jaw dropped. “Hey! So you’re asking me to do it?”

“God damn it, do I have to coach you on how to fucking act?” Owen said.

But Dylan wasn’t backing down. “Hey, don’t treat me like an idiot. I’d rather say the line, ‘Shall we go inside?’ because I think it’s more of a me line, you know? At the beginning of every episode, I always say, ‘Shall we dive in?’ to Retto, right? It makes perfect sense that I should be the one to say this line. Retto agrees with me.”

Retto paused, then nodded. “Yeaaahhh. He’s not wrong, Owen. I kinda like that, actually. It has coherence.”

Owen laughed. “Oh? Coherence? You heard that, everyone? Thank you, Retto, for learning such a big word. Let’s give him a round of applause.”

“Hey, eat a dick, Owen. Eat a thousand dicks,” Retto said.

“Who wrote this shit?” Dylan asked.

Billy slowly raised his hand. “I, um…I wrote it,” he said softly.

“See this, Billy? See how disappointed I am?” Dylan threw both middle fingers. “You should know better, man. You should know better.”

Owen’s face reddened. “You know what? Fine! Both of you switch lines. I don’t give a fuck. We have too much to do. I’d rather run around naked in these bloody woods than have multiple takes of this. Just do the promo so we can post this, for the love of God!”

“Boys, can we not scream? It’s too early for this,” Heidi said.

Kim rolled her eyes. “We really need HR to be here.”

“Are we going back to the start?” Big Mac asked nonchalantly, as if Dylan and Owen didn’t just have a screaming match.

“Yes,” Owen said. “And this better be the last take, or I swear to God, I’m gonna burn the cabin and lock Dylan inside it.”

They sequestered the rest of the cast at base camp, a cluster of trailers and pavilions where most of the crew would be staying, with their cars parked farther out. Although Retto and Dylan had already seen the cabin, the rest hadn’t, and the crew was counting on their genuine reactions.

Annie Tran handled everyone’s hair and makeup, and she had a trailer reserved just for that. Even though this was only a livestream, Owen went all out to make sure everyone in the cast looked good on camera. She also brought hiking and outdoorsy costumes in neutral colors that the cast would wear, presenting them as if they had been hiking in the woods for a long while, even though base camp was only half a mile from the cabin.

At first, they refused because they had brought their own clothes, but Annie didn’t like them at all. After insisting that they looked ugly in them, she got her way. Annie had a way with words: her insults were just some tough love from an old Vietnamese woman, not meant to be taken seriously. It was a gift, and she had gotten away with many of the things she had said to Owen and Dylan.

One of her main talents was makeup. The cast didn’t need much makeup; they just needed to look beautiful but aesthetically natural. It was all pretend, anyway. But the company hired her for a specific thing: doing the makeup for the monsters. Annie was a legend in her field for helping create several monsters in countless horror movies over the years.

She was proud of the project she just finished. She had never designed a costume for a real-life serial killer before.

“How does the collar feel?” She asked Big Mac.

“I don’t know. Fine, I guess? It’s not too tight.” Big Mac looked at himself in the mirror. After the promo shoot, he went directly to the fitting while the cast were busy in their own trailers. They could have hired another stuntman to play the Goliath, but they couldn’t find the right stature, except for Big Mac. “Do I look like the Goliath, though?”

Annie grinned widely. “Put on the fox mask and you will.”

Big Mac put it on. He was the same size as my Goliath, and I couldn’t tell the difference. Well, the real Goliath had dirtier clothes, so it was easy to tell them apart. But in terms of height, stature, and look, it was a ninety-nine percent match. Even real Goliath was impressed when he watched through Oracle’s computer, pointing at it like a little kid, as if saying, “Look! That’s me! That’s me!” and the other archetypes laughed and patted his shoulders. He was gonna be a star.

Big Mac did several poses with the axe. “Huh. I look badass. You think I’m scary enough?”

“Scary? Those kids are gonna shit their pants,” Annie said.

“I hope Hanlon or the cops don’t shoot me. That’ll be bad.”

“If they do, I’ll take it as a compliment. Ha!” Annie laughed. “This might be one of my best works yet.”

Jake Hanlon was one of the security guards that Owen hired to look out for trespassers. This wasn’t Owen’s first rodeo with a high-profile shoot like this. There were always the crazy fans who wanted in on the action, and Hanlon and his team were going to make sure they regretted it.

But Big Mac was still nervous. During their drive, they noticed several police checkpoints on their way to McLaren Forest. “Apparently, some geriatric was kidnapped by her grandson, and the police thought he brought her here,” Heidi said on the bus.

For a second, Retto thought they should cover that since it was an ongoing investigation, but Owen was worried it would take days and that they had other, better things to do. With the cops around, the crew felt a lot safer.

When they arrived at base camp, the town’s chief of police stationed two police officers just nearby in case the kidnappers stumbled upon the shoot. The crew was worried that Chief Dilworth was going to shut down the production, but to their surprise, he didn’t, explaining that the cabin wasn’t part of their search radius. As long as they didn’t go further than that, they were good to continue filming.

But Owen, Retto, and Dylan didn’t tell Chief Dilworth that they planned to do the opposite.

It was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

The other two men in the makeup trailer, Tyson and Ralf, were two stuntmen that Owen and Dylan hired. Unlike Big Mac, who wouldn’t always be wearing this costume since he would be filming during the first half, the stuntmen had more elaborate getups and makeup, and had the freedom to move around the property. Each of them had earpieces on, so Owen, Kim, and Heidi could tell them a cast member’s location and how to do the scares.

Tyson wore a 1950s clown outfit that made Big Mac very uncomfortable to be around him, even as Tyson sipped an orange juice box and watched anime in the makeup chair while Annie did a few touch-ups on his cheek.

Ralf was a tall and very skinny man who wore an old woman’s costume. Big Mac didn’t know what he was supposed to be at first, but he overheard Annie say that the creature was the love child of Slender Man and a Wendigo. And then it clicked in his head. Ralf was Mother Gertrude, the town’s infamous witch.

“Is that supposed to be me?” Mother Gertrude said, pointing at the screen. “Well, they are very, very rude.” She then proceeded to ask Oracle how to leave several comments on the live chat (once that was online), so she could leave them with her grievances about bastardizing her body.

Big Mac took off the costume just as Owen called him back to the main trailer.

The whole cast had gathered outside as Kim and Billy handed each one a GoPro head mount, a small daypack with snacks and a bottle of water, a flashlight, and a radio connected to an earpiece. They tested everyone’s mic and their camera feed. Other than a couple of cameras glitching by the amusement park and another one by the back porch, everything else was running smoothly.

“We should take a group photo!” Emily shouted, and everyone was down for the idea.

Emily handed her phone to Hanlon as the cast and crew crowded one side of the base camp that led toward the forest. Dylan insisted on being at the center, and he dragged my cousin, Charlie, to be next to him and Retto. He was smug that Kurtis was left to the side next to Owen.

“Hey, Charlie. Ready to make history?” Retto asked.

Charlie gulped. “Yeah. For Mark.”

Retto’s eyes softened, and he gave Charlie’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “For Mark.”

Emily heard that and also shouted, “For Mark!” And then everyone started shouting it.

CLICK!

Hanlon took the picture and handed it back to Emily. Everyone crowded around her to get a glimpse, but Emily already began sending it out to them. Owen told her only to post the photo after the show.

Eventually, the crew separated from the cast. Big Mac hoisted the camera over his shoulder as Dylan and Retto walked up to the front. Owen, Heidi, Billy, and Kim disappeared into the main trailer until Big Mac heard Heidi’s voice.

“Places, everyone. We’re starting in two minutes,” she said.

The rest of the cast was smiling from behind.

Adrenaline coursed through their veins.

As much as Dylan didn’t want to admit it, he was shaking with excitement and nervousness. Retto offered a fist bump, and he took it.

“Glad to be doing this with you, brother,” Retto said.

Dylan genuinely smiled. “Hey. Me too.”

The shoulder cam’s light switched on. For a moment, it was blinding to Dylan’s eyes. As his vision adjusted, he saw Big Mac’s palm was up for all to see, counting down.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two…

A tiny light on the shoulder cam switched to red.

Big Mac pointed at Dylan.

“Good evening, America. You are watching us tonight in beautiful Point Hope, Oregon, in McLaren Forest—the site of numerous tragedies and disappearances. The locals call this place Hell Rock for a good reason, which we will find out tonight. My name is Dylan Griffin—”

“—And I am Retto Kearns—”

“And we are Dead Pacifica,” they said together.

Dylan paused, letting the moment breathe, and said, “Shall we dive in?”