Sin's Fall

Title: Sin’s Fall
Writer: Dying In Black
Summary: Johnny has a chance of portraying Tithe’s legendary singer Sin in a full-length movie but secrets are being exposed and so are enemies and ex-lovers, who killed Sin?

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Disclaimer: "This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited"

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Chapter One

Johnny nervously thumbed through the script eyeing his competition while pretending not to and watching the other actors do the same. He lay back against the plastic orange chair, his long legs stretched out before him.

At twenty-four he was considered late for someone trying to get into acting, especially with today's media business and their obsession with promiscuous adolescents. But he wanted to prove he could be taken as a serious actor and the community college he attended provided acting classes. He had joined with a lesser known management agency that catered to his type of people, the newbies, the type that more often then not failed to achieve fame or were able to gain some fame by appearing as an extra on a television show.

At 6’3 he was one of the tallest men in the room if not the tallest, because of this during casting he was often dismissed because he was so tall. The women he read lines with were always extremely thin and taller than average, but they were dwarfed on camera when they stood next to him outlining their brittle bones. He could have probably gained a role as a bad guy in a movie, but he wasn’t built like a quarterback or had the face to back it up with. It was mere chance that he had learned of the audition when his agent had called him and explained that he had heard through the grapevine that there was a movie in the works that he thought Johnny would be perfect for.

And fortunately for the first time Johnny thought his agent finally had it right. Sin was a legend in Hollywood, the underground scene kids worshiped the ground he had walked on. The man was quickly becoming a rising star from the dead as his music and his image began to be promoted by artists alike. Cool kids were seen sporting his face on patches copying his style and listening to his music.

For Johnny, Sin’s revisited popularity could not have come at a better time, if Sin had still been alive he and Johnny would have stood at the same height. He had grown his hair out for the audition and it now hung at the perfect height framing his shoulder blades in a mass of long silky black ink, his eyes were the same russet brown with thick black lashes framing them. He wore dark washed jeans and a simple black V-necked T-Shirt that showed off his pecs and collarbone, a bracelet adorned his wrist thick weaving strands of sepia and black.

There were plenty of guys who had prepared for the role, some having outlined their eyes with kohl, others wearing skin tight leather breeches, Johnny had even seen one of them sporting an identical tattoo to Sin’s on their shoulder. Others were less prepared or really had no clue to who Sin was, they sported short hair, wearing polo shorts and instead of wearing the traditional darker colors came in shades of beige and white or fruity ensembles of baby pinks and powder blues.

But he noticed a lot of serious actors he had seen in other castings, some who had had their promotional debut already on television shows or modeling. Johnny hunched in his seat and tried not to squirm it was bad enough he had to wait with all these other actors but he was beginning to feel self-conscious and worried that if he walked into the casting they would take one look at him and laugh him out of the building.

His agent had explained that the movie would revolve around Tithe the band and their early rise to fame but would mostly center on their lead singer Sin. The band had exploded onto the scene with such vigor and energy that when Sin died the music industry and the misfit fans who had idol worshiped him were left to mourn. Years had passed and Tithe was remembered by the fans who had lived their youth listening to their music but having been forgotten by the new musical styles that came into the scene that replaced them. But it wasn’t until new artists who having been influenced by Tithe began to copy their musical and visual artistry that Tithe was brought back to the forefront.

And now they were back, kids whose parents had listened to Tithe back when they were their age dug through basements and garages for their music. Their old stuff had now been upgraded into MP3’s and CD’s books and videos were being released left and right. It was Sin’s Fall a bestseller by Elaine Green that was auctioned into the screenplay for the movie. Elaine had been a close friend of the band when Tithe had risen to popularity; pictures of her youth outlined the book many with Sin himself lying on a hotel bed hair matted across his face. Elaine had claimed to be a close friend of Sin having been a sometimes lover with the singer, she wrote of drug binges, orgies and of littered beer bottles left in their wake as they made their way to concerts.

But much of the book was opened to speculation, friends of Sin called Elaine’s book a farce and said she was a deceitful liar trying to gain money and fame by desecrating the memory of their friend. Johnny had watched the late night shows to see it himself, Elaine Green chatting with TV show hosts in her gold shoes and dresses hair perfectly coiffed as she went on and on about Sin and the undying love she had shared with him. Johnny had flipped through the book several times and had seen the pictures of Elaine in her youth she had been a buxom girl with wild hair and penciled lips fishnets wrapping tight against her body but he had yet to have seen a picture of her and Sin together. Not even the friends who spoke against Elaine could provide pictures of Sin and themselves standing side by side.

The only ones who could actually make any argument to the whole debacle were behind closed doors having hidden from the world Sin’s band mates refused interviews and from what anyone knew they did not keep in contact with each other either.

It had already been three hours since Johnny had come to audition and as the number of actors dwindled in the room his pulse began to speed and he had to rush to the restroom to take a quick leak and dab the perspiration sneaking above his lip and on the back of his neck with a moist napkin. When he got back to the waiting area he was called and made to wait for a few more minutes with two other guys who looked confident or at least were good at pretending to be. They were ushered into the room across the hall where six people waited behind a thin metal desk.

There were four men and two women one who Johnny instantly recognized as Elaine Green. The men were dressed casually one of them a young guy was probably a little older than Johnny who had been slouching in his seat quickly sat up and leaned towards the woman on his right, she wore a ribbed tank top jewels adorned her plugged ears her hair was short a rich magenta. Elaine was the only one who had dressed up for the audition with her pointy heels and skintight blue dress that matched her auburn hair perfectly.

One of the older men called out to the three young actors and told them they could place their portfolios on the desk. As Johnny dropped his thin portfolio he caught the young guy looking at him an odd smile gracing his masculine face.

“I hope you have all read my book,” Elaine added as the actors took their place in front “I will only chose the man who will do justice to my vision.”

The older man who sat by her side interrupted her “We will Elaine,” he was the older man who had earlier called them for their portfolios “My name is Walter Mendoza, this is Elaine Green, that’s Frankie, this is Gloria and he is Michael Justin,” he lastly pointed at the younger guy “We will ask you to read some lines and if we like you, you will be called for a second audition. If not we will ask you to leave but first our makeup artist Gloria here will tell us if you are aesthetically what we are looking for.”

Gloria sat back and stared at them through heavy lids lips pursed in thought as she stood and walked to them. Though the actors standing beside Johnny were tall he still towered over them by an inch or two. He slouched worried he might be at a disadvantage looking like a giant compared to these guys. Gloria looked the first actor up and down before making her way to the next and then doing the same to him. She stopped in front of Johnny and let her head rise to catch his eyes before dropping to his shoes, he was surprised when she ran her fingers across his long hair and let the strands fall back against his shoulders.

“Hn no wig,” she muttered as she walked back to the table and leaned against it.

“Well Gloria?” questioned Walter “What do you think?”

“That one and that one,” she pointed to the guys next to Johnny.

“All right then,” muttered Frankie a large man with a heavy beard “You heard her, if you can step back Mr…” he said as he looked through the portfolios “Johnny Carlisle,” he finished and dropped the folder back on the desk.

Nervously Johnny backed away and let himself out he felt hot, the back of his eyes stung with tears and his throat became dry all of sudden but in the face of the actors left lingering he walked past the receptionist and out the doors unwilling to let shame to bring him down.

‘But I really wanted it…’


..


Michael or Mike Justin watched the tall long haired waif like man walk out the door “We’re sorry to say but you two are not what we are looking for,” at their shocked expressions he continued without consideration “This film relies heavily on portraying the truths of Tithe and Sin himself physically you have the coloring but you do not stand up to our standards.”

The failed actors walked out and Mike could feel their anger and disappointment but he had already dismissed them as he turned to look at his partners “Well?” he asked.

Gloria raised her arms in defense “Don’t look at me, you cant just put a wig on a guy and expect him to embody Sin it’s not possible.”

Frankie coughed into a fist “She’s right they’d laugh us out of Hollywood if we allowed that to happen, our sponsors are filtering us with the money but if we cant come up with Sin himself we don’t have anything.”

Walter nodded “We’d be a liability to them.”

“What about the tall guy?” Mike could still remember those eyes, that mouth and that willowy body from a few minutes ago.

Elaine scoffed “Him? Darling Michael, Sin was a creature unlike any other that young man there was good looking but he didn’t embody Sin I just couldn’t see the-the essence!”

“I actually thought he had a lot of potential,” Gloria turned to grab the portfolio Frankie had originally dismissed “He doesn’t seem to have much experience in acting but the kid could be Sin’s twin if I ever did see one. Slim muscle, similar bone structure, long hair which he takes care of by the way and he happens to be the same height Sin was.”

“I though we had agreed we weren’t going to higher a newbie,” grumbled Frankie “The kid has no acting experience who cares if he does look like him? What good would it do us if he can’t act?”

“We already went through this, Michael will make the final decision on all things he is the director on set,” Walter settled down “Besides no one with a big enough career would want to take this role it’s risky, you read the book orgies, drugs, booze if we don’t get a handle on things we can destroy our careers before it even begins.”

Mike flipped through Johnny’s portfolio and stared at the candid shots, with finality he closed it and tucked it into the pile of the other four portfolios “I want him to be part of the callback,” Mike stood and grabbed his backpack behind his chair shrugging into his denim jacket “That’s it send everyone home, we have our Sin.”


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Writer’s Comments:
Thanks for reading, the idea came to me today in class and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Tell me if you enjoyed it or not its good getting feedback ^^
I’d like to apologize for any mistakes spelling or otherwise.