One Foot In
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Fantasy & Science Fiction › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
12
Views:
2,009
Reviews:
17
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Fantasy & Science Fiction › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
12
Views:
2,009
Reviews:
17
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
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.
Haunted by Demons
Chapter 12 – Haunted by Demons
Josh made a deal with me. He told me that he’d had a lot of time to think while I was gone and it had occurred to him to look at all the odd jobs he’d taken while I was out temping. What he discovered was that I’d been allowed very little time for myself to go out there and audition for work. I’d do my temp jobs from nine to five and run out during lunch breaks to get myself seen. Josh wanted that to change. Just like I’d brought in the lion’s share income wise to keep us afloat all those years, he wanted me to take off time to simply audition, take classes and work up new audition material. I thought about it. In fact I spent quite a few hours at Starbucks staring at the foam on my latte trying to work up the courage to agree. To take this time off would leave me without an excuse. If I couldn’t make my career happened with both his financial and economic support, then I truly was a failure at my chosen field. It was scary because then I knew I’d have to give up something I loved and move on with my life, maybe to something I could be successful at.
I gave myself six months. I trained with an excellent drama coach. I worked as hard as if I was planning to head to the Olympics. Josh’s agent, Melvin just call me Mel, begrudgingly took a look at me, as a favor to Josh. I was surprised when after a week or two Mel sent me out on my first audition for him. It was voice-over work, a very tough field to crack, but incredibly lucrative once you got your foot in the door. I got called back twice, but in the end, someone-- a name you’d recognize-- got the part. I felt bad, as I was certain I had it in the bag, but I continued to head out to every audition for every role I suited and even a few that I didn’t. I got called again for another voice-over, and another. I was being asked for, but not hired. I went and got another coach that specialized in voice-overs. A couple of hundred bucks later, I landed by first voice-over, for Dixie Twins Donuts. I was in.
Two weeks later I got the job of the nosy next-door neighbor and sometime girlfriend of lea lead in a new fox animated series. It was created by the same guy that dreamt up the Simpsons and Futurama and I kept my fingers crossed that it would have as long a run as those two dinosaurs. More voice-over work was coming in for commercials and though I didn’t get hired that much, every job I did get offeredmy rmy residuals. It looked like I had found my niche. Also, I got cast in an Off-off Broadway original play. It was awful, the playwright’s second produced work, but it promised of more work with that particular theatre group if I played my cards right.
My temping days were over.
Just before New Years we were invited out to an art exhibit opening. It was a group show for a very trendy dealer and one of Josh’s co-workers had some work there. We dressed up and went to it. As usual there was wine and cheese and all of my Josh’s very good-looking fellow actresses and actors putting in an appearance.
Then I saw Thor.
He was standing in a corner with a very attractive young woman who, in my opinion, might have looked better with out the five piercings in her face. Still, what do I know? Thor didn’t make eye contact with me, but his body language said he knew I was there. I didn’t go over. Why should I? Nothing had ever really happened between us, other than a demon borrowing his body for a few hours. Any other ties had been severed before they happened. I spotted a new piece by Thor that I hadn’t seen in his apartment and I hoped that it was for sale. I didn’t want to arouse suspicion by asking about it. I determined that I’d come back and see if I could purchase it.
The next day I went down to the gallery just as it was opening. I’d had a gig that morning that ended much earlier than planned as a result of some big name being a no-show. I had done my part and then was sent home.
I slipped into the empty gallery and went directly to the painting. It was of my demon, the one that had taken over Thor’s body. It was amazing how accurately the indescribable had been captured. It seemed quite abstract at the same time one could not help but sense the presence of my demon there in the light and darkness of the painting.
I checked for a price.
“It’s not for sale.”
I whirled around.
“Hi Leo.” I smiled vaguely, unsure of how I was supposed to act.
“Hi yourself, Cindy.” That small shy smile appeared and I turned back to the painting before he could see I was blushing.
“It’s not for sale because he’s saving it for you.” Leo slipped his arm through mine and stood quite close to me. I could smell him and he was delicious.
“No kidding?” I felt myself trembling under his touch.
“No. You know, Cindy, I still think we’d be good for each.” I closed my eyes and swallowed. “I understand that you plan to marry the human.” He turned me around to face him and I opened my eyes.
“Maybe in about 50 years, you’ll change your mind about him? You know, I don’t mind waiting.”
“Fifty years, Leo, I’ll be ready for the grave. I’m not like you.” I said it gently and wistfully, might as well let him down easy. “I’m half-human.”
“You’re half-Elfish too.” And then he took me to the back where there was a toilet. I felt nervous, unsure of what he had planned. He set me in front of the mirror in the bathroom. “What do you see?”
I smiled, “Just Cindy. Come on Leo, what is this about?”
“Use your sight. You’re only seeing what you want to see.”
I shot him a look and then stared at my mirror reflection. I saw him start to change into his Elfish self, but than I realized that it was I as well. I looked about sixteen years of age and my face—was pointy like his!
“How?”
“You only saw what you wanted to see. I could see it all along.” He kissed me and ran his hand along my cheek. “I’ll wait for you, Cindy. Anyhow, you’ll be please with how good things will be then. I promise.”
And then he walked away.
Maybe fifty years isn’t a very long time after all.
The End
A/N: I really want to thank all my readers and my reviewers (Lulu, Anon, NegativeNine, Arianna, Owlet and SarahS) for your interest and for sticking by me. On my really popular fanfics, I get about a 1,000 readers. (Less popular ones get 500-800.) As far as I can figure, there are about 50 or more of you. Out of that I got 6 reviews. That is incredibly great! With 1,000 readers I can hope for maybe 10 reviews per chapter meaning one percent. Here I got 12 percent of readership review. So you are a small group, but extremely vocal in cheering me on!
Thank you!!!
April Grey
Josh made a deal with me. He told me that he’d had a lot of time to think while I was gone and it had occurred to him to look at all the odd jobs he’d taken while I was out temping. What he discovered was that I’d been allowed very little time for myself to go out there and audition for work. I’d do my temp jobs from nine to five and run out during lunch breaks to get myself seen. Josh wanted that to change. Just like I’d brought in the lion’s share income wise to keep us afloat all those years, he wanted me to take off time to simply audition, take classes and work up new audition material. I thought about it. In fact I spent quite a few hours at Starbucks staring at the foam on my latte trying to work up the courage to agree. To take this time off would leave me without an excuse. If I couldn’t make my career happened with both his financial and economic support, then I truly was a failure at my chosen field. It was scary because then I knew I’d have to give up something I loved and move on with my life, maybe to something I could be successful at.
I gave myself six months. I trained with an excellent drama coach. I worked as hard as if I was planning to head to the Olympics. Josh’s agent, Melvin just call me Mel, begrudgingly took a look at me, as a favor to Josh. I was surprised when after a week or two Mel sent me out on my first audition for him. It was voice-over work, a very tough field to crack, but incredibly lucrative once you got your foot in the door. I got called back twice, but in the end, someone-- a name you’d recognize-- got the part. I felt bad, as I was certain I had it in the bag, but I continued to head out to every audition for every role I suited and even a few that I didn’t. I got called again for another voice-over, and another. I was being asked for, but not hired. I went and got another coach that specialized in voice-overs. A couple of hundred bucks later, I landed by first voice-over, for Dixie Twins Donuts. I was in.
Two weeks later I got the job of the nosy next-door neighbor and sometime girlfriend of lea lead in a new fox animated series. It was created by the same guy that dreamt up the Simpsons and Futurama and I kept my fingers crossed that it would have as long a run as those two dinosaurs. More voice-over work was coming in for commercials and though I didn’t get hired that much, every job I did get offeredmy rmy residuals. It looked like I had found my niche. Also, I got cast in an Off-off Broadway original play. It was awful, the playwright’s second produced work, but it promised of more work with that particular theatre group if I played my cards right.
My temping days were over.
Just before New Years we were invited out to an art exhibit opening. It was a group show for a very trendy dealer and one of Josh’s co-workers had some work there. We dressed up and went to it. As usual there was wine and cheese and all of my Josh’s very good-looking fellow actresses and actors putting in an appearance.
Then I saw Thor.
He was standing in a corner with a very attractive young woman who, in my opinion, might have looked better with out the five piercings in her face. Still, what do I know? Thor didn’t make eye contact with me, but his body language said he knew I was there. I didn’t go over. Why should I? Nothing had ever really happened between us, other than a demon borrowing his body for a few hours. Any other ties had been severed before they happened. I spotted a new piece by Thor that I hadn’t seen in his apartment and I hoped that it was for sale. I didn’t want to arouse suspicion by asking about it. I determined that I’d come back and see if I could purchase it.
The next day I went down to the gallery just as it was opening. I’d had a gig that morning that ended much earlier than planned as a result of some big name being a no-show. I had done my part and then was sent home.
I slipped into the empty gallery and went directly to the painting. It was of my demon, the one that had taken over Thor’s body. It was amazing how accurately the indescribable had been captured. It seemed quite abstract at the same time one could not help but sense the presence of my demon there in the light and darkness of the painting.
I checked for a price.
“It’s not for sale.”
I whirled around.
“Hi Leo.” I smiled vaguely, unsure of how I was supposed to act.
“Hi yourself, Cindy.” That small shy smile appeared and I turned back to the painting before he could see I was blushing.
“It’s not for sale because he’s saving it for you.” Leo slipped his arm through mine and stood quite close to me. I could smell him and he was delicious.
“No kidding?” I felt myself trembling under his touch.
“No. You know, Cindy, I still think we’d be good for each.” I closed my eyes and swallowed. “I understand that you plan to marry the human.” He turned me around to face him and I opened my eyes.
“Maybe in about 50 years, you’ll change your mind about him? You know, I don’t mind waiting.”
“Fifty years, Leo, I’ll be ready for the grave. I’m not like you.” I said it gently and wistfully, might as well let him down easy. “I’m half-human.”
“You’re half-Elfish too.” And then he took me to the back where there was a toilet. I felt nervous, unsure of what he had planned. He set me in front of the mirror in the bathroom. “What do you see?”
I smiled, “Just Cindy. Come on Leo, what is this about?”
“Use your sight. You’re only seeing what you want to see.”
I shot him a look and then stared at my mirror reflection. I saw him start to change into his Elfish self, but than I realized that it was I as well. I looked about sixteen years of age and my face—was pointy like his!
“How?”
“You only saw what you wanted to see. I could see it all along.” He kissed me and ran his hand along my cheek. “I’ll wait for you, Cindy. Anyhow, you’ll be please with how good things will be then. I promise.”
And then he walked away.
Maybe fifty years isn’t a very long time after all.
The End
A/N: I really want to thank all my readers and my reviewers (Lulu, Anon, NegativeNine, Arianna, Owlet and SarahS) for your interest and for sticking by me. On my really popular fanfics, I get about a 1,000 readers. (Less popular ones get 500-800.) As far as I can figure, there are about 50 or more of you. Out of that I got 6 reviews. That is incredibly great! With 1,000 readers I can hope for maybe 10 reviews per chapter meaning one percent. Here I got 12 percent of readership review. So you are a small group, but extremely vocal in cheering me on!
Thank you!!!
April Grey