I waited before I went back to set. I needed a plan. I needed to find out the perfect way to get my job back. After minutes of deliberation, the perfect plan struck me. I would get on my knees and plead and beg until my knees started to bleed.

When I came into the open plain it was completely empty, even the noise had subsided. Did they start filming? I walked to a glass window and looked inside the mansion. It looked like they started filming already. I sneaked into the set while trying my hardest not to be seen by Leslie.

“You try to seduce me and then you try to kill my girlfriend!” Adam says, the pain in his voice evident.

“Heh, do you think I’m the bad guy?” Leslie gives me a glance and then looks back at adam. “Do you think I’m stupid? Impossible? Selfish? Well how about you both!” her face twisted into mockery. “The cheater who is twisted by me and the sad angel who thinks she's better than everybody! Well, I’m done. I’m done with all this. If I have no purpose but to be your playthings then I might as well not exist!” She took out a pill from her pocket. “Why do…I…ha…what did I do to deserve all this….” She takes the pill and plops down.

“Cut!” the director screams. “That was amazing! Just amazing! One of the best death scenes I have ever shot Leslie darling~!”

“Thank you. I’ll be in my tent if you need anything else.”

“Of course, of course.”

She walked toward me, and I started blabbering. “M-mam, y-you know that was really good! A+! I really loved how you acted!”

She ignored me and walked past me. She left the mansion and went to her tent, I followed like a lost puppy. “Well, what happened? Weren’t you supposed to be around until the season ended?”

She sat down on a chair. “Shut up. Don’t think because you come back you can suddenly get your job back, it's over. I can’t have such a negative person as my assistant. Especially one who thinks I’m such a ‘horrible person’ and a ‘horrible actress’.”

“You know how much I love your acting skills! Look, I was just a little heated at the moment, that's all. I mean I really did drive 8 hours to get here and you made me act- well it doesn’t matter. I just want to apologize.”

“Good. Apology taken. Now get out of my sight.”

“Well, I don’t really have anywhere else to go…”

“Get out.”

“Okay.”

Welp…it was all going so well. I looked up. I should get somewhere before it starts getting darker and the mosquitoes start biting.

I found a large staff tent where I could sit down and drink water in the corner. I don’t know. Can I even drink water anymore? What's the point? If this entire thing ends do I just go back to watching videos and taking pictures? Can I even go back?

No, I have to try one more time! I have to! I would go and get on my knees like I was planning to! I would beg!

I stood up with a passion and ran to her tent. In one motion I unzipped the tent and got on my knees while bowing my head. “I’m sorry!” I looked up. She wasn’t here. Ah, I guess this is what they mean when they say you are shit out of luck. I must have used it all with Abby. I stood up and walked out of the tent. Ah. It's gotten dark.

I had to look for her. I walked through the clearing, around the mansion, with the silence that followed a long filming seesion filling the air all I could hear was the birds chirping. I walked through the various common tents until I was finally back in the woods. I had looked everywhere but she was nowhere. So I went back to the spot where we fought, and there she was, talking to her phone.

“No. I told you last time that I wouldn’t. No. No. I’m NOT doing it, I don’t care. Yea take it. Whatever. I’m doing great! I just wrapped up my series and they loved me.” Her face reflected the blue light of her phone, but even in the dark, I could see how angry she was. “Do you think that this will work? Do you hate me that much?” there was silence. “No, you are not! You are not, you just hate me for doing something that you could never do! I hate you, you miserable old hag!” She threw the phone to the ground. The light shut off.

“Fuck.” She said silently under her breath. “There goes another phone….” She picked up the phone and sat on the log.

This wouldn’t be a good time to beg. I get the feeling that if anything I would be killed if I tried to talk to her. I started to walk back.

She looked up “Is someone there?”

Well, I could always run? But I’m so tired, and she could probably outrun me. “Hey! I was looking for you!” I walked in.

“What do you want?”

“Well, I was just worried about you. You shouldn’t be out in a dark forest for so long, you could get lost. And it looks like you broke your phone.”

“Y-yea…”

“Come on, let's go back.”

“Okay, but please, I don’t need any more conversation.”

I would like to think that I have quick wits. Or maybe I truly am the smartest man in the world, I mean she's talking to me, and not at all in a bad way, she could even be close to forgiving me! I’m optimistic.

As we walked back to the film set she asked. “Did you hear anything before you got here?”

“I think I might have heard your phone drop or something.”

“Yea..it slipped from my hand.”

“So why were you killed off? I thought you were going to stay for the rest of the season?”

“….Well…I don’t know, you know. Ha. The writers came to me, we fought. ‘Leslie we decided to kill you off.’ I don’t know, they really didn’t explain themselves. I mean whatever, just…whatever.”

“Good, and about that getting fired bit, you know I was just angry right? It's not like I really think you are a bad actress or person.”

“It doesn’t matter if you think it's true or not. It probably is. Look at me, I’m 27, and I’m not even good at the one thing I committed my entire life to.”

“But you are good!”

“Do they kill off good actresses? Why is it that I can’t even get one role without some geezer sticking his hand on my ass or some writer chopping my head off? It doesn’t matter…I…think I’m done. Once this is done you won’t have to deal with me because I won’t be an actress. Don’t worry. They’ll probably stick you to some other actress.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

That's not how temping works, they’ll hang me along with you! “No, you can’t- you can’t quit! That wouldn’t be a good idea!”

“Well thanks, but if I wanted your opinion I would have asked. Now shut up. My head is already hurting.”

We walked back to the set to see that everybody had gathered together in front of someone. “Hello, everybody!” his voice was deep and it looked like he was used to doing this. “Today's filming is over! Since we are hoping to bring you guys back again tomorrow, instead of driving all the way back, the production company has rented out a local hotel nearby where everyone can come and stay! Just follow the convoy of vans.” He finished with a laugh and the crowd cheered with the intensity of people not required to drive 8 hours.

I looked at her. “It's better than driving back and getting 2 hours of sleep. I mean you still have to shoot a couple more scenes.” And this way I can at least spend some time more thinking about how to get you to stay.

“Sure, the hotel will probably be bigger then my apartment anyway.”

I drove behind, what the man probably was jokingly referring to as a convey of vans, but was quite literally a convoy of vans. Nobody wanted to drive 8 hours back it seems. When we arrived at the hotel everybody scrambled to get into a room. Maybe because we weren’t important enough we were stuck in one room. Something about assistants not really being planned for, but what did they expect? I wasn’t sleeping outside!

“Would you be fine if we slept in the same room?” I asked with my gentle voice.

“Yea, sure. If you touch me I’ll scream. But when I have to take a bath and get ready you’re being kicked out. ”

“I agree.”

We were getting ready to go to sleep. She was putting her clothes out, while I was watching her put her clothes out. There were a lot of clothes.

I checked my flip-phone. It was 9pm. I would have a solid…24 hours? To get her to come back. I mean that would be easy. I just have to non-stop compliment her! Keep talking about how I admire her until she can’t help but see herself as the best actress in the world.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Leslie yelled.

A head popped in. “Hey guys, we’re all having a drink if you guys wanted to come out. But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“It's fine,” Leslie said. “I feel like having a drink anyway.”

She laid her clothing for tomorrow out and dragged me along with her. ‘I can’t trust you alone with my clothes’ she said and took the key card for the room. I don’t know where she gets the idea that I would go for HER panties.

The dining room was a large open space with long tables that could easily fit 10+ people. Each table was short, so instead of chairs everybody sat on pillows as they drank and ate.

We arrived to everyone settling down and talking. I would have followed Leslie but she sat in the middle of two other actors and left me alone. Slowly I found a place in-between two random people I had never met. You know I was completely uninterested in them, but they were in a very interesting conversation on the finer aspects of soda.

I was so deep into it that I didn’t notice that they started to stare at me. “Ah, sorry, I’m Jake, Leslie's assistant.”

“Ah, Leslie's assistant, I think I’ve seen you before.” Said the short, plump man. His eyeglasses slightly askew.

“Well, I’m usually just following Leslie around all day.”

“Yea, I think that's where I saw you. Well luckily for you there won’t be much work for you since Leslie has been” he slashed his thumb against his throat. “From the show.”

The skinny lady chimed in. “And I really liked her! I felt like it was such a bittersweet character, imagine being abandoned into poverty and misery, and then coming back to get revenge after years.”

“She wrote the character.” The plump man whispered.

The lady humphed. “Well aside from that, I thought she was good. And it wasn’t like she was a bad actress either. You know... Middle-aged ladies just hate to have their stand-in characters ruined for them, it's sad really.”

“Well I’m not complaining!” the plump man added. “My characters are still up and scheming away!”

“Anyway!” the lady turned from the man and toward me. “What did you think of the show? It's always fun to hear from new people about it.”

“I was never into melodramas. It just seemed kinda boring, but its sounds like it was pretty popular. But, you know, maybe you could talk to Leslie about it? She's taking being killed off pretty horribly.”

“No thank you.” The short plump man made an x with his hands. “I became a writer because I hated talking to people so much I needed to make my own people.”

I looked at the lady. “Yea that's a no from me too. She’ll get over it.” She leaned in and whispered. “All these actors and actresses are too full of themselves anyway, they kinda deserve it. I mean all they really want is for people to complement them like children and I for ONE am sick of it!” She pulled back and took a drink. “And that's NOT the beer talking!”

Would they even be able to convince Leslie out of it? It really doesn’t look like she would just say ‘ha okay if you say I was good then I guess I’ll just stay an actress’ but really I was running out of options. I guess if showered her with praise? But I mean she couldn’t be that simple.

I looked back. Leslie was at the actor's table, drinking heavily, her head was low, she looked down at her drink, and it looked like the pistons in her head were moving at 50% speed.

“Ah, that doesn’t look good.” The skinny lady commented. “I would take her back before she does something. That's the face every one of those stuck-up morons makes when they are thinking of starting a fight.”

Would that be a bad thing? Well, if I’m not fired by her quitting, maybe I’ll be fired for letting her fight the cast of the show. “Ok, let me get her out of here. Thank you.”

I stood up and walked to Leslie. I tapped her on her shoulder, “Leslie, come on. It's getting late and I’m feeling really tired.”

Leslie took a second and looked at me. “Y-you wanna go?” *hick*

God her breath smelled like pure alcohol. “Yea, come one, let's go.”

“Okay, okay…but first I have a couple things to say-“

“No, no it's fine. You don’t really have to say anything.”

“B-but I have some-“

“No, come on.” I grabbed her by her armpits and lifted her up. “Let's get going.”

“O-okay…”

I looked at all the drunk actors. “Thanks for taking care of her, I’m going to get her back to our room. See you tomorrow.” I waved and walked out.

We walked all the way back to our room before she pushed me off her. “You! Do you think you can just cop a feel? Because I’m drunk! And all that shushing! Do you think you are MY boss?! Or something!…”

“No, no I was just tired and I saw that you were going to take long so I just, kinda, pushed us out of there. I’m sorry.”

“You should be! I...I was about to go OFF on that stupid main actress cunt! She always thought she was better than me because SHE got picked to *hick* be that STUPID character! Well, FUCK her! And FUCK her character!” at the last word she dropped in front of the door.

“That's great,” I replied. “Where is the card key?”

“Card key?”

“Yea.”

She took out her purse and threw it at me. “In here…” her words slurred. It looked like she used all her energy to throw her purse.

I looked through her purse and didn’t find it. “Hey, are you sure you didn’t leave it or something? I can’t find it.” I looked down at her. She was out. “Hey!” I flicked her head. “Are you there?” I flicked her a couple more times to be sure (I enjoyed it) but it looked like wherever she was it wasn’t anywhere near here.

I walked back to the dining room. Leslie would be fine near the door.

Another actress took her spot. They must all multiply whenever one of them leaves. “Excuse me. Excuse me.” She didn’t hear me.

“Well you know I personally felt like she never fit in! She was always refusing to do anything with any of us! I mean it's like she thought she was better than us, when, I got to say, her acting wasn’t that good and her looks are starting to go!” Ari spoke as she moved her hands around wildly. It looked like they were so in their bubble that they didn’t even notice me standing over them.

“I don’t know. I thought she was just shy, I mean it's not like she was ever rude or anything.” Hyung added.

“That's because you aren’t a woman Hyung! You don’t get the little things she does that just scream ‘I’m better than you, I’m telling you she's the type of person to-“

“Excuse me.” I took out the card in front of her. “Ah sorry.”

“No, you’re fine! Haven’t I seen you around…?”

“Ah, yea, I’m Leslie’s assistant.”

“That's right! I’ve seen you following her around all day! Well, it was nice working with you and everything, I didn’t even know that she was being killed off till the last second….I was totally against it with the writers, because it was such a good character, but the writers thought it would be for the best….hopefully me and Leslie get to work again.” She took out her hand.

I shook it. “Yea, Leslie has nothing but good things to say about you, I loved watching you act, I think you’re such a great actress.”

“Thank you!” She suddenly stood up and hugged me. “You don’t know how much that means coming from a fan!” She sloppily sat back down and focused back on Henry. “Like I…”

Her voice died down as I walked away from the commotion.

Leslie was in the same position that I left her. I unlocked the door and threw her purse on the floor. I dragged her to her bed. She really weighed nothing, it was strange to think how much hate was filled in this body when it weighed enough for me to carry her into the room and throw her onto the bed. Ah, there was only one bed.

Where was I going to sleep? I guess this is where I take the manly option and decide to sleep on the floor. Well, it looked clean enough.

Before I went to sleep I walked up to Leslie. I guess I would have to compliment her until she believed she was the greatest actress to ever exist. I mean what else could I do?! It's not like I could just force her to keep acting….