“Come here, beautiful.”
It was Sid Malcolm’s voice. The elaborate mask had long been ditched.
“I said, come here.”
He sat in the front of a Chrysler mini-van down the road from Rabbit in Red. He had tossed Jaime into the back seat when they first exited the studios, and then he drove just a bit down the street. He was going to watch it burn.
He turned his head and looked at Jaime and patted the front passenger seat. His eyes repeated the message.
Her body twitched again.
When she didn’t move, he thrust both of his arms at her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Get up here, you fuckin’ bitch.” He pulled her in between the seats, but she didn’t scream. A moan escaped her lips, but she held back the urge to yell. She banged her elbow on the seat belt and her knee on Sid’s seat. He tossed her into the passenger side like she was nothing but a small animal.
“Front row seats while we watch your fantasies burn to the ground.” He looked at her, and his brow narrowed. “I should have brought popcorn.” He giggled, an awkward sound coming out of an older man.
“Why?” Jaime asked. Her chest moved vigorously as she tried to catch her breath. Goosebumps formed on her arms as he stared at her.
He rolled his eyes. “Fuck you,” he answered.
Jaime blinked hard, and in that moment she saw her uncle. Uncle Tim . . . but not the real life Uncle Tim. She saw the way JB had pictured him in her fear simulation during the very first Rabbit in Red challenge. Uncle Tim wrapped the rope around his neck. Jaime had cried when she saw that, and her words had failed to make any sense of it. So, in that simulation, she had put a rope around her neck, too.
She wished she had a rope now.
“I thought . . .” Jaime swallowed hard. Part of her wanted to run, now. If she opened the door and sprinted away, could he catch her? He was older and heavier, and that would make him slower, right? Another part of her wanted to gouge his eyes out. She looked at her fingernails. Maybe she didn’t need a weapon. She’d slice his eyeballs open with her nails. Could she do that? She looked at Rabbit in Red and the first visible flames burst through the ceiling. Yes, maybe she could.
More than just revenge, though, she also desired answers.
“I thought you wanted to shut down Rabbit in Red,” she said. He didn’t even look at her. She’d have to dig deeper. “I mean, didn’t you get locked up? Is all of this because someone locked you in a room for a weekend?” Jaime forced a laugh.
His head snapped her way. “Shut up.”
“You’re not scary. You’re crazy. Revenge for being locked up for a weekend? Didn’t I hear that you went back home to live with your mother the rest of that year?” She laughed again, and his eyes grew wide. “That’s what I heard. What are you, forty? Fifty? A grown man had to move back home with his mother?”
He grabbed her arm and squeezed hard. “You shut up.”
Jaime winced at the pain, but she knew if she wanted answers, she’d have to keep digging. Her friends were in trouble. Flames flickered sporadically around the studios, and she didn’t have much time if she wanted to get back there and help them.
“I can see the news now,” Jaime continued. “Mama’s boy throws tantrum and burns down a building for being put in time out.”
He slapped her. She tasted blood.
Then she smiled.
“If that’s not the truth, then what is?”
Sid lowered his head. “Chester was always his favorite,” he said and nodded at the studio. “JB’s.”
So, this was all out of jealousy? She didn’t say that, not yet.
“Sure, Jay would let me do a stunt or two in some of his movies, but did I get an actual role? Nope.” He shook his head. “Years of my life I gave to that man. Behind the scenes was where he kept me. Said he needed my brain, not my body.” He inhaled sharply through his nose. “But when he wanted to do this contest, I had all sorts of ideas. If it was really about my brain, you’d think he’d have listened, right?” He shook his head again. “So, I said I disagreed with the contest. Threatened to call the cops and everything. That’s why they locked me up, as you know.”
He stared intently at Rabbit in Red. From the distance, it looked as if the first group of people had exited the building, but they were too far away to see who they were. Jaime studied his face, and she could tell he wanted to share his story. Didn’t all madmen want to tell the world what was really inside their heads?
“They never knew what kind of actor I really was. I didn’t disagree, and I never would have called the cops, but they didn’t know that. And then after the first contest, JB . . .”
He stopped talking, and several thoughts bounced around Jaime’s mind. JB did what? And wait a minute, I should get the hell out of here! She eyed her fingernails, and then clenched her fists.
“What about JB?”
He looked at her, and the darkness in his eyes sent a chill through her body. “He did something to me that was unforgivable. Now, shut up and watch your friends burn.”
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