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Emily Griffin sat in her trailer at the set of her new movie, Angel of Sin, and looked out the window, seeing nothing but the Las Vegas desert. She didn't want to be there. She wanted to be at home with AJ, trying to figure out what was wrong. Yes, he'd denied that he'd cheated on her again, but she wasn't sure if she believed him. It made her want to cry, but it would ruin her make up, that had taken two make-up artists three hours to finish. She was gonna die today, and she was going to do it with style she thought, clenching her teeth. She sighed as she heard the knock at the door.

"Yes?"

"Ms. Griffin, we need you at the set."

"I'll be right out." With another deep sigh she fought back the tears, kissed the nose of her good luck charm, a golden panda, as always before a take, and walked out into the dry desert heat. She smiled at her co-star, Jorge Garcia, who was getting his make up retouched.
The special effects director came up to her and ran his hands across her body, making sure that the fake blood was still in the right places, so that it would stain her white sun dress perfectly. He gave her a small pill to put in her mouth to create the effect of more blood. "Remember to slip it into your mouth at my mark, ok?" he said, looking at her.

She nodded. "I will. All set?"

"All set," he confirmed.

"Jorge?"

"I'm done." He smiled at her, a big white smile in his dirty face.

The director, Dean Samson, came up to them and showed them the mark from where they'd be running for their lives. "The bad guys are hidden somewhere around here, and two of them will be coming in a Jeep. I'm not saying where any of them are, because I wanna see real fear. Real panic. You know it'll hurt a bit when the blood goes off. Use it. Exaggerate. Act. You'll get unexpected help, but that won't help you, Em." He nodded at them and walked back to his chair. Emily looked around. They were supposed to run around the area of trailers, where the cameras were. She felt a nervous knot in her stomach. She'd never done a scene like this. Her previous movies had been high school comedies, dramas and romantic comedies. She was out on unknown territory. Jorge, who was playing her boyfriend, had already done two thrillers with Samson, and was more used to his directing. He took her hand reassuringly. "It'll be ok. It's only a game, remember that."

She smiled a shaky smile at him. "I'll try."

"Camera's rolling. Aaand - action!"


She was no longer Emily. She was Deanna, running for her life with Ricardo by her side. A young girl that had gotten so lost in life, stuck in the wrong company, with a boyfriend that was so wrong for her, but that she couldn't stay away from. In the beginning of the movie, Ricardo said to her that "you can't live without me, but living with me is bound to bring you an early death." Deanna's reply was a simple "I'd rather die with you than live without you." Emily had felt intensely for the girl when she read the script and accepted the part immediately. She and no one else was the one to bring Deanna to life. She didn't have time for regrets now, when she looked around, already panicking, to try and see where the bad guys were. Jorge tugged at her hand, making her run faster, until he was practically dragging her with him. "We can't hide here, Dee," he said. "We gotta keep running. Come on baby, you can do it."

"Ricardo, I'm tired! I can't run any more!" She looked around, seeing the Jeep with two men dressed in black on it. "Sh!t!!! They've found us!"

Jorge looked the other way and spotted more people coming running from the other direction. "Oh god. What are we going to do?"

Now she had to take the command, and she dragged him along, feeling the panic written across her face. They were closing in on them. She could hear the footsteps behind them, and a loud bang when Jorge was 'hit'. She stopped, kneeling beside him. "Baby, no! Get up, we gotta keep going."

He looked up on her. "It's no use." A big, red stain was spreading across his leg. "I can't run with this leg. Go. Keep running baby! You can make it!"

"Shut up." Her response was direct, she was furious. "Get up, keep going." She got up to help him to his feet. "Leaving you behind. You must be fcuking kidding me. I love you, and I won't leave y..."

In a series of shots, her blood capsules exploded. It hurt more than she'd expected, and she fell to the ground face first with a groan of pain, remembering to slip the pill into her mouth. At the same time, five men on motorcycles came along, chasing away the bad guys. They all stopped by them, and Jorge gently turned her over, feeling for her pulse. "Dee? Deanna? Answer me baby!" When she showed no reaction he cried out his sorrow on her bloody chest. "Nooooooo!"

"We have to go, Ricardo." The man on the motorcycle spoke for the first time.

He looked up, blood smeared all across his face. "I can't leave her. She died for me. I can't leave her."

"You have to. They're coming back!"

"I don't care. I'd rather die with her than live without her."

"It's too late. She's gone."

Ricardo looked from him to Emily, then back again. A firm shake on his head revealed his decision. He wiped the blood off her face and kissed her lips gently. "I'm staying."

One of the other men turned his head and saw the jeep coming back. "They're coming!"

Without asking again they pulled Jorge up on the back on a motorcycle and drove away. The camera followed them as Jorge looked back, until they disappeared behind a dune.


"Aaaand CUT! Excellent! You're lucky today, we won't need to shoot another time. You guys were awesome!"

Jorge stepped off the motorcycle and gave Emily a hug. "That was awesome sweetie! You did great!"

"I was scared out of my mind."

"I could tell. So was I."

"I thought I was gonna freak out when you got shot."

"Me too! They hurt like hell, don't they?"

"Yeah." She smiled at him. She really loved him, he was a true sweetheart. She knew the press was speculating about a romance between them, but this was nothing like that. First, it would have been impossible, seeing that he was gay, and second, he was such a rare thing as a true friend.

Her smile made him laugh. "You're all red."

"I know." She spat out some of the red fluid. "It tastes like sh!t."

"Sure does. How about a shower and some dinner on the way back home?"

"I'd love that."


When she came home later that night she found AJ sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He barely looked up when she walked in, making her worries from earlier come back. She leaned against the doorway looking at him, and felt how love bubbled up inside her. She was so scared that he didn't love her anymore, so scared that he'd been out doing stuff he shouldn't have, so scared that he would leave her. Their relationship hadn't been the most stable the last months, but looking at him made her want to erase all that and just start over again. She wanted him. She needed him.

"Hey there stranger," she said softly.

He looked up. "Hey!"

"Guess who died today?"

He furrowed his brows. "You look happy, so my guess is someone you don't like."

She smiled. "No, silly. Me!"

"Oh!" He laughed, a sound she felt like she hadn't heard for months. "How was it?"

"Painful." She walked over to him and sat down next to him. "I'll probably get bruises."

"Poor baby!"

They sat silent for awhile. She wanted to take his hand, but she was afraid he'd push her away. Finally, she opened her mouth, knowing that it was now or never they had to clear the air. She finally had his attention, for the first time since he got home.
"Listen, I... I wanted to talk about this..."

"About what?"

Was she wrong, or was there a defensive tone to his voice? "About us... Alex, I've... I've noticed that you were distant and... I just... I have to know what's up." She had to struggle to find the right words, not wanting to make him mad.

"It's nothing."

"If you've been... cheating on me, please Alex, tell me. I can't take this."

He looked away. "How many times do I have to tell you this? No, I haven't been cheating."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise. Look, if you can't trust me..."

"If I can't trust you what?" She was getting mad now, and the anger mixed with a fear bigger than she'd ever felt before.

"If you can't trust me then what's the meaning of all this?"

"Well, you haven't exactly made it easy for me to trust you, have you?" She shook her head and got off the couch.

"I KNOW that, and I've tried to make it up to you a million times. God, Emily, when are you going to be satisfied?"

'When you turn back time and make all this undone,' she thought. But she couldn't say it, knew that she couldn't ask him to. "I'll be satisfied when you show at least some truly felt remorse. You're just Mr. Stone-Cold right now, and you have been ever since you got home from the tour."

"So?" he spat.

She paced back and forth through the living room. "So? Is that all you can say? Do you realize that you haven't told me you love me since you got home? Do you know that you haven't touched me since the last time you were home during the tour? Why, Alex? I wanna know WHY!"

He just looked away.

"I know... I know that we had fallen apart, you know, from the way that we used to be. But this, Alex, is nothing but a heartache. Is it supposed to stay like this?"

"I don't know." He kept looking away, so she couldn't see his eyes.

"Am I some sort of mistake that you're trying to fix now or what?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's the time apart. I honestly don't know."

"The distance shouldn't matter. No matter how far you are, you're still in my heart." She was crying now, tears were rolling down her cheeks. "You've been since we met. You've been my only desire, the one to keep my fire burning, and I thought you felt the same way with me. Are you telling me it's not like that? That you don't want it that way?"

He turned to face her. "What if I am?"

"I don't wanna hear you say this."

"Then I'm leaving now. I'll get my things someday. And I'll get a lawyer to fix all the practical stuff." He met her eyes. "I was truly sorry, you know. I loved you. But I guess it was nothing but a mistake."

Emily remained standing until she heard the front door closing. Then she collapsed on the couch, crying her heart out.