A Face in the Crowd

From Chapter 1 “Jessica? Wake up.” “What?” she asked, completely astonished. How did he know her name? “Jessica. You okay?” Her eyes blinked, her head shook, and it took her a few seconds to realize where she was. She turned to Logan, the handsome, confidant, dark haired man in the driver’s seat. He was a friend and former co-star of a hit prime time science fiction series that had, sadly, only lasted two seasons. They had also dated for a time, though he was thirteen years older than she was. It was his attitude and his charming smile that had attracted her to him. They remained friends even after the relationship ended. Obviously there was still some awkwardness between the two of them from time to time, but they never let it bother them. Sometimes, he even made jokes to ease it. No real reason for it, that was just his nature and she went along with it sometimes. He was on his way to an audition now, which he felt could save his own suffering career, and had offered to drive her. She didn’t have the heart to tell him he wasn’t a very good actor, but she accepted the gesture. She was a modest person herself, and even though she worked hard at it, she didn’t always see herself as a star. In her own eyes, she was an actress doing her job. She didn’t let that change her, and that included not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings, while most of her colleagues wouldn’t give it a thought. “You alright?” he asked again. She looked down at the envelope in her hand, the contents of which she’d read numerous times in the past week. It was an invitation to appear at a convention for her show, even though it ended a few years ago. She hadn’t heard about it before and the calls she made to find out about it didn’t seem to turn up anything. The strangest part was that she was the only one who received an invitation in the first place. While she was the title character in the show, she wasn’t its only star, and she wondered why none of her other cast-mates were invited to appear. It was also strange that it didn’t go through her agent like all her other appearance requests. The whole thing seemed weird to her, which might be why she accepted the invitation. “Yeah.” She replied. “I just dozed off.” “Okay. Just thought you’d like to know we’re almost there.” “Thanks.” She smiled at him, he smiled back politely. They both returned their focus to the road ahead, all signs of pleasantries gone. It was like that a lot lately. For a while he wouldn’t even talk to her, not until she eventually forced the issue. Things became a bit better after that. Now it seemed that while they were civil, they weren’t really friends. They said they were, but it was clear to anyone who looked there was tension between them. What she didn’t know was why. The two of them had originally met while auditioning for a television program about a reluctant heroine hiding from her enemies in a post-apocalyptic future. Both of them had gotten their parts(the leads) and the show was a hit. Even they didn’t know why it was cancelled after only a couple seasons, and without any major plot threads tied up. Sure, someone wrote a series of books to do just that, but it wasn’t the same. But after the series ended, both of them went their separate ways, with Jessica quickly becoming one of the most sought after ladies in Hollywood. She was never sure if it was because of her acting abilities or because of how she looked in a bikini. She never agreed to do a movie without reading the script first. Some of her friends had told her things like, “Oh, this producer’s so great”, or “This movie’s gonna be so big” or even “You could work with him. He’s so dreamy.” and yes, this person actually used the word dreamy. But Jessica didn’t care about any of that. She was a professional and if she didn’t like the script and had no say in any changes, there’s no way she’d do the movie. Damsel-in-distress and eye candy roles were not for her. She liked characters with depth and actually did something, not wait around to be rescued. She’d done that enough as a teenager. She was twenty-seven now, and although she had an exotic, well-kept body (the result of a healthy diet and plenty of exercise), long lustrous black hair, piercing brown eyes and naturally full lips and could easily make a career just by being beautiful for a long time to come, she’d always felt that what was inside was far more important then what was outside. Not that anyone complained about her outside, of course. Once she was stable enough in her career, she could afford to be picky and only do the movies she felt good about, not just whatever comes up. Then last week, she received the invitation in the mail to appear at a convention for her show, a convention to be held in Ottawa, Ontario. It wasn’t a convention she’d ever heard of before, so she did some checking, including calling up some of her former cast-mates. It was Logan who told her it was genuine, the first time it was being held. He couldn’t appear himself, since he had an audition, but he would drive her there if she wanted to. Since she still wasn’t sure about it, she thought a familiar face would help her out. It didn’t, not really. But it was a generous offer. The car pulled into a parking lot in an area that didn’t seem like the most upscale. Logan parked it, looking around a bit. “You sure this is the right place?” Jessica looked at the invitation, then at the number on the building a few meters from where they sat. “This is it.” She passed it to him so he could take a look. “Doesn’t exactly scream ‘convention,’ does it?” “No, but not every place can be as nice as the ones in L.A.” “I don’t like this. Look, maybe I should come with you, just in case.” “Hey, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.” “Okay.” He reluctantly agreed. “But I’ll be back first thing in the morning to pick you up.” “I thought your audition was tomorrow morning.” She said, getting out of the car. ”In Toronto. That’s a long drive, isn’t it?” He drove off without another word, just an annoyed grunt. She just rolled her eyes, shook her head, turned around and started looking for the convention center. As she turned, she threw her arms up in frustration at the retreating vehicle. It still had her luggage in it, not that she could do anything about it now. He’d gone too far in a literal sense and she knows he doesn’t have a cell phone. She really didn’t know why she was surprised. “Every time.” She muttered to herself. She looked around, then at the building. The convention center looked as though it had seen better days. It actually looked more like an old run down building that should be condemned if it wasn’t already. She double checked the address on the invitation as well as the number on the building and looked back to the street sign to verify the she was on the right street. It all fit. She tried the door only to find it locked. This didn’t come as very much of a surprise. She looked in the window. Just as she expected: Empty. It didn’t look like anyone’s been in there for months, maybe years. “Excuse me.” She tried to stop a man passing by on the sidewalk, stepping in front of him. He just walked around her as though she wasn’t there. She tried again with another person, the same thing happened. The third person, on the other hand, stopped. “Can you tell me where the Convention Centre is?” “Right there.” He pointed to the building behind her, the same one she looked inside, and walked away. “Nice.” She muttered.