Saturday, February 28, 2009

Dead Famous - part three.

by bitingmylip

(Read part two here: Dead Famous - part two and part one here: Dead Famous - part three)

“I’m sorry Marissa,” she said, looking back at the see-through star. “Well, thank you so very much for granting us this interview. I’m sure you have been very busy in the past few months.

“Thank you,” Marissa said graciously. “Yes, rather a lot has gone on recently, as you know!”

“Of course,” Kate agreed. “And how are you feeling now?”

“Oh, I am feeling as well as can be expected,” Marissa answered. “There has been rather a lot to get used to, as I am sure your readers can imagine. But I have come to terms with my situation now and I feel ready to set the record straight.”

“You do?”

“Oh yes. After the unfortunate reports in other areas of the press. I want people to know that my current situation is most definitely not a publicity stunt of any kind.” Marissa frowned, her eyebrows suddenly starkly visible. “I would not choose to be like this. It is most inconvenient, and I am going to have to have rather a significant career change as I can obviously no longer pursue with my film career. So for people to suggest I have deliberately set this up is very upsetting.”

“I understand,” Kate said, with another glance at Marissa’s floating form. Marissa caught her eye.

“You can see, of course, you can vouch for the fact… the fact that I am here, and yet somehow not here.” Marissa’s voice had taken on a fierce edge and Kate caught the beginning of movement from Katerina’s corner, but Marissa composed herself quickly. “It is just rather upsetting, of course,” she said. Kate nodded and cleared her throat.

“So, how have you been taking care of yourself in recent months, Marissa?” Kate asked, hoping her phrasing wasn’t about to set off the PR.

“Oh, I have been looked after well whilst I have been recuperating, of course. There are so many fabulous doctors and nurses who worked with me to help me come to terms with things, and of course I have been subject to many examinations now that I am being termed a ‘medical miracle.’ But I have found time to sneak off to my own favourite spa, where the dear people there spent hours sourcing treatments that are suitable for me. Everyone has been very kind. I would not be here without the support of my wonderful family and friends, and the fans who have written to me and emailed with their messages of support – I have had a terrible few months, but in many ways I feel truly blessed.”

Marissa’s gushing would go down well with Alright!’s senior editorial team but Kate’s mind kept returning to the question she was unable to ask. Had Marissa – as some of the more salacious tabloids were suggesting – done some sort of deal with the devil to keep her on earth? And if so, what on earth did the devil look like?

“What treatments did you have?” she asked instead, and Marissa smiled her blood-red smile before explaining how she was now unable to have her favourite massage, as she could not be touched, but that she had been shown how to massage her own feet and given lots of products that were very good for her newly translucent skin. “They’re much like the treatments they give to Albino people,” Marissa said. “Of course, I have to apply them myself, but I am getting used to it.” She smiled bravely.

As the interview progressed, Kate learnt that Marissa had been sent “lots of lovely clothes from some lovely people” that were “just marvellous” with her skin tone and that her new look didn’t seem to have put off her male admirers. “I thought it would be difficult with men, as I can’t be touched,” she said, as if admitting a great sin. “But I have had several men propose to me recently. They seem willing to admire me from afar.”

“Have you taken any of them up on their offers?” Kate asked. Marissa gave her peal of laughter again.

“Oh no,” she said. “I need to get used to myself before I allow a man to become used to me!”

After half an hour, Katerina gave a significant cough and Marissa turned her head to look at her. She was still elegant in profile, Kate thought, although her earrings did not match her outfit. Kate wondered if they were the ones she had been wearing when she had…

“It seems I am out of time,” Marissa said, rising – literally – from her perch. “So unless there is anything else…”

“I am sorry Marissa, of course you must go,” Kate said, clearing her throat. “But I must just ask” – a quick glance at Katerina, who looked ready to sprint – “how did it feel? What happened afterwards? Did you go anywhere when you died? Did you really die? Did you see anyone? Why have you come back when so many other people die and don’t come back, not even as ghosts? Is that what you are, a ghost?”

The questions were pouring from Kate’s mouth. She could not stop them. Katerina was trying, though, at the first “How…” she had been standing in front of Kate with a look of sheer ferocity.

“Did you do a deal with the devil? Or with God maybe?”

“MISS PEARSON! WE INSIST YOU STOP AT ONCE!” Katerina was shouting. Kate could hear doors slamming somewhere behind or beneath her but behind Katerina, Marissa’s translucent face had a wild look that made Kate bold enough to keep shouting her questions.

“Are you dead? Are you dead? Why are you here, if you’re dead?”

Security guards were entering the room. Kate was aware of two burly men beside her, but she didn’t stop looking at Marissa. Marissa was looking straight back at Kate, a sneer on her otherwise pearly perfect face.

As Kate felt herself being led, quite gently, from the room, the air seemed to grow icy still as Marissa gave her last publically recorded words.

“You’re right,” she said. “If I was dead, I wouldn’t be here. But I am.”

Then she turned fully and walked through the wall behind her.

In the lift, one of the security guards looked at Kate sternly.

“You shouldn’t have asked her all those questions,” he said.

“I know. But I couldn’t help it. Why her?”

“Cos she did some deal. With the devil. Got to be. And it must be a bloody harsh one, cos don’t think many people can have done it before.”

“Maybe,” Kate said, weakly. She was thinking about how to explain this to her boss.

“Not maybe,” the other security guard said quietly. Kate looked at him.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“It’s her,” he said.

“Her?”

“That other one. Bit foreign. Spends all her time with the ghost woman. Harasses the receptionists. Feeds her. Everything.”

“That’s not the devil,” Kate sighed. “That’s just her PR.”

“No,” the security guard said. The lift pinged as it reached the ground floor. He and his colleague walked her to the front door. Opened it. Looked around the seemingly deserted lobby before leaning down to whisper in Kate’s ear…

“She ate her soul,” he said, and his voice was so hot that Kate jumped and rubbed her ear. He smiled, looking slightly manic. Kate looked at the other security guard, trying to make sense of her current situation, but the other one was staring vacantly at the receptionist who appeared to be lying prostrate on the desk. Kate shook her head.

“I’d get out if I were you,” the receptionist shouted, and Kate noticed that her head was hanging over the side of the desk nearest to the doors whilst her feet danced on the smooth wooden desk, seemingly independent from her body. Kate gaped at the scene, looked back at the security guards, rubbed her ear again and gasped in pain as she felt the blister that had formed on her earlobe. The security guard who had hissed in her ear smiled as wisps of smoke escaped from his lips.

Kate didn’t need telling twice. Pushing the door further open she ran down the polished hotel steps, tripping and slipping as she tried not to hear the high pitched squealing from somewhere behind her. As she ran down the street she called Alright!’s Art Director, scrambling frantically through her phone book for the right number with trembling fingers. Answerphone.

“Damn,” Kate said, slowing to a walk as she reached the main road. The message tone beeped.

“Listen, Anton, DON’T GO to the photoshoot with Marissa tomorrow. It’s not worth it. She really is dead. A ghost. Devil. She’s with the devil. No no…”

Kate gasped for breath and tried to arrange her thoughts.

“…plus she won’t photograph well at all, she’s translucent. She looks orange but translucent. At the same time. It’s not classy enough for us. Call me back…”

Only when her heart had stopped hammering and her breathing slowed did Kate realise she could still hear the high pitched squealing.

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