[Owen-Jack POV]
I entered the room before Claire and sat facing the head of the talent agency.
Julie Nelson extended a pudgy hand, her stubby fingers pressing into mine.
"Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Kennedy."
I didn't answer. Claire stepped in smoothly.
"Miss Nelson, what brings you here today? And why did you bring these girls?"
The brunette fidgeted with her skirt. "Hi. I'm Pam Anderson." Her eyes darted around nervously.
The blonde stared right at me. "I'm Halley Fox," she said, then muttered with a crooked smile, "You've got such giant biceps, Mr. Kennedy. Face is maybe a six, but that body? Wow."
Even Claire looked at her like she'd lost her mind.
I gave a curt nod. "Thanks."
"Can I touch it?" Fox asked, flashing puppy-like eyes.
"No." I replied decisively, which made her stunned.
Claire took over and said, "Miss Nelson, what brings you here today? And why did you bring these girls?"
Julie waved a dismissive hand. "These two are my most talented discoveries. I think they'd be perfect for your next project—O-Class, or maybe even your musical."
"Stand up girls." She ordered the girls. "See, they aren't too tall. Their faces can pass for 16 years old. And see this."
Nelson went behind the blonde and grabbed her breast from behind, groping it and pushing it upward while Fox shuddered in embarrassment.
"Sex appeal. Anderson doesn't have much, but she's 5'8' and she has a big ass you can use." Nelson did the same thing to the brunette, by slapping her butt.
Claire's eyes narrowed. "This is highly unprofessional, Miss Nelson. You know that's not how casting works."
Julie's smile soured. "Donovan, you already rejected me once. Don't do it again—"
"Or what?" I cut in, my voice low, sharp. The girls sat back down, so did Nelson.
Everyone froze.
Julie leaned forward, teeth bared in a grin. "Or your studio won't get anything done without me. I control which doors open in this town."
"Is that a threat, Mr. Nelson?"
"It's MISS Nelson!" she snapped.
"Oh. Sorry. It's hard to tell the difference."
Her fist twitched. A stench of sulfur rolled across the room, invisible but choking. Claire gagged, covering her mouth. Pam shrank back in her chair, Halley clutched her chest, both trembling.
I activated the array I'd written into the woodwork. Runes flared faintly, drinking the miasma from the air. Nelson stiffened, eyes darting toward me.
"As a talent manager," I said evenly, "you're supposed to guide these girls—not prostitute them."
The actresses' faces flushed red with shame. Nelson was a bit wary, and she realized she couldn't do her usual intimidation techniques on me.
Nelson scoffed. "They aren't forced. This is what's necessary if they want to survive."
"Oh? And why is that necessary? Enlighten me." I egged her on.
She turned to the girls and said with a cold, disdainful tone, "Some people are wine. Some are milk. Milk spoils. They've got expiration dates."
Pam and Halley wilted at the words. Pam almost cried.
I turned to them. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-four," Halley whispered.
"Twenty-three," Pam mumbled.
I raised an eyebrow at Nelson. "Strange. I thought maybe you were worried they were fifty. Not barely past twenty."
She bristled. "You're too young to understand. Once an actress hits a certain age, the phone stops ringing."
She pushed the conversation back. "So? Will you take them or not?"
"Not while they're under you." I interlocked my fingers and said decisively.
Claire's jaw dropped. She knew I'd just drawn a line in the negotiation.
Nelson narrowed her eyes dangerously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means your agency is going down soon."
The temperature in the room dropped.
"You don't know what you're talking about." She gritted her teeth.
"Except I do." I leaned back, gaze cold. "This town isn't as big as you think. You've been feeding execs with fresh faces in exchange for favors. Maybe even filming it, just to blackmail your own girls into more work.
"You've been in this town twenty years. I'm sure you have a lot of dirty blackmail materials you use as leverage."
She smirked. "Yet, there's no proof."
"Proof doesn't matter here. Rumors are poison, and everyone knows you reek. Quiet blacklists start with whispers. Producers, directors—they'll avoid your girls just to avoid the stench of you."
Her forehead vein throbbed in anger.
"And your deals? Predatory garbage. Vanessa Sterling was paid twenty-five grand for a nude scene. You skimmed half. Agents get ten percent, fifteen tops. You bleed them dry before their careers even start."
Julie slammed her fist on the oak table.
BOOM.
A crack split down the middle. The sulfur thickened, choking. Yet, the array absorbed them all.
"They'll do whatever I tell them to!" she snarled. "Come on girls. We didn't come here to be insulted."
I didn't flinch. "That's where you're wrong. I'm not insulting them—I'm insulting you. They were stripped of their agency, pushed down a road with no return, and told to trade dignity for stardom. You're not a manager. You're a parasite."
Julie hissed, eyes glowing faintly red, but I held her gaze.
She yanked the girls toward the door. "Come on. Move your old asses!"
I leaned forward. "One last thing, Miss Nelson."
She stopped at the door, glaring back at me.
"Envy's a fitting name for your agency," I said. "You destroy what you can't be. But envy rots the vessel that carries it. Sooner or later, that'll be you."
Her face twisted in rage. The door slammed behind her hard enough to rattle the glass.
Silence hung heavy. Claire finally exhaled. "Jack… what the hell was that?"
I kept my eyes on the cracked table, still warm from the demon's touch. "Just some friendly advice. She's on the SRU's radar now. We're better off keeping our distance."
I said it loud enough for Nelson's extraordinary hearing.
Claire blinked. "SRU? What's that?"
"Supernatural Response Unit." I let the words drop like lead. "Forget it. The less you know, the better. Just know we don't want her stink on us when the hammer drops."
From the corner of my eye I saw Nelson in the hallway, her face draining of color as the acronym registered. She glanced over her shoulder before stepping into the elevator.
I smirked, already spinning the lie tighter. Make it believable, make it spread.
In my past life, I'd hunted demons and corrupt men alike. This was the first time I was hunting something that blurred the two.
And in this life, not everyone on my payroll was discreet. Some staffers would think it safer to whisper than to stay silent.
Within hours, they'd be on the phone with friends at WB, Disney, Universal—"Jack Kennedy refused to work with N.V.," they'd say.
"Apparently Nelson's being investigated." They would gossip.
They wouldn't mention SRU. They didn't even know what it was.
But the words investigation and Kennedy in the same sentence were enough to set Hollywood ablaze.
My family name carried weight. People assumed I had contacts deep in the government, maybe even the intelligence community.
If I said someone was under scrutiny, no one would think I'd made it up, especially since the rejection looked natural.
By the end of the week, half of Nelson's deals would be frozen. Execs who owed her favors would start deleting her messages.
Casting directors would quietly pull her clients from shortlists.
The real investigation hadn't even begun—yet her empire was already cracking from the inside.
On the same day, Mel Gibson decided to drop their talent agency. The media picked up the rumor.
Nelson was annoyed, yet she couldn't force that famous actor like she did the aspiring girls.
"It's time for me to up the ante," I muttered as I changed back into Owen Chase. It was midnight, some of the office space still had lights on, but I had confirmed that Nelson wasn't in her office.
Elena, Djalu, and Sandra came along with me.
We were standing in the talent agency building. Elena was the lookout, as she could sense intelligent beings with her abilities.
Micheal scaled the building with his Magnet ability, bringing Djalu and a package with him.
It was a beautiful blue dress, something that stars would wear to galas, made entirely for Nelson.
Micheal cut a hole in the glass window and snuck into the office alone before putting the dress on Nelson's table.
"12 hours. That's the maximum time I can hold it," Sandra said, already charging the dress with her ability.
Smiling like a Cheshire cat, I said, "That's already good."
"How are you so sure she's going to wear it?" Elena asked.
"Because she is Envy. She will wear it as long as it gives her a chance to look pretty," I muttered cryptically. Djalu fixed the hole in the glass as he and Micheal climbed back up the building.
…
-Montecito Building-
"When do you think it will happen?" Micheal asked me as morning came.
I yawned and walked into the courtyard, only to see Micheal, Elena, Djalu, Agustin, Bayani, and Sandra sitting in the lounge area.
"Didn't you guys get some sleep?" I asked them casually.
"How can we sleep? That's our very first mission! We are all really nervous right now!" Elena snapped.
I laughed and said, "It's fine. It will work out well."
"What if there are some people around the area when it happens? What if the explosion hurts innocents?" Sandra asked, clearly worried.
I placated them, "Nelson is a creature of habit. I've confirmed that she always ate in her office alone during lunch. Apparently, there's something about the way she eats she's embarrassed by. So from 11–2, no one dares to come to her office."
"Shouldn't we go there and see if it works?" Elena asked.
I shook my head and said, "That's a stupid thing to do, especially if you want to keep your identity hidden. If the explosion doesn't kill her, the first thing she'll do is search the area for suspects. We don't want to be there if it comes to that."
I sat on the couch and sipped my coffee.
"Micheal, you should go take a bath. I have to be at the film set in 45 minutes," I told him.
Micheal pursed his lips and said, "When are you going to take your driver's test, man?"
"Once Agustin manages to make sure I can register both identities without flagging something in the system," I said casually.
…
[General POV]
-N.V. Office-
Nelson wore the blue dress and twirled in front of the mirror.
"Who gave this to me? They must be in love with me to give me something like that."
Her tone was sweet, like a girl in love. However, the reflection in the mirror showed the stark contrast between the beautiful dress and her ugly face.
It was almost lunchtime. Nelson sat at her desk and took out a lunch box.
"SRU? As if they exist. Jack Kennedy. Just you wait. I'll kill you! I'll kill you today!" she muttered angrily as she opened the lid.
She broke her chopsticks. Then, she grabbed a human eyeball from the lunch box.
She popped it into her mouth and crunched it, sweetly saying, "Hmm… A 12-year-old human eye is really a delicacy. I need to have more of them."
Her blue dress began to glow orange, but she didn't notice as she continued eating.
"Huh—what?" She began to feel the heat from the dress.
Outside the building, Paul and Lewis, two SRU agents, had gotten a tip about a potential supernatural event and came to the office.
"Are you sure you want to check it out? Who did you hear it from?" Lewis asked Paul.
The geeky one smiled and replied, "It's just a hunch."
He had actually heard the tip directly in his brain yesterday.
Owen had their hair and blood from the battle with the tiger. He used a witch ritual to find them, and Elena sent the information directly into Paul's brain.
As Paul wanted to prove himself to the SRU after a huge mishap, he decided to check out the tip even though he knew it came from a supernatural source.
He also tipped off his superior, so a couple more vans were on the way to the office to check out this supposedly superior demon.
BOOOOOOM
The sidewall of Nelson's office was destroyed by the explosion. Glass shards flew everywhere. The people in the office were stunned by the sudden terror attack and hid behind their desks.
Nelson stood naked by the window. Her skin began to crack, revealing grayish-blue skin underneath.
Her pudgy appearance shattered bit by bit, revealing a humanoid demon with one horn on the side of her forehead, a black eye with a golden pupil, and sharp teeth.
The SRU staff came out from their vans to investigate the explosion, and they saw her appearance.
"IT'S A CLASS 6 DEMON! EVERYONE GET READY!" Lewis shouted urgently.
Nelson looked down at them with anger, a vein throbbing in her forehead. "Did they do this?" she muttered.
Her human form was dead. There was no way for her to use that identity again.
"YOU FUCKERS!" She jumped down and rushed toward them.
With long hair, thick upper lips, and a well-sulpted warrior body, the seductive demon bit off someone's neck and ripped out part of his flesh.
The SRU threw everything at her—enchanted daggers, holy water, anti-demon arrows—but none managed to hit her.
She jumped toward Paul and stabbed him in the heart. Paul spat out blood; he clearly hadn't expected to be killed today.
"I'll kill all of you humans today!" Nelson vowed.
Paul laughed slightly, which surprised her.
"What's so funny?" she asked angrily.
"I should've called her, man," Paul ripped open his uniform. Underneath, against his ribs, a crude harness wrapped a cylinder of explosives. The wiring flashed like a heartbeat.
"We're the protectors of humanity!" Paul shouted, despite puking out blood.
The other SRU members followed him.
"We're the GUARDIAN in the SHADOW!" They said together.
"Even in death! We hunt down the demons!" Paul rushed toward the stunned Nelson.
He wrapped himself around her, and she saw almost everyone aiming a bazooka at her.
"Fuck—" Nelson cursed.
Rockets flew towards her and Paul. She couldn't jump away as he was holding her down. The bomb exploded at the same time.
BOOOOOOM BOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM
The people screamed in terror. They hide down behind the pillars and the wall, desperately running away from the explosive scene.
When the noise died, there was a crawling silence. Dust drifted in a sunbeam. The street lay mutilated—cars crumpled, a taxi on its side, the pavement sheared
And in the center of it all, where the demon had stood a second before, there was nothing but a smoking, blackened shape where Paul had been.
"One? Why is there only one?!" Lewis asked, closing one eye as he had a cut on his face. A deep gash going from his forehead to his jaw.
A few meters away from the explosion crater, a manhole cover was pried open.
…
[Owen POV]
"We're only done with the living room, huh?" Sarah asked as she entered the newly built house.
The owner, a Latina single mother, smiled while carrying her toddler. "This is already enough. At the very least, we don't have to stay in the motel anymore."
Her house had burned down two months ago, and since she didn't have insurance, she had been living in a motel until she could find another place.
The production company approached her and asked about using her new home as a movie set. She agreed without a second thought.
The one-year-old babbled and reached out a hand to me, but I ignored him. His little face froze, then scrunched up as he started crying. The mother hurriedly took him away so as not to disturb production.
Sarah leaned toward me and whispered, "You could've picked him up."
"No," I replied firmly.
"Are you not good with kids?" she asked again.
"I'm okay with them," I answered flatly.
Today, we were shooting the final scene—the first scene of the movie, but the very last part filmed.
And today, Sarah and I would finally kiss—on camera.
It was a simple scene, the big payoff for the romantic subplot teased all throughout the film. The culmination of two teenagers' first relationship.
Sarah and I stood facing each other, her back against the wall.
"Wait a moment, just stare into each other's eyes while we fix the lighting," Payne joked.
Steve Carell and Lisa Kudrow immediately started teasing.
"Dig deep, Owen! Unleash all of your built-up desire in one long kiss," Lisa said.
Steve added dramatically, "Just forget the camera's here."
Sarah chortled at the teasing, while I stayed indifferent. As we stood close, she tilted her head at me. "Hey, did you get taller?"
"Yeah. I'm 5'6 now," I replied, smiling at last. It had been a hard road, but I'd finally caught up to where my normal growth should have been. Give it another year or two, and I could hit six feet.
Sarah froze. My smile burned into her eyes. She swallowed hard, her pupils trembling slightly.
"Wooo—" Lisa noticed it and laughed, sharing the embarrassment. Steve clutched his chest. "This is making my heart flutter a bit."
"Shut it," I scolded them. Sarah took a deep breath to steady herself as I turned toward the others.
"Okay! Ready! Action!" Payne called.
Sarah and I locked eyes. She stole a glance at my lips—and I did the same.
As our faces inched closer, she yielded to my advance.
I gave her a quick peck on the lips, but neither of us felt it was enough. She parted her mouth slightly, tilted her head, and wrapped a hand around my neck.
"CUT!" Payne shouted.
"What?" Sarah blinked in shock. "Aren't we going to do it for real?"
Payne shook his head. "No. Owen's only sixteen. A kiss is fine, but we can't legally shoot a full make-out. We'll film it from behind his back, so it looks like you two are making out."
"Oh." Sarah's face fell in disappointment.
I smirked and muttered under my breath, "Perv."
She flustered instantly. "Am not!"
Today, the filming for the movie finally ended.