𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙇 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝘽𝘼𝘾𝙆 - 𝑺𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎

One

The bell rang as a scene ended. Jacqui straightened up in her co-director chair with a tired smile on her face. "Great, we finally got something done in the first take, only took half a fucking month." She yawned.

"Jacqueline, I wanted to talk with you about the rewrites."

Jacqui loudly groaned and rolled both her head and eyes back as she heard the voice. "World doesn't revolve around you, Sarah." Jacqui replied, continuing to flip through her script as she walked.

"I get that, but why do I still have to die naked?"

"Because." Was all Jacqui answered.

"Because why?"

"Because you're the one who signed up for a fucking Stab movie, Sarah!" Jacqui snapped. "I'm only the script and set supervisor, go talk to Roman, he's the one who wanted a Janet Leigh thing— where is Roman?"

Jacqui continued to look around in confusion before she spotted Roman standing with Milton while talking to the board of executives. Her eyes widened, immediately realizing that was bad news. "Shit on a—!" Jacqui quickly got up out of her seat, almost falling as she murmured the rest of her sentence under her breath, starting to make her way over to Roman in a quick walk.

"Jacqueline!" Sarah whined, but Jacqui didn't slow down in the slightest.

"Sarah!" Jacqui mocked back in the same tone without turning her head. While walking over she passed the mail box and stopped to look at 'Prescott' written on it, she harshly huffed. "Still not a fan of that font," she pointed before she continued to walk. "He said it would grow on me and it still hasn't."

"Look, you're worried about the movie, then protect the movie, okay?" Roman told the board of executives as Jacqui hopped the fence and walked over next to him. "Hire more security, hire the National Guard. Just don't kill the movie."

"Hey, woah, what's going on?" Jacqui asked.

"They wanna cancel Stab 3," Roman answered.

Jacqui's expression dropped and she turned back to the executives, staring at them for a moment before speaking. "WHAT?!" She unnecessarily and dramatically shouted out, definitely earning a few glances from people nearby around the set. "You can't cancel when we've gotten this far, are you kidding me?!"

"Violence in cinema is a big deal right now!" The executive told them. "This is not the kind of news this studio is after."

Roman sarcastically nodded along before talking. "So if we stop making scary movies, what? All the psychos in the world will retire?" He questioned, Jacqui put her hands on her hips. "Come on."

"I've been makin' horror movies for thirty years," Milton added. "Never had a psycho problem."

"He was your goddamn idea, guys. Alright?" Roman raised his voice a bit, Jacqui nodded along in agreeance as he continued. "An ex-con with a trashy talk show? He must've pissed people off every day!"

"Exactly," Jacqui moved her arms from her hips and folded them. "I knew Cotton, he was a cool guy — great even! But he has always been a target. People have wanted that man dead since 1995." Roman nodded along as she spoke. "Listen, I've went through this shit twice, if anyone should have a word in this it should be me." She turned back to Roman. "This is Michigan all over again."

"It is." He nodded in agreeance.

"What happened with Michigan?" Milton asked.

"Nothing," Jacqui said, shaking her head as Roman did the same. "You wouldn't get it."

Milton turned around to Detective Mark Kincaid and J. Wallace, who were walking around set. "Detectives," the two stopped to turn to him. "There's no reason to presume that Cotton's death . . . had anything to do with this movie, is there?" Milton asked.