Albert Oon: Behind the Stories: Choice and Consequence Side Story (Actor)

Monday, June 26, 2017

Choice and Consequence Side Story (Actor)

Marlia barges into the director’s office and says, “I can’t fucking do this anymore!”

“What are you talking about?” he responds.

“I’m not going to play these roles that you want me to anymore! I’m not your damn doll that you can dress up and play with!”

“Again, what the fuck are you talking about? You wanted to be an actor and this is what you’re going to do. It’s how all actors are.”

“But this isn’t who I am!”

“Then who are you?! You barely interact with others and only do so when you act. You’re nothing, but a doll that can be dressed up and played with unless you change your act.”

“There’s nothing I can do to change!”

“Yes you can. You’re just too weak right now to realize that you can.”

“Fuck you!”

Marlia grabs a pair of scissors off the desk and stabs the director in the eye. With anger, she shoves the blade deeper and deeper into his skull until it is permanently stuck in his head. The police barrage in with their guns pointed at Marlia.

“You’re coming with us Marlia!” one of the officers say.

“Who’s Marlia?” she asks with her head tilted, “I’m Shiki, Asuka, Mirai, Haruka.”

With each name, her head twists and her face along with her body change to the characters she’s played.

“Sonja, Dejah, Gwen, Natalia.”

At the last name, she charges at the officers in an unnatural way with her body still contorted. This gets the officers to shoot her, ending whatever life or lives she had.

“Cut! That’s it for today everybody, good work!” the director says.

Everybody moves from their places and the set and its props are moved away.

“That was great Marlia,” says the director.

“Thanks Fitz.”

“Do you maybe want to go out later? I can arrange something with everyone here to go to a nice restaurant or a bar.”

“Nah I’m good. I have stuff to do at home.”

“I understand. See you tomorrow bright and early.”

“Right.”

Marlia leaves the shooting area and goes home to her luxury apartment room to do the stuff that she had to do. Nothing. Or at least nothing important. Since becoming a famous actress, she’s gotten work for many acting jobs which has been both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, she makes a lot of money, but on the other, she doesn’t feel like she has the time to be with others and is constantly tired. The only way her friends and family communicate to her are through the phone and the only way she shows her love for them is through the gifts and money she sends them. She has only their words, her possessions, and some medicinal drugs to help her through her life, but she’s going to need more than that to fix her next problem.

She sets her alarm and falls asleep on her couch then awakens seconds later. Confused, she looks around the room until the TV in front of her turns on by itself. It shows one of the many movies that she starred in. What’s weird about this, is that she’s dreamed of certain movies because of how many times she’s rehearsed them, but she’s never dreamed about them from this perspective. The TV screen statics a bit and the actress’s arms disappear though the actors or characters don’t seem to take note. Marlia wonders if the TV screen is busted or something or if her eyes are deceiving her. The arms are then seen running around on the floor by themselves until they decide to move towards and through the screen. Marlia slowly moves away from the hands that were once hers as they lie on the ground with veins protruding from its shoulders. Without a second though, it scurries towards Marlia, leaps up in the air and stabs her arms with its razor blade like veins. She panics while trying to remove them but more veins and arteries come out of the arms and stab into her arms until both sets of arms are on top of each other. The new arms devour her old arms, which cause immense pain that she cannot stop. Her alarm wakes her up when it’s supposed to and she sees that it was all a dream though her arms feel tingly. Somehow heavy and light at the same time.

With another dose of medication, she goes to work and acts like last night never happened. She’s approached by a supporting actor during a break.

“I’m a big fan of your work,” the man says, “How do you star in so many movies and keep going?”

“The paycheck helps me with that. It takes care of all my needs.”

“Oh. Well why do you act and what made you go into it?”

“My first answer and I had a natural talent for it so I just went with it starting with plays and theaters then went to the big screen and Hollywood.”

“Oh.”

“Were you expecting a more inspiring story? Me too.”

Everything that needs to be done today gets done and Marlia goes home like always. She’s met many people like that fan and coworker and every time she wonders why she isn’t as happy as she should be. She has money, influence, stardom, everything that a woman or man could want from the world, but something’s still missing. Tonight, she goes to sleep in her bed and makes sure the TV is working right. Again, she sets her alarm and goes to sleep and yet again, she wakes up in front of her TV. It shows a different movie she was in and this time Marlia gets a knife from the kitchen and prepares herself whatever comes out next. A pair of legs come out of the TV and she immediately stabs them both with her knife. They shriek like an injured mouse and run out of the room and out a window at an incredibly fast speed, faster than Marlia can manage. She sighs in relief and wakes up the next morning feeling better than last night. During her morning shower, she feels a strange presence around her, but can’t pinpoint it so she shrugs it off. She then feels something brushing by her feet then sees the legs from last night at her feet in a venus flytrap-like position as it chomps down on her legs and replaces them with itself. This wakes her up again as the first time was just part of her dream or nightmare.

Though she doesn’t feel right, she still goes to work. At work, she sees body parts moving around or on people. Some replace certain parts of the actor’s body while others eat and devour it. Marlia can’t contain her disgust at the sight and wants to turn away, but isn’t allowed to. Her arms and legs force her to move forward and act as she’s supposed to though the director and a couple coworkers catch her odd behavior. They tell her to take a break for today and she agrees and goes back home. At home, she takes her medication and eats several kinds of sweets and delicious food to calm down. After which, she decides to go out for fresh air and maybe some shopping since she hasn’t done that in a while. She picks out a nice skirt and top though the top appears to be a bit bigger than she remembers. Once she puts the top one, she feels immense amounts of pain on her chest and back. She takes it off to reveal another body part that eats and replaces her body. “Her” body then moves around and forces itself to puke out what she just ate.

“Gotta keep that figure up. It’s one of your best-selling points,” comes to her mind.

Her body is perfect for most characters she’s played as she isn’t too skinny nor too fat. After what has occurred she still goes out, as there’s nothing else to do. She can’t run away from her own body or maybe all of these events are just in her mind. Once she gets home, she decides to do something new to solve her problem. She pulls out a knife from the kitchen and tries to cut off the new body parts, starting with one of her fingers. The fingers contort, twist, and resist until the knife is dropped to the floor. Her body then forces her to lie down in bed and keep resisting her until she falls asleep.

The next morning doesn’t give her a break because as soon as she wakes up, her body moves on its own, doing what she usually does, and gets her to work. She acts natural despite everything, but seriously wants to talk to someone for help, a first for her. When she has the opportunity and she’s in control, she moves towards a few people that she’s worked with but then stops because she now thinks that they’ll think she’s crazy. No one can help her and she can only help herself is the mindset she’s been in ever since she was able to work.

One of her coworkers go up to her and asks, “Are you okay? You haven’t been acting right off set.”

“I’m fine!” Marlia says before she rushes out of the studio.

“Don’t bother with her man. She’s always been like this,” someone else says to the coworker.

There must be something to help her. She’s heard of people having the same condition she has with monsters and other psychological occurrences happening, but she hasn’t seen an other her or entity that looks and acts like how she herself acts. Maybe today something can be done to fix her problem, but nothing seems to be the answer that comes to her mind. As soon as she gets home, she reflects on how her life got to this point. She looks over pictures hanging in her house. Pictures of herself from various films and interviews. Pictures of her smiling, but she knows that those smiles were fake. Fame and fortune only gave her momentary happiness for a year or two that seem so short in comparison to the rest of her life. She touches one of the pictures of her face with both of her hands then wonders why she’s using both hands to touch it. Her face from the picture begins to contort and cut itself out of it. Marlia tries to move away from it, but her hands, feet, and body stay in place. The face then leaps from the picture and wraps itself around her face with razors inside of it. It replaces her face by devouring it like the other body parts do. It’s a painful process to say the least and once it’s done there’s only one more piece left to completely replace Marlia. A shadow figure that looks like Marlia appears from nowhere behind her. Her new body turns around and the shadow possess Marlia’s body, completely erasing what personality she had.

Marlia walks out the door and drives and goes on a rampage. She’s done acting. She’s done being someone who doesn’t exist. She’s done with everything. With her car, she drives into the shooting area and runs whoever she sees until she crashes into the wall. Her next target is the director who she heads straight for while someone calls the police.