The Faces Of Karl Jacobs

Chapter 3: You know those things are bad for you, right?

"Oh"

"Alright, what is it? Clearly, you're thinking about something" I said, growing tired of her one-worded answers.

"Well..," She said looking out of place for the first time in her life, "I'm just wondering how he knew exactly what to do..."

I stopped my subconious pacing, as we both went eerily quiet.

"Huh"

"Yeah"

We let a moment of silence pass us by, neither of us knowing what to say. But, the moment couldn't last forever.

"Alright well, I gotta get going, I've got practice tomorrow morning and some assignments to finish tonight. I'll be up for a few more hours, so call if you need anything, anything, alright?"

I forced a small smile down at her, as she directed her words as me through the phone, "Yes ma'am"

She giggled, "Love you Hails, we'll talk tomorrow"

"Love you too, Al. Goodnight"

The sound of the call ending rang through the quiet, only joined by the faded murmurs of the crew chatting amongst themselves, waiting on my return. Unfortunately, Ally left me with more burning questions than I began with.

"Why does Ally have to be a Psych major?"

I shook my head, ridding of the thoughts that riddled my brain, as I began to head back towards the bustling set, a long day of shooting still laid ahead of us.

. . .

My entire body felt heavy as I forced myself to pay attention to the shoot. I stayed in the monitor tent last night, feeling too uncomfortable to stand another car ride with Karl to the hotel. So the last thing I wanted to do right now was listen to the idiots I work with play the "Gummy Bear" song in attempt to annoy Jimmy out of his coffin.

I covered my ears, sick and tired of the overplayed middle school trash that Karl and Kris were playing on a loop for the camera.

Today was much colder than yesterday, with a harsh wind persistently biting at any exposed skin. I shivered, wishing I had packed extra layers. The forecast was calling for rain, but all of Beast Crew was praying that it was wrong. Our entire camp would be destroyed, and with Jimmy determined to stay underground, it could pose a threat to his safety.

I glanced over at the wall of monitors watching Jimmy from inside the coffin at different angles. Somehow he seemed peaceful even with all the noise Karl and Kris were sending through the walkie-talkies...

Curiously, I turned the volume of one of the cameras on and heard no noise coming from the TV. At first, I thought the speakers were broken. That was until I peered a bit closer and saw the batteries of Jimmy's walkie-talkie lying on his chest.

I chuckled to myself, laughing at Kris and Karl who were naively unaware of Jimmy's genius plan.

I glanced over to them and called, "Hey Kris"

She looked up at me, torn from her deep scroll to find the most annoying sounds on the planet, "Sup?"

"Come here," I beckoned her over, Karl following in her footsteps as she headed my way.

I pointed towards the monitors and in one swift glance she realized that the last thirty minutes had been a complete waste.

"Oh, come on!" She whined, "We could've been getting food or something"

I just laughed at the revelation and shook my head. I quickly glanced at my watch to check the time. 5:28 p.m.. The seemingly neverending day was almost over. My stomach grumbled, reminding me that I needed to eat.