"Welcome back, welcome back everyone. Welcome back to the Evening Show, where we're performing live tonight, which means everything you see and hear is actually happening. No fancy post-production or CGI tricks." Russ grinned at the camera. "Now, this is the part where I wanted to do some of our live screen effects, but my writers told me something about staying authentic... and my censors told me we just couldn't get away with it."
Hailey glanced around from her spot on the couch. She'd decided to go back on stage right away, rather than get another introduction, but she wasn't going to be on screen for a while. She assumed that Russ was building up to Nate's introduction, but he surprised her by turning right to her.
"So in that case, we'll just rely on special effects from our special guest tonight, Hailey Winscombe!"
The screen swapped to her, and the band played a music sting. Hailey managed to recover quickly, waving to the applauding crowd and putting on a smile. Where is he?
"Hailey, thanks again for joining us tonight."
She nodded. "It's been a lot of fun." Not lying, either... Russ is a nice guy, and who doesn't love showing off in front of the whole world? But... where is he? Don't forget why you're here, Hales.
"Glad to hear it." Russ glanced over at the camera. "I hope you don't mind we dragged you back for round two here. Our other guest of the night is having a bit of trouble finding the studio, apparently."
Hailey laughed. "Trust me, that's not new for him."
"Careful, we don't want to spoil the surprise." Russ glanced around conspiratorially and lowered his voice. "But if you want to feel like sharing a story or two while we wait, I bet the censors are quick enough to catch his name."
"How fast are they?" Hailey asked, glancing up at the booth of panels and sensors where she assumed the censor would be. "His name is Porcupine Williams the Fifth."
Russ stared at her blank-faced for a couple seconds, before cracking a grin. "Apparently, they had to blur your whole face, just in case we got any expert lip-readers watching. Our contract was very specific. I think we're already in trouble for saying 'he', but I'll let that one slide just for you."
I don't remember anything like that in the agreement I signed. I wonder what would happen if I just told everyone? No, you're here to be the better half. Give them a good impression, make it a fair fight. Wait for him to show up.
"I wouldn't want to talk behind his back, Russ," Hailey said smoothly, without too much time wasted. "We'll give him a little more time."
"Fair enough! Back to you then, if you don't mind."
"Oh, I'm an open book."
"Speaking of books," Russ continued. "I'd be amiss if I didn't bring up the one everyone's talking about. The Rallsburg Diaries," he added in a spooky voice. "That's what set off this whole crazy weekend, right?"
"That's the one."
"Now, we've all read the teasers, and I'm sure there's a couple thousand people with them open waiting to yell at me for misquoting, so I'm not even going to try. We'll just stick to the basics, sound good?"
Hailey nodded. "I haven't gotten to read it, so that sounds great to me."
Russ was good at acting genuinely shocked. "You haven't? But you're in it!"
"The guy who stole them didn't bother to send me a copy," she explained with a shrug. Too hostile. Dial it back a bit, Hales. Give him something else to follow up on. "But I do know the author."
"Ah, the mysterious Cinza." Russ glanced over the crowd. "You can answer one right off the bat then—is she for real?"
"Well, yeah. I just talked to her yesterday before I flew out here."
"And for the sake of copy-editors everywhere, she doesn't happen to have a last name, does she?"
"Not that I know of."
Russ smiled apologetically for the camera. "A big sorry to all my friends back at the Times and the New Yorker. I tried." He turned back to Hailey. "Well, speaking as one of the lucky few who got to read the whole thing, I'll let you in on a secret."
"You're allowed to?" she joked.
"At the risk of my lawyers mobbing the stage... you come across really well in the book."
"Come on."
"No, I'm serious!" Russ smiled. "Whoever she is, Cinza clearly thinks very highly of you. And I have to say, my heart broke at a few passages about your struggles."
Hailey shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Thanks."
"And after what you almost pulled off at the end... Can you talk about that?"
She nodded. "It was a crazy plan, but it's the best one we could think of."
"You weren't the one coordinating it, but you still played a pretty important part, right?"
"Yeah. I was one of the people actually doing the ritual."
"And it came very close... but you got interrupted."
"...Yeah." Hailey winced. "We almost had it. Cinza saved us, but it was close."
"And if you'd pulled it off, you would've got him, right?"
"Well, that was the idea, yeah. Put together a ritual so strong that no matter where he was, he couldn't block it or get away."
"To protect the town?"
"Well yeah. We were the only ones that could. I mean, if you know what we were up against? Humans like you couldn—"
Hailey's phone buzzed on her belt, way too loud. There was no way the cameras didn't pick it up—and from the way the audience reacted, they'd all heard it too. She'd forgotten to turn it back to silent after the commercial break. She frantically tapped it off, and Russ helped by jumping to another question.
"You've been in hiding since May, right?"
"Yeah."
"You know, they did a ton of coverage on you after the Incident. What we like to call 'puff pieces'."
She grimaced. "I saw them."
"Too embarrassing?" Russ asked, smiling slightly.
"Seriously. Way too much." Hailey glanced out at the audience. "But hey, I'm not dead, so you guys can stop running those. Cool?"
"They had plenty of other stories too. Like all the other students who stayed over the summer." He frowned. "And with their families."
Hailey hesitated. Where's he going with this...? "I remember."
"Don't you think they deserved to know how their children passed?"
"I..." Hailey faltered. His tone was way darker. More serious. What just happened?
Russ didn't let up. "I did one interview myself, as a special piece for my friends back at the Times. Mrs. Aleida Nelson, out in Portland." When Hailey didn't answer, he continued. "Alex Nelson's mother."
Like a bell chiming in her head, Hailey realized who he was talking about. "I wasn't—"
"I'm not saying it's your fault, but you could have told her," Russ went on. The studio was dead silent. Not a laugh from the audience. Hailey looked around nervously, and everyone else seemed as caught off-guard as she felt—with one exception. The stage manager had a satisfied smirk on her face, half-hidden behind her clipboard. "He was your friend. We all saw the pictures. You could have told a grieving mother why her son was dead."
"I didn't even know," Hailey said quietly.
"You found out at the town hall meeting, the same as everyone else," Russ pointed out. "While Jaysmith Miller's parents, Christina Albrecht's sister, and a whole lot of other people were unaware that their families were being murdered."
"I—"
"They only found out when I called them this morning," Russ went on. "Finally giving them the answers they've been searching for since May—six months ago."
Hailey shook her head. What do I do? Shout him down? He's not wrong. And I'm live in front of the whole world. What's going on? This was supposed to be light and easy. She felt like Russ had just stabbed her in the back, in front of hundreds of millions of people.
"The floor's open, Hailey. You've got the world listening. Say whatever you like." Russ stared at her coldly. "Tell us humans your side of the story."
Hailey opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Minutes passed, with Hailey just looking back and forth between a couple different cameras and the monitor showing her face. Alone, on screen, with nobody to play off. She was the center of attention, but all the thrill and joy was totally gone.
I don't know what to do... If I don't do anything, Jessica's going to barge in here, and everything will get even worse... Say something. Say anything! What's wrong with you, Hailey?
The stage lights flickered off. The lamp indicating they were live went black.
"Power glitch?" asked Russ, glancing around.
A harried-looking man on a phone rushed down the stairs from the booth. "We have to shut down. Right now."
"What's going on?"
The crowd started to murmur. Hailey was still frozen on the couch, watching the proceedings like she weren't even there. Her phone buzzed again on her belt, but her brain barely registered it. Russ got up and started talking in a low voice with his assistant.
Hailey could still hear every word.
"We're what?"
"We're being sued. Along with Pro Paradigm and anyone else who's done any piece on the book." The assistant held out a slip of paper. "Emergency injunction came down ten minutes ago. They're claiming libel, defamation, privacy issues, and gross negligence and disregard to public safety. We have to stop the broadcast."
"Libel and defamation for what?" asked Russ, now audibly angry. "She admitted it on camera, unpressured. We didn't claim a thing."
"It's not Hailey, or her lawyers."
"Who the hell—"
The assistant gulped. "Kendra Laushire."