Page 79 of Love At First Fright
Of all of Rosemary’s books,Juliawas the one she wanted to see on screen next.
Juliawas a book that had a special place in Rosemary’s heart: she’d grown up watching shark movies and classic deep-sea sci-fi likeThe Abyss,andJuliawas her homage to them—sans shark. Besides, she dared anyone to listen to the original Julia sound and not feel like they’d heard the voice of an eldritch abomination from the deep. She’d wanted to write a book that simultaneously felt like an action blockbuster and also worked as an intimate portrayal of a scientist, David, and his unravelling mind in theclaustrophobia of a deep-sea research vessel. Rosemary hadn’t been brave enough to write the script before, knowing how difficult it would be to make given the necessary budget size. But ifWhen the Devil Takes Holddid well at the box office…well, perhaps the studios might see fit to enlarge the budget for her next movie. And she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t begun picturing Ellis in the role of David. She wondered when it was too soon to broach the topic with him.
As they walked over to set, the crew preparing for the final day on location at Hallowvale, Rosemary checked her phone. Last night, right before she fell asleep, she sent off a text to Dina and Immy telling them how she’d revealed her ghost-whispering to Ellis, and how she was planning to stay with him for a little while in London, instead of crashing with them or staying in a hotel.
There was a flurry of replies from them both around four in the morning, as Immy was up to breastfeed and Dina needed to start preparing the dough for the day’s bakes. They both wanted to meet him, and Dina wanted to slyly read his tea leaves. Rosemary had explained the whole fake-dating scheme to them both. Immy was convinced Brody should be sent to jail for the crime of being a dickhead.
“My friends want to meet you,” Rosemary whispered, leaning into Ellis’s side.
“Good. I want to meet your friends. My sister, Annie, is actually going to be in London, too, in the couple of weeks before Christmas. She’s been supervising the restoration of some ancient abbey archives in the Highlands, and has been off-grid for a month. I think you’d like her.”
“Wait, an ancient abbey in the Highlands?” Rosemary’s eyes widened.
“Ha, I knew that’s what would capture your interest. Annie will happily talk your ear off about old catacombs and libraries.”
“Can’t wait.”
Ellis pressed a kiss to her temple and headed in to hair and makeup. Rosemary found a seat and watched the crew go about their business, setting up the shot. They were outside Hallowvale again, filming a scene about halfway through the movie.
All these people, working hard to create a movie out of something that had originated inside her own head. Over the past month, getting lost in the nitty-gritty politics and feeling the overshadowing stress of her deadline, Rosemary had forgotten to let herself revel in this.
She remembered another horror author she admired, Mira Chambers, telling her how quickly the goalposts of success moved. Rosemary hadn’t believed her then. She did now. At first, her dreams had been to finish a manuscript, and then to get an agent. After she’d signed with her agent the dream was to get a deal, and then for the book to be a success. Getting a movie adaptation had always been so far down the pipeline it had been near-unimaginable. But here she was. She didn’t want to let the deadlines and goals she had for the future overshadow her success today. This was something to be proud of.
I think you’d be proud of me, Mama,she said to the air. Rosemary’s dad had always carried the unwavering belief that his daughter was talented and so her success was inevitable. But Mama had understood. She’d seen the way Rosemary had laboured, struggling under the burden of the ideas that formed in her head and the difficulty to put them on paper in a way that felt true. When she was younger, she’d stay up late to write down ideas for books in her journal, using her camping flashlight under the covers.
She’d freeze when she heard someone coming into the room, knowing she was already caught in the act. Her mother would pop her head under the covers, joining Rosemary in her lamplit duvet cave.
“What’s this one about?” she’d ask, and Rosemary would tell her. Dragons, ghosts, demons, and strange things that go bump in the night. They’d spend hours going over Rosemary’s plot ideas; however childish and silly, her mother had shown Rosemary that her stories were important.Look where we are now, Mama.
Tonight, she’d see Ellis’s home for the first time. She’d been trying not to think about it too much, because every time she did, she was struck with a wave of emotion. Seeing his home felt like a big deal.Stayingwith him felt like an even bigger one.
“And cut, everyone! Thank you, that’s a wrap on Hallowvale. Let’s pack up, please,” Vincent announced, with his megaphone. Quiet cheers went around the set; a lot of the crew were likely looking forwards to filming inside a warm, dry studio again.
She smiled and chatted with the crew for a few minutes, then excused herself from set to say goodbye to the ghosts. She’d wanted to give them their space; no doubt they’d had a lot of making up for lost time to do since they’d declared their love for each other yesterday.
Rosemary found Juliet and Cecilia looking out on the small parapet balcony, down at the movie’s tech base where the crew was packing up.
“Some of the crew are talking about you and Ellis Finch,” Cecilia said, when she noticed Rosemary standing beside them. This far up, Rosemary didn’t need to worry about anyone seeing her conversing with thin air.
“Oh? What are they saying?” Rosemary felt the anxiety seeping into her body, her knuckles gripping the balcony. She knew how women like herself—aka, non-famous—were always portrayed when they dated famous industry men.
“Mostly good things. Don’t worry yourself,” Cecilia said, patting her hand. Rosemary felt the ghost’s cold touch, goose bumps rising on her arm.
“We heard some of them saying that they’d worked on a few movies with Ellis before, and that he had never looked so happy,” Juliet said.
“And there were a few comments about how lucky a man he was to have—what was the phrase they used—‘pulled’ someone like you.”
Rosemary blushed.
“The others…well, they clearly were holding some rather unfortunate opinions, but we set them straight, didn’t we, Ceci?”
“We did indeed.”
“What did you do?” Rosemary groaned.
“Just a light sprinkle of poltergeist activity. No falling chandeliers this time.” Juliet winked. “Perhaps some writing on the bathroom mirror when they got out of the shower to scare them straight.”
Rosemary couldn’t help but laugh. She couldn’t believe she was being defended by two ghosts.
