Chapter 10: Burn the Script9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLmZ4ZqTTjz
The script called for a girl to cry.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfOdKtvpS4
The scene was about betrayal. About heartbreak. About being left after being used.
Mia didn’t need to act.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCh3Xqka8m1
She just let a memory surface—Reeve, his breath sour with drugs… Direk Leonard telling her she looked better when she didn’t talk. The raw, twisted truth of her days and nights.
The camera rolled.
Tears fell. Real.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW0nwZdFgwB
And every man behind that lens called it brilliant.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXLciz4WB5
“She’s gold,” they said.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVJjR9rNlS
“She feels real,” they whispered.
None of them knew—they were watching a eulogy for the girl they destroyed.
But someone was watching differently.
His name was Clark Monteverde.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhYFGtI27e9
The quiet guy who joined the crew as assistant producer last month. A former indie filmmaker, known for experimental scripts and off-grid projects. Rumor was, he didn’t even want to be here—forced by debts, pulled in by a contract he regretted.
He noticed things others missed.
The way Mia always checked the corners of a room before undressing.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1AsNbhyS8h
The way her gaze flickered not with fear—but with calculation.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqAf4gTZSKf
How one by one, the abusers were falling into chaos—and she remained untouched.
“You don’t belong here,” he told her one night, after shoot.
Mia didn’t flinch.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHnjrUNtKE
She was smoking outside the set, barefoot, in a hoodie and men’s joggers. Makeup washed off. She looked younger. Softer. Like she hadn’t yet been turned into a product.
“I’m exactly where I need to be,” she said, not meeting his gaze.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLLHSKsRek3
“You’re playing them,” Clark muttered. “This whole place—it’s a chessboard to you.”
Mia exhaled smoke. Slowly. Calmly.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmymYA2IWiq
Then turned to him with a smile.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAxzyuHdzZG
“Do you think that makes me the villain?”
Clark looked at her too long.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGwhmUG29yW
“No. I think it makes you the only honest one here.”
He didn’t report her.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZKGbaCrys
But Mia didn’t trust that kindness.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqygL3ztzW6
She never did.
So she began watching him too.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9bXfIJvyK
Following him after set. Reading his background.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmRvKOmOQon
He lived modestly. Rented a bare apartment. Ate cheap takeout. Wrote scripts at night, alone. His laptop was full of unproduced stories—some about sex workers, trauma, survival.
One script had a character named "Maui."9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhli42XlyZw
The woman in the story... she kills her rapist and buries him under the set.
That night, Mia knocked on Clark’s door.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbTcO5nVmMq
No makeup. No armor.
He opened it, surprised.
“You think you know me?” she asked.
“No,” he said honestly. “But I want to.”
That made her pause.
Because for the first time… she didn’t know whether to ruin him or trust him.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXsE5wkVWm
And trust? That felt more dangerous than any director’s hands.
Back at the studio, tension thickened.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ28h2izwhOM
Neil was gone. Reeve was under rehab. Direk Leonard stopped showing up altogether.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94GgOHVc8r
Everyone started whispering that something was off.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4f1svpnbgA
That the universe was punishing them.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTMarOU8SBt
No one mentioned Mia.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJXMd3iY0Is
But they started avoiding her gaze.
One day, an envelope was slipped under her dressing room door.
Inside:9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡELATInaGi5
A still image from a security cam.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5XE92Qfdsv
Mia.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGXhGL8Zao
Kissing a passed-out Reeve in the hallway.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKlxALcFsc
The angle… the lighting… twisted enough to make her look guilty.
Below it, a note.
“You think we don’t see you?”
She burned the photo.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡusrLKrZpKb
But she kept the ashes.
She folded them into a paper flower and placed it in front of the studio’s Virgin Mary statue.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9l61N4DRZd
And whispered,
“Forgive me for what I’ll do next.”
Because now, it wasn’t just revenge.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIVSXHxxPRe
It was war.
And Mia had no more tears left—only matches.9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkTUg4G2bOf
And a list.
9Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpTMbhjqQ2n
