Page 74 of Starrily

After they’d eaten, they drove down the road, Simon following the instructions from the waitress. They turned onto a smaller off road with barely visible markings and, after kicking dust behind them for a minute, noticed the dark dots of a movie set on the horizon. Simon parked and they approached on foot, toward a wire fence guarding several trailers.

“Hello, there,” Simon greeted the guard at the gate. “We heard you need someextraextras.”

The guard looked down at him, unamused. “I wasn’t aware of that.”

“And now you are.” Simon flashed him a smile.

“What’s that?” The guard pointed at Callie’s back.

“Oh, it’s a cat. In a backpack,” Simon said. Callie turned, and as the guard leaned in, Theia hissed at him.

“Fucking demon,” the guard muttered. “Go away. All the crew we need is already inside.”

“But—” Simon tried.

“Off. With. You.”

“Come on.” Callie tugged on his shirt. They moved a few steps back down the road.

“I wish I had Stan with us,” Simon muttered. “He and that guard could have a staredown. And Stan would win.”

“We tried. It wasn’t likely they’d need extras.”

Simon narrowed his eyes, staring at the fence. “There is no try. You either do it, or you don’t.”

“Pretty sure that’s not how the quote goes and—Simon!” Callie ran after him as he started toward the fence further away from the guard.

“Here.” He stopped in front of an area where two fences had been linked, leading to a lower spot. “Come, I’ll lift you over.” Simon interlocked his fingers and held his hands on the level of her knees.

“That’s trespassing.”

“Not if nobody finds out. Once we’re inside, they’ll think we’re one of them.”

She sighed and stepped onto his hands. He lifted her to the top, and she carefully maneuvered around, rattling the fence.

“You’re doing great. Now just climb back down,” he said.

Grappling the fence, she descended inch by inch until she was low enough to dare to jump—but just as she did, a ripping sound came from her back, and something pulled for a second before her feet met the ground.

“Theia,” Simon said.

Worried about possibly injuring her cat, Callie scrambled for the backpack, only to find it ripped open—and empty.

“She jumped out.” Simon swiftly crossed the fence. “When the pouch got caught.”

At least she was okay, but … “How are we going to find her?”

“Hey, kitty,” a man’s voice came from somewhere beyond the trailers. “Aren’t you a little—ouch!”

Simon laughed. “Follow the screams.”

They ran, squeezing between two trailers until they reached a path leading through the impromptu trailer park. Callie caught a flash of a fluffy brown tail disappearing behind the corner. “There.” She grabbed Simon’s hand.

“Hey, you two.” A man stood further down, wearing a tell-tale black shirt and baseball cap of a movie crew member.

Oh, shit.

“You should be in costumes already,” the man continued.