Tags:
thriller,
Literature & Fiction,
Mystery,
Literature,
truth,
Kidnapping,
story,
Celebrity,
World Literature,
Journalism,
Humanities,
media,
Ownership,
Nicole Moeller,
Public and Private
can run out the door. I can do anything.
GREG
So what did you do?
CHLOE
Slammed the door and went back to cooking.
GREG
Why?
CHLOE
I was making chicken. It was gonna burn.
MATHEW enters. CHLOE's lines are now to MATHEW.
MATHEW
Why were you by the door?
CHLOE
I wasn'tâ
MATHEW
I saw you.
CHLOE
I needed fresh air.
MATHEW
You're lying.
CHLOE
I couldn't breathe.
MATHEW
You were trying to leave me.
CHLOE
Mathew, noâ
MATHEW
Why were you trying leave me?
CHLOE
I wasn't. It was one second. I needed air.
MATHEW
What did I do?
CHLOE
Don't panicâ
MATHEW
DON'T TOU
CH ME!
He gets his gun.
CHLOE
Mathew, don't. You don't need to do that.
GREG
So why didn't you go?
MATHEW
I've done everything for you. Why would you do this to me?
GREG
That's what I can't get the readers to understand. Why didn't you run when you had the chance?
MATHEW
I'm gonna do it. And it'll be all your fault. My blood and brains all over the wall. Is that what you want? Is that why you were by the door?
CHLOE's lines are now to GREG.
CHLOE
Have you ever been everything to someone? The only reason that they're living?
GREG
I don't know. I've neverâ
CHLOE
You'd know. Have you ever felt love?
MATHEW
No one will ever love you like I do. You know that, right?
GREG
Of course I have.
CHLOE
When?
MATHEW
Because your mom left you. Your dad gave up on you.
CHLOE
You don't have a wife or a girlfriend.
MATHEW
You have no one.
CHLOE
Nothing. So, when have you felt love? You haven't. That's why you don't get it. That's why you're so jealous.
GREG
Is that what you call it? What you had with him? Love?
CHLOE
I saved his life. Everyone forgot about him. No one cared. He sat in that house completely alone until me. I took care of him. I gave him something to live for.
GREG
That doesn't answer my question. Do you call it love?
CHLOE
Of course it's not love. My doctors tell me over and over and over. You people are so stupid.
CHLOE's lines are now to MATHEW.
I know you love me. Now put the gun down. You need to breathe, okay?
MATHEW
I want to hear it. Tell me.
CHLOE
I need you.
MATHEW
And?
CHLOE
I have nowhere to go.
MATHEW
Because everyone forgot about you.
CHLOE
Yeah. Everyone forgot about me.
MATHEW
Why else?
CHLOE
Because I love you.
MATHEW
And why do you love me?
CHLOE
Because you saved me.
MATHEW
And who else loves you?
CHLOE
No one. Just you.
MATHEW
And who else loves me?
CHLOE
No one. Just me.
MATHEW
So it's just us. Right?
CHLOE
It's just us.
MATHEW
If you ever do that again I'll have to make sure we're together forever. Okay? Because I can't lose you. You're my everything.
CHLOE
I'm not going anywhere. Breathe. You need to breathe.
GREG
Chloe?
CHLOE's lines are now to GREG.
CHLOE
You shouldn't have taken me on that show. You shouldn't push me. I could walk out right now. Nothing's stopping me. You don't want me to do that, do you?
GREG
Of course not.
CHLOE
Because you need me, right?
GREG
Chloeâ
CHLOE
Say it.
Beat.
GREG
I need you.
CHLOE
Say it again.
GREG
I need you.
CHLOE
And again.
GREG
I need you.
CHLOE
We're both alone. All we have is each other. When the series is done, you're going to stay with me. Right?
GREG
Right.
Beat.
CHLOE
This week tell them how I saved him. How I gave him a reason to keep going and that saved his life. And then⦠write that I miss him. That I think about him every day.
GREG
So that he'll read it.
CHLOE
You wanted the truth, didn't you?
SCENE EIGHT
Shift. To the audience.
GREG
I write it. I know the reaction it will get.
CHLOE
People write me letters.
GREG
Send them to my office.
CHLOE
I sneak them from the mailbox before my dad sees them. They say things likeâ
GREG
(imitating public)
"If she liked it so muchâ"
CHLOE
(imitating public)
"Then she should've stayed."
GREG
(imitating public)
"Because obviously she liked it."
CHLOE
(imitating
William Bryan Smith
Amanda Perry
Matt Christopher
Amy Sparling
Freida McFadden
Claudia Mills
Ellen Harper
Montgomery Mahaffey
Emelie Schepp
Karen Erickson