Chapter 42

Josh felt like he was a man with two faces. One was an opportunist—the smiling, indelibly handsome face he showed to the world, the one that saw Arliss coming over in an emotionally vulnerable state as Josh’s perfect chance to pounce, to turn whatever was saddening or upsetting the young man into something he could use to coerce him to be in Bad Moon’s next film.

But the other face was dark, hidden in shadow, only the eyes standing out, damp and blinking. It was the face of someone with a heart—a face Josh preferred to hide, a face somehow linked to his secret need to cut himself. The man who wore that face knew it would be best to offer comfort to a kindred spirit, someone alone in the world, someone for whom survival was not just some concept from a reality TV show but an everyday fact of life.