Chapter 23: Where Elisabeth Ended

The corridor stretched before her, dim and silent, its shadows breathing with each hesitant step she took. Sue pressed forward, her body tense, until the living room opened up around her.

She stopped.

Her gaze locked onto the chaos that sprawled across the coffee table. A chicken carcass — stripped to its bones, greasy remains glistening under the pale lamp light. Potato skins clung stubbornly to a plate smeared with butter. An empty ice-cream pint slumped sideways, its cardboard walls stained. Chocolate wrappers lay torn and gutted, the silver foil catching light like discarded jewels.

Her eyes narrowed. Anger flickered there, raw and sharp.

She shifted her stare to the armchair — the deep imprint where a body had sunk too long, greasy fingerprints tattooed across the remote. Slippers abandoned on the carpet. The stench of indulgence hung in the air.

Sue's knees weakened; she sank into the chair. A wave of revulsion rose in her chest. What a total lack of control… grotesque, pitiful.

Her hand drifted nervously to her belly, then her thighs, pinching, kneading, as though the flesh itself had betrayed her. She hunched forward until her forehead nearly brushed her knees. Every reminder of Elisabeth — the weakness, the indulgence — gnawed at her. She was rotting from the inside out.

Abruptly, she seized the plate, her hands trembling, and fled the room.

In the dark belly of the trash can, the lid creaked open to reveal her face. She dropped the bones in, one by one, until the camera of her mind's eye was smothered under the rain of carcass and fat.

The secret room smelled of steel and antiseptic. Sue lowered the matrix carefully onto its side, her movements precise, almost ceremonial. The long needle pierced the flesh of her back, siphoning seven vials of essence. She didn't flinch. Her attention was elsewhere.

On the body. Elisabeth's body.

Her gaze traveled over the deformed finger, slick with grease. The scar that climbed her spine like a cruel vine. Flesh that sagged and folded, once supple but now flabby, used up. Each detail turned Sue's stomach. This body was not her ally; it was her cage. Her disgust sharpened into hatred.

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Palm trees stabbed upward, their emerald leaves slashing at the perfect blue of the sky. Sue strode down the street, phone pressed tight against her ear, her pace quick, jittery.

The line rang, shrill and unrelenting. Finally—

"Yes?"

Her voice erupted. "This balance is not working!"

She pushed past strangers, eyes flicking desperately at each of them as though scavenging for reassurance.

"Why do we have to keep it even?!" she demanded into the receiver. "We don't have the same needs! I barely have time to breathe while she—" her throat clenched with fury— "she wastes days stuffing herself like an animal in front of the TV!"

A voice, calm, clinical, echoed through the line: Remember, there is no she—

Click.

Sue ended the call. Rage jolted through her arm; she wanted to smash the phone against the pavement, to hear it shatter. Instead, she clenched her jaw, swallowed the impulse whole, and kept walking.

The locker door creaked open. From its dark cavity, Sue emerged in fragments: a leg slipping into a leotard, fingers trembling as they zipped, a face clouded with unease. She caught her reflection in the dressing-room mirror. The mask of composure was cracking.

Backstage, her footsteps echoed down the empty hallway, hollow and steady, until she reached the studio door. She yanked it open, energy poised like a blade—

"Hello everybod—"

Silence.

The set was dead. No cameras, no lights, no audience. A single stagehand coiled cables, his movements methodical and unhurried.

Panic gripped her chest. "What's happening? Where is everybody?"

"The taping's been cancelled," the man said without looking up.

"Cancelled?" Her voice thinned to disbelief. "Why?"

A voice behind her cut through the still air. "Sue?"

She spun around, startled. A floor runner stood watching her, his face tight with seriousness.

"Harvey wants to see you. In his office. Now."

Her pulse quickened. The studio seemed to tilt around her. "I… I'll just go change and—"

"He said now."

The words struck like a gavel.

Sue hesitated in the doorway, her pulse a wild hammer in her throat. Harvey's office stretched before her, polished and intimidating, its plate-glass window swallowing half the skyline. Sunlight blazed across the room, but the atmosphere was cold. His chair was turned away, facing the city, a looming silhouette that spoke of control. Only the broad leather backrest stared at her, silent and judging.

Three men in tailored suits occupied the office like watchful gargoyles. One reclined casually on the couch, legs crossed but eyes sharp. Another perched at the corner of Harvey's desk, arms folded, lips curved in the faintest smirk. The third stood sentinel by the window, a stiff figure framed against the sprawling metropolis. They all turned as she entered, their silence more suffocating than any interrogation.

Then Harvey swiveled.

His eyes—sharp, amused, predatory—locked onto hers. "We've discovered your little secret," he said.

The words cracked through the room. Sue froze, her mouth dry.

"I couldn't believe my ears!" Harvey leaned forward, savoring the moment, his gaze drilling into her. "Elisabeth Sparkle?!"

Her heart lurched violently. She opened her mouth to protest, but he steamrolled her.

"You can't actually be living in…" His lips twisted into a grin that was equal parts disbelief and menace. "…Elisabeth Sparkle's apartment?"

Sue's face betrayed more than she wanted. Panic and confusion collided in her chest, but Harvey's voice filled the space, relentlessly.

"It's too much of a coincidence," he pressed on. "I sack her and bam! Here she is again, trying to stick her foot right back in the door!" He chuckled, low and bitter.

Relief swept through Sue like a tide breaking against rocks. Only that. He didn't know the real secret.

She forced a careful smile, steadying her voice. "Uh… yes. We briefly met when she was moving out of town. She asked if I was looking for a place to rent… which I was, so… there you have it."

The lie hung in the air.

Harvey squinted. "Oh, she left town? Where did she go?"

Her stomach knotted. A beat passed. Then another. She could feel the men watching her like hawks.

"Uh…" she stalled, "…Costa Rica, I think."

A silence followed, thick and suffocating.

Finally, the man on the desk—Suit #1—shrugged. "It's great for taxes."

Harvey grunted, eyebrows lifting, his approval oddly satisfied. Then, without warning, he slammed both hands on the desk, the sound echoing like a gunshot.

"ANYWAY! That's not why I wanted to see you." His tone shifted, slicing through the room like a blade. His eyes narrowed, serious now. "I'm going to get straight to the point: we can't keep you on the morning show."

Sue's breath caught. The words felt like a fist to the chest.

"But why?" she gasped.

"Ratings," Harvey cut her off, his grin returning, "are through the roof."

Her confusion deepened. A beat of silence passed, heavy, until Harvey gestured at one of the men.

"Two-sixteen," Suit #2 recited smoothly.

Harvey spread his arms wide, triumphant. "That's phenomenal. We've never seen numbers like this in the history of the network! People love you, Sue. They adore you!"

The floor tilted beneath her. Emotion surged—fear, disbelief, relief, all tumbling over one another.

"That's why," Harvey continued, savoring the dramatic pause, "we've decided we want you to host… the New Year's Eve Show."

The words fell like a bomb.

Sue blinked. "…you mean… The—"

"The network's biggest show." Harvey's eyes glittered, almost feverish. "Fifty million viewers. Live. You can't get any higher." He gave a strange, glassy smile, lifting his hand toward the ceiling. "Well, except if you die… then you'd go…" His voice trailed into a strange metaphysical musing before snapping back into focus. "Anyway. I'm taking a huge gamble on you. These men can tell you—I fought for this. I sold the shareholders until my last drop of saliva ran dry. This is the way forward. It'll be intense. We have only a few months to pull it off. But I know we can do it."

He leaned forward, his stare pinning her in place. "So? What do you say?"

The silence returned, humming in her ears. Sue's chest rose and fell, her eyes glimmering with a mix of fear and awe.

"Are you in?" Harvey asked, voice low, commanding.

Her answer trembled inside her, unspoken but alive in her gleaming eyes.

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