Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson, Sam Stall, Kevin David, Sam Stall Anderson Read Free Book Online

wearing this getup, I
am
Princess Leia.
    “A lot of these guys have serious bank,” Donnie remarked. “If you can look past the uniforms and the prosthetic ears, you could land yourself a really nice boyfriend.”
    “Just roll the camera, Dr. Phil.”
    “You don’t want a boyfriend?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it.” She fidgeted on the bed. The handcuffs were digging uncomfortably into the tender skin on her wrist. “The only person I like to depend on is me.”
    “Brrrrr, you’re frigid tonight!” Donnie said, grinning. “But I’ll tell you what. We’re going to get good and drunk in the hotel bar tonight and work through some of your issues.”
    He turned off the ringer on his cell phone and set it down on the nightstand along with the handcuff key. Then he mounted his camera on a tripod, turned on its tiny auxiliary light, and looked at the preview screen again.
    “Now when I start, I’ll do a few seconds of you trying to yank your hands free. Then I’ll walk in and start reading the script.”
    “You’re just going to stand there and read?”
    “Nothing in the contract says I have to memorize this. And no one’s going to be looking at me, anyway. I could hold a rabid raccoon and people wouldn’t notice.”
    Donnie shuffled through the several pages of typed, single-spaced dialogue. Then he cleared his throat.
    “And what’s with Jar Jar Binks?” he announced in a theatrical voice. “People say he’s a walking, talking Happy Meal toy. But you know what? That’s an insult to Happy Meal toys! They’re way more entertaining than Jar Jar!”
    “Is it all like that?”
    “Pretty much. The guy told me to sound really ticked off.”
    “Your fury is almost palpable. Let’s do this thing.”
    As Donnie switched on the camera, something thumped the wall above her head.
    “What was that?” Leia asked.
    “The people next door must be having a quickie,” Donnie said. “Their timing sucks. It’ll ruin the take.”
    A moan wafted through the wall.
    “We can’t wait for them to finish,” Leia said. “I have to be downstairs in—”
    “I know, I know,” Donnie said.
    There was a second thump, followed by a short, high-pitched scream.
    “You need to shut them up,” Leia said.
    Donnie turned off the camera and its light and then started toward the door.
    “Hey, I was kidding,” she said. “Don’t you dare leave me like this.”
    “Hold tight,” Donnie said. “I’ll just be a second.”
    He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. He pulled the door closed behind him, but it didn’t latch. Instead it bounced against the frame and then drifted open a couple of inches.
    Leia tested the handcuffs to see if she could slip free, but Donnie had tightened them all the way.
    Thanks, buddy
, she thought.
    A few seconds ticked by. Then a few more. She glanced over to the key on the nightstand. It was just eighteen inches away from her right hand—but it might as well have been a mile.
    “Donnie?” she called out.
    He didn’t reply.
    The seconds stretched into minutes.
    Leia considered calling out again, but the noises coming from the adjacent hotel room made her think better of it. There were more moans—but not the sort you’d expect to hear under such circumstances. There was no pleasure in these voices. They sounded like they were dying—or worse.
    Even more troubling, the voices seemed to be moving into the hallway. The stretch of hallway just beyond her slightly open hotel room door.
    Leia didn’t know what was happening, but she knew she wanted no part of it.
    She lay perfectly still, using a yoga technique to calm her breathing, hoping that Donnie would return, but gradually understanding that, for whatever reason, he wasn’t coming back.
    I’ve got a bad feeling about this
, she thought.

Chapter 5
Errand of Mercy

    The service elevator was big and poorly lit. Some of the hotel staff used it for cigarette breaks, so it normally reeked of smoke. But today all Jim