<🎧 Song Recommendation: Cleanin’ Out My Closet by Eminem>

...

Loki didn’t know why Von was stressing her out so much by making her do this human stuff.

But aside from the random nurses and the annoying phone disturbances, she didn’t really have any problem with it. The free sushi made it worth it.

She closed her eyes and was just about to get back to her peaceful sleep when she heard a someone knock on the glass of the window.

’He’s finally back,’ Loki thought in pure delight.

Loki pushed the heavy glass of the balcony window open.

The moment the gap was wide enough, Von tumbled into the room. As soon as he touched down on the carpeted floor, Loki immediately reverted to her small, black cat form. She was clearly tired of having to play him for so long. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Argh," Von groaned, lying flat on the floor without trying to stand up.

His whole back ached, and his muscles screamed in protest. He was looking a lot worse now than when he had left the garbage truck. His whole body and face were covered in dirt and grime from the concrete wall. He was bleeding from several fresh bruises on his arms and legs, and the oversized blue janitor clothes were completely torn in several places. He was in a terrible condition.

Loki completely ignored his exaggerated groans. She just stretched her paws, hopped off the floor, and returned to the soft bed to continue sleeping.

Seeing her ignore him infuriated Von further, but he wasn’t really expecting any sympathy from her.

’Who knew it would be that difficult to scale that damn wall,’ Von thought to himself, closing his eyes.

Running up the wall had not worked the way he envisioned. His physique gave him the strength, but he severely lacked the technique. He had experienced a couple of really harsh falls, landing hard on the concrete ground while trying different methods to grab the ledge. It took several painful attempts before he eventually managed to climb over it and sneak back to his balcony.

Von reveled in the pain for some time before eventually forcing himself to stand up. He took a look at the massive mess of a room.

"Loki, what’s all this?" Von winced in pain, seeing the empty fish snack wrappers and sushi containers everywhere. He knew that because of the quarantine, they weren’t going to be getting room service, so cleaning all this up was entirely his responsibility.

As he looked around, Von noticed the table. He saw his phone was completely out of position from where he had left it the night before.

Panic instantly hit him. He grabbed the device and quickly unlocked it, desperately hoping that Loki had ignored all the calls like he had instructed her to do.

He opened the call log. He saw a couple of missed calls, mostly from Zack, Emily, and Aura, which was normal.

But then his heart dropped.

There were a few others. And one of the calls that had come in earlier tonight had actually been answered. The duration was just over a minute long, but it was a video call from none other than Leviathan.

"Fuck, I’m screwed," Von sighed heavily, dropping his head in his hands while looking over at the sleeping, unbothered cat.

***

(Friday, 31st May, 2020)

Downstairs in the converted Grand Ballroom of the Grand Beverly Hotel, Leviathan and Marcus were in the middle of a very serious conversation.

"Nah, man, this can’t be real," Leviathan shook his head with a really disappointed expression.

"I just got the news this morning, you can confirm it yourself," Marcus said, rubbing his temples. "Barry tested positive. He’s been admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center already."

Leviathan bent his head low, resting his elbows on his knees. "I gotta contact his family and send my well wishes. This is really terrible news, eh? You think it’s gonna ruin anything with the schedule?"

"Well, we were lucky enough to find out before we actually began shooting, so the whole house is safe for now. He had the virus in him before he arrived at the hotel, so we can’t be blamed for an outbreak here. But my only worry is..."

Leviathan raised his head hearing the last part. He already knew exactly where this conversation was going.

"Von?"

"Yes," Marcus hardened his expression just hearing the kid’s name. "But honestly, I’m more concerned about the lead role than him. With Barry officially out of the audition candidates now, it’s either Sammy doesn’t disappoint, or we have to go for a lesser option and ruin the entire movie."

Leviathan let out a light laugh, leaning back on the couch as he recounted the bizarre video call event from two days before.

"Calme-toi, Marcus," Leviathan said smoothly. "Just trust Von, man. He might have trolled you the other day on that call, but the kid is good. He’s got that spark."

Marcus wasn’t convinced by Leviathan’s input in the slightest. He maintained his strict, worried expression. "Yeah, well, I trust Sam a lot more. He won’t disappoint us."

His words sounded more like a prayer than a stated fact.

But before Leviathan could say anything else to defend Von, he saw a small figure standing awkwardly at the double doors of the ballroom. She was wearing a baggy grey hoodie and had a really solemn look on her face. If you touched her chest right now, you would find her heart racing like a freight train.

It was his niece.

"Yo, Chloe, my girl! What’s good?" Leviathan asked with a bright smile. He gestured to the empty spot on the couch he was sitting on. "Come take a seat."

"I can’t..." Chloe said in a small voice. She had a really sad, guilty look on her face as she stayed glued to the doorway.

Her strange words immediately made Leviathan frown in confusion. "What’s wrong, niece?"

Chloe took in a deep, shaky breath as she considered exactly how she was going to say this. There was no easy way to do it.

"I’m sorry, Uncle... I... I didn’t really mean to... But... I broke the quarantine."

Leviathan froze.

l

"I’ve been going out every night," Chloe continued quickly, tears already welling up in her eyes. "And sometimes I’ll spend the entire day there at the locations. I was stupid, Uncle Levy. You can punish me and strip me of my role, I deserve it."

"YOU WHAT?!"

Marcus was the one to snap. He stood up furiously from his chair, immediately taking his reading glasses off his face.

He grabbed his white hair in pure frustration, cursing whatever he had done in his past life to deserve dealing with these actors.

"All these teenagers, it’s absolutely disgusting!" Marcus yelled, his face turning red. "How can you be so incredibly selfish and careless? What were you thinking when you decided to do that, huh??!"

"I’m so sorry, Uncle Marcus," Chloe cried.

She got on her knees right there in the doorway, burying her face in her hands. Tears streamed down her face as she genuinely felt deep regret for her actions. Von’s words from the car were still echoing in her head.

"I’m sorry, Uncle Levy..." she sobbed loudly. "I don’t deserve to star in your film."

Marcus found her words even more ridiculous and frustrating. Aside from Sammy, who hadn’t even officially gotten casted yet, she was the absolute best actor they had at their disposal. Winning the Breakout Star Award at just 18 years old was no joke. She was the anchor of this movie, but right now, their best actor was making things incredibly difficult for them.

"What do we do, Levy?" Marcus asked, turning to the rapper who had been completely quiet all this while.

Although Leviathan didn’t react with the same explosive anger as Marcus, he was genuinely upset and deeply disappointed with his niece, who he loved the most. He just stared at her crying on the floor.

"Do we really have a choice, man?" Leviathan facepalmed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "We’ll extend the quarantine for another three days. We gotta sanitize the scene locations and the entire hotel once more. We’ll max the security out too... nobody leaves their rooms."

"Spending more money then," Marcus sighed heavily at the harsh reality of the situation. He knew this delay was going to cost the studio hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He returned to his seat, picked up his phone, and immediately called the medical team to come pick up Chloe. She was going to be placed in a special, highly monitored quarantine now.