The Characterisation of Annabelle le Roux

Chapter Twenty-Two: Betrayal

James had no choice but to listen to Paul, especially now that Vanessa was refusing to do everything that he wrote for her. The men were picketing outside his fence, sending him emails, some of them with very frightening personal information and pictures that he certainly had not consented to be taken.

The one company, one who produced razor blades for men to use to shave their beards had already withdrawn its sponsorship because they said that the type of person who now watched Terror of Zilby was unlikely to be the type of person who shaved every day.

He had no other choice but to rewrite the script. Annabelle would need to be disposed of, possibly killed. On the other hand, killing was so final. There had been times that he wished that he could bring back the Lesser Lord George. But he was not about to turn this show into a ghost story or worst, some sort of memory palace.

Who would replace her? There was Ferne'. Paul was very keen to have more scenes, he always hung around the studio and wanted to stay around late so that he could shot more. That made him an obvious choice. From the very beginning, Ferne' was meant to be a more intellectual version of Phoenix. James connected with the character of Ferne' on a spiritual level in a way that he did not connect with any of the other characters. He was told that everybody loved the chemistry that was developing between him and the character of Veronique. He was sure that was needed to keep the teenage girls interested.

He felt bullied to be sure, but what had to be done, had to be done.

He started writing, first he betrayed Annabelle in every way possible. She did not seem cool calm and collected. He stole her strength and took away her trust. He then started plotting out a whole bunch of things that Ferne' could do instead. He had learnt from his past mistakes; he couldn't simply put Ferne in all the scenes that Annabelle had been in previously. He couldn't just give Annabelle's lines to him. He had to think about who Ferne' is and make sure that he always acted in line with the character he had given him. He wrote Ferne lines that included a lot of quotes, both literature in his own world and literature in our world. He needed the audience to be on Ferne's side.

The streets were quiet because it was after curfew. It was the night of Annabelle's birthday and Madame Green had invited her over to celebrate.

"Ferne' has come to visit me too." Said Madame Green in welcome after Annabelle had opened the front door "But I see that you have not been sleeping enough. Rest is important especially if we are to co-ordinate an attack."

"There is important work to do", said Annabelle." We will have time later to catch up, for now, we should focus and work"

"You see Annabelle your great weakness is that you do not read enough studies explaining the world around you." Said Madame Green "Hundreds of accidents happen every year because machine operators and other people have not gotten enough sleep. The entire island's future depends on this plan going smoothly. Do not fool yourself in thinking that an extra hour of work will make a big difference. It is better that, the hours of work that you do put in are meaningful than to have many hours. It's your birthday and instead of celebrating and having a good time, you work!"

"I slept all afternoon, so you don't need to worry about me," said Annabelle.

"No that is bad too," said Madame Green. "Because you need to get sleep at the right time, otherwise your rhythms will go completely out of wack and you will be unable to sleep at the right time. You are supposed to be asleep at night and awake during the day. The body needs sunlight"

"But Zilby is constantly covered in smog so there is seldom any sunlight" countered Annabelle.

"All the more important to be up when you might encounter sunlight then," said Madame Green. "You can't take any risks and miss it"