Noel had one wish in that moment: for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Anything... literally anything... to escape the suffocating circle of Ashfords now closing around him.
'Why in the world do they keep gravitating toward me without me even trying? It's not like I had called them over or looked in their fucking direction.'
He didn't even smile at them for attention. Yet here they were... four of them... forming a loose semicircle that blocked every easy exit from the side arch he'd just walked through.
He remembered where he had felt this exact trapped panic before.
Back in his original world... his real world... they had thrown a massive wrap party to celebrate the end of a long-running series he'd been shooting for years. There was champagne everywhere and loud music. Everyone was laughing, hugging, promising to stay in touch even though they all knew most of them wouldn't.
Then came game time.
