Chapter 8

Bret reads in the Los Angeles Times about the Riders of the Afterlife, a desert cult drifting into Los Angeles, alongside another patterned home invasion. Spooked at home, he jumps when Debbie arrives to take him to a nameless Melrose “space” that screens music videos in darkness.

Inside, Bret explores rooms of projected videos, notes the scene’s curated anonymity, and connects Lindsey Buckingham’s look to Terry Schaffer. He spots Jeff arriving with Robert Mallory, feels both dread and attraction, and hides in another room.

Jeff finds Bret, then leaves Bret alone with Robert. Robert probes Bret about Susan, implies knowledge of Bret’s rift with Matt, and presses why Bret didn’t “end up” with Susan. When Bret says he didn’t want to lose a friend, Robert counters with Matt’s loss, then shifts into explicit, degrading fantasies about Susan, driving Bret to leave.

Seeking the bathroom, Bret discovers a larger, darkened area and realizes someone is crouched inside whispering gibberish. He retreats and alerts staff. A blonde girl then stumbles out bleeding from a thin forehead scratch. Staff switch on the lights, subdue a barefoot, leaf-dusted hippie with talon-like nails, and call police, who remove the intruder as the girl’s bleeding stops.

Back in the space, life resumes; Bret contemplates transforming the incident for his novel. Thom arrives with Jeff, play-wrestles Bret, and they get swept up by Ultravox’s “Vienna,” projecting personal losses onto the song. In the final scene, Bret sees Robert whispering to an impressionable, high Thom during “Girls on Film,” sensing Robert grooming Thom toward his darker wavelength.