Short Story Spotlight: "Scream Queen"

I figured that spotlighting this particular story by the prolific and versatile Ed Gorman would make for an appropriate coda to Scream Week.  The story focuses on a legendary scream queen named Michele Danforth ("A scream queen? That's the sexy young lady," the narrator explains, "who gets dragged off by the monster/ax-murderer in direct-to-video horror movies.  She screams a lot and she almost always gets her blouse and bra ripped off so you can see her breasts.  Acting ability doesn't matter so much.  But scream ability is vital.  And breast ability is absolutely mandatory.").  The titular figure disappeared from Hollywood at the height of her fame, but years later she is spotted by the narrator and his fanboy friends at a Midwestern video store.  Now, though, Danforth has assumed a different identity, and she also has this strange quirk about never baring her beloved bosom again (even to someone she sleeps with).
All this might seem to be leading to some sort of ghoulish climax, but Gorman is more interested in making readers' hearts ache than pound.  This bittersweet tale of scars accrued and innocence lost is well deserving of its slot as the final story in the 2007 anthology Midnight Premiere.