This week, Chuck has us clicking on a link where it gives us a his and hers option and whacks it together! A great thing! I love that! I got: 'He's a lonely Opera Singer who believes he can never love again... She's a devious Barbarian with the fear of the uknown.' And well, this is what I came up with. The theatre stuff, well, I used to work in a local theatre near my house... and like most theatres, The Butterbox Theatre is haunted.
Enjoy!
Charles was
depressed. He knew he was while he brushed on the translucent powder over his
face to prevent him from sweating under the hot lights of the theatre.
A knock sounded at
the door: “Two minutes!”
“Yep!” he called
back. She had broken – shattered – his heart and he knew he’d never find love
again. And yet, he had to work with her on the stage for the next three months.
The bitch!
Charles rose from his mirror, pulled the paper from around his collar and switched off the lights. It was time to get his ass to the Stage Manager’s side – where he was first to walk onto the stage to begin his singing.
Charles Montgomery was an Opera Singer.
As soon as he
stepped out onto that stage, with the people surrounding him… the music rising
up from the pit in front of him as though from the dungeons of Hell itself,
conducted by Lucifer himself… as the little man at the dais stood just in front
of the audience demanding his orchestra to pay attention and to keep up, work
their asses off and play their best every single night… and he turned to
Bethany herself as he held her fingertips gently in his hand as they had
rehearsed so many times and they sang! Oh, they sang with such harmony – in harmony
– that the audience who sat enthralled every night wouldn’t know that they
despised each other in real life.
She had cheated on
him with one of the extras within weeks of the tour of Australia and then, once
they left Melbourne (which was a three month tour there), and his Sydney,
Bethany had moved onto another ‘dude’ as though nothing really mattered to her –
as though the two year relationship they had shared meant …
Charles was going to
propose to Bethany at the closing night in New York City at the after-party.
She didn’t know this – but he had planned it and everything.
The slut!
Act Three was almost
finished and they stood side by side, not touching each other. He despised
being in her presence, and wished she had been sacked for being such a whore;
but beggers can’t be choosers. The make-up woman came up and checked his face
to make sure he hadn’t removed any of it from scratching his nose or forehead,
then his hair was checked as well just as the doors were closed and the lights in
the house were turned down for them to start.
At the last minute,
the props guy came around, “Charles, I found another dagger online. It’s
better-looking than the plastic one you’ve been using.”
“Okay.” He said
swapping over the crappy-looking dagger for the gorgeously jeweled one, “Thanks
Harry.”
As the music began, they
stepped out into the light and began to sing. It was then, he saw her… the most
beautiful woman he’d laid eyes on since Bethany. She sat in the middle of the
third row. She was dressed so differently from everyone else and watched every
single thing he did – which was the biggest turn-on for him.
By Act Four, Charles’
and Bethany played their parts right through to the bitter ending; where his
character stabs Bethany’s and she staggers off the stage. As soon as she’s
gone, the curtain falls as the music crescendos and a scream cuts the air.
This happens but …
the scream seems a little too real and Charles turned to stage left to see
Bethany fall as she spat out blood holding her stomach.
“Oh my god.” He said
loud enough that Lucifer heard it.
“What?” he whispered
up to him, but it’s too late as Charles raced off the stage before the curtain
falls – before the creation of the what was supposed to happen did.
Security surrounded
Bethany and pushed him off to one side as he watched her face and witness the
one thing he had hoped he would never hope he’d ever see: the light of somebody’s
life leave their eyes. Before long, his agent grabbed him, walking him to his
dressing room, closing the door against anyone of the media.
As they turn around,
the woman from the third row is in there, “I noticed you.”
“You’re not supposed
to be in here.” His agent said, “Get out.”
“Charles Montgomery?
Your dagger from the other performances was replaced just before this one, wasn’t
it?” she said.
He looked up, “Yes.”
She looked around his
room, “Normally, they’d return props to the dressing rooms when they swap them
over, but the old dagger wasn’t returned here.”
His agent looked
around quickly, “Well, Harry takes care of the props. If he thought it was
right to replace it, he would have taken the old one back to storage.”
“But tonight is the
last night for Sydney… it would have come back to my room to be packed away
with my costume.” Charles said, “Which means that Harry either gave me a stage
dagger which was faulty or he gave me a … oh… god… a real dagger.”
She sat in his chair
at the dressing table, “We must find the other dagger to prove you’re innocent.”
His agent looked
over at her, “She was asking for it… she was being a whore.”
“Don’t say that about
her. Bethany was hurting… but we had to work together; and that’s something.”
Charles said, “She broke my heart, and I’m still honouring my contract.”
“I guess.” He shrugged,
“The police still have to talk to you.”
Dawn was breaking
when the police had been and gone – after they talked to everyone. The woman
stood there outside the stage door waiting for Charles, not knowing whether to
stick around or to delve into the unknown world of the heart. She almost turned
to leave when the door opened and Charles stepped out into the early morning
coolness and looked at her.
“Hi.” She blushed, “I
don’t know why I’m here. I’m terrified of commitment, of the unknown of what
might be.”
“And yet, I think
the knife was yours to begin with.” He walked to her.
“How did you know?”
He gestured to her
calf scabbard, “You’re missing some equipment.”
Looking down, she
shrugged, “How do you know I didn’t sell it?”
“But you did… online
to Harry.”
She smiled, “I’m
Bethany’s cousin… never liked her. And our clan had a mark on her for the last
few years. It’s taken three of us to track her and I made sure to get the right
knife to kill her.” She looked to her hands, “But now my work is done, there’s
no future for me… not unless I make one – which is kind of scary.”
He put out his hand,
“Let’s make a future together. I never thought I’d find another like Bethany in
my life – and you’re scared to take a leap into the unknown magic of life
itself.” He smiled, “I think we can help each other.” The door of the taxi
opened that had been waiting for Charles and he let her in first. They knew
they were just at the beginning; of what? Well, neither of them knew just yet.
