The performance that encapsulates a lifetime

Time was running dry.

Theresia could see that clearly, so her eyes grew wild, and she paced rapidly and anxiously through the backstage of the theatre. She could hear the bustle across the curtain, of those that had gathered to hear her words.

She just wanted everything to be as perfect as possible.

Suddenly, a sharp shattering sound erupted through the backstage, and Theresia snapped towards it in an instant with an exasperated expression.

“Ah, sorry.” A man spoke as he walked past.

Carrying several boxes in his arms, he had knocked over a vase of flowers, and its contents had spilled into melancholic puddles on the floor. Slowly he sulked away, paying no mind to the mess he had made.

Theresia felt her gaze start to shake in the face of the event.

Like the vase, she fell to the floor; her heart shattered like glass as she succumbed to gravity.

Her breaths were inconsistent and harsh, drawn forth from her lips between her sobs as she tried to fill her lungs.

Moreover, her mind felt heavy; weighed down and clouded by fog.

Seeing her drop to the floor, I rushed over quickly. In my arms, she was a mess of tears and gasping breaths.

I knew then that my gaze held worry, so I washed it away and smiled simply.

“Oh, my love... it’s just a vase. I can clean it up for you.”

Unable to summon words to her lips that struggled to hold steady breath, she reached out her hand, and I took it gently.

“The most important feature of this production is you.” I spoke softly, my fingers running through her darkened hair. “You cannot lead it if your heart is not still, so I will soothe it for you.”

I let out a sigh, falling hot against the warmth of the air as I continued.

“Release the tension you hold in your shoulders. You do not need to carry this weight anymore. Let your anxious muscles fall limp. You will not be attacked.” I spoke softly. “Feel calm, and if you can’t focus on your own breathing, focus on mine. You’re safe here.”

I looked over towards those that walked by through the backstage of the theatre, paying us no mind.

“One person just walked by us. How many boxes were they carrying?”

“O-one.” She spoke in an exasperated and shuddering tone.

“And the lanterns on the wall, how many are there?” I asked of her.

It took her a moment to count them out, but she responded just as quick.

“Three.”

“Those lanterns glow such beautiful, vivid colours, don’t they? What colour is it in your eyes?” I smiled.

Her breathing had slowed and steadied, and her tears had all but dried up against her cheeks.

“Merigold.”

I held her hands gently, if only to soothe their shaking temperament.

“You worked hard today, didn’t you?” I whispered. “I’m proud of you, Theresia.”

Against my chest, I could feel the quickening of her heartbeat.

“Do you hate that I am like this?” She asked of me with a softened tone of voice.

“No, not in the slightest. You are a collage of all the things that I love, and that is because you are a collage of all the things that are you.”

I held her close as I looked towards the red-satin curtains that had not yet been drawn. Past them, I knew that many people sat in wait.

Not just many, thousands sat in wait.

“Let’s go put on the performance of a lifetime, huh?” I smiled as I met her gaze.

She nodded quietly in response.

—

Annabelle stood before the bustling crowd with a straight face, although the shaking of her body was a paradox to her expression.

I stood calmly beside her, with my hands buried in the pockets of my coat jacket as I stared upon the veil of curtains that stood before me and an audience I had never perceived would gather to hear my flowery words.

“I’m still scared, Mr. Agreste…”

“It takes a lifetime to overcome fears, I think.” I smiled softly.

“Why tell me this?” Annabelle asked of me.

“How do you think people do the things they wish they could do, even though they’re scared?”

“How do they do it, Mr. Agreste?”

“Courage.” I spoke simply.

It was a risk for reward that I had to take many times. To steel your heart and dive forward was terrifying.

In retrospect, it seemed almost laughable.

“Do you want to perform, Annabelle?” I asked in turn.

“I do.” She spoke sheepishly through the quiet veil of her utterances. “To perform is my dream…”

“Were you given life so that your dreams can make you scared?” I spoke in turn. “If you want to do something, you should do it, regardless of whether you think it possible. That’s all that life owes you, is your freedom to make a choice for yourself.”

“So I should make the choice… to do what I want?” She asked of me with widened eyes. “Even if I’m scared?”

“Nothing will change the fact that there are many people out there, with many gazes to cast upon you…” I smiled, extending my hand towards her. “But even so, you were born to have the choice to do as you wish, and experience your living dreams.”

Her eyes seemed to glimmer under the lamplight; tiny painted dots of aventurine that shimmered and glistened.

“So, will you come with me, on this path graced by wildflowers?” I asked. “Given this choice, will you choose to live your life of happiness?”

Her courage was taking my hand, despite her apprehensions.

Her courage was standing on the stage, even as the red-satin curtains were drawn high.

Her courage was standing upright, even as she witnessed the thousands of eyes that sat upon herself.

Annabelle’s courage in the face of all of it, was to smile.

—

Theresia’s courage was to shake off the trembling of her hands in the face of imperfection, and stand before the crowd regardless of it all.

She knew that even if the product of her creation was imperfect, it was still filled with the essence of her passion she had poured her heart into.

By all regards, she was a playwright.

And by all regards, the smile on her face was one that belonged to her.

So, as she stood before a crowd that could not bear to silence itself, she spoke in her loudest tone, which seemed to echo wonderfully through the ambiance of the theatre hall.

“Hello to all who have gathered for my sake. It is truly a pleasure to see all of your faces, and although I would love to thank each and every one of you, I think that you would quickly grow bored of me listing off each name.”

Laughter bellowed through the echoing hall, and this only brightened Theresia’s cheeks, for she hadn’t meant to make a joke in the first place.

To avoid ruining the tone of the atmosphere, she purposefully failed to address the presence of the overbearingly powerful guest that sat at the top of the theatre’s floors; clad in the most regal of reds and blacks, and bearing a crown encrusted with the finest glimmering jewels.

“Please, pay your best attention to the words I have poured my heart into.” She smiled as she spoke. “This is, with all of my best regards, ‘The wandering boy within the stars’.”

The crowd erupted with calculated and precise applause, as if this was petty expectance to their ideals. They had no idea of the imagery that would grace their eyes at the hands of the playwright.

As her words finished, I slowly scanned through the crowd of endless faces, and met gaze with sharpened eyes that stared directly back at me. They were a fiery-vermilion, encapsulated by the rugged nature of a man’s portraiture painted black by beard.

“Even a King would grace you with his presence when he hears of such an event taking place.”

“You and his lineage have a complicated history, don’t you, Solis?” I asked simply as I tore my gaze away from the jewel-clad man who sat quietly above.

“’A history’ is an understatement of the entirety of it all. Yet, despite his misgivings, he too is a person deserving of my correcting of spite.” Sol spoke softly within my mind.

“Even a man who stains the ground so he can wear rubies like blood on his hands?”

“He is still a man despite it all.”

I did not respond to the God, for I could feel annoyance creeping up my brow, and I did not want to be a man who spoke from his heart in that moment.

I wanted to be truthful, and anything I would have said otherwise would have been a lie.

Taking center stage as Theresia walked away was a boy in a black outfit, with glimmering turquoise eyes and bright-sandy hair cut short beside his brow.

Beside him stood Annabelle, in a white dress of lace and feathered flowers in bloom.

And as the light of the mirrored sun fell upon the two, Annabelle took a deep breath inwards, and her lips parted as if to speak aloud.

“Michelle!” Annabelle called out towards the boy.

She looked around, as if she could not catch sight of him, despite the boy standing directly in front of her.

The boy did not respond in turn, simply walking away from the woman behind him.

“Oh my boy, to have run away so suddenly…” Annabelle spoke pensively, grasping at her chest as she stared at the ground with a sorrowful gaze.

Suddenly, the lamplight dimmed.

It had taken my eyes a long time to adapt to the darkness, but I had finally gained some semblance of the ability to spot the shadowleapers within the midnight of the theatre. With quiet steps, they moved in the absence of light, and replaced all that had lost its purpose, giving way to the next scene in turn.

To me, it was wondrous to witness.

The boy named Michelle stood alone upon the stage, Annabelle having disappeared in her entirety.

“A sky of blackened soot. Is this to speak towards me, to show me how my heart feels?” Michelle wondered aloud, sadness quavering against his tone. “Can the world be so cruel, to make me look at myself?”

With no warning, the theatre was suddenly bathed in darkness. The lamplights had been extinguished, and the audience was filled with murmurs as they lost sight of what lied around them. They were quickly quieted in turn.

For a minute, there was silence.

A twinkle appeared within the dark.

Then, another.

As if a chain-reaction, the ceiling of the theatre was immediately illuminated by bright-blue lights that glimmered within the darkness. Thousands of glowing bugs fluttered around, bathing the hall in their luminescence.

And still, there was silence.

Each member of the audience stared enamored up at the ceiling, caught within the moment of a beauty they had been offered the chance to meet.

I wondered then what their chest felt.

Even mine ached wonderfully. My lungs were filled with euphoria in the absence of air, and I could not bring my quieted lips to utter a single word.

“We let bugs loose in a theatre…?” A man beside me asked with wondrous eyes.

“They’re pretty.” I shrugged it off with a smile as I turned towards him. “So why not?”

Michelle stepped forth, grasping starlight within his palms with wondrous eyes.

“Rather, has the world shown me beauty…?” He wondered aloud. “Is this… love I knew not of? Then… is all of life filled with this love? Can I live my life without running away?”

The light fell upon Michelle, and Annabelle had appeared once more, holding the boy tight within her arms.

“Oh, my dear. To have returned to me, the world has blessed us…” She whispered with a smile.

And in turn, Michelle simply smiled.

As I looked upon the crowd of a thousand faces, I saw not one without enamor upon their expressions.

Rather, I was looking upon a crowd of a thousand smiles.

That, more than anything, meant the world to me.

I looked up towards the top floor of the theatre, but within the darkness, I could not spot the sharpened vermilion gaze that lied above. I wondered then what a King would have thought of the stars.

I didn’t think it truly mattered to me, however.

“To think that a name I once cursed would offer me joy once again...” I spoke with a softened smile. “Is this how I was meant to be as the Baron…?”

I wondered then if both the names I had once demeaned were ones I could live with happily.