Chapter Ten #4
I’d had this dance a hundred times within my dreams since I’d given Charlie those divorce papers.
The dream always started the same. I was floating in a realm in between space and time, the world void of feeling, before Charlie appeared within the fog.
He lifted me into his arms, and we began an elaborate, intimate dance where our bodies tangled together and our hearts beat as one.
I always woke up far too early from the dance, the breath stolen from my body and my limbs aching for someone who wasn’t there.
Each night I had this dream, I’d longed for it not to end.
In some strange twist of fate, the universe had manifested my dreams into reality within this theater.
Oberi ran around the stage with a flowing cloth in his mouth, resembling the clouds as Charlie and I danced inside the fog. We might as well be ghosts depicting what our relationship had once been… and what had died.
“Who are they?” Alana asked.
“Lost souls, trapped within the isle’s haunted shores,” Takahashi said ominously. “Take care that you reach the end of your journey, and avoid their heartbreaking fate.”
“What happened to them?” Erica questioned.
“They failed to find the isle’s path forward, so for them, there is no tomorrow.
They cannot move on. They are cursed to be in each other’s arms, but are never able to love again, nor can they move on.
It is a song without end. They are within distance, but never within reach.
They are stuck in a singular moment in time that will always define them, but will never let them go. ”
“It’s cruel,” Erica commented.
“The cruelest of fates,” Takahashi agreed. “Their fear led them to becoming lost, and they were too afraid of admitting how they truly felt. The only people they can run to is each other. But once they realized this truth, it was too late. They became imprisoned within the dance forever.”
I knew Marcus had written this part as some sort of metaphor for the way he’d felt when his bond had been broken with Kallie, but I couldn’t help but acknowledge how perfectly it depicted us.
Charlie and I were lost. We couldn’t go on without each other, but we couldn’t love each other, either.
The honesty was plainly written in both of our eyes.
We were grieving something that was long dead, and we’d failed to give birth to something that was new.
There was no way forward for us. We’d lost the path. For us, tomorrow would never come.
The piano drifted softly to a close, and our dance ended. Charlie carried me off stage, and I heard a few people in the front row sniffing. The tone of the play had definitely gotten a lot more somber.
Shit. There were a few people crying in the audience. Had we really gone that far?
Charlie placed me gently into my chair once we were backstage. “You okay?” His voice cracked.
No. I turned away from him and said softly, “I’m fine.”
Takahashi wandered off stage. “I will further seek the path ahead. Rest your bones, for the journey to take is still long.”
Once he had departed, Alana turned to face Erica. “Watching the lovers dance has forced me to confront my feelings for you. I do not wish to become trapped on this isle, made to participate in a dance that has no end.”
“Nor do I.” Erica’s voice had grown heavy and thick. “My love for you is deep, Captain Adrifta. I confess it with my barest soul.”
“Then kiss me now, and make it be a promise of our venture off this star-crossed plain.” Alana wrenched Erica to her, and the two young women kissed, the spotlight beaming down upon them as their lips connected at center-stage.
“Ugh. Erica’s such a better actor than me,” Marcus complained, a twinge of jealousy in his tone. “This looks so real.”
“I don’t think that’s acting.” That kiss lasted far longer than I figured it should, and Erica’s cheeks were dusted with a soft pink hue.
Alana finally pulled her mouth away from Erica’s and raised her prop sword again. "Wherefore art thee declare thy love, queen of the seas— AGHHH!”
A stage light dropped from the ceiling and crashed onto left center stage, shattering to pieces.
Erica yanked Alana out of the way just before she was crushed, and a few people in the audience screamed.
I watched Kellen cringe on the other side of the stage.
The techies ran around like mad, yanking the curtains closed.
They’d have to handle the clean-up, because we needed to get out of here. “The first kiss is halfway through the show. That’s our cue to leave.”
Charlie was already at my side, and I yanked on Danny’s sleeve to tell him to follow as I approached Kallie and Marcus. “It’s time. Let’s move.”
Marcus slumped. “Aw! I’m sad I’ll miss the end of my play.”
“We can have another showing later. Come on.” Kallie dragged him behind her, and the play went on as we headed into the green room, planning our exit out the back.
The rest of the show would give us an hour to get into the vault, down to the beach and out of Ilamanthe. I had exactly sixty minutes to make it back for curtain call, and if I wasn’t here, Cameron would know something was up.
“This is our last shot to stop the Warden.” My lower back gave another agonizing twinge as I led the way. “We can’t mess this up.”
Charlie’s voice shook. “We’ll make this right, Ava. Everything we messed up, we’ll fix this time. I promise.”