31. July 2024
31
July 2024
T he air backstage was thick with excitement as Willow waited to go on. She took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm her racing heart.
‘Willow,’ Harrison whispered behind her.
She whipped her head around, and he gestured for her to relax her shoulders. She dropped them an inch. While she knew with certainty that she could never trust him as a friend again, she held out hope that their professional relationship could be mended.
‘Now breathe,’ he mouthed.
Closing her eyes, she breathed slowly while waiting for the change in the music. When she heard it, her eyes opened and her spine lengthened. She conjured a joyful smile, the most joyful, then ran out onto the stage, letting the music take over her body. The stage lights were deliciously blinding as she leapt and turned, rose and fell, her body telling a story. She could sense the audience beyond the lights, and it fuelled her. It was all going so perfectly up until that point.
But then an ominous creak rang out.
She could have sworn she felt the stage tremble. The smile fell from her face, but only for a second. Shaking off the distraction, she refocused. Smile , she told herself. Don’t lose the joy . She was the Fairy of Joy, for goodness’ sake.
Willow was determined not to lose the magic.
But the magic was siphoned from her when a second creak sounded, louder this time. Loud enough for the violinists to skip a note and for the percussionists to miss a beat. Still, she continued to dance, because what else could she do?
More creaking, louder still. Willow looked around, trying to find the source of the noise. The other dancers stared down at the ground, panic on their faces. Willow could feel unfamiliar vibrations travelling through her feet and up her body with every step and jump she took. A growing sense that something was very wrong settled in the pit of her stomach. One of the dancers backed off the stage. The others looked between themselves, no doubt wondering if they should do the same. Willow had less than a minute to go of her routine. If she could just?—
‘Clear the stage!’ someone shouted from the wings.
But the warning came too late for every dancer still on that stage. There was a deafening crack as the timber began to come apart. The floor tilted, throwing Willow sideways. Her head smacked the wood before she plummeted down into darkness.
Willow’s eyes snapped open. Unable to see, she blinked multiple times, trying to clear her vision. Panic gripped her when she realised there was dust in her eyes. It was everywhere. Inside her nose, ears, mouth. She spat, then coughed. In her throat too. She could hear frantic screaming nearby. Or maybe not nearby.
‘Willow!’
That was Lili.
Willow tried to call out, but the words were drowned out by the sound of the stage, which was still coming down around her. She turned her head, recognising nothing and seeing no one. Shock replaced the panic, bringing some calm.
‘Willow!’
That voice sounded like Harrison, calling to her from above.
She coughed again, then reached a hand up to wipe dust off her face. One arm appeared to be working. What about the other one? She tested it. Both arms were working, but when she looked at her right hand, she saw that it was covered in blood. Nothing hurt, though. Nothing that she could feel, anyway. She tried to move her legs, but they were impossibly heavy. Slowly lifting her head, she looked down at them and saw that everything from the waist down was buried in debris. That was the moment the panic returned.
What if I never dance again?
In the distance, she could hear sirens. Nearby, she heard wood being dragged about and people shouting. All the sounds merged into one buzzing noise in her mind until she could no longer differentiate them.
Until she heard him speak.
‘Willow? Willow, can you hear me?’
She hadn’t realised her eyes had closed again until they opened at the sound of his voice. Vaughn. Her mind whispered the word as she looked around for him, desperate to see his face, knowing everything would be all right if she could just lay eyes on him. He would fix this. He would make sure she danced again.
But he wasn’t there, and she felt herself drifting towards the darkness again.
‘Willow.’
He sounded closer this time, and when she opened her eyes, his face was above hers, eyebrows drawn tightly together and jaw clenched.
‘Don’t leave,’ she said immediately, her voice barely recognisable.
Vaughn shook his head. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ He looked down at the debris covering her. ‘Tell me what hurts.’
She tried to focus on her body. ‘I… I don’t know.’
‘That’s okay.’ Sweat was beading on his forehead. ‘I’m going to move some things around. If anything hurts, you let me know.’
Somewhere, someone was screaming. Willow turned her head and glimpsed a group of emergency responders beyond a fallen stage prop. ‘Who’s over there?’ Another pain-filled scream answered her question. ‘Is that Piper?’
Vaughn gently turned her head back. ‘They’re getting her out. Try not to look.’
She straightened her head so she was staring up at the fly tower and grid above while Vaughn was on his feet, lifting things that seemed too heavy for him.
‘Willow!’ That was Lili yelling her name from some distant place.
I’m all right. He’s here.
‘I have her!’ Vaughn called to Lili. ‘Stay there! It’s not safe!’
That had Willow looking around at the pieces of splintered props leaning and dangling overhead. Everything Vaughn moved seemed to make something else shift.
‘You should go,’ she said. ‘The props?—’
‘Save your energy,’ he said. ‘I’m not leaving you.’
She closed her eyes again. Her eyelids felt so heavy. Then she sank into that cold space between awake and asleep.
Seconds slipped by. Maybe minutes. People continued to cry out for help, fear in their voices. They were dancers and crew members, trapped beneath the twisted wreckage that was once the stage.
‘Almost there.’ Vaughn’s voice was strangled by exertion. ‘I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?’
She forced her eyes open.
A wooden pillar was lifted off her legs, and she was relieved when she felt blood start to flow to them. It was a relief to feel anything. Lifting her head, she looked down at her torn, bloodied tights, then began to cry.
Vaughn’s face appeared above her. ‘Look at me.’ His tone was firm. ‘You’re all right.’ He searched her eyes. ‘Don’t let a bit of colour scare you.’
She blinked and more tears ran down her glittered cheeks.
‘Can you move your toes?’ he asked.
She concentrated hard and felt them move.
‘See? You’re okay.’ He looked around. ‘Now, let’s get you out of here.’ Perspiration ran down his brow. His once-white shirt clung to his body. ‘I’m going to pick you up, and I need you to hold on tight. Can you do that?’
If he wanted her to hang on, she would hang on. She nodded.
Vaughn carefully gathered her up in his arms, then rose. With the extra height, she was able to get a better view of the destruction and chaos. They were right in the centre of it, and she wondered how Vaughn had even found her.
‘Oh my God,’ she whispered, seeing all the broken wood. The entire stage now lay in pieces in the trap room. She had fallen into the trap room.
‘It’s okay,’ Vaughn said to her. ‘Just look at me. We’ll be out of here before you know it.’
She did her best to only look at him, because every time she looked away, she saw familiar items poking out of the rubble or caught sight of an emergency responder looking hopelessly around.
‘Willow!’
That was Lili’s voice again.
‘I’m all right,’ Willow replied, but her voice barely carried.
Vaughn moved carefully through the wreckage, holding her close the whole way. They were almost to the edge of the mess when a dangling beam broke free from a joist hanger above them. Vaughn dropped into a crouch, covering Willow with his body as best he could. The beam jammed on something mere inches from his head. He ducked beneath it and continued.
‘You okay?’ he asked, his voice so gentle with her.
Her face was buried in his neck. ‘Yeah. You?’
‘Don’t worry about me.’
As they were emerging from the destruction, Lili and Harrison ran up to them, visibly distressed.
‘There are paramedics with stretchers this way,’ Harrison said, gesturing for Vaughn to follow him. His face was so pale.
Lili took Willow’s hand as they hurried towards the waiting paramedics. ‘I couldn’t see you.’ Her face contorted, and she began to cry.
Willow knew she would also be a mess if the roles were reversed. ‘I’m okay.’ She had no idea if that was true, only that it was the right thing to say.
Lili glanced at Willow’s leg, and her expression confirmed that she wasn’t as okay as she’d hoped.
A female paramedic gestured to an empty stretcher when she spotted them. ‘Over here.’
Vaughn hurried towards the stretcher, laying her gently atop it. ‘It’s okay,’ he whispered when she refused to let go of him.
She released him, but her eyes held tightly to him as he stepped out of the way, looking like he’d just gone to war for her. In a way, he had.
‘Anything broken?’ Harrison asked the paramedic, raking both hands through his hair.
‘She’ll need some X-rays before we can confirm that,’ she replied while giving Willow a reassuring smile. ‘I’m going to patch you up and take your vitals, and then we’ll transfer you to the hospital.’
Lili kept a firm hold of her hand while the woman worked and asked questions. Finally, Willow was covered with a blanket, and someone was waved over to load her into the ambulance. Both Vaughn and Harrison followed the stretcher through the foyer, maintaining plenty of space between them. When they reached the vehicle, Lili climbed into the ambulance, taking hold of her hand once more. Willow’s eyes locked with Vaughn’s before the ambulance doors swung shut.
‘Is he coming to the hospital?’ Willow asked Lili.
‘Who?’
‘Vaughn.’
Lili’s face filled with pity. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’
Willow began to shake despite the blanket. ‘Why not?’
‘Because he’s about to be in the middle of a shitstorm that you need to distance yourself from.’
Willow wasn’t sure if she was confused or concussed. ‘What do you mean?’
The ambulance pulled away from the theatre, lights flashing. Lili glanced at the paramedic, then leaned closer. ‘Vaughn got DeLuca Construction that contract. DeLuca built the stage.’
A cold realisation swept over Willow. There had been too much going on to consider why the stage had collapsed. More shortcuts and cost-cutting, no doubt. Something DeLuca was famous for.
But then she recalled Vaughn’s expression the night he’d told her about the restaurant roof collapsing on that family. That tragedy had changed everything.
‘I know him,’ Willow said quietly. ‘He would never have let me go on that stage if he thought there was any chance of this happening.’
Lili’s brow furrowed. ‘But it did happen.’
Willow turned her head away in an attempt to dispel the facts coming at her. Vaughn had been the first to reach her, to dig her out of the wreckage. He wanted her safe more than anything. Yet as she clung to that belief, she couldn’t ignore the truth.
‘Push all that stuff from your mind,’ Lili said, squeezing her hand through the blanket. ‘The only thing that matters now is getting you treated.’
Willow closed her eyes as a tear slid into her hair. Then sleep took her.