The Audition
“Okay,” Scott the
director said. “If you two are ready we’ll start the read through now.”
I stared at the
pages in my hand. This was the first time I’d auditioned with this company and
clearly they did things differently from others I’d worked with. “What is this
play?” I asked. “There’s no title, no author.” I skimmed down the lines before
adding “and these pages don’t give me any idea what the play is about.”
“It’s something
new,” Scott replied. “First time author and a recently finished play. I would
have been shocked if you’d recognised it.”
I’d only met Scott
ten minutes earlier, when I walked into the rehearsal room. Two minutes later
I’d been introduced to Peter, the man sitting next to me, although I couldn’t
help feeling I’d seen him before somewhere. It wasn’t just the play confusing
me either. Why had I been told to take my shoes off when Peter was still
wearing his?
I glanced at the
phone on the floor in front of me, silently cursing the impossible timing of
this impromptu rehearsal. I couldn’t miss the message. Over the past eight
weeks I’d been receiving mysterious but alluring texts from an unknown number.
When the first one arrived, my initial instinct had been to delete it and block
the sender.In the end I’d saved it without replying. I just didn’t have it in
me to delete a text saying: *I’ve been
watching you. One day we’ll share a kiss…and more.*
My silence hadn’t
deterred whomever the sender was. The texts had kept on coming, each subsequent
one more alluring than those I’d seen before, as if the person behind them knew
how lonely I was, how much I craved attention.
*Two o’clock, Market Hall auditions. The veil
will be lifted.*The words of that last texthad sent excitement coursing
through my veins. My mysterious sender had coxed all my secret dreams and
desires out of me over time, rewarding me with words describing how he—I
assumed it was a ‘he’—would make those wishes come true.
“Very good so far,”
Scott interrupted us once we’d gone through the first page of what appeared to
be a budding romance between two men, except there was a dark edge to
everything we’d read so far. “I like the fear in your voice, Josh,” he said to
me. “Even without knowing the full story, you’re getting the tone just right.”
His words made me glow inside.
“It was easy,”
Peter read. “He was so desperate for attention I didn’t even have to try.”
I stared at the
page, expecting to see my character’s name in front of the next line but
finding a different one instead.
“Desperation will
do that,” Scott’s voice speaking the next line took me by
surprise.
My phone vibrated
on the floor next to my feet and I reached forward to glance at the screen and
read the message, only half-listening to Scott continuing his lines, barely aware of him slowly walking towards me and circling my chair.
“It just takes
finding the right subject. There’s so many lonely people out there who’ll do
just about anything to end their isolation.” Too busy fiddling with my phone, I
noticed but ignored the tone of his voice changing from engaging to
threatening.
*Got you* I read on my screen moments
before something was pulled over my head and my world went dark.
“That’s how you get
them.” Scott’s voice was the last thing I heard before a needle broke my skin
and I lost consciousness.
****
594 words
Yes, I moved over
to the dark side again. Considering the book I finished reading today that is hardly surprising though.
As always other—and
possibly happier—stories based on the same picture can be found in the Monday
Flash Fics Facebook group. Please join us there. The more the merrier.
