It was sitting in the audience, waiting eagerly to be struck with an opportunity to feel again. The two actors wrapped themselves in the fresh curtains, eyes shut, bodies numb.

“We must set a high precedent…we’re about to be the first to set foot on that stage…we can’t make a mistake—”

“Despite the newly built stage…and the amount of support we are getting, I’m afraid we…making something out of nothing…honestly, the only reason I agreed to memorizing these lines and showing up tonight…I’m here out of pity.”

Both spoke, eliciting that they were here for different reasons. Unfortunately, their words were muffled by the heavy cloth and the energized chatter from the room.

One person unraveled herself. She brushed off her shirt and beamed to the figure hidden in the curtain. She cautiously walked onto the light-bathed stage. In the middle she stopped. She looked up into the bright ceiling, reaching down into her mangled spirit & projected her previously esoteric thoughts.

She looked out into the seats and realized It never was there. Mortified, she jumped off the stage and ran up the boundless isle, not even pausing to look back at the man left alone in the wing. Pushing through the glass doors, she made her way to the sidewalk where she could sit in solitude on that brumal night.