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TragedienneThis story may contain adult content. |
| Written by Moudy | |
| Tuesday, 25 March 2008 | |
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Share it:       Tragedienne The lights above twinkled as gravity plunged her body to the ground. The hard wooden stage met with the back of her skull, shattering it. Deafening cheers from the crowd muffled the sound of cracking bones. Silence filled her corpse... *** Nathalie had to catch the train to get to her drama school after the performance at Gothenburg Theatre. Gargoyles on top of the gothic building glared at her through the fog that engulfed the streets. She bolted into a Starbucks to get her favourite specialty coffee, a Caramel Macchiato. Time slowed to a crawl as a couple in front of Nathalie deliberated over their order. As she nervously glanced at her watch, her cell phone rang and people stared in disgust. It was her boyfriend, Danny. "What?!" she snapped. "What's wrong?" "Nothing!" "Well, I've made plans for later, so meet me after your drama class; we're going to the pier for a boat ride." "The pier?" she echoed, "Today? Alright, but I've got to go." Finally, she was next! The barista, or according to her name tag, Jezebal, took her order. She gazed at Jezebel's curly red hair coiling around her head as the hot cup was handed to her. For a moment, Nathalie's gaze set on an odd spot on the woman's cheek. It was a different colour from the rest of the skin on her face. Tossing down some bills, she ran to catch the train. She grabbed a ticket from the weathered conductor and slammed herself into the ripped seat, catching her breath. Another conductor walked by, giving her an odd stare as he handed her a newspaper. She wasn't interested in reading, but she thought there was nothing better to do, since the thick fog outside the windows stopped her from enjoying the various sites of town. As Nathalie read the front page article of the newspaper, the train made a large wailing sound and left the platform. She sipped her Caramel Macchiato eagerly, offhandedly thinking it tasted a bit off today. She supposed the barista had been new. "The curse that seems to haunt the popular play, ‘Family Conspiracy', hits again," read the headline, above the picture of the playwright. "Another one of Mr. Dubois' daughters suffered a fatal heart failure, occurring during her role of Layla, the lead, in his play. Local crime scene investigators suggest this was not a homicide, similar to the deaths of his other two daughters during the past two years. This has occurred for three consecutive years that the production has played in Gothenburg, Sweden." The train came to a complete stop, as Nathalie finished reading the article. Being late to drama class was not uncommon for her, and she was not shocked when she looked at the time on her watch. The fog had dissipated and she jogged to her school across the street from the train station. Upon entering the brick-walled building, her teacher caught up to her. The students were already warming up. "Missy, where have you been?" asked Mr. Deflorio. "I went to see a play at the other side of town, then the train was delayed and I had to wait." She added in the quick lie, but he immediately figured it out. "I am so disappointed in you Nathalie." He continued after a short breath. "I am not going to listen to any more of your excuses. I am expelling you for being continually tardy to my classes, and for obviously being unable to tell the truth." A tear snuck out the corner of her left eye, and she bolted out of the school. Using her cell phone, she dialled her boyfriend's number. "Don't you have class right now?" Danny questioned her. She hesitated. "Well, my teacher decided...to expel me for a lacklustre performance." "Is that the truth?" he asked suspiciously. Knowing Danny would catch on to the obvious lie, she told the truth. "No," she said sulkily. "He expelled me for never showing up to his class on time, and ‘continually' lying." "Well, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later." The reception on her phone became worse, so she had to shout, "Yes, I know, can we go to the pier early, like right now? I am upset, and I need something to cheer me up." "Sure, I'll drive to your school in five minutes; I just got off my shift at the gas station." "See you soon," she replied, and then closed her phone. Waiting impatiently, Nathalie had the chance to observe the neighbourhood. Buildings of all kinds filled the streets, from clothing stores that resembled 18th-century French architecture, to modern-day sky scrapers with neon lights covering all four sides. Danny stepped on the breaks of his old Mustang when Nathalie came into view. Without saying a word to him as she entered his car, she closed her eyes and fell asleep in the front passenger seat. She had a nightmare of a car crash she was in at the age of 12. Nathalie couldn't remember what her real parents or childhood were like due to memory loss after the accident. The police men, who had found her at the accident, told her she was the only one found at the scene. The car made a loud screeching noise, waking Nathalie. "How was your sleep?" asked Danny. "Fine...I guess. Can we just go?" Nathalie insisted, still drowsy from waking up. Danny carried her out of the seat and across the beach, heading towards his boat. A small rock on the pier caused him to trip and throw her into the air. She landed onto a weak part of the wooden platform. Her first instinct was to laugh at his clumsiness, but a nail had punctured his forehead. The blood, dripping from the wound, stained the orange sand. Natalie's guttural cry echoed as she sprinted towards her unconscious boyfriend. Metal screws holding the pier together suddenly detached and flew into the air. Tendons of the wooden floor stretched and ripped in half so greatly that it began to collapse. Danny was the first to fall through the pier, being fatally impaled by a rock below. Nathalie fainted from the shock, and fell into a dark cave. Shortly after waking up, droplets of water greeted Nathalie's face from the sky above. She rolled to the right and suddenly started plummeting into a deeper cavern. Being too injured to scream, she simply gasped. Nathalie landed on an old desk, shattering it and dislocating her right shoulder. She removed a piece of paper that had stuck to her back. As Nathalie stumbled to her feet, she saw that it was a photo of Gothenburg Theatre. Right in front of her, a statue made entirely out of empty cigarette packages was stuck to the jagged wall. A sign made of Styrofoam on top of the horrific creation read, "Julia". Nathalie ripped a package off the statue, and saw a note inside. It read, "The perfect daughter." She felt puzzled by the message. Nathalie used a ladder across the room and struggled to climb out onto the damp streets. She jumped into a cab clutching her dislocated shoulder, seeing many police cars heading towards the pier. The driver let her off at Gothenburg Theatre. It was empty and she headed down a flight of stairs near the box office. Tripping into the only room of the basement, she was breathless. A light that shone through a hole from the stage above, revealed a terrifying scene. A little girl sat in front of a wooden chair, dead, with both her arms missing. One of them stood in the middle of the wooden chair, grasping a syringe, the other was not in the room. Nathalie gently removed a letter wrapped around the syringe. "Sorry about your boyfriend, I unscrewed too many nails while the two of you were there. I didn't mean to try and kill you there either, or the plan wouldn`t have worked leading you here. I bet you are still confused on what is going on, so let me sum everything up for you. "When you and three of your sisters were young, you refused to satisfy your mother and I when we grew bored of satisfying each other. Both of us clearly told all of you that for not listening to our requests, we would punish you in the future. "Three of your sisters decided to take part as the lead role of Layla in my play. I used that to my advantage by using the hole you see above, to poison them using the needle during the performances, giving them heart failure. Julia was the only one who didn't refuse to give her mother and father what they wanted. We cherished her in our hearts until this very morning when she refused to join your mother and me in bed. I had to take desperate measures, as you can see, because she was too young to star in my play. "Knowing that your mother and I would be discovered soon, we had to hurry. We couldn't let you get away without your promised punishment. We already tried to kill you in that car ‘accident', but you survived. That being said, our arrangements have been rather rushed with you. Your mother and I have been following you all day, to ensure things went according to plan." Nathalie's mind flashed back to the strange barista at Starbucks. It had almost as though she had been wearing stage make-up. Not to mention the picture of the playwright in the newspaper, the man now claiming to be her father, strongly resembled the conductor she had seen earlier. If they were following her to make sure the plan worked, than they must have done something already that would ensure her death. But what did they do? She glanced back at the note, confused. "By the way, you did enjoy that Caramel Macchiato your mother made for you, didn't you?" Copyright 2008 Moudy |
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