“Good,” Ben said. “We open in an hour. Go prepare everyone.”
The festival itself would open to the public in mere minutes. The Telekinema was locked down tight until it officially opened. Lady Vivian would have to be there to give her speeches out front and at the ribbon cutting ceremony shortly after that. Then the public could purchase admittance to the theater and see the movies scheduled for the day.
When the young usher wandered off, Anya went over to Ben and placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped. “Christ, Anya, are you trying to make me die young of a heart attack?”
“Sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Lady Vivian asked me to give you a message.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m naturally jumpy today. What did the boss say?”
Anya relayed the message, and he made notes in his booklet. “All right, I’ll take care of it. Shouldn’t she be here already?”
“There were a few last minute items she had to see to before she left. She’ll be here in time for the big event.”
He didn’t appear happy. Maybe this was aging him prematurely. Ben wasn’t that much older than her. He had at least five years to her twenty-one, but he looked even older than Lady Vivian who would celebrate her thirty fourth birthday in a few months. Ben had dark spots under his eyes, and his skin almost seemed paler than normal. His blond hair probably didn’t help. It was so light it almost appeared white. He ran his hand through those fair locks, leaving a rumpled mess in its wake. “This is complete chaos.”
Anya glanced around her but didn’t see it the same way he did. “It looks like a well-oiled machine to me. Everyone is doing their assigned tasks, and when it is time to open the doors it’ll go smoothly.”
“From your lips to…” he said and glanced up to the ceiling
“…his ears.”
“I doubt we need his approval today.” She wasn’t particularly religious. Anya didn’t want to believe in a higher power or fate. She wanted to make her own way in the world and liked to think she made the decisions, not some all-powerful entity.
“I’ll take any support,” he said simply. “We need this to go well.”
He wasn’t wrong. “It will be fine.” Her tone wasn’t too enthusiastic, but she didn’t know what else to say to him. She wanted to wander around and explore everything. The last thing she needed was to be his one-woman support system.
“I…” His voice trailed off as something caught his attention. “Stop,” he yelled. “What do you think you’re doing?” His tone turned frantic and he started to wave his hands. He stepped forward; probably to stop the person he was yelling at from doing whatever he thought was wrong.
Anya didn’t really care, but it interested in a weird way. She sighed and started to walk away, but at the last minute she turned to glance behind her. Someone was carrying a very large projection box, and his or her vision seemed to be hampered by it. Ben continued to flail his hands frantically. The person carrying the box tripped over a wire and the box went flying forward. Anya tried to duck out of the way, but it didn’t help. The box landed on top of her, knocking her to the floor. Her head bounced several times against the floor, and the room began to spin then went completely dark, and any thought she might have had faded away into that void.
