‘Urgh. That boy. I love him, but he drives meup the wall.’
‘You love him?’ Oscar mumbled,and Olive turned sharply on the stairs.
‘You kissed Tamara?’
‘Ouch. Touché.’
‘Thank you.’ Olive turned to grab the handrail but as she touched it expecting to feel cold metal, her hand was cushioned by a sock. One ofhersocks.
‘Erm… what the hell?’ She held it up for Oscar to see.
‘Are you sure it wasn’t there before?’
‘A hundred per cent.’ Olive ranup the stairs as quickly as she could, and found her knickers lying by the double doors that led to the stage. She quickly picked them up and stuffed them in her dressing gown pocket before Oscar joined her. She peered through the little window in the door and, although it was dark, she could just make out her leggings in a bundle in the wing.
‘What on earth is going on?’ she held the dooropen for Oscar and started to follow the trail of clothes. Her casual dress was draped over a rung in the ladder that led to the fly floor and as she looked up, she saw another one of her socks, her coat and just out of sight on the walkway, she could see the diamante from her dress glittering in what little light was left in the wing.
‘Is that your dress?’ Oscar asked, following her gaze.
‘Yup,’ she sighed. ‘That is my dress.’
‘Someone’s obviously just trying to be clever.’
‘Well, if it’s not Doug then it’s probably your new girlfriend,’ Olive said. She felt bad every time she snapped at him, but it was almost involuntary now. In the time it took her brain to decide if the thought was worth vocalising, her mouth was already spewing it out. She felt he deservedto hear how she was feeling but she worried that she was only pushing him further away, and seeing as she hadn’t yet decided how close she wanted to keep him, this wasn’t ideal.
‘Out the way,’ he said, gently pulling her back by the shoulders.
‘What?’
‘Out the way!’ Oscar started to climb the ladder, up, into the darkness of the fly floor.
‘Oscar!’ she whispered. ‘You’renot supposed to go up there!’
‘And neither was the person who put your dress up here! Just keep an eye out!’ Olive’s skin prickled, and her body fizzed with a mixture of nervousness and a strange excitement that she’d not felt since she was playing pranks on her teachers back at school with Lou.
‘You’re gonna get in trouble!’ she hissed, now only able to properly see his feet, therest of him a merely a silhouette.
‘And what are they gonna do? Fire me right after opening night? I’ll be like, five seconds!’ Oscar carefully climbed the peeling ladder, black paint chips coming off on his hands. He looked down to wipe his cold palms on his trousers and when he looked back up towards the dress, he could have sworn it was a little further along than it had previously justbeen. He scrambled up a little faster and hopped down from the ladder onto the metal grid.
‘Hello?’ Oscar called out.
‘What’s going on?’ he heard Olive whisper.
‘Anyone there?’ The dress was in a silver sparkling crumpled heap on the floor. Oscar took a step towards it and this time he noticed it definitely moved an inch further away.
‘Jesus Christ!’ He jumped back.
‘Oscar! This isn’t funny! Hurry up!’ Olive said, her voice a little louder now.
‘Just a minute!’ he whispered back to Olive as he took another step towards the dress, only to see it move a little further away from him again. He took two steps forwards and the dress moved again. Oscar straightened himself up.
‘It’s probably just a mouse under there. Nothing spooky. No… ghosts.There’s no such thing as ghosts, they don’t exist.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Just a mouse,’ and he walked towards the dress without stopping. Just as he knelt to pick it up, the fabric swirled up in front of him, the bust filled out, the waist cinched in and the silk around the hips billowed and floated as though the dress was suspended underwater.
‘What in the —’
Osssssscccaaaaarrrr
A tingle rippled over Oscar’s skin. He looked up, hoping to see the faces of his cast mates, jeering at him. He wanted to find wires or some sort of trickery. Otherwise, he was sure his own sanity was at stake.
