‘Help’s on its way.’ Jane sniffed.
‘I need to leave. I can’t stay here.’ Tamara teetered from the stage and disappeared into the darknessof the wing, but Jane stayed even though she was as helpless as everyone else.
‘None of us can really do anything until the paramedics get here,’ Oscar said, as he felt a coldness running through his bones. He thought it was just the shock setting in but when he looked up to the fly floor and to the rigging where there was now a missing light, he was sure he saw two fizzling blue eyes staringback at him. Oscar thought it must just be a trick of the light, or something to do with him being scared and in shock at Doug’s accident. But as he squinted into the darkness, he saw the eyes blink twice before they vanished as the face they belonged to turned away.
‘Olive, wait here, I’ll be right back.’
‘Oscar,’ she whimpered. The tears had started to come thick and fast now,and her hands were only just holding her up against the barrier of the orchestra pit.
‘I’ll be back in a second. I’m going to let Stage Door know to let the paramedics in.’ Olive nodded, and Oscar kissed her quickly. ‘Howard, keep an eye on her. Keep her safe.’ Howard nodded and sat himself down on the edge of the stage, his legs dangling over the pit, not quite able to look back at Doug.
Oscar’s feet moved quickly through the pass door, through the wings and up the ladder that would take him to the fly floor. He jumped onto the metal grated floor, expecting to come face to face with the man those cold eyes belonged to. They had looked like the eyes of the woman he’d met only an hour or so earlier, but he knew it wasn’t her. Her eyes had been warm and yellow but the eyeshe’d seen only moments ago were blue and cold and he was certain they had been looking directly at him.
‘Who’s there? Show yourself!’ Oscar hissed, as he looked at the scene below him on the stage. Poor Doug’s body was limp and Oscar couldn’t imagine the horror the paramedics would uncover underneath the light. How bad was the damage? Would he regain the use of his arm? Would they haveto amputate? Oscar could hear sirens approaching through the vents and he willed them to hurry. ‘I don’t know who you are or what game you’re playing but if this is your doing, whoever you are, know that you’ve made a lot of enemies here tonight and wewillfind you.’ Oscar waited, but was met with nothing but silence. He went to put his feet back on the rungs of the ladder, when a noise madehis ears prick. It was the sound of crackling, like that of a log fire. He looked up and there it was: a singular little ball of flame, yellow and bright and so close to his face it looked like a sparkler, dancing in the air. It whizzed around his head and down the ladder, and Oscar quickly tried to follow it, clambering down, losing his footing half way as he half fell, half slid to the ground. Hethought he’d lost track of it until its bright light shone from the corridor through the window in the door. He threw himself through the doors and chased the crackling sound up the flight of stairs and through the first set of double doors at stage door. It darted through the little hatch where Walter usually sat, bursting clean through the door behind Walter’s chair, leaving a little hole no biggerthan a peephole. Just then stage door burst open and two paramedics rushed in, carrying a stretcher and boxes of medical supplies.
‘We were called?’
‘Yes, there’s been an accident on the stage. It’s right through these doors, down one flight of stairs to the stage. Please hurry. It’s our friend Doug. He’s been hit by a light that came loose and fell onto the stage.’ Oscar noticedWalter’s office door had opened.
‘Thank you,’ they said and charged past Oscar as he held the other set of doors open for them as best he could.
‘Oscar, what’s going on? Is Doug okay?’ asked Walter but suddenly the little ball of sparks appeared beside his head and whizzed around and around so fast, Walter had to shut his eyes. The image of the flaming woman writing Walter’s namein the air burned in Oscar’s mind and he berated himself for not coming to ask Walter for help sooner.
‘Walter, I have some questions and… I think you have the answers.’ The fireball stopped whizzing and flew straight at Oscar’s chest, bursting on impact, making his black suit jacket sparkle.
‘Well, in that case,’ Walter said, ‘I think you’d better come in.’
