Chapter 23 – One Day
They stood in silence.
It loitered in the air weakly. It rang in their ears like a cymbal. Who would be the first to break the silence? To fill the room with empty words. No one. There was nothing to be said, nothing could be said. Nothing could be done.
“How could we fight… when we don’t know what we’re up against…” Autor muttered dryly, “it’s like we are studying for an exam we don’t know the subject of!” It was true. Every word that escaped his lips were true. Fakir’s mind was ecstatic. Buzzing like a livewire. His mouth was dry. Head excruciatingly sore. Stomach empty.
“I…” he stammered. Words swum around his head like a crowded public pool. Trying to piece words to make as they tumbled off his tongue loosely. Nothing, “I-I…” to his utter surprise, Fakir was lost. Completely and utterly lost, “I don’t know” it sounded so wrong, reverberating in the atmosphere around him, “ I don’t know” no matter how many time he said it he could not fathom the meaning of the sentence, or why he was saying it, “I don’t know” He swallowed the growing lump in his throat and reduced his voice to a whisper, “ I don’t know…”
Duck stared at the spot Drosselmeyer once stood. Fakir’s voice like an echo in the back of her mind,” In under two days’ time… we’ll be on that stage whether we like it or not” she whispered to the silhouette of Drosselmeyer, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen…” she turned to look at a pensive Autor and a mumbling Fakir, “but I know we have to trust what Drosselmeyer said! We have to have hope in our destinies-“
“Duck. Don’t you understand that our ‘destinies’ as such, are controlled by the story…the story that is controlled by Carabosse now… for all we know we have no destiny” he sneered down his nose at Duck.
“But I mean outside the story! We have to have hope!” he turned his head away, “HEY! LISTEN TO ME JUST THIS ONCE!” The small teenage girl had been damming up all her emotions and it all just burst, “to be honest I don’t care whether we live or die! I just want to know we tried! Even if there is nothing we can do before then… we have to believe that we CAN and WILL do it! So I will… “ she thrust her hand out, “now who’s with me!”
“I’m sorry” Autor exhaled sharply, “this…this is too big for me…” he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He walked towards the library door, but hesitated as soon as he reached for the handle, “…good luck… I hope you win whatever it is that is happening… I’m sorry” he slipped out the door.
“Fakir?” her lip quivered, “won’t you help me?”
***
Mister Cat purred as he entered his office that fine evening. Smugly he thought about the theatre he sold out in under an hour and reclined on his leather chair, the fabric moaning under his weight. Quietly sipping a hot cup of milk he proceeded to look through his paperwork leisurely, strewn across the desk in the late evening light. Humming absent-mindedly to one of Mendelhossen’s violin concertos whilst grazing his vision over the random scrawl. Some letters from adoring fans and some applications to the academy… they are all the same to him. Except the death threats from his mother, they are scary.
A knock disturbed his thoughts followed by the ominous sound of folding paper outside his office. A note slid under his door. Curious Mister Cat rose from his seat to retrieve the note. He unfolded it cautiously, something told him it was NOT an acceptance letter for a marriage proposal.
Lightly looking over the note he became intrigued and increasingly delighted. Red ink spattered across the page as a name was etched into the cast list. Mister Cat folded the paper away and complacently smiled, “my my… that is a big jump or two”
