Short Stories + Contest Entries

The Performance

For a contest by contests_99

Hope you like it!

My eyes are closed, and I slowly take in much needed breath. My hands shake and my knee wobble weakly, but I'm nowhere near nervous, not tonight.

I've prepared rigorously for this moment, and I won't let it go to waste. Though it may be pitch black from where I stand, the light is not too far from touching my milky skin.

Waiting for my cue, the clock seems to be taking is sweet time, and toying with me not for the first time.

One minute

Two minutes

Three minutes

Four

Five minutes

Six minutes

I need more.

With a startle, the announcer reads his script proudly introducing our masterpiece, and the lights that were once near my grasp have now faded out.

Silence spreads around outside this platform, and I know my time is up. I hustle to my spot while racking my brain. Standing in my position, ready,  I continue to inhale breaths.

All those times they said I was nothing, all those moments when I was taking for granted, and now look at me. My shaking has ceased, and I feel my mode click. They just are naive, clueless. They don't know the rush of joy to be exactly where you love. But I do.

Let them notice me, invite the wave of people  into my melodies. Capture the moments of my wonders, and join the emotional ride that we all have created for you.

Let them understand, I am much more than what I seem when I'm home.

And guess what? I'm home right now.

Flash. Crack. Rumble

As my door lifts open I see the members of the night, and containing my smile is impossible at this point, for this is my favorite part; meeting my guests.

My microphone moves with my cheeks as my smile plays with my face.

Will they laugh, smile, cry, enjoy?

Are they going to be grumpy or uninterested?

No.

They never are.

And right when then blissful music begins, all I have left to think before I lose myself is; remember, no flash photography.

I'm not me anymore, not right now.

I breath in one controlled breath, and the show officially starts with my voice filling the air and breaking the ice.