Still By Rachel Grant

She sat cross-legged on a seat in the first row of the balcony. Her eyes were closed as she listened to the music rising from the stage. She didn’t, or at least tried not to, visualize the scenes from The Lord of the Rings that went with each song, but tried to listen purely to the music. She imagined it as melodies of light flowing into her veins. “The Battle of Pelennor Fields” faded out, but she didn’t open her eyes. Opening her eyes would mean leaving, and they had made her do that too many times before. They would never leave her alone. The sound of turning pages and the readjustment of many stiff limbs came up to her from the stage. The clack-clack of high heels followed, climbing five stairs and bringing their owner to the center of the stage. Then the violins began to sing a dearly loved cadence. An angelic voice joined the melody:

*“With a sigh, you turn away,

With a deepening heart, no more words to say.

You will find that the world has changed forever.

The trees are now turning from green to gold,

And the sun is now fading

I wish I could hold you closer.”

A heartless fear froze her in place. It was time to leave, but she kept her eyes shut. This place had been more of a home to her than she had ever known, Jack more of a friend than she had ever had.

“God, I don’t want to ruin this place.”

The music still flowed from the stage and as she listened again it formed words, “But you are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”

She opened her eyes, and grabbed her bag off the seat next to her, putting the strap securely over her head and onto her shoulder. She quickly walked up the steps to the door, not looking back or pausing. She turned away from the red spiraling staircase, and instead passed under the exit sign to her right. No one noticed her as she headed down the black metal steps on the side of the building, not even the guy standing right underneath her. It was like a shadow of smoke hid her, muffling her quick steps. She reached the street and became faceless in the milling crowd.

Two minutes later, a young man with grey eyes, and black ruffled hair came through the main door of the theater into the Grand Lobby. Many before him had gazed longingly at the black marble columns and majestic windows framed with gold and red curtains, even with only a glance. He passed under the luminous glass chandelier as one who had been there many times and had lost interest in its antique grandeur. He climbed the red staircase without a sound except for his cape that surrounded around him like black smoke tapping the columns of the rail, his steps muffled.

The music was still filling the theater, as it had been before she left, making it seem like something built by the elves before they had left Middle-Earth. He crossed the hallway to the office door directly across from the top of stairs, and opened it.

Jack sat behind his desk reading a letter. The only sign he was surprised at the man’s sudden entrance was the pausing of his reading eyes and the quick tension that hardened his muscles. He deliberately put the letter on his desk, and shoved his bifocals up on his nose.

“Hello Jack.” The man smiled at him like a father at his naughty son, though Jack was at least thirty years his senior by appearance.

“Hello,” he replied, in a tone that was worn from long practice of welcoming unwelcome visitors.

The man pulled back one of the aged leather chairs in front of the desk and sat with his hands folded in his lap. He held Jack with his grey eyes. Jack said nothing. Even after sweat dripped into his eyes, he didn’t blink.

The man rose without another spoken word, leaving Jack still motionless as he closed the door behind him. Rehearsal had ended leaving only three people in the theater.

Another man, maybe fifteen years older than the first, stood at the third bend of the stairs looking up at him. He was similarly dressed in all black, but there was a devil in his eyes not found in the first. The former waited till the blue-eyed man had disappeared into the lobby to go out the door that opened outside, onto black metal stairs.