any of the exits from the stage, she was certain that Novel would reach them first. If she plunged into the deep orchestra pit, she was sure to break a leg. Her whole body shook as her feet stayed rooted in place. She looked into Novel’s painted face, deep into the pale cobalt eyes shining out of the blackened sockets, unable to read that same look he was casting upon her.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked weakly, terrified of the answer.
“Defend yourself.”
He lunged forward so fast that all Lily could do was throw her hands out in front of her to stop him. As Novel’s chest connected with her hands, she got one glimpse of his face up close. His expression was still one of curiosity, and there was no malice despite the force of his attack. In the second it took her to notice this placid look, he was gone. A gust of wind came from nowhere at all and whipped up around Lily, then it threw Novel down into the empty aisle. Overhead the glass in all the lanterns shattered, with a sickening sound like a million nails on blackboards, showering them both in sharp little shards. Every bone in Lily’s body willed her to race away whilst she had the chance, but something kept her watching as Novel got back to his feet.
Slowly, impossibly, his body flickered with the glow of a flame. Faint orange lights surrounded his frame like the ones he had used with Dharma on the stage, only these licked at his skin and his clothes as he raised a pale finger slowly to his black lips. He was bleeding a little onto his chin.
“I thought so,” he said, calm as ever.
“What did you do?” Lily demanded, denying her eyes the chance to believe that the man she was interrogating was actually on fire as they spoke.
“That explosion wasn’t me,” Novel answered, “that was you .”
Now was the moment Lily’s legs decided they could move again. She bolted down the stage stairs and out of the double doors, knocking Belnerg clean over in the foyer where Jazzy was waiting with a terribly worried look. The girls fled the scene, Lily crying with the shock of it all, as they raced back up into the dark park where they were at least in sight of home. When Lily finally stopped rushing, the tears dried on her face in a gentle breeze, but one look at the pine trees told her that the rest of the night was perfectly still.
N OVEMBER
Shadepeople
Lily made excuses that she had gotten freaked out in the theatre all alone, deciding not to face the prospect of telling Jazzy about the impossible things she had seen and felt. The nightmares came and went – flashes of fire, gusts of air, those haunting blue eyes enveloped by blackness – until Lily was no more able to push the thoughts from her waking hours than she was the ones in which she slept. The end of October brought with it a so-called ‘reading week’ in which classes were put on hold for students to catch up on their book lists. Jazzy took full advantage of this time for its proper purpose, until she was invited to a party on Halloween by her English degree friends, which Lily promptly declined to go with her to. She’d had quite enough ghouls as it was.
After pretending that Halloween didn’t exist, Lily threw herself into the noble pursuit of watching Disney movies on her fuzzy laptop and catching up on her sleep. It was amazing what a few rounds of Bambi and The Lion King could do, especially if she remembered to skip through the grisly parts. She began to wonder slowly if she hadn’t imagined a lot of the things she thought she’d seen that night after the show, or if perhaps they had just been some really good special effects, designed to freak out any unsuspecting dummy who went back to the theatre when they shouldn’t have been there. It was possible that the whole thing was some sick set-up for Novel to get his kicks out of frightening girls, and that Lily could put it down to one humiliating life experience that she would eventually forget.
Until there
“What do you want me to do?” she asked weakly, terrified of the answer.
“Defend yourself.”
He lunged forward so fast that all Lily could do was throw her hands out in front of her to stop him. As Novel’s chest connected with her hands, she got one glimpse of his face up close. His expression was still one of curiosity, and there was no malice despite the force of his attack. In the second it took her to notice this placid look, he was gone. A gust of wind came from nowhere at all and whipped up around Lily, then it threw Novel down into the empty aisle. Overhead the glass in all the lanterns shattered, with a sickening sound like a million nails on blackboards, showering them both in sharp little shards. Every bone in Lily’s body willed her to race away whilst she had the chance, but something kept her watching as Novel got back to his feet.
Slowly, impossibly, his body flickered with the glow of a flame. Faint orange lights surrounded his frame like the ones he had used with Dharma on the stage, only these licked at his skin and his clothes as he raised a pale finger slowly to his black lips. He was bleeding a little onto his chin.
“I thought so,” he said, calm as ever.
“What did you do?” Lily demanded, denying her eyes the chance to believe that the man she was interrogating was actually on fire as they spoke.
“That explosion wasn’t me,” Novel answered, “that was you .”
Now was the moment Lily’s legs decided they could move again. She bolted down the stage stairs and out of the double doors, knocking Belnerg clean over in the foyer where Jazzy was waiting with a terribly worried look. The girls fled the scene, Lily crying with the shock of it all, as they raced back up into the dark park where they were at least in sight of home. When Lily finally stopped rushing, the tears dried on her face in a gentle breeze, but one look at the pine trees told her that the rest of the night was perfectly still.
N OVEMBER
Shadepeople
Lily made excuses that she had gotten freaked out in the theatre all alone, deciding not to face the prospect of telling Jazzy about the impossible things she had seen and felt. The nightmares came and went – flashes of fire, gusts of air, those haunting blue eyes enveloped by blackness – until Lily was no more able to push the thoughts from her waking hours than she was the ones in which she slept. The end of October brought with it a so-called ‘reading week’ in which classes were put on hold for students to catch up on their book lists. Jazzy took full advantage of this time for its proper purpose, until she was invited to a party on Halloween by her English degree friends, which Lily promptly declined to go with her to. She’d had quite enough ghouls as it was.
After pretending that Halloween didn’t exist, Lily threw herself into the noble pursuit of watching Disney movies on her fuzzy laptop and catching up on her sleep. It was amazing what a few rounds of Bambi and The Lion King could do, especially if she remembered to skip through the grisly parts. She began to wonder slowly if she hadn’t imagined a lot of the things she thought she’d seen that night after the show, or if perhaps they had just been some really good special effects, designed to freak out any unsuspecting dummy who went back to the theatre when they shouldn’t have been there. It was possible that the whole thing was some sick set-up for Novel to get his kicks out of frightening girls, and that Lily could put it down to one humiliating life experience that she would eventually forget.
Until there
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