"Carlos! Carlos! You won't believe it! I got the part!" Cecil shouted as he ran up to his boyfriend by their lockers. The other boy was putting away his textbooks for the day when Cecil threw his arms around Carlos's shoulders, who very nearly fell over at the sudden contact.

"Careful Cecil!" he shouted playfully before righting himself and his excited boyfriend. "You're playing Macbeth?!"

When Cecil nodded fervently, Carlos squealed in excitement. "I knew it! I knew that you would get the part!"

"Oh! and guess what!" Cecil then shouted.

"What?"

"Dana's playing the First Witch!" The pair once again celebrated their good fortune when Dana walked up to the lockers. Carlos saw her first and let go of Cecil to throw his arms around her. Cecil looked around confused before realizing what had happened and proceeded to throw his arms around Dana as well.

"I guess you've heard then?" she said amidst the excited congratulations.

"Of course," Carlos told her as he let her go, followed by Cecil releasing her as well. "Cecil just checked. He's been stalking the drama announcement board all day."

"What?" he asked indignantly. "I have not. I've passed it a few times today and just happened to be the very first person to see it posted! Pure luck, Carlos."

Both Carlos and Dana laughed and the latter said, "Sure Cecil," before she opened her locker to put away her books. When Cecil tried to protest, Carlos shushed him and suggested that they all go out to celebrate at the All-Nite Moonlight Diner.

"Sure, sounds fun," Dana agreed as she shut her locker and the trio began heading down the hallways towards the front entrance to the school. They all headed out to Carlos's car and drove out to the restaurant.

Luckily, the drive was not very long so the gang got there fairly quickly and sat down to order. Right as they did so, however, Earl Harlan walked past them with a couple of his new "Little Brother" Boy Scouts that he was showing around town. Dana quickly ducked her head, trying to hide behind her curls, as Cecil and Carlos hid their faces in their menus.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to deter Earl, who stopped and said, "Oh, hey guys! Guess you had the same idea we did. Here to celebrate?"

Dana just barely stifled a drawn-out sigh as Cecil said, "Hi Earl," in a not so friendly tone. Earl didn't take mind to it and told his Scouts to go sit in their booth and wait for him.

"Cecil, congrats on playing Macbeth," Earl told him and was answered with a quick "Thanks." He then turned to Dana. "And Dana, good job on being one of the dozens of witches in the play. And one of the nameless ones, too. But at least you have like twenty lines. That's a good few more than the others!" He laughed.

Dana looked livid. Right as she was about to tell Earl off, Carlos practically shouted, "Did you come over here for something important Earl? Because we would like to have a nice meal. Without you standing there insulting us, preferably."

Earl looked over to Carlos and put on a smug look. "Actually, I did come here for something important. I just wanted to tell you that since you're all in the play—well, Cecil and Dana are in it; but even though you're just Stage Crew, Carlos, you should hear this too. None of you have better mess up the performance, especially with the curse! I won't tolerate any of you mentioning the name of the Scottish play or try any funny business on set."

"Fine," Cecil spoke. "We won't. Now go away."

"I really mean it, Cecil! The curse is the real deal! People have really been injured because of it!"

"Okay Earl!" Cecil rose his voice to match Earl's. "We get it. And just so you know, I'm going to have a hell of a time killing you onstage with or without the curse!"

Earl scowled as Cecil smirked as he left the table in peace.

"Okay, first of all," Dana said, looking pointedly at Carlos. "Don't stick up for me because I sure as hell wanted to cuss him out for that dumbass remark! Only three witches have speaking lines, four including Hecate, and they are the reason that the play even freaking happens!"

Carlos did not say anything in response because he knew that Dana was right and that Earl was not worth Carlos's time to try to shut up. Earl was in Cecil and Carlos's grade, so they had known him for a long time. He used to be really nice and all three of them had been friends at one point. Although, a lot of things had changed this year, one of them being Earl, who had suddenly decided that he was the best actor known to man and should treated as such. Cecil had not wanted to rub it in his face that Earl would have gotten the lead if he had truly been the best actor alive. Nor did he want to point out to Earl that Carlos was not merely just Stage Crew, but the head of Stage Crew. Carlos had been apart of the drama club as long as Cecil had known him and he really knew his stuff. Plus, he was a natural leader and everyone liked him, so he got promoted to Stage Manager, set to work directly with their director for every performance. But Earl didn't care about any of that and Cecil had mostly just wanted him to leave them alone.

"And secondly," Dana continued. "Great job getting him out of here, Cecil, but you're not going actually going to try to spite him with the curse, are you?"

"God no!" Cecil snorted. "I wouldn't test my luck like that, even if it did make Earl Harlan's head spin."

They both laughed, but Carlos stopped it short. "Wait, do you guys really believe in that whole Scottish Play curse?"

"Of course," Cecil told him very seriously at the same time that Dana said, "Well, yeah."

"Oh come on, it's ridiculous" Carlos drolled. "Curses have no real scientific foundation, especially this one! There's been no evidence ever surrounding it! It's all superstition."

"That's what you think, Carlos," Dana told him. "But as actors, we have an obligation to recognize the curse of the Scottish play."

"So, even though we're actually putting on Macbeth, we can't say his name?" Carlos said, rolling his eyes. "Wait, I just said it. Does that mean that we all gonna get food poisoning from the food here?"

A mother sitting with her young daughter at the table next to them looked over at those words before looking back at her and her daughter's meals. Carlos sucked in a breath and reminded himself to speak a little quieter.

"No, silly Carlos," Cecil answered the question that Carlos had asked rhetorically. "It's only bad luck if you're inside the theatre. But, yes, even though we're putting on Macbeth, no one is allowed to say his name unless you are performing the script. Otherwise, his name is the Scottish King and Lady Macbeth's is the Scottish Lady. Plus, the food here is wonderful and would never give us food poisoning."

At Dana's head nod, Carlos repeated his earlier sentiment of his friends' ridiculousness, and moved to take a sip of water. Cecil gave him a stern look.

"I know that you don't believe it, Carlos, but a lot of people do and it's scary to think that someone is going to try to sabotage the play."

"Okay, I promise that I won't intentionally try to sabotage the play by saying 'Macbeth'," Carlos told him and Cecil smiled, leaning in to give Carlos a chaste kiss. The trio settled into a new topic of discussion and the night went on as planned.

General script readings began the week after the characters were announced. Everyone had had the responsibility of getting their own copy of the play. Most of the cast, including Dana and Carlos, asked their English teacher, Ms Dubois, if they could have some of her copies. Since she was leaving their school for a prestigious Doctorate program and her favourite Shakespeare play was Macbeth—she even had the quote "What's done cannot be undone" tattooed on the top of her foot in very fancy script—the drama club had decided to put it on for her last year teaching at the school. She allowed them to take a few of the copies because she had bought extra since she taught it in every single one of her classes. Cecil, however, had gone out and bought an unabridged and annotated copy with an introduction and glossary.

"Ever the try-hard," Dana had teased at their first script reading, but Carlos had thought that it was cute. For the first couple weeks, during and outside of script rehearsal, Cecil would always have the book with him, reading the extra commentary made in the footnotes and both casually and analytically reading the introduction, making sure to mark it up with annotations as to remember what was most important and what was not.

"It helps me get a better feel of the play and the character," Cecil had defended against Dana's playful attacks. By the end of the first week's rehearsals, Cecil's copy was filled with highlighting, underlining, and penciled-in notes for any and all emotions, actions, and stage directions not mentioned within the text itself.

As the weeks of rehearsal went from script readings in the drama room to rough performances on the stage, the play began to come together. The actors were learning their lines and formulating mannerisms that they thought each character would possess and the stage crew was busy searching for props, gathering costumes and makeup, and, similar to Cecil, marking up their copies of the play with individual performance notes and comments, especially when they came from the director. Carlos held the master copy of all the mechanical workings of the performance since he was the Stage Manager and was working closely with the school's director, Diane Crayton, whose son, Josh, was only a freshman, but has been into drama and theatre all his life, just like his mother. She and Carlos formulated rough outlines and plans for lighting, curtain, prop placement, everything under the Sun that Carlos would have to work out with the rest of Stage Crew and get everyone to master it before the final week of rehearsal. But that was a couple months away still and everything was going perfectly so far.

Soon enough, Stage Crew had procured many of the props needed to set the stage and rehearsals went on with them in hand. When it was just six weeks before opening day, the cast went through their 'Rehearsal Bootcamp' where the entire cast went through only one act each week, over and over again for every single rehearsal before full dress rehearsals were performed during the final week. During these five weeks, costumes were gathered and finalized and makeup requirements were set; last-minute changes were made to props, lighting, and sound and music; then the entire act was drilled into everyone's minds and made to be their muscle memory when to do what.

Carlos made sure that Stage Crew knew what the hell they were going to be doing and made sure that no one at any point was going to mess up anything. Such is the life of a Stage Manager.

The first three weeks before their full rehearsal went perfectly. All of the actors knew their lines and when to come in on cue, as well as all of the stage directions. Stage Crew had mastered every scene of each of the rehearsed acts for the lighting and the thunder sounds and where and when to bring the props onto the stage. Curtain closings were set. Final director's comments were made. Costumes were ready. Everyone was extremely excited, especially Carlos since he loved being able to watch Cecil have such fun performing on stage.

This would be Carlos's final year acting as Stage Manager and Cecil's final year acting, as they were both in their Senior year. It was bittersweet, but the performance was coming along swimmingly so it was hard to complain.

At the beginning of the fourth week of rehearsal, everything was set up for the first scene of the fourth act. With only three scenes to cover in this act, the cast and crew could take a small breather from the longer previous acts before taking on the eight-scene Act V next week.

On the first day of Act IV rehearsal, Carlos came to the theatre early to set up the cavern scene with the Three Witches, Hecate, and Macbeth, as well as the Three Apparitions and Lennox later on. He, along with a few of his more dedicated crewmembers, heaved the actually quite heavy, cast-iron cauldron that Stage Crew had found in an Antiques shop onto center stage and propped it onto the large wooden construction with the trammels to hold it in place. He booted up the machine that would simulate a crackling fire sound from center stage so that the audience would feel more immersed, like a 4D movie or something; he grabbed the remote control starter to be able to play the audio from the sound booth at the rear of the theatre. He next went on to set up the soundtrack for the thunderstorm and also the lights that they had made project a special effect that would simulate lightning from the opening of the small cavern that the scene was set in. Immersion. Everything was all set to go when the actors began pouring in and looking back at their notes in their plays.

Cecil came through the theatre doors and walked right over to Carlos once he spotted him by the edge of the stage talking to Director Crayton. He stepped next to both of them and listened in quietly to Carlos talking about the controls for the thunderstorm soundtrack.

"I think that, just like a real thunderstorm, we could have the thunder play with the dialogue, but quieter so we can still hear. We would have to mark in the master script when to turn down the volume and when to play the track apart from each stage direction," Carlos said, to which Ms. Crayton agreed and put Carlos in charge of setting that up for Rachelle, who was going to be the main sound crewmember during the production. Diane left and Cecil bumped his shoulder into Carlos's.

"Hey, you sound so professional when you talk all Stage Manager-y," he commented and Carlos rolled his eyes but grabbed Cecil around the waist and pulled him closer.

"Thanks," he said, looking right at Cecil, who smiled and averted his gaze. Carlos pecked him on the nose.

"Are you ready?" Carlos asked. "Less than two weeks until opening night."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Cecil said as he shook his head side-to-side.

"Why? You're doing an amazing job up there! And so is everybody else. It's gonna be great and Ms Dubois is going to love it."

"I know," Cecil lamented. "I just get really nervous."

Carlos smiled sadly. "I know you do. But you are the best Macbeth that I have ever—"

He cut himself off as his and Cecil's eyes widened. Carlos let go of Cecil's waist and Cecil gripped his script tighter in his hand.

"Oh no," Carlos whispered. Cecil repeated the sentiment.

After a minute of silence between the two, Carlos stated, "It's okay. Nothing is going to happen. Everything will be fine." When Cecil didn't answer, but just stared at Carlos, he added, "I promise."

To this, Cecil nodded his head in acknowledgment and mumbled something about going to get ready. Carlos sighed as he watched his obviously shaken boyfriend leave, angry at himself for the slip-up. He had not said the name once during the months of rehearsing that he had attended, not believing in the curse himself, per se, but knowing that his friends, and especially his boyfriend, believed in some superstition about the curséd Scottish play.

Carlos ran his hand through his hair uneasily as he went found Rachelle in the sound booth and began to set up for the day.

Everything went fine the first couple run throughs of the first scene, as well as the second and third ones. Diane called for Stage Crew to set up for Scene One again.

"And we're going to run the act all the way through," she shouted over the various movement and mumbling from the stage. "No stopping in between to discuss. You have to keep rolling with it."

The stage was set from the top of the act and Diane called the scene to action.

Dana was center stage walking behind the cauldron next to Maureen and Stacey, who were playing the other two witches.

Carlos played the thunder sound at full volume and made a note in the script to turn down the volume afterwards. Dana delivered her first line and everything began to run just as smooth as the last couple run-throughs.

"Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd," Dana said and the other two witches responded with "Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined," and then "Harpier cries / 'Tis time, 'tis time."

Then Dana began to almost sing her lines as she delivered them with a chilling ease.

"Round about the cauldron go; / In the poison'd entrails throw. / Toad, that under cold stone / Days and nights has thirty-one / Swelter'd venom sleeping got, / Boil thou first i' the charmed pot."

"Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble," all three of them chanted.

Maureen stepped to the side of the cauldron and said, "Fillet of a fenny snake, / In the cauldron boil and bake; / Eye of newt and toe of frog, / Wool of bat and tongue of dog, / Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, / Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, / For a charm of powerful trouble, / Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." She stepped back to her original spot behind the cauldron.

Again, they all chanted, "Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble."

Next Stacey stepped to her respective side of the cauldron and spoke, "Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, / Witches' mummy, maw and gulf / Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, / Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, / Liver of blaspheming Jew, / Gall of goat, and slips of yew / Silver'd in the moon's eclipse, / Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, / Finger of birth-strangled babe / Ditch-deliver'd by a drab, / Make the gruel thick and slab: / Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, / For the ingredients of our cauldron." She, too, stepped back into place.

"Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble."

"Cool it with a baboon's blood, / Then the charm is firm and good," Maureen said from behind the cauldron.

Hecate entered the scene, played by Vithya, and crossed the stage to where the three witches stood. "O well done! I commend your pains; / And every one shall share i' the gains; / And now about the cauldron sing, / Live elves and fairies in a ring, / Enchanting all that you put in." She drew back to behind the cauldron.

Carlos smiled as Maureen delivered his personal favourite line: "By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes. / Open, locks, / Whoever knocks!"

Carlos watched intently as Cecil entered and stood at the edge of the stage, far away from the witches. "How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!" he said. "What is't you do?"

The three witches chanted in unison, "A deed without a name."

"I conjure you, by that which you profess, / Howe'er you come to know it, answer me: / Though you untie the winds and let them fight / Against the churches; though the yesty waves / Confound and swallow navigation up; / Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down; / Though castles topple on their warders' heads; / Though palaces and pyramids do slope / Their heads to their foundations; though the treasure / Of nature's germens tumble all together, / Even till destruction sicken; answer me / To what I ask you." Cecil stepped closer and closer as he delivered his line until he was almost on top of the witches' cauldron.

Dana answered. "Speak."

Next Maureen. "Demand."

Then Stacey. "We'll answer."

Dana spoke again as she moved away from the other two witches on the sides of the cauldron and stepped into front of it to creepily look Cecil in the eye. "Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, / Or from our masters?"

"Call 'em; let me see 'em," Cecil demanded., to which, Dana answered, "Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten / Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten / From the murderer's gibbet throw / Into the flame."

The three witches shouted, "Come, high or low; / Thyself and office deftly show!" and all four characters jumped out from their places; Cecil jumped backwards with Dana following him and the other two witches each jumped around the cauldron and towards Cecil as the boom of thunder sounded alongside the boom of the cast-iron cauldron falling off of its trammels.

Shouts came from each of the four characters on stage as Dana shoved her shoulder into Cecil, pushing them both out of the way of the enormous cauldron's path. Cecil landed on the floor hard, and Dana landed on Cecil, who softened her fall. The cauldron haphazardly rolled around but otherwise remained relatively in one spot as a few members of Stage Crew jumped onto the stage to grab it.

Carlos watched the scene play out in front of him with shock written on his face. He didn't move until he saw everyone, including Diane, run onto the stage and surround the two fallen actors. Then, Carlos launched out of the sound booth and sprinted all the way down the steps of the theatre before running onto the stage.

Diane was kneeling in front of both Cecil and Dana, both of whom were still seated on the floor. Dana was holding onto Cecil's arm as his hand cradled his other arm. Once he got past all of the various other actors making a circle around Cecil and Dana to make sure that they were alright, Carlos dropped down to his knees beside his boyfriend.

"Cecil!" Carlos shouted. Cecil looked up at him with pained eyes. "Oh my god! Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm okay, Carlos," Cecil told him, yet that did not relieve Carlos since Cecil was still cradling his right arm.

"Does your arm hurt?" Diane asked. Cecil nodded and mumbled, "Yeah, a bit."

Diane took his arm gently in her hand and pressed on Cecil's collarbone. She moved her hand closer and closer to the top of his shoulder bone, all while pressing down carefully, until Cecil let out a gasp of pain right at the top.

"Okay, it doesn't look too bad," she told everyone. "But we have to get him to a doctor to make sure."

By this time, Earl had already ran to the back of the theatre to open the first aid kit, from which he had taken the disposable ice pack. He handed it to Diane, who shook it up a bit, before gently placing it on Cecil's shoulder, eliciting another gasp from the boy.

"I'll drive him!" Carlos said worryingly as Diane and Dana helped Cecil stand up. Diane looked at him and nodded.

"Good. Go pull your car up front. In one of the handicap spots." Carlos did not have to be told twice and he sprinted out of the theatre grabbing for his keys in his pocket. He did as he was told and came to the front door to open it for his boyfriend, who was thankfully walking just fine.

Diane and Dana helped Cecil hold his shoulder steady as they moved him to Carlos's car. The rest of the cast and crew had stayed behind and Diane went back inside to tell them all that rehearsal was over after she made sure that a) Cecil was alright as of that moment, b) Dana would tell a doctor or her if anything began to hurt, and c) Carlos would drive safely. They all agreed and Carlos drove off in the direction of Night Vale Hospital.

After hours of waiting in the Emergency Room for what only turned out to be a grade one AC sprain, Carlos dropped Dana off at her home and drove Cecil and himself back to Carlos's. They would usually stay the night at Carlos's house since Cecil's mom and brother were hardly ever around. Carlos had made sure to text his mom, telling her that they would be home late. She was extremely worried on the phone at the hospital and equally worried when Cecil walked through the door with an immobilizing sling strapped around his shoulder. Although, she eventually calmed down as Cecil repeatedly told her that she was fine and that Carlos had stopped to pick up some pain medication on their way back. The two boys departed and headed off to bed.

The next morning, Cecil said that he was feeling good enough to go back to school and then drama rehearsal later that evening. Carlos was worried, but his boyfriend had told him that he was already feeling a little better, especially with the pain medication. That did not relieve Carlos any, but he eventually agreed that Cecil should try to make it, but to find Carlos at any point in the day if he was in too much pain and Carlos would drive him home.

Cecil found Carlos at the end of the day waiting for him at the entrance to the theatre. He immediately asked how he was doing and if his arm hurt any, which everyone in the cast and crew, even Diane, also asked right as Cecil stepped inside the theatre. He told everyone that he was fine and ready to start working on the play again.

Since it was still the fourth week of bootcamp, Diane told Stage Crew to set up Act IV Scene Two and they will run those two scenes first whilst Carlos works on securing the cauldron with the new trammels that she had bought that morning. Cecil stayed by Carlos, yet still watching his fellow actors' performance. Carlos was glad for the comfort and expected that Cecil felt the same way. Dana also stood near to the two boys, but decided to take a seat on the stage steps.

The cauldron was secured fairly easily with a couple extra trammels on the sides and Carlos and Cecil waited for the two scenes to end. Diane came over to Cecil and asked if he was up for a run through of the first scene, to which he answered yes.

As Stage Crew set up, Carlos took Cecil by his uninjured elbow and said, "Hey, you'll be fine this time. The thing is really secured on there. I promise."

Cecil smiled and kissed Carlos's nose. Carlos returned the smile before it faded and he cleared his throat.

"I'm, uh, also really sorry that I cursed the show and got you hurt."

Cecil looked at him for a second before making a quick decision to kiss him hard on the mouth for a few seconds. When he pulled back, he put his good hand on Carlos's upper arm and squeezed.

"Carlos," he said sternly. "It was absolutely not your fault. It was the stupid cauldron for being so heavy. Or the trammels for not holding it in place like they should have. Or the dumb witches' curse, for all I know! But I do know that it was not your fault. Okay?"

Carlos merely smiled and nodded and Cecil said, "Good" before kissing him quickly and heading off to prepare for the scene. Carlos went back up to Rachelle in the recording booth and the scene began anew, but finished without any mishaps this time. Carlos demonstrated and worked with Rachelle and they got all of the cues written down in the master lighting script.

The rest of rehearsal went on without problems. Cecil took a break betwixt each performance to rest his shoulder, even though he was lucky that he did not have to move it very much throughout that particular scene.

Opening night came extremely fast, or at least it felt that way to Carlos. Even though literally everything was as prepared as possible, Carlos felt like they had not had enough time. Although that could be because Cecil's arm was still supposed to be in his sling.

Cecil had procured joint tape from the hospital and had Carlos help him tape his shoulder into the proper place so that it would not hurt during his performance. Though Carlos was worried about it, Cecil seemed to be doing just fine, especially with his pain medication.

The night was ready to begin.

Dave, in Stage Crew, had created and printed the playbills, which had a lovely inscription on the front: "This performance is dedicated to Ms. Danielle Dubois, for all of her wonderful work as a teacher at Night Vale High School " underneath the title, "The Tragedy of Macbeth / Written by William Shakespeare / and Performed by Night Vale High School Drama Club" which was in outstanding bold letters. Inside, the entire cast and crew were listed, as well as Director Crayton and people in the community that the drama club had wanted to thank for all of their help with the production.

Many of those people, including Ms Dubois, were in the audience tonight and that made the first performance all the more special. The performance went on without a hitch and, in Carlos's opinion, every single actor did better in this run through of the play than ever before. Everyone in the audience gave the performers a standing ovation at the end and all of the families of the actors brought followers and cameras for after the play. But, the most important part of all: that damn cauldron stayed perfectly in place the entire time.

Imagine your OTP+ as actors/various crewmembers doing a production of Macbeth. Person A doesn't believe in the curse, and keeps tempting fate until Person B/C almost gets seriously hurt.