The Other
Chapter 2
Dreamy blue-lit Elysium.
Orfeo does not look at Euridice as he leads her towards the world of the living.
If he looks, he will lose her.
Act II closes, with a sense of foreboding and applause.
Intermission.
Veidt and Todd stand together in the midst of opera goers, drinking champagne.
"Are you enjoying it?" Adrian asks.
Todd should be enjoying it. The opera. His company. She should be revelling in it.
But her head's somewhere else. Back at his office, listening to a masked man, his talk of an assassin.
"Oh yes," she says, voice insincerely bright.
Adrian takes a sip of champagne.
"There really is no need for you to worry," he says perceptively.
She look sheepish.
There's no use trying to outsmart the world's smartest man.
"I know," she says, "It's just, a wanted vigilante popping up out the blue to warn you about some... mask-killer is a little..."
"Strange?" Adrian supplies with an amused smile.
"More than strange," Todd says, "The possibility that someone might make an attempt on your life and you don't seem the least bit concerned about it."
"Why should I be?" Adrian replies, "There is no evidence to suggest I'm in any danger. It's simply a claim by a man whose grip on reality is tenuous at best."
"Whether he's crazy or not," Todd persists, "He went to a lot of effort to see you. Climbing the building like that."
"He couldn't exactly use the front door," Adrian points out, "He's a wanted man, the probable cause for his paranoia."
He lays a hand on her face,
"Trust me. I have no reason to fear."
She's won over, cradled in the cup of his hand.
Todd cannot know, that in this moment, he is thinking about her death.
How it will be unexpected and quick. Merciful.
A small comfort to him, that there will be no prolonged terror or pain.
He's grown quite fond of her since their first meeting at a charity event, where she impressed him by knowing Shelley's poem, quoting the first line,
"I met a traveler from an antique land..."
If she had rehearsed it beforehand, he would still be touched by the thoughtfulness.
But he knows he cannot spare her.
He cannot set her apart from the rest. He cannot pick and choose.
Unless some act of divine fate delivers her out of New York, she will die.
"Can you really catch bullets?" Todd says half-joking, oblivious.
Adrian chuckles and leans in to kiss her, just above her eyebrow. Her eyes flutter shut, enjoying the soft press of his lips against her skin.
She'll never know the guilt sealed in that kiss. Veidt is too good of an actor.
What she does notice is the sets of eyes on them. Veidt's a famous face and they feel they have the right to stare. It's the public's obsession that made him his fortune.
Adrian pays them no heed.
"Of course I can," he answers her question with a wink, "Though it's an ability I don't expect to have to demonstrate. Unless PR forces my hand."
They both laugh.
Bell rings, intermission is over.
Veidt gathers up both her hands, white-gloved like snow and he thinks of Antarctica.
"I'm sorry," he says, suddenly serious, "The incidence with Rorschach seems to have cast a shadow on our evening. I've been thoughtless about your feelings. If you would like to call it a night, I would understand."
Todd shakes her head insistently.
"No, no. I've looking forward to this all week," she smiles, "And I want to see how it ends."
Act III.
Orfeo has looked back at Euridice, causing her to die.
Orfeo cradles her in his arms.
"Che farò senza Euridice?"
What shall I do without Euridice?
As Orfeo mourns and Todd watches, entranced, a man in breaking into her apartment.
Photograph draws his attention. Todd as a child, Blair Roche's age, with golden retriever. She's making a face, squeamish delight, dog licking her cheek.
He gets hungry, waiting for Roche woman to return home. Picks an apple out of her fruit bowl.
As he waits and munches, Orfeo in his grief goes to kill himself.
Todd leans forward in her seat.
Amore, winged Cupid, appears.
For Orfeo's devotion, Amore restores Euridice back to life.
Orfeo and Euridice are reunited once more.
"Trionfi Amore."
Long may love triumph.
Fade to black.
Applause.
House-lights on. Performers take their bows.
"The ending is different to the original myth," Veidt says as they walk to his limousine, "In the original myth, Eurydice has to stay in the Underworld while Orpheus goes back to the living."
He sounds disapproving of the revision.
Todd shrugs,
"That ending's not as happy," she says, simple logic, "People want a happy ending."
The opera has left her in good spirits. There's a spring in her step and she's humming under her breath.
"Yes, people want a happy ending," Adrian agrees as the chauffeur opens the door for them, "They want to be comforted. But the fact is the dead can't come back to life."
A fact he knows very well. This part of his plan is irreversible. But this is his burden, not hers. Let her be blissfully ignorant, until the very end.
"That's why we need to make the most of our lives while we can," he adds, an ominous pearl of wisdom.
"That's very true," Todd says, wanting very much for him to kiss her.
He does, like an actor playing a scene. He knows his cues.
"I had a wonderful night," she says as the driver pulls up outside her apartment building, "Thank you."
"I'm glad," Adrian says, kissing her on the cheek.
As she draws away, she wants to ask when she'll see him again. But she doesn't want to sound needy.
"I'll call you," Adrian reassures her, as if reading her mind.
He bids her goodnight and she joyfully races out of the cold, unknowingly towards the man who waits for her.
He's judged the distance to stand so he can put a hand over mouth before she can scream.
"Don't yell," Rorschach says, "No need. Not going to hurt you."
To be continued.
