Act Fifteen – Interlude: Depression in the Crowd
"You notice the strangest things when you look for them. What I noticed that night sent me on a chase that lead me to a drawn up draw bridge."
Dorothy went to stand out on the lower balcony where she had a view of the entire dome, and, faintly, the city that lay beyond it. Roger allowed her the time alone out of respect for her, realizing that despite the dancing lessons with Norman, she very well could have some reservations about dancing with him in public.
When Roger received his shock, Dastun couldn't find her to escort him out of the ballroom.
It amused Schwarzwald to no end to find the former celebrated bachelor deserted by his escort. It did not, however, amuse him so much to see who had momentarily replaced her. And he had his own agenda to attend to. When the glass overhead shattered and Beck's new gang of men lowered themselves swiftly into the ballroom, he made a hasty retreat, leaving Angel in Rosewater's less than comforting grip, he could tell by the scowl on her face.
When the screams started, Dorothy turned back towards the ballroom, an instant too late to see her assailant as she was scooped up and leapt with off the balcony. She had been unprepared for the attack, distracted by her own outrage at being replaced. So distracted she hadn't heard the movements on the roof, or the crashing of the glass. The crowd noises she hadn't bothered to pay attention to because she likened them to some change in the music. They had, after all, died down almost instantaneously.
Roger recovered from the shock he received at seeing the specter from his nightmares enter the ballroom shortly after the screams started, and helped Dastun's men to evacuate the ballroom, hoping to find some trace of Dorothy in the crowds moving out. Looking, eyes scanning as he ushered women and patrons, a tall, imposing man in a black tuxedo with a firm expression on his face, almost like an android himself. He tried to catch a glimpse of someone unpanicked, moving steadily with the flow but not in a rushed manner.
His questing eyes went unrewarded.
Long after the grand ballroom was deserted, quiet, and statements had been taken, Roger stood in the marble floored room and glanced around, calling out quietly to her.
But she wasn't there.