Chapter VII: The Magic Show
"Oh, wow! Alli, you look incredible!"
"Thanks, so do you, Michelle." Lie…somewhat.
"Sophia, you look so adorable! I can't believe how much you've grown!"
"Thank you, Miss Katherine."
"Just call me Kat."
Alli smiled as she looked around at the crowded parking lot of the Sunset Theater, looking at her friends before her. There were more people here than she thought, and she was grateful that Michelle had acquired the tickets before hand. It was girls' night out tonight, six girls standing together in the parking lot, admiring each other's outfits and make-up before they headed inside. The young college woman felt a little shy and out of place dressed up in such a way, but Sam had somehow convinced her to wear it, this dark purple, low-cut—revealing just enough of her cleavage to excite any man walking by—long-sleeve velvet shirt with her black wool miniskirt, black nylons, with Sam's knee-high black boots. She couldn't believe how sexy she looked that day, how amazing she seemed, with her golden hoop earrings and make-up. She had even straightened her strawberry blond hair for the night, something she hardly ever did. Sophia was proudly wearing a new outfit they had bought her, a matching outfit to go with her older cousin, a dark indigo top with black pants and dress shoes. Sam—in all her suggestive style—wore a white halter top that revealed enough with a blue denim skirt and white strapped heels. Sophia kept staring at Michelle, who was wearing her hair up in a wild 80's style, along with a rather sexy yellow dress and heels, her make-up done in a way that she had to have grown up in the 80's rather than in the present time. Along with them were their two good friends, Katherine—a lovely, charming woman with long curly black hair, a model-perfect body that was being accentuated by her glamorous turquoise dress, and opal black eyes that glimmered in the light, no need for make-up—and Melissa—an old friend that used to watch Sophia, having short black hair cut in a pixie style and a thin frame that looked cute and adorable in her simple green t-shirt under dark blue vest and light blue jeans. Alli just couldn't help but smile at her old friends, having not seen them in a long time.
"Oh, my God, I can't believe we're going to see Criss Angel tonight! He is just so amazing!" Katherine cried out as they started walking towards the entrance of the theater.
"And hot," Sam quickly added. "You know, we saw him yesterday."
"You did?" Michelle and Katherine turned to stare at the two girls, while Melissa—being the sweetheart that she was—merely grinned as they continued their journey.
"Yeah, he showed Sophia a trick and then gave her a twenty," Alli was grateful that she and her friend had agreed not to tell the others about the fact he had asked for her number—even though it took a lot of pleading and kissing-ass in order to ensure it.
"Oh, wow, wasn't that cool, Sophia?" Melissa asked the little girl, who nodded happily.
Alli kept her mouth shut, knowing that at any moment, the words she had been restraining within her throat would come soaring out of her lips, surprising everyone around her. She just simply nodded as she held the child's hand when they came up to the crowded entrance, Michelle handing the six tickets to the usher, and then they were escorted by another towards the front. They chose their seats in the middle of the fifth row from the platform, and they sat down in the warm and scarlet velvet seats. The chandeliers—golden lights that danced shadows across the walls—hovered over them, and Alli looked around as the theater slowly crowded up quickly. Sophia sat next to her, clenching her cousin's hand tightly. They waited patiently, talking quietly amongst themselves of pointless topics before Sophia tugged at Alli's sleeve. She leaned over and the child whispered in her ear.
"The lights are starting to go out," she pointed to the chandeliers, and indeed, the lights were starting to dim. The entire theater was filled, not one seat was left empty, and within only two minutes the lights went completely out, filling the auditorium with darkness. Sophia's grip tightened around her hand—she was afraid of the dark. Alli grinned, thankful that no one could see it through the darkness, and wrapped her arm around the child.
"Do you want to sit in my lap?" she asked the girl softly, whom she saw nod from the darkness in front of her face. Lifting her up out of her seat, Alli placed the child in her lap and wrapped her arms around her waist, holding her there as they watched a small light filter onto the stage. Faint, ghostly music started playing from the speakers around them as the light started to grow along the silhouette of the platform, smoke rising from the light, while a voice started speaking in the background.
"Close your eyes. What do you see? Darkness…and what lies within me. Through my mind's eye, you will awake, and see the lines of reality."
Sophia whimpered a little in fear as the gray smoke rising on the dark platform started turning a bright shade of orange, and then darkened to become another color. A bright, daunting shade of crimson…of blood red.
"Welcome to my mind…FREAK!"
It was a rushing sensation of wind and shudders as the smoke erupted into large and lapping flames of burning fire that seemed to surround and engulf the stage. The heat was real—Alli could feel it as it intensified, as it was burning her own skin—the flames were large, and they rose to the arching ceiling of the theater, shrouding it in warning light and terror. The entire audience gasped in fear and awe as the flames twisted and turned, bending and bowing into a large cyclone of burning flames. They grew larger, hotter, and soon they were no longer shades of red, but burning white and orange flames that seemed to scream fear and horror into every person sitting in the theater. Fear pounded in Alli's heart—we're going to burn in here—until the flames exploded in a parade of sparks and fire, wind rushing through the building as they disappeared, and in their place, curtained in a robe of black cloth, silver chains shimmering beautifully in the light of the stage, the toned muscular body exposed to all lustful women's eyes…was Criss Angel.
The audience erupted in applause and cheers, screams and yells of excitement and astonishment. Sophia was screaming and celebrating in the amazement of the act, as well as Alli's friends beside her, but Alli…she was deaf to the noise, she was deaf to the loudness of the audience, the two-minute applause that just seemed to become deaf to her. No noise seemed to enter her mind, nothing. She was entranced when she stared up at the man…hypnotized and fixated on him, as if he had performed the stunt just for her, as if he was here mainly for her. Everything seemed to blur out, and all she could see in the darkness was him, all she could focus on…was the man on the stage.
"Alli, wasn't that amazing!?" Sam cried out next to her, but she only nodded. She couldn't say anything. She was too stunned by him. He literally took her breath away before he said anything to her.
"Thank you, everyone, for coming to this show. I am flattered to see so many faces, so many lovely faces." Girls giggled and cheered in the audience at his words, and he grinned rather conceitedly. "This is a special performance of Mindfreak, a television show of mine, and I thought it would be nice to show to you just what I am made of. So, welcome, I am Criss Angel, and this is…MINDFREAK!"
There was a loud bang on stage as he threw off the robe on his shoulders, and from the robe flew a family of beautiful, gorgeous white doves that soared from beneath the cloth and into the ceiling, flying over the audience, that awed the amazing effect. Alli was grinning so shy fully behind her cousin's head, gently stroking the black hair of the child, who cheered in impressments. Criss lifted the robe up before it even hit the ground, and he waved it on the stage, from the cloth emerging a large, beautiful white wolf, followed by its cub. The wolf turned to Criss, who looked at it sternly, as if commanding it, and the wolf lifted its cub by the husk, and taking it over to a chair that seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Every pack of wolves has two things. It always has the alpha male, and it always has its cubs. This wolf right here," he approached the larger canine, stroking its head lovingly. "It knows whose the alpha male. It won't bite me. It won't growl at me. Because if it does, it knows what I will do to it—and, no, I won't kill it."
Criss snapped his fingers, and the wolf stood on its hind legs, standing up to the man's height. The audience applauded, whereas Alli heard Katherine mutter something in disapproving of the act. Alli rolled her eyes, amazed by what he was doing. The wolf continued to stand on its hind legs, its paws resting on his shoulders, and the cub watched them eagerly, tail wagging. Criss walked away from the wolf—still on its hind legs, the same height as him—and grabbed the robe he had left on the ground. He returned to the creature and laid the robe out on the creature, covering it completely. He paced around the creature, mumbling words that Alli—thanks to her ability to read lips—only seemed to knew, but she kept it to herself.
"Behold—" He took the robe and ripped it away, the stage lighting up in brilliant flames and sparks once again, as the cloth pulled away to reveal the wolf was gone, and there was a man standing in its place, arms outstretched in show, and his hair falling down to his shoulder, his face in similar appearance to Criss'. "My brother, Costa!"
The audience erupted into applause once again, and Alli heard Sam mutter, "wow, good looks must run in the family." Alli just grinned as she watched the men embrace each other and then Criss held his brother's arm up as if symbolizing his victory over him.
"This man is my role model. He kicked my ass so many times as a kid I can't look up to anyone else but him," the audience laughed at his joke, and the men on stage even laughed at it. Alli held Sophia a little closer, watching the display before her, the audience becoming deaf to her, every noise, every cry, every cheer and scream seemed to be nonexistent to her, blaring out into nothingness, only the sound of his voice, only he seemed to stand out to her in the darkness.
Criss Angel performed more amazing and outstanding tricks and illusions, turning the cub into a lovely and beautiful exotic woman—Alli's heart pounded a little harder when he flirted with the woman—making a large and rather immovable stone statue of an angel disappear in a flash of fire, setting himself on fire only to disappear and reappear at the entrance doors among the audience, turning a beautiful white dove that had flown back to him in a flaunting of beautiful light into a large, amazingly beautiful dark raven that flew back over the audience and out an open window on the ceiling. It was about an hour or so into the show before he finally turned back to the audience—having performed a rather disgusting trick involving the familiar woman, a gun, and one bullet in the barrel, a sick, twisted version of Russian Roulette that he had explained he had performed with the rock artist, Jonathan Davis, before—and spoke to them with an impression of swaggering genius.
"For this next act, I need someone from the audience to come up, and to have some help with that, I'm going to have a very special friend of mine come up and choose them. He has been a great and wonderful friend to me, my companion for years, and I love him to death. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me in welcoming…Hamlet!"
He gestured towards stage right, where they all waited with baited breath for the appearance of someone strong, someone great, someone that would blow them all away as Criss Angel's friend. However, no one came. They all stood still, the air did not dare move, and Criss apparently realized that who he was gesturing out was not coming.
"Hamlet!" he called the name, and they all waited. Nothing. "Hammie, will you get out here?"
The entire audience erupted in awes and cheers as out from the curtain of the stage walked a cute little tabby, one that was probably three to five years old. Sophia practically screamed in Alli's lap when she saw the animal, and, in fact, everyone in the audience practically heard her.
"It's a kitty! It's a kitty, Allison! How cute!"
The audience laughed at Sophia's outburst, and Alli looked up to the stage to see Criss Angel staring in the direction she was sitting, apparently now knowing she was among the audience with the little girl. He smiled, and leaned down to the animal, holding his hand out to it. The cat came up to his hand and sniffed it politely, just before the man bent down and lifted the animal into his arms lovingly. The audience awed this, too, and Alli's heart pounded at seeing such a sensitive side to this bad-boy magician.
"This is Hammie, and yes, he's a cat. I love this little guy like my own flesh and blood, I've had him for a long time, and it's an understatement when I say he likes the life of a celebrity," the audience laughed at his words, while the cat squirmed in his arms a little. "He's a prima donna, and he knows it."
Sophia giggled, and Alli's friends laughed at how adorable this was, and then Criss put the animal back down on its feet on the stage, and snapped his fingers so it would sit.
"This cat is also talented. He knows things that I don't know—like how to catch mice and shit like that. Anyways, I'm not going to choose any assistant. Hammie is. I'm going to let him out into the audience, and he will choose someone to help him up here. After all, he has a trick he wants to show everyone," Criss informed the crowd, and Sophia tensed up, anxious to be the one the cat chooses. The man leaned down on the stage to the animal and started nuzzling the top of his head lovingly, just before he whispered into its ear—Alli couldn't make out what he was saying—and then he stood back up just as the cat pounced across the stage and down the steps into the audience.
Everyone in the audience screamed and cried out in excitement—some sneezed from allergies, which was ironic—and then….
Alli gasped when she felt something cross her legs. She closed her eyes and felt a warm, furry sensation at her legs. Sophia felt it, too, and she shrieked out in surprise as she fell into the seat beside Alli. This allowed whatever was at her feet to suddenly jump up into her lap, and the woman was covered with a purring ball of soft fur in her face as the animal leaped into her lap and stood on its hind legs into her face. Smiling and giggling—and hearing muttered whispers of jealousy from her friends—she held the cat in her arms and got up from her seat. She gave Sophia a wink just as she walked past her in the row, and then, with the creature held close to her chest, she wandered through the aisle up to the stage. Criss saw her, and the grin on his face was probably one of uniqueness and sincerity, though the emotion in his eyes she couldn't read.
"Looks like Hammie found someone to help him, and a lovely someone. Good boy, Hammie," Criss muttered to the cat as he took him back into his arms and placed a kiss on his forehead. Alli could hear the audience laugh at his words or awe at how sweet the scene was, but everything seemed to drown out in a blur of stage light, and the only person she could see in the blindness was him. He let the animal down and approached her, the smile on his face something she had never seen before.
"Hello, what is your name, Miss?" he asked, holding his hand out to her.
"Alli," she told him, playing along with the trick as she was starting to see how he manipulated it to his will.
"Alli, it's very nice to meet you," he spoke kindly, and then he pulled his hand—his warm hand comforting and sweet—away and gestured to the chair in the middle of the stage. "If you would be so kind and sit in that chair right there."
She obeyed and walked over to the chair, sitting down as gracefully as she could. She kept her eyes on the animal sitting on the ground beside her, though she could feel Christopher's eyes on her at the same time. The cat looked at her with strong, burning green eyes, and she felt somehow a part of the masterpiece that was painted before her when she sat in the audience. It was like being pulled into such great works, becoming one of the angels taking part in the "Creation of Adam."
"Alli?" she turned her head back to him, and she blushed from how close his face was to hers, leaning down to meet her eyes. "I want you to think of a number between one and ten, but don't tell me. I want you to think it in your head, and keep it there, alright?"
She nodded, obeying him. She knew what number she wanted to say, the very number that had lingered on her mind the moment he asked her to think of one.
"Do you have the number?" he asked her.
"Yes," she answered him.
"Good. Now, I'm not going to be the one doing the trick, Hammie is. Are you ready, Hammie?" Criss stood up and approached the animal, who looked back up at him innocently. The man then pulled something from his back pocket of his jeans…a deck of cards.
"Hammie loves to use large cards for this trick, it allows him to work better with them than with smaller cards. What I'm going to do is lay the deck out in a circle around him, and then I'm going to leave him, and he's going to pick one of the cards," he explained as he started lying the cards out in a circle around the beast. Once done, he stood up and walked away from the animal—standing directly behind Alli, and placing his hand on her shoulder, making her shudder inside from excitement and embarrassment.
"Alright, Hammie, choose a card."
Alli—who, at the moment, was focused on the fact that this man's hand was on her shoulder—watched the animal as it paced around within the circle of cards. He paced around the circle three times before stopping behind one card. The cat then looked up at Alli—or is it Criss—and then it walked towards her, tapping one card—pushing it an inch or so ahead away from the others—with his front paw just before coming up to her and pouncing onto her lap where he sat possessively on her legs and started purring as she rubbed him. The audience cried out in awe at how the cat was behaving, but Criss wasn't interested in that at the moment. He walked over to the circle, and he looked from it to her.
"Did you see which one he touched?" he asked her, and she nodded, pointing to the one sticking out from the circle. He walked over to it, knelt down, and pointed to it. "This one?"
She nodded, and he grabbed it, standing back up and approaching the front of the stage. He turned to the audience, holding his arms out, but concealing the identity of the card.
"Remember I asked Alli to pick a number between one to ten. Alli," he turned to her, his dark eyes boring into her—so intense, so brilliant, so hypnotizing—and he spoke to her in a way that made her feel like she was being commanded by Julian, but not as harsh and terrifying. She didn't feel terrified or afraid around this man. "Alli, what number did you pick?"
"Eight," she replied.
"Eight," he echoed her. He turned the card over in his hand and showed it to her. Her mouth almost dropped, as the card staring at her was nothing but a blank card with a bold number 8 written on it. "Is that your number?"
"Yes," she answered.
"That is the number eight?"
"Yes."
He showed it to the audience, which erupted in cries and applause. "This is her number, number eight. See? Hammie knows things that I don't. Thank you, Hammie."
The cat mewed at him before jumping off of her legs and pouncing across the stage and disappearing behind a curtain. Alli smiled after the animal, but she was unaware that the owner was coming up to her. She didn't know until Criss had grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the chair, a mischievous smile on his face. He pulled her towards him, locking eyes with hers—sad rain gray eyes with cold, dark, mysterious eyes—and that cunning smile widened.
"Just relax, it's okay," he murmured to her—speaking so softly that she had to lip read in order to know what he was saying—noticing the confused, startled look on her face. He closed his eyes, bringing his hands up to her face, just along her jaw line, resting his fingers just under her ears, yet laying his palms on her throat. He lifted his head, bringing his face a little closer to hers, and he murmured to her again. "Close your eyes."
She obeyed him, closing her eyes—it was kind of hard as she wanted to stare at his handsome face a little longer, carving it into her mind and in her dreams—and felt his fingers massage her jaw, just beneath her ears. She heard him whisper something to her, just loud enough for only her to hear.
"I need you to trust me, okay?" he asked of her, and it was like a strong, powerful sensation had overcome her, controlling her, manipulating her freely. The feeling was coursing through her veins, resonating from with the bleak darkness that was behind her eyes, brought on from the sound of the man's dominating, commanding voice, whispering softly from in front of her—sweetly, softly—in her ear. She felt his hands beneath her chin, his fingers caressing her flesh along her throat, tilting her head back slightly, just as she tried to mouth a response to him, but she doubted he could read her lips like how she could. She listened to the area around her, listening carefully to the silence of the audience, feeling hundreds of eyes on her body, watching, waiting for her to make a mistake, waiting for her to slip up and show just how vulnerable and weak she really was. She could hear his breathing—faint, yet still close—in front of her, feeling his warm breath touch her lips, hearing his steady…loud…pounding heartbeat in the deafening silence around her. He gently caressed her throat, and then slowly pulled his hands away, brushing the tips of his fingers across her pulse as he brushed them away from her body. In that one moment, it felt like she was just dangling in space, floating in a mist of blackness where no one could find her, no one could reach her, and nothing she said could break the darkness that surrounded her. She exhaled softly, maintaining this calm, still posture in this emptiness, unable to truly respond for fear of falling through this empty space and disappearing into the abyss, never to be heard from again. However, she couldn't withstand the compressing suffocation that was around her, and she had to breathe. She had to take in the air, or else she would die either way.
Alli took in a breath—a sharp, painful, cold breath that flowed fear and terror through her as she felt her body fall backwards. She was falling through the abyss, falling, and no one was going to be able to save her. She had to save herself. She wanted to open her eyes, she tried to, she wanted to be able to see and catch herself before she hit the ground, before she got hurt from the unseen stage beneath her, but she couldn't. She was falling backwards, unstable, she couldn't react, she was falling, and she was going to get hurt. Or worse…she was going to die! She felt her body fell backwards, her feet leaving the stage, and she braced herself for the impact—still and immovable—bracing herself from the unavoidable pain that would come to her as she was about to land on her head….
The pain never came. The pain of crashing into the wooden, hard surface of the stage never came. The air stood still, her lungs hesitating to beat into her bloodstream the last bit of oxygen they had. Her heart froze up into a block of ice as she kept her eyes closed, unsure of what was happening. She wasn't falling anymore. Her feet weren't touching the stage, but she wasn't falling. She was still, hanging in mid-air by something. Someone had grabbed her, had caught her just before she hit the ground. Whoever had caught her, they had saved her life, lighting the darkness with their presence, lighting the bleakness with their existence around her. She felt the person hold her up, and then she felt something amazing wrap around her, something pleasant and sweet. She felt this person, this man—Criss Angel—lift her up into his arms, holding her in a strange, amazing way. He held her in his arms in such a way that her heart pounded, responding resentfully to his actions. While he held her, her body arched backwards across his hands, her long hair falling back towards the stage due to gravity, her right arm swinging from her body and hanging from her body, her fingertips grazing across the wood as he lifted her a little higher, her legs helpless as his hand held her body from beneath her knees, her limbs immobile…paralyzed. She couldn't see anything, but everything else seemed to strengthen, her senses heightening to such a tremendous level. Her sense of touch was heightened, strengthened to a point where she could feel everything, she could feel the cold stillness of the air, the cold wood that just barely brushed against her nails, the smoothness of the fabric of her clothing, the hesitation of her heart in her chest, the warmth…sweet, sweet, tempting warmth of his body, feeling his warm, broad hands hold her up, feeling his warm breath on her, caressing her intimately as he held her to his body. Her sense of smell heightened, as well. She could smell everything. She could smell the light, dancing fragrance of her own perfume—perfume that he had to have recognized—the polishing cleaner of the floor, having been cleaned and buffed before the show began, the smells of the clean, flourished room…the smell of his cologne, the scent of his body, the strong, taunting, mocking scent that made unpleasant and exciting thoughts run through her mind, followed by hungry, lustful desires that couldn't be tamed, only restrained. Her sense of hearing….
She heard everything, and then she heard nothing. She heard him so clearly, so distinctively. She could hear his breathing, she could hear his heartbeat…steady, yet racing, pounding against his chest cage. She heard nothing. She couldn't hear the gasps, the awes, and the applause that had erupted beyond the edge of the stage, beyond the horizon of this strange and amazing world that had captivated her, closing in around her, around just the two of them. It was like meant for the two of them, their own personal Eden, they're own little world that had begun to be created the moment she stepped onto the stage. The stage was their world, no one could interrupt or interfere, and all they wanted…all they needed was each other. All she needed was him, and for the moment…this very moment in time, everything about reality swam away, scared off by this man….The reality of her current relationship with Julian…the pain that he had caused her…the pain she had been suffering for a long time…it all vanished into a sea…a nonexistent sea of nothingness. All that existed was her…and this man…together…forever….
Reality came swimming back into her violently and quickly, consuming her darkly as she heard his voice come out in a loud roar from the body that held her, a voice that sounded more dark and malevolent, yet strong and comforting all at once. She pretended to remain in her comatose state, immobile and mute, breathing steady and still as he held her.
"When I was younger I had started to practice the skill of hypnotism, and by the time I was in my twenties, I was able to hypnotize almost about just anyone. The mind is something that interests me, but along with the mind, it is also the heart," he spoke to the audience, which became nothing more than a blank abyss with hundreds of eyes watching her hesitantly, waiting for her to screw up or become conscious, and ruining the scene that he had presented to them. She never dared to do such a thing.
"The heart is such a fascinating organ of the human body. Many people think that it isn't, but it is. It's so complicated, but at the same time, it's so simple to understand. The heart is directly connected to the mind, and it reacts to what the person is thinking or feeling, which is fueled by the heart," he spoke to the audience, but as he spoke, he started to carry her off towards the farther parts of the stage. She felt his arms lower her onto some surface on the stage, and it wasn't until her entire body was lying on the surface and her fingers grazed the top of it, unnoticeable, that she realized she was lying on either a hard wooden table, or some kind of strange, hollow box. She kept her eyes closed, but her ears were open and listening for any sound that might come, though his voice was drowning out any other sound from her ears.
"The heart will react to what charges through the mind at any given second. The mind is connected to thousands upon thousands of nerves within the human body, nerves that feel sensations that allow someone to experience pain, joy, comfort…and pleasure," his voice seemed to become more suggestive on that last word, and she practically gasped when she felt his hand find its place on the center of her chest, and her face flowed a light of shade of red when she could feel her heart pounding against his palm. He apparently felt it, as he gently stroked his fore and middle finger against her pulse, finding a pressure point against her neck, and he stroked it, hard, which made her mind focus on the pain inside her neck rather than on the hand on her chest, making her heart calm down and her body still.
"These nerves that are inside the body are called the nervous system, and it allows the person to endure sensations through their body, and these nerves send messages up into the mind, registering them as either painful, joyful, or pleasurable. The mind then sends these feelings to the heart, and the heart reacts to them in a fitting way. For instance, what would happen if I pinched Alli right now?"
Alli had to bite down hard on the inside of her bottom lip as she felt his fingers move to the middle of her arm and pinched, pulling at the skin with two fingers, forcing a horrible, sharp sting to run through her body. However, her heart was racing viciously against the pain, pounding, racing, thrumming in her chest against his hand. A sound came to her ears, loud, echoing, racing through the speakers of the theater. And it wasn't until she listened closely to the sounds of the theater and the sound of her own pounding heart to realize what it was.
Bum—bum bum--bum—bum bum—bum….
Alli couldn't hear the sound of the audience's gasps as they listened to her own racing heart echoing loudly through the theater, as if a microphone had been set up against her chest. She remained still and motionless as he took his fingers away from her.
"Her heart starts to race. Pain causes the heart to race in a certain pattern, one-two-one-two. It's interesting how the heart can give certain patterns. What would happen if I tickled her, though?"
She had to bite her lip hard this time to suppress the laughter and her will to move away, but she couldn't restrain the smile that was crossing her lips as she felt his fingers move across her arm in a quick, tickling movement, leaving the sensation running through her body, and her heart pacing at a different pattern, echoing through the theater.
Bum bum—bum bum—bum bum—bum bum….
"Her heart races a different pattern this time. It's a pattern of joy. Yet, I wonder what pattern her heart will give if I…kiss her…."
Alli's heart was pounding even before she felt his hand press against her chest, before she felt him leaning down, before she could hear his breathing grow louder and louder. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, everything seemed to slowing down for her, and she couldn't react. Her mind was racing all at once, her heart pounding and drumming like that of one during a marching band. She felt ice form in her throat, she felt her stomach knot into a painful tie, and she was arguing with herself within her mind about whether or not to allow him to kiss her, while all at once fearing that it was her heartbeat she was hearing from the speakers.
Bum bum bum—bum bum bum bum—bum bum bum bum—bum bum bum….
She opened her eyes only a little, not even noticeable, only to see him less than an inch from her face, to see his eyes—those beautiful dark eyes—closed as he leaned closer, and she could feel his breath caressing her lips, warming her skin lightly. Her heart was probably racing its hardest when she felt his lips brush against hers, her chest heaving a little under his hand, and then he mouthed something—she couldn't see it through her dark lashes—and then pulled away completely from her, allowing her to close her eyes and calm herself down, his hand removed from her chest and the theater turning silent.
"The heart is such an amazing thing, but it is also a scary thing." She couldn't see him moving across the stage to retrieve the cloak he had discarded earlier in the show, but she could hear him, and she heard the rustling of the cloak against the wooden stage as he moved back over to her. She could hear his boots against the surface as he walked over to her, and she felt the cloak being dragged over her body—such a soft, velvety texture, leaving her fingers tingling as they lifted only to touch the material of it—covering her face. This allowed her to open her eyes, unable to see anything through the black material. But she heard him; she heard his footsteps moving away back towards the horizon of the world that had surrounded them.
"As a child, a heartbeat can be the most comforting thing in the world," as he said this, the sound of a steady heartbeat came on from the speakers of the theater—bum bum—bum bum—bum bum—bum bum…. "I remember as a child lying on my mother's chest to hear her heartbeat, and I remember the comfort I received from it. But as I got older, I became aware of these machines that were hooked up to people in hospitals, and I could hear the heartbeat through the machine. And then, I heard the scariest sound of all. It's the sound of not hearing anything. Everyone knows what it means when you can't hear another heartbeat. Everyone knows that it strikes fear through you when you know, that after hearing nothing, that someone…has died."
Alli would have screamed, but she found it impossible as no sound could come from her throat as the surface beneath her, the surface that held her up and kept her in the light of this new and magical world of her own personal Eden with this illusionist suddenly gave way from beneath her, and she felt herself falling…falling silently through a black abyss, the light of this great world suddenly disappearing into a darkness and silence of her own death….