Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story.
They all belong to their rightful owner: Craig Bartlett.
Title: "Roadside girl"
In the last chapter: David was worried about Helga's strong reaction to this Arnold boy so he decided for confront her about when they were alone. She admitted that she used to have feelings for said boy, but had a hard time showing that as a child. She had bullied him and David understood Helga a little more after that.
Arnold, much to Helga's displeasure, aced her acting challenge and managed to deliver his lines perfectly and even had the guts to kiss her as the manuscript has told him to do. His singing, while too soft to begin with, also turned out to be good enough for the play. Despite getting the chance to kick Arnold off the cast, Helga let him take the role as Aiden for the sake of the play. She did tell him that she would work him hard though.
Author's 1st note: I want to "confess" something before people get too engrossed in this. If you are expecting this to be as long as "Let me be your hero" (62 chapters) or even as long as "Blackmail toy" (45 chapters) I am going to have to disappoint you. While this is going to be a long project then I don't feel there's enough material or enough originality in this sort of story for it to be prolonged for that amount. That doesn't mean that this story won't have solid ground though and lots of drama and progress with the characters ;)
[Please notify me if you notice any grammar mistakes. This isn't my first language, so there's bound to be mistakes.]
Chapter 3: "You are not you anymore"
Arnold and Helga walked next to each other in silence. Arnold wasn't sure if it was an awkward one or not though, but he was desperately trying to get a conversation going. What can I ask her? We haven't seen each other in seven years; there should be plenty to talk about, but I can't think of anything! Also… we're not exactly friends. He thought and then sighed a little more loudly than he had intended and it caught Helga's ears. She turned her eyes to look at him, but didn't say anything at first. "Was I right?" she asked out of the blue and the blonde boy looked at her. "Um… a-about what?" he asked with a slight stutter. "About the therapist thing." She clarified. "I always figured you would work as something that would help people, but whether it would be therapist or something else I didn't really know. I was just taking a shot in the dark."
"Oh… uh, yeah, you, uh… were spot on actually." Arnold admitted and arched his back a bit for no particular reason. He noticed Helga smiling proudly at having guessed correctly. "So Mr. Brightside with a hint of buttinski is going to be a therapist? No surprise there…" she muttered a little degradingly, but she was still smiling so Arnold didn't know what to think of her words. "I… can't say the same about the profession you've chosen." He said and shook his head in disbelief. "I was pretty shocked when you said that you were going to study acting of all things. How did you come up with that?"
Helga shrugged and looked away from Arnold. "Olga suggested it actually and I… needed a change of scenery so I figured what the hell." She half-lied and half-confessed. Unbeknownst to her, Arnold looked at her curiously. A change of scenery? He thought. He wanted to ask. He wanted to ask so badly that he almost did, but thought against it. "Do you like it?" he asked and he knew it was a dumb question when she looked at him in disbelief. "I wouldn't waste seven years of my life doing something I hate." She pointed out. "Ah, b-but that doesn't necessarily mean that you like it." he stated and she gave him a slanted look. "I like it, Arnold, you nitpicker."
Arnold flinched a little at Helga's harsh tone, but he couldn't blame her; he was being pretty stupid after all, but he really didn't know what to talk to her about. "Well… uh… while you're in Hillwood, where are you staying? At a hotel?" he asked innocently. "I wanted to. God knows that I wanted to, but Bob refused to let me stay at a hotel when I could stay with him and Miriam." She answered matter-of-factly. "You're staying with your parents?" Arnold asked in slight disbelief and not because she was 20 years old, which she also knew wasn't the reason why he was surprised. "Yep." She said with a smirk. "Seems like once his youngest daughter turned out to be a successful actress, the tables turned."
"The tables turned?"
"Yeah, he hasn't called me Olga once since about two years ago and I don't constantly have to hear stories about her and he's not comparing me to her unless it's to say that he'd wish that Olga had been as consistent in her choice of career as I have been."
"Whoa, that's… that's quite the change." Arnold observed with a small frown. While Helga never spoke openly about the obvious troubles she had in her family, everyone who knew her family knew of their problems. Bob Pataki, a man who was more concerned with getting a huge amount of income rather than getting to know his children. Miriam Pataki, a woman more concerned with her alcohol-soaked smoothies than… anything else really and then Olga Pataki, a girl more concerned with herself, but constantly putting on a show to convince people that she cared little to nothing about herself and was Miss. Charitable.
Helga nodded at Arnold's statement. "Now I'm the pretty precious princess and Olga is the used-to-be perfect daughter. It's really… weird." She muttered with a small frown. "Aren't you happy in the least?" Arnold asked and she continued to frown albeit thoughtfully now. "More gleeful, I guess, but… it's embarrassing; Bob has every single play I have ever been in on DVD at home. He even has this big collection of newspaper articles with me in it. It's horrifying." She said with her nose scrunched, but Arnold couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, come on, Helga. Aren't you a little bit happy about it?" he asked and leaned a little closer to her for good measure. She looked at him and her smile grew as he asked her again. "Maybe, but I'm more happy about my own accomplishments than the fact that Bob is proud of me."
Arnold smiled, but also felt a little guilty. He had deliberately avoided anything Helga-related in the newspaper or in the acting world. Whenever Gerald would attempt to start a conversation about what Phoebe had told him about Helga, he had changed the subject. He regretted that now; he was somewhat curious about what she had been doing the past seven years. "How many plays have you been in?" he asked and Helga showed him her big eyes. "Are you kidding me? I don't have a number on that anymore." She said and that made his eyes go big as well. "Seriously? Whoa… Can I… Can I, uh…"
"Ask if you're curious, Football Head."
"Uh… can I watch one of the plays you've been in?" Arnold asked innocently, but Helga frowned at his request. "Why?" she asked. "Uh… b-because I haven't watched many plays or musicals in my life so I guess I should now that I'm actually gonna act in one. You know… when in Rome do what Romans do, right?" he asked, but could hear the lack of logic in his voice. She looked at him skeptically, but said that he had a good point, which surprised him. "I remember one of my first acting teachers telling us it was important to go to the theatre, watch plays and read manuscripts in order to become good actors…" she mumbled mostly to herself, but Arnold heard her. "See?" he probed hopefully. She rolled her eyes at his enthusiasm, but then nodded. "Sure. You can watch one play. If you wanna watch more, you're gonna have to buy the DVD." She told him and he couldn't help but salute at the grave tone in her voice, which she rolled her eyes at. "Yes, ma'am!"
"The DVD's are over there on the shelf." Helga said while she took her shoes off in the hallway. Arnold looked around; the house looked the same since the last time he was there, which was when he was about nine years old. "Isn't your mom home?" he asked as he eased into the living room. "Probably, but she must be sleeping her buzz off in the bedroom." Helga answered from outside in the hallway. Arnold frowned at her matter-of-fact way of handling her family troubles, but he figured it was none of his business. He went towards the shelf and his eyes bugged when he saw how many there were. "Are all of these plays?!" he asked in shock and looked at the titles. "Not all of them." She asked before she walked into the room as well. "Some are from minor plays and some are from interviews. Bob has everything I've ever been in."
"Whoa…" Arnold muttered and skimmed the titles. "Want a soda, Football Head?" Helga asked and he could hear her voice getting smaller as she headed towards the kitchen. "Uh, sure!" he responded, a little confused at her hosting skills; those sure as hell hadn't been there when they were children. His eyes caught a glimpse of something that looked like a collage of newspaper articles. "Are those above the shelf the articles with you in it?" he asked. "Yeah, but most of them are reviews of play that I am in and not about me." She answered from outside the kitchen. He could hear her rummaging around. "Most of them?" he questioned and looked through them. "Yeah, there are a few that are about me." She answered.
Arnold skimmed the titles. Most of them were indeed reviews, titles of the plays and mentioned mostly whom he presumed were the protagonists. When his eyes caught ahold of Helga's name, he inched closer. "Helga Pataki in the role of Gabrielle is very likely to become a world-known name. Whoa…" he muttered and then looked at the DVD's, hoping to find the play where Helga is acting as this Gabrielle. The DVD's were neatly organized, probably something Olga had made sure of rather than Bob, and they were categorized into interviews and plays and even in alphabetical order. Arnold grabbed the ones that were plays and then sat down on the blue couch, spreading them carefully in front of him on the coffee table. Gabrielle… Gabrielle… He thought as he looked at the titles.
"There sure are many…" Arnold muttered in awe. "Catch." He heard Helga say and just when he looked up, she threw the can of soda towards him. He barely managed to catch it and she showed him an impressed grin when he did. "Still got your catching skills, I see." She said before sitting down on the other blue couch that was crisscross from the one Arnold was sitting on. She leaned back as she drank from her soda, one of her ankles propped onto her knee in what most boys would probably describe as the male way of sitting with the legs crossed. He smiled a little before he looked at the titles again. "Any of them you don't want me to see?"
"If I thought I would be embarrassed about being in any of these plays, I wouldn't have auditioned."
"Good point… then any recommendations?"
"Yeah, I recommend that you choose one already before I lose my patience with you."
Arnold shot Helga a slanted look at her response, but rather than looking annoyed with him, she was smirking. "Oh, all right." She caved in and leaned over the DVD's. Unlike Arnold, she wasn't careful with them at all. She shoved most of them away carelessly and left three in front of him. "I recommend those three. They are the most recent ones I've been in." she told him and leaned back on the couch. He quickly looked at the covers. "You're on the cover of these three." He observed quietly and looked at her as she shrugged. "What can I say? The more people who know your name the bigger roles you get. Roadside girl is my first protagonist though." She told him and he looked at the covers again.
"Seems like you've played in a lot of different things." Arnold observed. While Helga was indeed on every single cover in front of him, it was definitely not the same Helga. On one of the covers, Helga had a lifeless look on her face, her make-up and clothes suggesting she was some sort of wooden doll. There was even something resembling a crack on her cheek for good measure. Her hands and legs were twisted because of the strings holding her up by some puppeteer above her controlling her. "Aren't you the main character in this one too?" he asked curiously and showed her the cover. "Oh, no, but I understand your confusion though. The puppeteer is actually the main character."
Arnold put the DVD back and looked at the next one. This one seemed to be more upbeat and happy. Helga, along with other girls were lying on what looked like a green meadow, all smiling happily. The grass around one of the girls though was dark and seemed wither to beneath her. "This one seems intriguing…" He muttered curiously. "It's somewhat of a thriller actually. Spoiler: I'm the first girl who dies." Helga said and he frowned at her words. "Helga! Don't spoil it!" he said, but he hadn't been that interested in watching that one. It was the next cover that truly caught his interest.
On the cover, Helga was looking longingly and perhaps even painfully towards a man and a woman who were dancing at the other side of the cover. She was wearing a long, white gown that went all the way to the floor and cascaded over the floor and even beneath the dancing couples' feet. He quickly noticed her name down at the corner and saw that she was acting as Gabrielle in this one. "What is this one about?" he asked curiously even though he had already made his choice. He showed her the cover and when she saw it, she smiled. "Not what you think…" she answered and took it. "Considering the way you were gawking at it, I suppose this is the one you want to watch?"
Arnold nodded excitedly and readjusted himself on the couch as Helga stood up from it and went to the TV. "You were mentioned as Gabrielle in one of the articles." He told her as she sat down on her knees and bend forward to put the DVD into the machine. Arnold had to force his eyes away from her. "Oh, so that's why you wanted to watch it." She stated more than questioned. It wasn't until Arnold heard a soft melody playing that he turned his head towards the TV again. Helga walked back to the couch and sat down as the play started. Arnold was completely engrossed in it from the beginning and he couldn't help but smile at Helga when he saw her name on the screen. She rolled her eyes at his excitement. "This is the one I did before Roadside girl." She told him before the melody died and the play began.
Arnold didn't speak a single word through the whole play. Helga would comment here and there, but he wouldn't notice; he was far too engrossed with everything on the stage. Helga was right; the play hadn't been about what he thought. He had realized that it was a love triangle, but he had misunderstood who was in the love triangle. Helga was in fact playing a young girl who was in love with her best friend; her best female friend rather than the man she had been dancing with on the cover. The story told that Helga, or rather Gabrielle as her character was called, had been in love with the girl through their whole lives, but had kept it hidden to protect the girl who was of aristocratic decent.
Overall, it was an incredibly sad story about sacrificing yourself for the one you love. In the end, Gabrielle dies by the hand of the girl's husband when he finds out that she loves his wife. The girl never finds out why her best friend through her whole life seemingly committed suicide or that she had loved her with all of her soul ever since they met. It was a horribly sad ending and Arnold had to bite at his lower lip in order not to cry. It wasn't the death scene that he would continue to remember though; it was the song that Gabrielle wrote to her friend somewhere close to the ending of the play, which would also be the cause of the man to find out about her feelings.
Helga, in that white gown she was also wearing on the cover, had been sitting in the middle of the stage that had been decorated as a grand hall. She had been singing at her friend's wedding for everyone to hear, but no one except the husband figured out that Gabrielle was in fact singing to her friend. Once the song had been over, he had caught her alone and had killed her out of spite and perhaps even fear that she would take his wife away from him, but Gabrielle had never had any spiteful intentions towards him or her friend; she had just wished for her happiness.
Arnold could still remember the song, how beautifully Helga had played the piano and sung so smoothly. "This time we go sublime. Lovers entwined. Devine. Devine. Love is danger. Love is pleasure. Love is pure, the only treasure… I am so in love with you… Make love your goal. The power of love; a force from above. Cleaning my soul… The power of love; a force from above. A sky scraping dove… Flame on burn desire. Love with tongues of fire. Purge the soul. Make love your goal…" It was almost as if Gabrielle had known this would be her last hour. It had been such a beautifully tense moment that had him on edge the whole time. The way Gabrielle had been smiling at her friend, the way her friend had smiled curiously back at her as if she was slowly realizing the truth and the man who had looked back and forth between them in panic.
Once the play was over, Arnold had to rub his eye in order not to cry. "You sap." Helga teased and threw a tissue at him. He took it, but frowned at her. "I'm not crying." He stated as he kept biting his teeth down on his lower lip. "Only because you're biting your lip so hard that you're even drawing blood." She told him before standing up from the couch. He looked at her in surprise before putting the tissue to his lip and when he pulled back, there was indeed blood on the white tissue. Crap… he thought in embarrassment and kept the tissue at his lip. "I can't believe that was you, Helga." He muttered in order to turn the subject on her wonderful acting rather than his bleeding lip.
"Yeah, lot of people said that. It's definitely my most feminine role ever, despite being lesbian." Helga muttered with a smile and took the DVD out. "Then again people have asked me if I was a dyke several times." She added and walked back to the coffee table to put the disk back in the cover. "Why? Because of the play?" Arnold asked, but she looked at him in disbelief. "No, because I'm a tomboy. People can't see the difference being a boyish girl and being a lesbian it seems." She answered and laid down lazily on the couch. "Not that there's anything wrong with being gay." She added as she arched her back, showing off some of her stomach in the process. Arnold caught a sight of her naval piercing when she did. "When did you get that?"
"What? This?" Helga asked before sticking her tongue out, showing the silver ball on her tongue. "No, I meant… Wait, you have a piercing there too?" Arnold asked and leaned towards her to have a closer look, but she pulled her tongue back into her mouth. "Too?" she repeated and looked at her stomach. "Oh, that one! It's so new that I keep forgetting that it's there." She said in slight embarrassment, pulled her sweatshirt back in place and even put her hands above her stomach in order to keep it there. "I got that when I was asked to play Adrasteia."
"Was it for the sake of the play?"
"Both yes and no. The director told me that I would be wearing a fake one and then I told him I wouldn't mind getting a real one. Seemed easier."
"You got pierced just because of that?"
"I've always wanted one, but never got around to do it so I figured why not now?" Helga answered with a shrug. "I'd wish I could just do stuff like that." Arnold muttered, slightly impressed as he laid down on the couch, his head near hers. "What?" Helga uttered in surprise and propped herself up on one elbow so that she could look at him properly. "You want a piercing?" she asked in disbelief. "No!" he answered and laughed at the idea. "A tattoo?" she then asked with even more disbelief dripping out of her voice. "No!" he answered yet again. "I just meant… I wish I could just do stuff like that; be spontaneous, take chances." He explained and she laid back down. "You've never had problems with being spontaneous when we were children?" she questioned.
"Ah, well… I've grown older I guess." Arnold answered and he could feel that she was waiting for him to explain further. "I… I'm not very good at being honest either. I never say when I want something." He continued, but he stopped there. They were quiet for a moment, both looking up at the ceiling. "I know that feeling…" she muttered in such a low voice that he became unsure of whether he had been supposed to hear it or not. Before he could question it, she suddenly sat up straight on the couch and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Let's get started with what we actually came here to do." She said and stood up straight. "Do you know the rhyme 1, 121?" she asked and he sat up to give her a questioning look. "1, 121?" he repeated in confusion and she groaned. "This is gonna be a long day."
A few hours later, Arnold was ready to faint. No, seriously, he wanted to faint, hit his head and be send to the hospital so he had an excuse to get out of this play. Helga was working him hard like promised and she seemed to be just as tired as he was. She was trying to be patient with him, she really was, but being a person who had worked non-stop in the acting world for seven years straight and having to train someone who didn't even know the basics of it was a challenge of patience she wasn't sure she was ready for. "Stop!" she yelled and Arnold did as told. He even plumbed down to the floor, his whole body spread unceremoniously as his breath ragged in his throat. Helga put her fingers to her nose and rubbed it in frustration. "You know what…? I need a break."
"Yes! A break!" Arnold concurred happily in a childish way and was about to lift his arms in joy, but they fell right back to the floor. "Ow…" he muttered tiredly. "Find another play you want to watch, Arnold and I'll get us something to drink." She ordered before turning to walk towards the kitchen. "What about something to eat instead?" he suggested and managed to sit up. At the mentioning of food, Helga's stomach growled loudly. She put her arms around it in slight horror, but Arnold was too tired to make fun of her. "Your stomach agrees." He observed instead and got himself on all four to crawl towards the coffee table. She frowned in embarrassment, but much like Arnold she was too tired to really care. "Pizza?" she suggested before disappearing into the kitchen.
"Fine with me, but should actors eat pizza?" Arnold asked as he took the cover of Helga as the puppet off the table. "We're actors; not models and I'd say we're pretty fit." Helga answered before appearing in the living room with two cans of Yahoo sodas in her hands. Arnold turned to look at her. "A compliment from Helga Pataki?" he asked and gave her mock disbelieving look. "Don't flatter yourself, Shortman. I was merely stating facts." She answered before putting the sodas on the table while Arnold crawled towards the TV. "God, you look pathetic." She observed with a snicker. Arnold, for good measure and in his tired state, let himself fall to his stomach in an exaggerated tired state, his legs spread indecently on the carpet. It caused her to give a full-blown laugh. He laughed himself when he realized that he was actually joking around Helga and actually liking it.
When Arnold had put the DVD into the machine and crawled back, the sound of thunder made him jump and look towards the screen. "Yeah, this one starts during a night with thunder and lightning. It's a horror." She told him as she grabbed her phone and sat down on the couch. "Oh, yay…" he muttered sarcastically and managed to pull himself up on the couch. My legs are all wobbly thanks to Helga's exercises… Does she do these exercises regularly? He wondered briefly before Helga poked him at his shoulder. "Is a salad pizza ok with you?" she asked and he quirked an eyebrow at her, but she just shrugged innocently. "Sure, but I don't think that necessarily makes it healthier." He pointed out. She put her index finger to her lips and hushed him. "Shh. You." She said and pointed at him. "Shh."
Arnold laughed at Helga's words before turning his eyes back to the screen. He could hear Helga ordering the pizza next to him, but the play had already piqued his interest when several girls, all dressed like puppets appeared on the scene as the sound of a soft guitar riff started. The girls walked in perfect synch to the strings of the guitar and Arnold barely noticed when Helga talked to him. "Just to warn you: I got goose bumps when I read the manuscript for this." she told him and put the phone down. Arnold looked at her with wide, scared eyes. "Uh… could you tell me what this is about? Without busting the whole thing of course." He requested and she pointed at the screen. "To put it simple. The protagonist…" she said and then stopped to look at Arnold again. "The main character." He answered her unsaid question and she smiled. "The protagonist takes the whole my daughter shall never grow up to be a flawed and dirtied human being thing to the ultimate level."
Arnold looked back at the screen and felt his nose scrunching. "Oh… I think I know where this might be going…" he muttered and then went quiet as he kept watching. Arnold had been right; he had in fact known where the story was going. While the father was indeed the main character, the play also focused a lot on Helga who was the daughter. She grew up without a mother and without knowing why she died, which you at some point through the play figured out was because the father killed her. All of the story took place in that big mansion Helga's character, called Aya, lived in with her father. Aya believed that her father was a doctor who helped people, but the audience knows it isn't true though the truth hadn't been revealed just yet when the pizza in real life arrived.
"You just keep watching." Helga said when the doorbell rang and stood up from the couch. "I wasn't planning on taking my eyes off the screen." Arnold told her and did indeed nothing that indicated that he was planning to go anywhere at this moment. She quickly walked in front of the TV for a moment to tease him and he made an angry shriek as he gestured for her to get out of his way. The sound mostly resembled a monkey complaining, causing her to laugh as she continued towards the door. She could recognize the music building up to the biggest scare throughout the play, but she refused to warn Arnold as she opened the front door.
The pizza deliverer barely got to say anything before Arnold's scream in terror interrupted him. Helga laughed loudly and looked through the doorframe and into the living room to see Arnold holding a pillow to his chest and partially his face. "You fucking chicken!" she mocked him and he frowned, but didn't look at her. "Hey, you admitted that you got goose bumps when you read the script!" he retorted. "Yeah, goose bumps." Helga pointed out and turned to give the pizza deliverer his money. "You also know what's going to happen at any time. To me, this is new." Arnold pointed out and then let all his concentration fall to the play.
Once Helga had said goodbye to the pizza deliverer and closed the door, she went back to the living room only to see Arnold's big eyes glued to the screen. He is a little cute when he's scared… She observed in her mind before sitting down and serving the pizza. Wait. That sounded an awful lot like old Helga. She thought with a frown and shook her head before taking a piece. "Arnold, pizza." She reminded him when he wasn't reaching for a piece. Still with his eyes glued to the screen, he managed to take a piece, albeit only because Helga pushed the pizza close enough for him to be able to reach. He started eating absentmindedly and she laughed at the image.
"I wonder who the first to put salad on pizza was…" Arnold muttered all of a sudden and Helga looked at him curiously and smiled as an answer popped into her head. "Probably a vegetarian." She said and he finally looked at her. He gave her a curious look that told her he wanted her to explain her answer. "Oh, come on. No meat-lover is gonna say: you know what this pizza could use?" she asked in a dark voice and held the pizza up in her hand as if she was Rafiki from Lion King holding Simba on Pride Rock. "Salad!" she ended dramatically and Arnold firstly snickered, trying to hold down his laughter in order not to choke on the food in his throat. "What?!" he asked in incredulity. "Then why are we eating it then? We both eat meat."
"We are simply honoring this man's very brave attempt at putting something healthy on one of the unhealthiest sorts of food in the entire world." Helga said and waved around dramatically. Arnold was so surprised at her words that he was laughing loudly. "Hey, it wasn't that funny." She told him, but couldn't help but smile at the fact that he was laughing so loudly because of something she said. "It's just… the way you said it…" he explained and took a deep breath so that he could focus on the play again. He sighed when he could finally breathe again and then took another bite from the pizza. "Wasn't it creepy to act as Aya?"
"Horribly creepy, but I wanted to try and see if I could do it."
"You're doing a good job."
"Gee, thanks." Helga said and laughed when Arnold smirked at her teasingly. The play was coming to an end. Aya had finally realized the father's true intentions: he wished to make her into a doll so that she would forever be young and beautiful. That also meant that she wouldn't be able to move or talk, but still be trapped in her body though. Aya had been running for her life, but had eventually been caught by her father and then the screen went dark. "It doesn't end there, right?!" Arnold asked in horror and saw that Helga shook her head and pointed at the screen. He looked back and the sound of an old clock ticking slowly started. On the scene, sat Aya dressed in a Victorian dress and once the camera zoomed in, you could see that she was now a doll. Arnold opened his mouth in horror as the father caressed her cheek and wished her goodnight after complimenting her new dress.
"That was a horrible ending! So, you're just stuck as a doll for the rest of your life?" Arnold asked and looked at Helga in shock. "Not me. Aya is." She corrected and went towards the TV. "But still… that's horrifying…" he muttered with a frown. "It is a horror, Arnold." She reminded him as he chewed on his pizza like a child having been denied dessert. "Still… Even horrors sometimes have happy endings." He muttered as she took the DVD out of the machine. "Not this one." She told him and he sighed. "Speaking of which; Arnold, you need to remember that the things you do as Aiden has nothing to do with you." she told him and went back to the couch. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I mean…" she said and sat down. "When you are on the stage, when you are Aiden, when you are acting, you are not you anymore. You're someone else. That's the thing most actors struggle with; letting go of themselves on the stage." She said and gave him a grave look. Something in her eyes told him that this was no joke. This was something he needed to remember. "You are not you anymore. I don't want to see Arnold on that stage at any time. When you're on that stage… you're not Arnold."
Author's 2nd note: The play Helga was in when she was acting as Aya is actually a reference to a pixel horror game called "Mad father". If you found the story intriguing, then you should try to play it. You can download it for free :3 You can also watch someone else play it on YouTube (Pewdiepie has played the whole thing for example) Oh, and don't worry: I didn't really give away the ending, there's several of them and the ending in this play was one of the bad ones xD
Song:
Gabrielle Aplin – "The power of love"