When Charlie and Vaggie finally reached the end of the corridor, they discovered a door surrounded by colorful chaser lights that flashed on and off. Charlie gave the door a polite knock and it made the door slowly swing open. The girls went inside.

They were now in a dark room that smelled of velvet but the darkness did not last long, soon more chaser lights flashed on revealing a long hallway and the end there was an opening with two signs pointing in different direction.

The sign pointing left said:

Charlie please go here.

While the sign pointing right said:

Vaggie please go here.

Charlie and Vaggie looked at one another confused for a moment but then shrugged and did as the signs told them to do. Charlie went left and Vaggie went right. Charlie was led down another hallway and she could see a bright light coming from an opened door. What lay behind the door was a dressing room.

A beautifully elegant dressing room, it was Parisian chic that went hand-in-hand with Sage Green. There was French-style furniture, a grand wardrobe, a golden vanity with a crystal mirror surrounded by lights. It was a dressing for an actress, a real professional actress.

"We best get you ready."

Charlie turned around to see Mia standing in the door way.

"You go on in an hour."

"I go on?" Charlie said confused. "Go on for what?"

"It was a surprise. Levana wants you to perform on stage tonight."

"Tonight? But I'm not prepared. I haven't rehearsed."

"Don't worry, it's a play that you know by heart. The Loneliest Heart. You have the lead role."

"I do?"

"Yes and everyone in the theater is so excited to see you. For many this will be the most grand show of the year."

"You mean we're in a theater? A real theater? Like the kinds they use on Braodway?"

"Yes."

Charlie was speechless with wonder upon hearing this. She was actually going to play the lead role in her favorite play and she would be getting ready for the part in her own dressing room, and acting on a real stage, in a real theater. It seemed too good to be true.

"Now hurry, we must not dilly-dally." Mia opened the wardrobe and pulled out the costume Charlie was to wear tonight.

It was a sage-green, silken, Renaissance dress with golden leaf embroidery along the fabric and it came with a pair golden wings to pin on the back. Mia brushed and styled her hair up into a gold-threaded hair net and painted her face with powder, rouge, and glitter before placing a sage-green mask over it. Charlie looked at herself in the mirror, she looked like a fairy. A real life fairy actress. Yet for a moment, she felt like there was nothing not right about this. That there was something missing.

"You look gorgeous." Mia said.

"Thank you Mia." Charlie said.

"Five minutes til curtain."

"Thank you, I'll be ready."

In five minutes, Charlie stepped on to the stage and was in front of the velvet curtains. Then the curtains rose up and she could see a marvelous theater full of people who's eyes were all on her. The audience clapped for her and quickly became silent as the show began. Charlie wasn't the least bit nervous and she performed her part flawlessly, which she found slightly odd due to the fact that she had never practiced but she didn't think on it long. She was too astounded and amazed to think on it. Everything she had ever dreamed of was finally happening.

The spotlight was on her and she danced nimbly all along the stage, she said her lines perfectly and acted with the right emotion. The music from the orchestra below stage completely surrounded her, leading her through each motion, and she swore that she could almost hear it speak to her. That she could hear it say,

"You are a star."

When the show ended the audience burst into applause, cheering all for her. Though no one cheered louder than Vaggie, who sat right up front and not once did she take her eyes off her friend. Charlie smiled down at her and then graciously thanked everyone for their kind praise. She had done it. She had lived her dream. Tonight she was a perfect actress and adored by crowds and crowds of people. It was all she ever wanted and all she ever dreamed of. She thought that surely nothing could have made her happier in her whole life.

So why did her smile suddenly fall when she noticed two empty seats next to Vaggie? Why did she once again feel that something was not right? That something was missing.

"Bravo! Bravo!" Dennis clapped when the curtains fell. "You were magnificent."

"Was I really?" Charlie asked.

"Indeed."

"You were marvelous." The other actors said. "Stupendous. Wondrous. No actor or actress could do any better than you."

"Thank you but you're all too kind." She said. "You all probably did far better. I mean you've been actors longer than I have and your costumes are way more believable and realistic. I mean you all really do look like a goblins and fairies."

She wanted to give her compliments to the make up artist and costume designer because they were better than good. They made the other actors look so grotesque or whimsical, or incredibly ugly or incredibly beautiful. Their wrinkled faces, pointy ears, claws, long teeth and snouts, their wings and twinkling skin, their wild hair that were of colors that you didn't normally see on regular people, their eyes so transparent and mysterious, they were like glass.

"Here, a gift from Levana to congratulate you on your first and successful performance." Dennis handed her a box of chocolates.

"Thank you."

"She's waiting for you back in the garden. She says she wishes to speak to you about something."

"Alright, I'll be there soon. Just let me get unchanged."

She returned to the dressing room and proceeded to change out of the costume and back into her regular clothes. Afterward she took down her hair, washed away her make up, and took a moment to help herself to one of the chocolates. The candies were perfectly lined up and wrapped up in gold wrapper, just like gourmet chocolates. She unwrapped one chocolate and popped it into her mouth. This one had toffee in it, it was sweet and rich.

It brought back a memory too. Some months ago as a special treat, Stella had sent a chocolate box to Octavia and she wanted to share them with Charlie. So everyday, right after dinner, Charlie would take a chocolate from the box, cut it in half, and give Octavia the bigger piece. Octavia would then say that she was a real lady because only ladies ate chocolate from pretty boxes. Though it was kind of hard to picture Octavia as a lady when she had sticky, brown stuff all around her mouth and on her fingers. Still the fact that someone as young as Octavia was willing to share a big box of chocolates like that was pretty amazing from Charlie's point of view.

"I should share these with her." She thought. "She hasn't been feeling very well lately and if her stomach isn't hurting, then these should make her feel better. Then again, Stolas might not approve."

That's when she realized what was missing. Or rather who was missing. Stolas and Octavia had not been in the audience with Vaggie. They had not seen her perform. They weren't here to share her dream with her. Strange, until now she never realized how much she wanted them to be there for a moment like this.

Knock-knock!

"Come in." She said.

The door opened and in walked Alastor.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie asked him.

"I stayed behind to watch the show." He said. "Oh and I brought you a little something, it's what every actress needs after she performs."

With a flick of his wrist, he made a single rose appear from his sleeve and handed it to her.

"Thank you." Charlie brought the rose toward her face and inhaled. It had a scent. A magnificently fragrant scent.

"Sorry it's only one rose instead of a bouquet but I thought you'd like a real flower and Louis could only get his talons on one."

"What do you mean a real flower?"

"I mean none of the flowers here are real. Didn't you notice that the flowers in that garden don't have a smell?"

"You're right." She recalled. "They didn't. I was wondering why."

"Cause they're not real."

"But how can that be? They looked like real flowers, felt like flowers."

"But didn't smell like real flowers. So let me ask you, if you can't enjoy seeing a flower's beauty and its sweet perfume, what's the point of having one?"

She felt like he was trying to make a point about something else entirely. Not just about the flowers.

"You know you are very strange." She remarked. "But very nice. Here, would you like a chocolate?"

She offered the box to him. He looked ready to dry heave.

"No thank you. I detest sugar and confections, remember? Can't stand to even smell them without feeling nauseous."

"Oh sorry." She said taking them away. "I just wanted to thank you for being so nice to me."

"No thanks is needed my dear. I just want to be your friend, that's all."

"But why?" She asked curiously. "Why do you want to be my friend? Why are you always being so nice to me? Why aren't you being this nice to anyone else? Like Vaggie?"

"Well for one thing I'm almost certain that if I gave Miss Vaggie a kind gesture, she would only suspect me of having an ulterior motive and throw that gesture back in my face. Am I wrong?"

"No. Not really."

"As for everyone else, I tried to show them kindness but they didn't believe me. They only believed her when she told them I was a monster and they were cruel to me. So I just let them reap what they sew. But you, you're different."

"How do you mean?"

"You still love your family from the real world, don't you? You don't forget about them completely when you're here, right?"

"No. Why would I?"

"If I get the chance, I'll explain later. For now just know that you have someone back home who loves you and would be completely crushed if you never came back."

"Never came back? What is that supposed to mean?"

There was a sudden change in his demeanor. One that turned from amusement and subtlety to desperation and she could see fear in one of his eyes.

"Just don't stay here and whatever you do, do not give up your heart or your eyes, no matter what she promises you. If you do, I swear you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

"Slow down did you just say give up my heart and my eyes? What the hell is that? Why would I give those up? Are you crazy?"

"Just listen to me. Please! And if you want your friend safe, tell her exactly what I told you. Both of you, keep your hearts and your eyes to yourselves and get out of here! Never come back! Ever!"

Charlie started to get scared. She slowly backed away from him and then she ran. He didn't follow her, if he did Levantine would catch him and he wouldn't be able to help Charlie ever again. For now he could only pray to God that the girl would take his advice. That she would be far wiser than he should have been when he came here all those years ago.