Bondage story - The Phantom of the Roxy - 53

She didn’t sleep at all for the rest of the night, and when she met her friends in the lobby for morning coffee, she felt groggy and tired. But she had clung to her resolve, and when she was alone with David, Sarah and Tina, she spoke quietly and earnestly to them. It was hard, extremely hard, to open up about her issues, but she did it. She told them about the cruel legacy of her upbringing, the pervading guilt and shame that she had tried so hard to overcome. She made sure they understood that she had no regrets about what they’d done with her, that it was only her own issues that tormented her, and that she was doing her best to fght those feelings.

Her friends understood. They hugged and kissed her, and forgave her for the way she’d behaved the day before. And when they began the day’s rehearsals, everything was all right again between them. Jessica was so happy that tears came to her eyes several times that day.

* * * * * *

The next four days passed swiftly. There were endless preparations to make as Opening Night approached, and they were all working hard until fairly late at night. The Whis- perer, perhaps realizing that Jessica needed to concentrate on the show, didn’t make any appearances or demands. The costumes, when they arrived, ft perfectly, and every- one was more than happy they didn’t have to see Mrs. Crow again. The lighting technician was quick and effcient, and he worked out his cues as they rehearsed with a minimum of direction from Ira. It was looking as though the show was coming together more smoothly than anyone had a right to expect.

Then, three days before Opening Night, Sarah disap- peared.

At frst they thought she was simply late. Perhaps she’d slept in, or wasn’t feeling well that morning. But a quick check of her room revealed that she was not there, and a search of the premises found no sign of her. They were still searching for her when Ira called them together to make an announcement. He looked pale as a sheet, and was so ner- vous he could barely speak. But he told the cast that Sarah had been called home to attend to a family emergency, and wouldn’t be able to continue with the show. Jessica was as- signed her role, Tina was given Jessica’s part, and the un- derstudy had been called to fll Tina’s role.

David and Tina knew something was wrong. They knew Sarah would never leave without saying goodbye, and besides, her purse and all her clothes and possessions were still in her room. They raised a protest and argued with Ira privately, but to no avail.

Jessica had a terrible feeling she knew what had happened to Sarah. Alone, she did her best to fnd a way into the Whisperer’s secret warren of passageways and chambers. The one she had passed through so many times in the darkness backstage couldn’t be found. She had never been sure where it was, exactly, since it was always dark when she’d come through it. Examining the wall carefully with a fashlight, she couldn’t see any difference between one section and the next, and could fnd no hidden switches. She had the same lack of success in the hallway that led to the public restrooms. She knew the wall opened somehow, but it appeared solid, and nothing she did could make it open.

She was frantic and distracted when she was at last forced to give up her search and begin rehearsing the play, this time in the role of Lady Ainsworth. She feared for what Sarah might be experiencing at the Whisperer’s hands, and it was nearly impossible to concentrate on the play. David and Tina were as upset as she was, though they had no idea what had happened to their friend, and rehearsal was a mess. At lunch, Jessica tried to corner Ira and demand that he do something, but he was nowhere to be found. She knew she couldn’t tell David and Tina about the Whisperer without them thinking she was crazy or worse, so she had to listen to their worried conjectures and say nothing. After lunch Ira reappeared, and with a bit more diplomacy than he’d been able to summon that morning, he appealed to all of them to try to put Sarah’s disappearance behind them and concentrate on pulling the show together. The show had to go on, and if Jessica and Tina didn’t get their new roles nailed down by Opening Night, all their work would be for nothing.

They knew he was right. It wasn’t easy, but that afternoon they gave it all they had, rehearsing until late. Nothing felt right, the lines wouldn’t fow as they should, the blocking was all off, and the cast retired feeling discouraged.

That night, Jessica crept into the darkened theater and prowled the shadows with her fashlight. She searched the walls, the back rooms, every place she could think of, but found nothing. She was nearly ready to give up when she chanced to pass a small air vent in a disused prop room and heard a distressed cry issuing faintly from it. She dropped to her knees and put her ear to the vent. Again she heard a distant cry of anguish, and she was certain it was Sarah’s voice. She ran to the stairs that led down to the basement, and tried to locate the shaft beneath the air vent she’d been listening to, but ended up getting lost in the maze of clutter and pipes and stanchions and rough walls and who-knew-what that flled the basement. By the time she emerged from her foray, she was covered in dust and cobwebs and had found nothing. When she listened at the air vent again, she thought she heard a muffed sob, though she might have imagined it. She called Sarah’s name into the vent over and over again, but there was no reply. Finally she had no choice but to go to bed.

* * * * * *

The next day was the day they had scheduled the full dress rehearsal. Ira re-scheduled it for late afternoon, and spent the bulk of the day running David, Jessica and Tina through their scenes over and over again. The other cast members spend a little time with the understudy, making sure she had her part memorized.

When the cast got into costume and the full dress rehearsal got under way, it went better than anyone had any right to expect. Jessica stumbled over her lines a couple of times, but other than that it went smoothly. Ira called it a night and promptly disappeared before Jessica could get him alone.

The next day they did an extra run-through of the entire play in the morning, and then settled into the chaos of last minute crises that always precedes a show’s frst opening. Ira was a nervous wreck, and the theater’s owner, Thaddeus Hodge, had to take over much of the fnal arrangements. As Opening Night loomed closer, the little theater fairly hummed with tension.

The advertising for the show had been clever and well- timed, and the house flled up completely. There were no less than fourteen reviewers in the audience, Ira assured the actors, so they had better sparkle like diamonds! They could hear the hubbub of the gathering audience from the dressing rooms, and everyone was nervous and jumpy. Jessica sat before the mirror, trying to put on her stage make-up with trembling hands. She was anything but confdent. She tried to let her lines run through her mind, but kept bogging down. It was fve minutes to curtain, and she couldn’t remember the lines! It was going to be a disaster! She was on the verge of panic when David rapped on the dressing room door and stepped in. He looked dashing in his eighteenth-century costume and stage make-up, and he peered intently at Jessica in the mirror. Then he offered her his hand, and when she stood, he suddenly swept her into a hug.

“Relax,” he whispered in her ear. “Tonight, you are Lady Ainsworth. Nobody else. All you have to focus on is who you are. Forget the audience. Forget the lights. You are Lady Ainsworth.”

Jessica took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she nodded gratefully to David, and together they walked into the darkness behind the curtain.

The play got off to a slightly shaky start when one of the local actors fumbled a line and Tina was three seconds late with her entrance. After that it smoothed right out. Like the professional actors they were, the cast put their fears, worries and tensions aside and focused on delivering the best performances they could.

Despite Jessica’s fears that she wouldn’t remember her lines, once the scenes were underway and the other actors fed her their cues with conviction and aplomb, she found that she could respond in kind, the words fowing from her mouth with easy grace and perfect rhythm. She sparkled as Lady Ainsworth, delivering the lines just as she had heard Sarah do so many times in rehearsal, and adding her own subtleties as well. The show went beautifully, every cue dead on target, right up until the last scene. That was when things fell apart. The scene involved only Jessica and David. In it, Lady Ainsworth fnally corners the elusive vampire and declares her love for him at some length. This clears up the misunderstanding between them, and he swears that he loves her, too. Then, when they hug, he cannot resist biting her neck.

That’s how it was supposed to go. The frst inkling that Jessica had that something was wrong was when David wouldn’t come out of the closet. The scene opens with the vampire hiding in a closet, but the doors don’t go all the way to the foor, so his feet can be seen underneath. The audience can see his feet, and so can Lady Ainsworth. She coaxes him out of the closet, and then begins her declaration. The scene began, she pretended to spot his feet, and tried to coax him to come out. But he wouldn’t come out!

She tried opening the closet doors herself, but he was holding them shut. Thinking quickly, Jessica announced that if he wouldn’t come out, then she would tell him what she had to say anyway, and proceeded to declare her undying devotion to a closed closet door. It seemed to be working, providing he came out eventually so they could fnish the scene. She fnished her lines, and still he had not come out. In a desperate attempt to save the scene, she stepped up to the closet doors and fung them wide open, revealing the hidden vampire within.

Only it wasn’t David! The Whisperer stood inside the closet, wearing a costume just like David’s, but with the addition of a hat and a scarf that swathed his lower face.

Jessica stumbled back with a startled cry, but in that mo-ment the Whisperer surged forth from the closet, grasped the top of her strapless gown right between her tightly-confned breasts, and yanked downward sharply. The Velcro that held the back together tore loose, and the entire gown fell in a billowing pool of taffeta and lace around her feet, her naked breasts bouncing for several seconds from the force of her disrobing. The audience roared with a great, collective gasp of surprise.