Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

73. Curtaincall

I hastily put the Emperor's costume over my school uniform after stripping myself of the blazer since that was the easiest to remove of them all. Lucky for me, the Emperor's costume was a coat modeled after the traditional Emperor's clothing, and all I had to do was put that on and button it up to conceal the regular clothing I had underneath. However, the process was still extremely tedious when a single second is as valuable as it was. My heart raced in my chest as my fingers quickly glided from button to button while I looked at the stage with wide eyes, knowing that if I didn't hurry, then blood will be shed and someone will lose their life.

"Why must it come to this?" Muria/Verinel asked out loud on the stage.

In her eyes, tears rolled about, threatening to climb down her cheek at any second. Her emotions felt extremely surprisingly genuine and fitting for the scene, making the climax of the story extremely absorbing. With a quick glance at the audience, I discovered that they were all silent with eyes fixed on the stage.

Hurry up, hurry up. If I don't get out there on time, then that girl will be dead.

Finally, I finished with the last button. I then adjusted the coat and made sure that the sleeves were aligned. Then, with a single and smooth movement of my hands, I pushed the long coat tails behind me into the air as I walked towards the stage.

"I'm sorry," Irina/Mary cried as she brought the dagger before her and started running towards Muria/Verinel.

Their positioning was that Muria was standing on the left side of the stage, which was the closest to me, with Irina quickly closing in on her. Seeing that she had started running, I knew that I needed to move quickly as well. Therefore, I started sprinting.

Even though it was only a short distance from me to the two actors, at most two seconds running, the distance felt extremely lengthy. Although in reality it was probably less than a second from where I was to where they were, time felt as if it had slowed to the point that each millisecond was like a whole minute.

Come on, come on! Just a little bit more! Please get there on time!

I reached out my left hand towards Irina's wrists since she had both hands on the dagger's handle and positioned herself in a manner that the dagger was on the side that was away from the audience with her back somewhat turned in their direction in order to shield the dagger from their view. The purpose of this positioning was that one, it would look genuine since it would appear that the attacker used their body's weight to drive the dagger into the victim, and two, when the dagger makes contact with the victim's body, its blade contracting could be concealed from the audience.

This positioning was what proved to be something that I had miscalculated. With the speed that she was going, I would miss what I had set out to grab with my hands which is her wrist. Therefore, I need to change the direction that I reached in quickly if I wanted to protect Muria and Irina from the consequences of the knife. However, the only problem is, I didn't have the time to calculate where I needed to aim. Therefore, to be safe, I chose to reach my hand further from Irina's body and closer to Muria's. This way, I can guarantee that my hand could reach the dagger.

Like I had predicted, my hand did reach the dagger on time. It was accompanied by a severe pain from each of my five fingers as well as my palm as the white blade of the dagger sliced right through the skin and somewhat into the flesh underneath. However, I didn't cry out in pain although I screamed loudly in my mind. If I were to cry out right now, the character of Emperor Lezus would be ruined and the play would likely be deemed a bust. That can't happen. Therefore, even though there were tears of pain in my eyes, I kept my mouth shut to not allow the desperate howl of pain from escaping me.