A deranged man who likes to call himself the Director kidnaps a teenage boy and girl to be his actors. He expects them to perform the six acts of his play without messing up once, or else harrowing pain awaits them.
🥇1st place / The Cosmic Awards
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THE PAPER HAD only one line: Dolion hangs himself. The alternative end, the Director's dream, and probably Genevieve's regret.
Nathan really appreciated that Adelaide didn't speak for a minute, didn't even try to comfort him or anything. Silence. He let the paper down, sighing shakily. He'd seen this coming. He'd told himself he was already half down in the grave, and still it instilled a strikingly different type of terror-the kind so dense and heavy it swallowed his heart like a blackhole.
"Nate . . . I know this is terrible and I can't imagine how scared you are right now, but please don't panic, yeah?" Adelaide finally tried, voice so soft, so mellow, as if Nathan was already dying in front or her. "We won't let that happen. I'll distract him. I have a plan. You won't die."
When Nathan caught Adelaide's gaze, he surprised himself with the capability to contain the desperate need to cry. He nodded.
Adelaide was inspecting Nathan now, frowning. Like she was wordlessly accusing him, like she could read his mind and extract thoughts he hadn't even acknowledged yet.
"Whatever happens," she said, eyes now glinting with a gentle warning, "youdon't jump. I'll never forgive you if you do."
Nathan realized she must've had the thought herself when she'd stood on the chair, noose around her neck: why not end this pain, end this prolonged state of dying? Why not let hearts rest in their chests and bodies in their coffins? Because she feared death and he didn't want to die yet, that was why.
"I won't," Nathan said and he meant it.
Adelaide's stern expression faded, and she laughed in a strained way. "You're gonna make it out," she said, squeezing Nathan's shoulder. It made him wince slightly but he appreciated the intentions anyway. "And you're gonna get the waterbed you wanted- wait, gosh . . ." She quickly took her hand off his shoulder and face-palmed. "That . . . That hurt, didn't it?"
Nathan shook his head. "No. It's okay."
"I'm sorry," Adelaide quickly said. Nathan hoped she wouldn't start with an endless string of apologies. "I didn't mean to."
"I said it's okay." Nathan's heart thumped fast and hard. Fast, fast, fast. It needed to slow down before it'd explode. The blood rushed, and he could feel the heat along his neck and cheeks already. "He's probably gonna call us out any minute now. He won't give us time, I'm sure."
Adelaide glanced at the door. "Yeah, it makes sense."
Two minutes until the Director gave the confirmation: "You have five minutes, my actors. I'll call my heroine on stage first. Then my villain. You don't have anything to prepare."
