The stage is empty. Work lights hum overhead, flattening everything into that familiar gray. Tape marks scar the floor where worlds will appear later. For now, it is only potential…
The floor groans first. Before the lights warm up, before the audience coughs and settles, there is that quiet creak under a technician's boot, a muffled thud as a flight…
The room hums before it fills. A faint buzz of anticipation, like static before a storm. The doors are still closed, but bodies already press gently toward them, a soft…
A light flickers at the end of a narrow corridor. The wallpaper peels like old skin, colors drained to a sour gray. Somewhere in the dark, a slow, wet sound.…
The house lights are low, but not out. You stand at the back of the venue, watching the empty seats glow faintly under the work lights. Rows of possibility. Rows…
It begins as a rustle. Fabric against fabric. A cough caught in the throat. A moment where the air holds its breath. Then someone rises. A chair scrapes. Another body…