Chapter Ninety-One: An Unexpected Error
1402 Words
Aran Cyrille
“The audition is in ten minutes. Where the hell are you?”
“On the way!”
The answer came as soon as he ended the call, tossing the phone casually inside his bag.
The tiny house he hurried out of was messy, but what else could be expected when he was the rundown apartment's only tenant?
But, this was not the time.
He grabbed the picture frame that held in pictorial form an older man, a younger girl with brown eyes and ridiculously curly black hair, and a smaller version of him.
“Both of you would probably hit my head with a frying pan if you heard that I was going for an audition instead of studying, but…wish me luck.”
The words were said to the frame; then it was packed swiftly into a worn-out light blue bag with huge markings that worked sort of decoratively with odd alternatives of either; ‘Hafsa’ or ‘Do not touch’.
He grabbed a piece of bread from the counter, probably expired; it had been there a while, passed the two urns on the shelf on the door, but not without planting air kisses, and finally walked out the door.
His phone buzzed again as soon as he was done locking the house, but he did not bother to check it. He merely grabbed his skateboard and skidded off the rails of the apartment complex, an action that warranted not one or two but four reactions by the grandmas around pealing vegetables for ease in selling later.
“You brat!! One of these days, you will fall!!”
“Good luck! Aran!!”
“Stop skidding on the rails! We put our hands there and your board has touched all the streets in this damn province!!”
All the comments were a mix that Aran did his best to ignore.
“Don’t be so hard on him; it hasn’t been that long since Hafsa….”
However, even after two years, some comments held their hardness in ignoring, even if they were not addressed to him.
*
“Two minutes to time? What happened to your promise that you would be on time?”
“I am on time!”
He wiped the sweat from his brow and received the document from his friend, Kian.
They had been to more auditions together than he could count, and they were always neck and neck. Only for him, this was just a start.
He was also a trainee as an idol, something that was going tremendously well for him because, so far, after playing extra roles, this audition would grant him a named one.
With a quick rehearsal of his lines, his name was called in.
This was the final call back for the role in a new series called ‘Of Life & Love.’
He was auditioning for a role as an extra to play the protagonist’s childhood scenes. One that he, as a sixteen-year-old boy, learns to cope maladaptively with the loss of his entire family in an unforgiving environment to who he is currently, a business tycoon devoid of love and set to fall in love with his ‘perfect’ secretary.
Who better than he could act out grief in the applicants? He was a shoo-in, at least; that is what he wanted to believe.
*
True to his words, he passed the auditions, and like magic, his suffering all felt worth it.
It was not official, of course, but the director had shaken his hand and offered the words;
‘Expect some good news soon.’
The first person in whose face he would rub it in was Hafsa’s!
He skipped out of the room, but his friend caught his hand.
“What? How was it?”
“Great! I will tell you all about it later!”
He broke free from the tightening hold of his friend’s grip and rushed to the emergency stairs, where, as soon as he shut the door, he pulled the picture frame carried everywhere.
His good luck charm.
“I did it! My god! Hafsa! I got the role!!”
Obviously, the portrait did not respond. Still, he stared at it.
“The singing gig did not go well last week. Someone definitely sabotaged the set, so I may have to debut next season, and maybe afterwards, I can get bigger roles! But still… this…I was born for this. I mean, I know what you will say, but….”
His throat grew heavy.
“But…”
They were words he would never hear again.
Unjust beatings he would never face again.
Talks he would never have again.
The emptiness seemed only to grow in his focus.
He crouched, his stance no longer able to hold him.
How many auditions did he need to pass for the emptiness to go away?
Was grief not something healed by time? That is what everyone told him, yet…it only seemed to grow more significant the more he waited for the loneliness to fade.
It should have been his turn to deal with the-.
If only he could never hear the sound of rain in his life. Then…he could entirely lie that he was healed and bore no guilt over Hafsa’s accident.
Perhaps maybe then he could go back to how things were.
The stair door suddenly opened, causing him to stand abruptly and forcefully compose himself.
“Oh, sor-,”
A black-gloved hand pushed him back, but not before a furious expression pulled through.
It was as though time had stopped, and he was flying…but just as quickly, the sensation faded when a loud c***k sounded.
‘Huh…’
‘Why am I on the floor?...is that my blood?...it hur….’
‘Why did Kia…fu*k…it hu…rts….’
*
*
“You stupid boy! Whose money do you think you are taking?”
It was Hafsa’s voice that raced his mind.
“Who told you you were old enough to drink?”
Right, his first time drinking with his friends. Hafsa was so upset that she poured cold water on him to sober him up.
God, but where was this?
His memories tasted so vivid that he could sing every word of Hafsa’s worst song for note. If that made less sense, he suddenly recalled the first time Hafsa brought a boy home, coincidentally tied to his first time getting into a fight with someone older than him and the last time she brought a boy home.
Was he dead…did this mean he could see her, see grandpa?
“Oh..no! Oh no, no, no!”
A woman appeared next to him.
Her eyes were a dull green that somehow defeated physics in that they still shone, her hair a curly mass of inky blackness.
“Why are you here? It is not- s**t! s**t! You cannot die! We have to hurry!”
She seemed frantic, as though his death had a meaning larger than he understood.
“Hurry, where? Is there a rush in the afterlife too?”
“In this case, there is!”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him through a green portal look-alike littered with poison ivy.
*
*
*
“Listen, aim there.”
The woman brought up an image of…a woman that resembled her(?) arguing with a man too large to assume human, perhaps… a grizzly bear?
“What is there? Oh god, is that your body? Do you want me to possess you? Can’t I be a boy...or are you secretly a boy? I have read Mangas like this before, so I know my rights.”
“Look, there isn’t much time. Another soul was supposed to go there but I promised to keep you safe until… and now, because of a miscalculation…And my memories, they keep being erased by this world!!”
“What are you talking about? Slow down, I get that you are…grieving me, thank you, by the way, strange lady, but I can’t understand half sentences.”
“Tell her as soon as you can! Tell her who-”
The woman pushed him into the image.
“Tell her _ _ _ you _ _ _!! Please! Otherwise _ _ _ _ _ _ _.”
“What, I can’t hear you?!!”
He yelled after her but just as suddenly, the woman, her look-alike sitting next to the giant, slammed her fist on the table, and warm darkness ensued.
- Writer
