Free Facade by Kim Carmichael Page B

to hear.
    His action must have had the desired result because suddenly, she straightened up and the voice he knew she had within her took over the entire theatre.
    The sapling blossomed, grew and dare he say, thrived.
    Her voice was more than perfect and laced with a bit of longing much more apparent than when they practiced on their own.
    In a word, she was spectacular, and he dared anyone in the audience to come to any other conclusion.
    She made it through her first verse, and he didn’t move a muscle as she went into the chorus. The piece was challenging, but would also show off her range if she hit it.
    Her voice heightened and when she reached the note, he practically cheered.
    Nash slapped him on the arm him. “Holy shit.”
    “Damn right.” He leaned back on his heels and watched the rest of the performance. No one else he’d observed had made it to the end of their song, and when at last her last note faded, everything went silent.
    This was the silence of success.
    After the audience seemed to take a collective breath, the one female main judge stood. “Well, Ms. Day, do you think you can contain your nerves enough to be on our show?” The woman held up a thick envelope and the rest of the people in the audience applauded.
    “I made it?” Christine clasped her hands together.
    Erik nodded at the confirmation she did indeed pass the audition. Their hard work paid off.
    “That you did.” The woman went to the stage and handed her the necessary documents.
    “Incredible,” Nash whispered.
    Erik pointed at him. “Will you get the car ready?”
    The woman shook Christine’s hand. “Go backstage and check in, welcome to Stage of Stars .”
    “Thank you!” She pressed the envelope to her chest.
    The woman nodded and returned to her seat. “Good work.”
    “I’ll be outside. How will Christine find you?” Nash asked.
    He stepped back into the shadows. “She’ll have to find me.”
    Christine turned and exited the stage opposite from where he stood. A vantage point he probably needed to get used to now that she was going to be a star.
    * * * *
    In a daze, Christine walked backstage to a table set up for the winners.
    “Congratulations. Make sure you read all the paperwork. You will be back here in a week. Your selected musical genre is inside on a blue card. We will need your song selection in two days. Everything else you need to know is in the envelope. Do you have any questions?”
    Honestly, she barely heard the man and she shook her head.
    She won.
    Yes, she won.
    She was now going to be on the Stage of Stars .
    Before she smiled, spoke or did anything else there was one person she needed to share this moment with, and she had to find him.
    “Follow the darkness.” Her treasures clutched in her hands, she stepped away from the table and turned around. If the darkened theatre was too light for Erik, she needed to delve deeper, into his world.
    First, she looked up. Every time Erik seemed to hide on her, he appeared from the flies, but in this theatre everything was lit.
    People and action were all around her. Light and life. She turned around and out of the corner of her eye caught a pocket of darkness.
    At the moment, she could only go with her instinct and trust he would be there, so she snuck passed some people, dodged some props and went into the way back of the theatre where the light faded with every step she took.
    Since she was a child, darkness and despair came hand in hand. Rooms were dark when there wasn’t enough money for electric bills or when someone was sick. Out on the streets, the darkness was when the bad things happened, unwanted pests scurried about invading her space, she was at risk and left alone waiting for light. The darkness was the unknown.
    Still, she couldn’t stop herself from heading straight into her nightmare, because maybe, just maybe, this time it held a dream. “Erik?”
    Only the far off sounds of people in the theatre echoed around her. Another song