by Various
After they were gone, Angel decided to have a look inside the next room. The old lock on the shop door gave way with only a little push. Once inside, Angel had to wonder what mess Sam was talking about. The room was the electrical closet, where they stored the extra lighting equipment, and it was a shining example of theater efficiency. The extra lamps were hung in rows on the wall and organized piles of the electrical cords were below them, draped over a metal bar. That was when he noticed a bulge in the curtain of cords. When he pulled them aside, the body of a young woman fell into his arms. There were two puncture wounds in her neck.
A distant roar of applause indicated the first act of Macbeth had ended.
As soon as the lights came up, Giles and Jenny realized that all doors leading to the backstage area were blocked by the house crew, meaning that they would have to find another route. Having to fight their way through the crowd to get outside, they used up half the intermission on their way to meet Angel. After circling around to the back of the theater, they were happy to find him waiting for them with the door propped open. He ushered them in and closed the door behind them.
“It’s the stage crew,” Giles said. “I know,” Angel said. “As far as I can tell, there are only the five of them.”
“Yes,” Jenny said, referring to her program. “A costumer, propmaster, technical director, light designer, and the stage manager.”
“He’s the one I fought last night,” Angel said, taking the program from her and looking down the list of names. “I had a near run-in with him, and I think . . . the light designer, Amy.”
“How do we handle five vampires with innocent people around?” Giles asked.
“Divide and conquer,” Angel replied.
“Can we wait until after the show?” Jenny asked.
“No time,” Angel said. “As soon as the curtain falls, they’re going to kill Xander. And, if I’m not mistaken, I think they’re going to make Willow one of them.”
As if on cue, Willow and Xander appeared beside them.
“Hi, guys!” they said in unison.
“What are you doing here?” Giles asked.
“We’re supposed to be here, trespasser,” Xander replied easily. “What are you doing here?”
“Did you come to wish us luck?” Willow asked. “Because you shouldn’t do that. It’s bad luck to wish good luck in the theater. I don’t subscribe to Elisabeth’s positive view on that subject. Not since I had to go onstage tonight.”
“Listen to Superstition Girl, please,” Xander said, jamming his hands into his pockets. “I’m having enough bad luck as it is. I don’t need any more.”
“Xander, you’re doing fine.” Willow reassured him.
“Which is why we came backstage.” Giles quickly used her comment for his explanation. “To tell you both how marvelously you’re doing.”
“Willow, you make a wonderful witch,” Jenny said, joining in.
They looked to Angel.
“And . . . Xander . . . the scenes changes are . . . going smoothly,” the vampire said.
“Thanks, but you should get back to your seats,” Willow said, trying to hike up the costume that was designed for an actress nearly a foot taller. “The second act is about to begin.”
“Well, then, by all means,” Giles said. “Break a leg, you two.”
“Careful, I just might,” Xander, prophet of doom, said.
Giles, Angel, and Jenny exited through the stage door, making sure to hold it open a crack so it didn’t lock behind them.
“Xander,” Giles heard Willow say with gentle exasperation. “Stop being so negative.”
“Five seconds into the first act I knocked over the entire props table.”
“I’m sure no one noticed,” she said unconvincingly.
“Will, I’m lousy at this job,” he said. “They’ve been giving me busywork, and I still blow it. Summer is supposed to be a break from the nightmare of high school. Yet, here I am, the bumbling fool again. I’m tired of being the comic relief. For once, I’d like to be the hero.”
Once Giles heard Willow and Xander drift away, he led Jenny and Angel back inside. Still careful not to be seen, Angel took them to an area where they could come up with a plan. Safe in the electrical room, they could barely hear the first lines of the second act.
“On the other side of the stage are the dressing rooms,” Angel explained, unrolling a set of electrical plans that showed a layout of the theater. He pointed out the backstage area. “They should be safe during the performance. I don’t think there’s anything planned until after the show. There are two curtained sections behind the stage. The larger curtain covers up the set storage, and the smaller one hides the props table. There are also two booths to the left and right side of the stage.”
“We saw them from the audience,” Giles said.
“The booth stage right is for lighting. I saw the light designer in there earlier. On the left side is the stage manager’s booth. Willow’s been in and out of there with him all evening.”
“What about the others?” Giles asked.
“We passed the costume shop next door,” Angel continued. “I think the costumer is in the dressing rooms right now, but she’ll probably be back in that room for most of the second act like she was for the first. There are two guys backstage, one doing the scene changes and one working the props. Xander alternates between them.”
“We’ll start with the costumer and the one in the light booth,” Giles said. “They should be easiest to kill without witnesses. Then we’ll take on the two backstage, leaving the stage manager for last.”
“I’ll get the one in the light booth and the one moving sets.”
“Which leaves the costumer and propmaster for me and Giles.”
“When we’re done, we’ll meet by the stage door and work out a plan to keep the stage manager away from Willow,” Giles said.
With the beginnings of a plan in place, Angel left the electrical room to go to the light booth. When he reached the costume shop, he motioned back to Giles and Jenny that it was still empty before he continued his mission. Closing the door to the electrical room, they began to hatch their plan.
“I suppose that we should wait a few minutes before leaving,” Giles said as he eyed the room for possible weapons. Between the electrical cords, stage lamps, and various tools, there were many to choose from. While looking the room over, he noticed that the body was still peeking out from behind the cords.
“Or we could hide in the costume shop and wait for her to return?” Jenny suggested.
“If we leave the room now, we could accidentally run right into her,” Giles said as he strategically draped the cords over the deceased actress. No need to announce that we were here, he thought.
“Well, I have my handy-dandy stake in my purse,” Jenny said, holding up her purse to accentuate what she was saying. “How do you suggest we take the costumer out?”
“I suppose the simplest plan would be to pretend that we are lost and take her by sur —”
The door burst open, cutting Giles’s response short.
“Let me save you some time,” the costumer said, standing in the doorway. “I am the one whose death you have been plotting. May I suggest that the next time you plan someone’s murder, you don’t do it in a room that bears the signs of a break-in. You’re just asking for someone to come looking into it.”
Her face switched from mild-mannered costumer to full-fledged vampire.
* * *
“Xander!” Elisabeth’s urgent whisper came from her dressing room door as Xander passed by carrying Macbeth’s crown.
As he approached, he quickly realized that the actress was in her underwear.
Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look.
“Um . . . can I . . . can I help you?” Xander asked, his eyes looking everywhere but at her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said as his face turned a bright shade of red.
“Xander,
look at me,” she said. “There is no place for embarrassment in the dressing room. I need your help.”
He looked up, directly into her eyes. “What can I do?”
“Brenee went to get the nightgown for my final scene, but she hasn’t come back yet,” she explained. “I need you to go find her. Quickly.”
“Got it,” he said and was off.
Running through the theater wings, trying not to make a sound, Xander passed the greenroom before slowing down as he started to cross behind the stage. Onstage, he could hear the murder of Lady MacDuff and her son. From backstage, he could hear his name, again being urgently whispered.
“Xander, where’s the crown?” The voice came from Mel, the propmaster.
Turning, Xander went behind one of the backstage curtains to the props table. He handed the king’s crown to Mel.
“Don’t forget to get the daggers from the murderers as soon as they come offstage,” the propmaster reminded him.
“I’m on it,” Xander said.
Heading to the wings stage left, Xander passed the murdering extras, grabbed their daggers and continued to the costume shop.
En route, he heard Willow calling the name that he was seriously considering changing.
“What?” he whispered back.
“Sam wants you to help with the next scene change. It’s taking Carl too long when he does it himself.”
“Got it.”
In the costume shop, Brenee was nowhere to be found. After a frantic search of the costume closet, he located the nightgown.
On the way to Elisabeth’s dressing room, he stopped by the props table to drop off the daggers.
“What took you?” the propmaster asked.
“Costume emergency,” he replied, showing the nightgown.
“Well hurry back,” Mel said. “I need your help with the flags for the army scene.”
“I have to do the next scene change.”
“Then get rid of that costume, because it’s coming up.”
And off he was again.
“What took you so long?” Elisabeth asked. “Never mind. Where’s Brenee?”
“I couldn’t find her, but here’s the gown.”
He started to go.
“Wait. I need help getting into it.”
“But I have to be ready for the next scene change —”
“If I’m not in this outfit,” she said, “then, scene change or not, the next scene won’t be happening.”
“Point taken.”
She slipped the nightgown on, and Xander began the laborious task of buttoning up the ridiculously numerous buttons in the back.
Perfect, he thought, here I am finally helping a woman with her clothing, and I’m putting it on, not taking it off.
While Xander was looking for the costumer, she was keeping Giles and Jenny busy in the electrical room. The attack started with her flinging a metal stage lamp at Giles, knocking him to the ground. While he was out of commission, Brenee went for Jenny’s neck.
The move was so fast that Jenny didn’t have the chance to grab any kind of weapon, much less reach for the stake that she had in her purse. Pulling at the vampire’s hands, she could feel the muscles in her throat constricting as the vampire choked her. Brenee pushed Jenny’s head to the side, giving herself access to the flesh.
“I don’t know who you are,” the costumer said. “And I truly don’t care.”
As Brenee bore down upon Jenny’s neck, Giles managed to extricate himself from the lighting equipment. Reaching for one of the hanging electrical cords, he grabbed it by both ends and looped it around the costumer’s neck, using it to pull her away from Jenny.
The costumer struggled to get free, but Giles held tight. Jenny removed her stake from its confines and plunged it into the heart of the vampire.
“That’s one,” she said.
Conveniently, there was no door to the light booth, so Angel could watch the light designer as she worked the lightboard. Amy’s back was to him, which would make a surprise assault much easier. He noticed that she had a headset on, so the attack would have to be fast so that she could not warn the others. Luckily, the mouthpiece was in an up position, indicating that she was not transmitting. A quick stab in the back with his stake, and she would be dust.
“You may not have a reflection in the booth window,” the light designer hissed. “But the light you are blocking is casting a shadow on the room.”
The headset was off, and she was up and facing Angel in a flash.
“Good eye,” Angel said.
“Comes with the job,” she replied. “You must be the one that Sam had a run-in with last night.”
“Guilty,” Angel said. “You shouldn’t have taken the headset off without calling for help.”
“I think I can handle you alone.”
“Shall we take this outside?” Angel asked, since the booth was rather small for fighting.
“I’d rather not. I don’t want to miss the next cue. Just one request.”
“What?”
“The audience is on the other side of that window. Can we keep this down so we don’t interrupt the show?”
“Of cour —”
Angel didn’t have time to finish the word before her fist was in his face. The surprise attack caused him to drop his stake.
Weaponless, he returned with a volley of punches to her stomach.
She jumped to the right and hit him with a roundhouse, which he blocked with his arm.
The two broke and circled the booth, facing each other, waiting.
This time Angel started with a kick to her face.
Amy fell back a step, then went at him with her fists in a face-stomach-chest combination.
This was when Angel found his opportunity. Letting loose with his barrage of fists, he backed her closer to the circuit board on the wall. The board had a number of wires attached that fed electricity to the lights above the stage. When Angel had moved her close enough, he took a break from the fists and stepped back, returning with a kick to her chest that knocked her into the board. The electricity coursing through her body knocked her momentarily senseless, giving Angel his opportunity.
Picking up the discarded stake, he plunged it into her heart.
Onstage, the lights flickered, but did not go off. However, the odd lighting effect did not go unnoticed in the stage manager’s booth.
“What is going on over there?” Sam asked. “I can’t raise Amy on the headset. Willow, go see what’s happening.”
“I’m on it.”
“Take a headset with you in case Amy’s is broken.” Willow grabbed one of the cordless headsets on her way out.
When Giles and Jenny peeked around the backstage curtain at the props table, they couldn’t help but notice the amount of weapons stored back there. Silently, they moved back to the other side of the curtain.
“I never realized how violent this play was,” Jenny whispered.
“A vampire is bad enough,” Giles whispered back. “But a fully-armed vampire is even more of a concern. The direct approach will be more dangerous.”
“I have an idea,” Jenny said. “You take him out once he’s distracted.”
Without providing a more detailed explanation of the plan, Jenny moved around the curtain and found the propmaster standing over his table of props.
“Excuse me,” she said, using her voice to its most seductive potential. “I think I’m a little lost.”
“You’re not supposed to be back here,” he said.
“I know,” she replied, moving closer to him, “but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve never been backstage at a real theater before.”
She flashed a smile and let her hair do what it seemed to do naturally.
“Well, Miss, you’ll have to go back outside,” he said, moving toward her. “We’re in the middle of a show.”
“Are you in charge of all the props?” she asked, idly rubbing a hand down her neck.
“Yes, Miss —”
&nb
sp; “Jenny.”
Her smile grew.
His eyes focused on her neck, lips parting.
“Jenny,” he was starting to warm up to her. “Yes, I do oversee the props.”
“And there are so many,” she said. “How do you keep track of them all?”
“Well, it can be difficult —”
Got him.
“— but, I manage,” he continued. “I do oversee a staff.”
While this degrading interaction was taking place, Giles crept up behind the Neanderthal vampire propmaster and, in a moment of irony, picked up one of the daggers.
“And I’m sure that it’s a large staff too,” she said, knowing that Xander was the only staff he oversaw.
The vampire was all but on her neck when Giles brought the dagger down upon his back.
The rubber dagger bent on contact.
With a start, the propmaster turned to find out what had hit him. Jenny pulled her stake out and finished the job.
When Willow got to the light booth, she found it empty.
“No one’s here,” she said into her headset. “It looks like the circuit board is fried.”
“Well, bring up cue seventy-three,” Sam said. “The actors won’t start the scene until the lights change.”
Willow crossed over to the lightboard. She wasn’t exactly proficient at working the system, but Amy had shown her the basics earlier that week. Pushing the sliders, she raised the stage lights.
“That’s not seventy-three,” Sam’s tightly controlled voice said over the headset.
“That’s all that’s coming up,” she said back. “I think it’s only going to be lights up and down for the rest of the show. Amy must be up in the light grid trying to fix it.”
“Well, I wish she would have told someone first,” Sam said.
“Do you want me to stay here?” she asked.
“No,” he replied. “Get Xander to do it. Then go find Amy and see if she needs any help to salvage the rest of the cues.”
“Will do,” she said and left the booth.
It only took her a moment to find Xander, who was in a panic at the props table.
