The Backstagers and the Final Blackout

by Andy Mientus

  “It couldn’t have been that easy,” Jory said.

  “Let’s take a look around the lobby,” Hunter said. “Maybe there’s a hidden staircase or something.”

  They exited the car and began to scour the room. Beckett made his way over to the reception desk, where he found a typewritten note.

  “You guys,” he called. “You’d better get a look at this!” The Backstagers gathered around as Beckett read the message.

  YOU CAME TO SEEK AN ANCIENT TOME

  BUT IF YOU PLAN TO TAKE IT HOME

  AND GAIN THE KNOWLEDGE IN ITS PAGES,

  PROVE YOUR OWN, UPON THESE STAGES

  “Oh COOL,” Sasha said. “It’s like that movie with the kids looking for the pirate treasure!”

  “Except this isn’t a movie, Sash,” Aziz said.

  “So . . . we have to prove our own knowledge,” Hunter said.

  “The test has already started,” Reo said. “We’re in a trial right now.”

  “We have to make the elevator go,” Hunter said, “and it will take our own knowledge to solve!”

  “Maybe it’s an electrical problem?” Beckett said. “I’ll look for the fuse box!” He walked over to one of the walls and began to inspect each painting and photograph for a hidden compartment.

  “I’ll help!” Sasha said. He searched the opposite wall.

  “Maybe there is some clue back here,” Reo said as he made his way behind the reception desk. The wall was covered in hanging rings of keys and he jiggled each, hoping to find some kind of switch.

  “I’m gonna take another look at the elevator,” Hunter said. “Maybe there is something we missed.”

  “Copy,” Aziz said. “I’m wondering if we’re thinking about this wrong. Maybe the elevator is a red herring and we’re actually supposed to descend to find the Show Bible. That would be some pretty sick design. Maybe there’s a trap door?” He started stomping around the red carpet, listening for the hollow sound of a hidden door.

  “Good thinking!” Hunter called back as he pored over each nook and cranny of the elevator cage for clues.

  Meanwhile, Jory was searching the poem itself, turning over each word in his mind.

  Prove your own, upon these STAGES, he thought. Why would they call them stages? And who is they?

  He sat on one of the velvet couches, just a few feet from the scratchy Victrola, and after a while he couldn’t help but tap his foot to the tune absentmindedly.

  “Everything dah dah totally current . . .” he sang along softly. “Dah dah dah dah . . .”

  He leaped up from his seat.

  “WAIT! GUYS! I know this song!”

  “That’s great, Jor,” Beckett called back as he and Sasha worked together to try to wrestle a huge painting of a flapper girl off the wall. “Maybe you can sing it to us, while you lend a hand?!”

  “This song . . . this lobby . . . the poem.” Jory’s mind was racing. Hunter took notice and emerged from the elevator.

  “What’s the matter, Jory?”

  “The poem said to prove our knowledge upon these stages. We’re not in a lobby, we’re on a stage! This is a set!”

  The others stopped what they were doing and looked around.

  “The set of what?” Aziz asked.

  “This jazz song is from a musical!” Jory said. “My mom used to play the cast album in the car. It’s the title song from Totally Current Billy!”

  “Oh YEAH!” Sasha said. “I remember that from the Tonys!”

  “It’s all about flappers in a Jazz Age hotel!” Jory said. “This is the hotel lobby set from the show!”

  “Great work, Jory!” Hunter threw a beefy arm around his wiry boyfriend affectionately.

  “Is there anything special about the elevator in the show?!” Aziz asked.

  “Oh my gosh, YES! I know how to—” Jory said, before his face fell. “Oh . . .”

  “What is it?” Reo asked.

  “Well,” Jory said, “in the musical, the hotel elevator is a special model that is powered by . . . tap dancing.”

  “Oh,” Aziz said. “Oh crap.”

  “Yeah,” Jory said. “So I really don’t know how to solve that.”

  “No, no, there has to be a way,” Hunter said.

  “Can you enchant our feet, Reo?” Sasha asked.

  “Dude, I’m a witch, not Gandalf,” Reo replied.

  “Well then, what now?” Hunter said. “We’re so close!”

  “Maybe I can construct some kind of device to simulate the taps,” Aziz offered.

  Throughout all this, Beckett’s head sunk so low, it seemed likely to fall off of his shoulders and roll out the front door. He took a deep breath and sulked his way over to the elevator. Once inside, he rubbed his face, straightened his body, and began to shuffle his feet.

  The guys stopped talking as they noticed Beckett performing a perfectly respectable time step. The elevator slowly began to rise.

  “Beckett!” Jory said. “You’re doing it!”

  Beckett stopped the dance and the elevator sunk back down to the lobby level again.

  “I was forced to take lessons as a kid,” Beckett said sternly, “and we are NEVER going to speak of this, ever again.”

  “Deal,” Reo said.

  “Yeah I can handle that,” Hunter said.

  “Beckett, you can DANCE!” Sasha said before Aziz clapped a hand over his mouth.

  “Shall we?” Reo asked.

  The Backstagers entered the elevator once again, and when they were all ready, Beckett began to tap. Jory took Hunter’s hand as they all rose toward the next challenge.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Two days,” Bailey groaned. “Come on, no one is out of cell service for two whole days.”

  Adrienne looked to Chloe, who looked at the carpet. They were sitting cross-legged on either side of Bailey on her bed, offering what support they could. Chloe had rejoined the Penitent Backstagers earlier that winter, and Adrienne had caught her up on Thiasos and the artifacts. Now, they both wished they were as clueless about it all as Bailey so that they might console their friend without lying to her at the same time.

  What were they supposed to say? Tell Bailey not to worry because Beckett was actually in a magical parallel dimension trying to save the world, and in that dimension, time functions differently, so he probably didn’t realize he’d left her on the hook for two whole days? Yeah, no.

  “They’re in tech,” Chloe stressed. “You know how theater kids lose all sense of time during tech.” It wasn’t a lie, exactly, though Chloe’s delivery of the line was about as natural as her dyed silver hair.

  “Not Beck,” Bailey said. “Having a schedule is the only thing that grounds his energy. If he loses track of time, he gets anxious.”

  “But this isn’t a school show,” Adrienne said, “this is professional. Who knows how hard they are working him over at Forest of Arden.”

  “I kissed him,” Bailey blurted out.

  Adrienne took her hand.

  “What?” Chloe said.

  “At the Dance at the Gym. I thought we were ready, but ever since that night he has been so weird. We’ve barely talked, and he keeps making excuses to get off the phone with me and . . . even that night! We were all set to get burgers at Hand Jive and then all of a sudden everyone has food poisoning? I mean, come ON, that’s obviously fake. Adrienne, you were there with them in the Club Room . . .”

  Adrienne turned as pink as her hair.

  “I don’t mean to put you on the spot,” Bailey said, “but please, can you just tell me what actually happened? I won’t tell Beckett you told me, I promise. I just have to know I didn’t, like, screw anything up.”

  Adrienne didn’t know what to say. She stammered for a moment before Chloe said, “Okay, enough is enough.”

  Bailey turned to Chloe, whose eyes shimmered with tears. This had been a long time coming.

  “I can’t lie to you,” Chloe said. “Gosh, after the whole Phantasm thing, I already owe you enough e
xplanations and apologies—but that’s for another time.”

  Bailey was confused. “Chloe, what are you—”

  “There’s something we need to tell you . . . but I think it’s going to be easier if we show you. Don’t you think so, Adrienne?”

  Adrienne let out a deep sigh, because she could feel it, just like Chloe: Now was the time.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I think you’re right.”

  “You guys are freaking me out,” Bailey said. “I’m gonna need some answers here.”

  “Tomorrow,” Chloe said. “While the senior girls are taking their exams, meet us in the auditorium.”

  “The auditorium?”

  Adrienne nodded. “There’s more to the backstage than you know about.”

  CHAPTER 15

  When the elevator slowed to a halt and the doors slid open with a ding, the Backstagers finally understood just how much magic was contained in this tower. Having first dealt with a very ordinary and contained lobby, they were shocked to now be met by a clearing in a dark, dense forest on the night of a giant full moon. The air was fresh and cool like that first night of autumn and dank with the aroma of wood, soil, and pine.

  Hunter swallowed hard, and said, “Well, I guess we’re here.”

  He led his crew out of the elevator, and when the doors shut behind them, the elevator vanished completely. Now there was no evidence that they were in a tower at all. The night sky hung as high over their heads as the sky in the real world, and the sounds of the forest were just as mysterious. Reo pulled his dark cloak a little tighter around himself and looked up at the giant silver-blue harvest moon.

  “At least she’s here,” he said, bowing his head to it reverently.

  “Let’s look around this clearing,” Hunter said. “Maybe there’s, like, a map, or some instruction.” The guys nodded and began to walk around the open clearing.

  “So what show do we think this is?” Jory asked.

  “Um, forest shows . . .” Beckett scanned his brain like a search engine scouring data. “Could be that medieval show Castlelot?”

  “Ohhh maybe!” Sasha said. “Or that Shakespeare one? I don’t speak Shakespeare, but I remember there were fairies and a magical forest and someone turned into a donkey and—WHOA!”

  Sasha suddenly found himself facedown in a ditch.

  “Careful!” Aziz said, rushing over to help his friend up. When he got over to the ditch, though, he froze.

  Hunter kicked some dirt in frustration and called into the night, “Okay! If you’re gonna give us a test, we at least need a clue or something!”

  Jory locked eyes with Aziz and said, “Uh . . . Hunter?”

  “Like, can we even know what show we’re in?!” Hunter shouted. Now Reo and Beckett were staring at Sasha as he dusted himself off. Jory moved toward Hunter slowly.

  “Hunter,” he whispered, “maybe shouting isn’t—”

  “What are you waiting for?!” Hunter cried toward the moon. “WHAT ARE YOU—”

  Jory clasped his hand over Hunter’s mouth. Hunter looked to him, confused, and Jory pointed to the ditch that Sasha had stumbled into. Hunter’s eyes widened because he finally noticed that it wasn’t a ditch at all. It was a footprint. A giant-sized footprint.

  “Wh-what . . .” Beckett stammered, “is THAT?”

  “I know what show we’re in,” Hunter whispered. “Genesius did it my first semester as a Backstager.”

  The sound of distant thunder echoed through the wood.

  “It’s Forest for the Trees, the fairy-tale musical.”

  “What’s it about?” Sasha asked, as Aziz lifted him out of the footprint.

  “It’s, like, this mash-up of all these different fairy tales,” Hunter said as the sound of thunder intensified. Reo looked up suspiciously at the cloudless night sky again.

  “And the characters band together to defeat a rampaging—”

  “GIANT!” Sasha screamed as he pointed upward to the canopy of trees.

  The moon hanging above them was suddenly eclipsed by a massive head and shoulders above the tree line. Several stories tall, the giant’s rosy pink face twisted into a snarl as he let out an angry roar. He wore rustic burlap pants held up by suspenders of thick rope. His untamed red hair and flowing red beard caught the wind and flew about his furious face as if he had a halo of pure flame.

  “Run for it!” Hunter shouted.

  The Backstagers took off in a sprint, slipping into the dark cover of the trees and staying low as they raced away from the clearing.

  “Where are we going?!” Sasha called before Aziz shushed him and whispered, “We don’t know, Sash, just RUN!”

  The giant spanned the clearing in just a few paces and hit the tree line, wading through hundreds-of-years-old oaks and pines as if they were bothersome weeds. The Backstagers were able to keep a safe distance between them and the rampaging beast, though they had no idea where they were going.

  They crested a hill and looked around, trying to decide which way to go.

  “Are we supposed to beat this thing?!” Beckett said.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Hunter said.

  “Well we can’t just run forever,” Jory said.

  “Do we have another option?” Reo asked.

  “How about we hide?!” Sasha suggested as he pointed to a tiny brick cottage a few paces away, hidden among the trees.

  “Makes sense to me!” Hunter said.

  “Wait, how do we know there isn’t something more terrifying living in there?” Aziz asked. But when he heard the crashing of trees and the roars of the giant growing closer, he said, “Oh, whatever. Let’s hurry!” and they dashed up to the cottage’s front door.

  Aziz jiggled the handle, but the door didn’t budge. “Locked!”

  “Force it!” Hunter commanded, and mercifully, with the weight of six Backstagers against it, the door came loose and all six of them fit safely inside. They slammed the door shut behind them.

  Ducking low against one of its windowsills, they watched, barely breathing, as the giant crested the hill and looked around for them, enraged. He began to sniff the air, turning his nose in the direction of the cottage.

  “Crap,” Beckett whispered.

  But then a twig snapped somewhere in the distance and the giant turned his attention toward the sound like a predatory animal. He lumbered off in its direction, and soon, his thunderous stomps faded and the Backstagers exhaled at last.

  “I think we’re safe,” Hunter said.

  “What is this place?” Aziz asked as he turned to look around the cottage.

  The firelight coming from the small stove in the corner revealed simple furnishings, a wooden cellar door dug into the dirt floor, and thankfully, no apparent monsters.

  “Now what?” Reo asked.

  “Hunter, what else do you remember about Forest for the Trees?” Jory asked.

  “The giant is furious because a couple of children stole all the candy from his kingdom,” Hunter said.

  “So . . . we have to find candy?” Aziz said.

  “I have half a candy bar in my back pocket!” Sasha said. “It’s . . . like, butt temperature . . .”

  “No, in the musical the kids eat it all, so the fairy-tale creatures have to come up with another plan.”

  “Do you guys hear that?” Beckett asked.

  Everyone went quiet, and indeed, there was a strange sound echoing from the cellar door. A low sawing sound underneath higher-pitched squeals and hisses.

  “Cool, cool, cool,” Aziz whispered, “monsters.”

  “No, wait,” Hunter said. “I remember this scene. The cottage scene took us forever to tech because the actors kept messing up the timing of ‘The Blaming Song.’”

  “The what?” Reo said.

  “Come on,” Hunter said. “I have a hunch.”

  As Hunter lifted the cellar door, light spilled into the cabin and the sawing noise grew louder, echoing against the brick walls until it was almost unbearable. As their
ears adjusted, though, the squeals and hisses became clearer, and soon they could make them out as voices.

  “. . . but if you had offered the kids some of your candy instead of being such a pig—”

  “Oh come on, Puss, it was my snack after building all day! Have you ever built a whole house?”

  “Leave my brother out of this! You told him where the giant kingdom was!”

  “I wanted to know what it’s like! Curiosity is in my nature! I’m a cat after all . . .”

  The Backstagers descended a flight of wooden steps which led to a dank, earthy cellar. There was a small lantern in the center of the floor, around which three disheveled-looking pigs stood on their hindquarters arguing with a cat wearing very fancy boots and two very plump children in matching Bavarian lederhosen. In the corner, a beautiful girl in a white flowing dress with blond hair and a golden crown was out cold, snoring as loud as a buzz saw.

  “But I left the boy and his sister with a babysitter!” the cat argued, gesturing to the sleeping beauty with his tail. “It’s not my fault she’s so prone to nodding off!”

  “So it’s her fault?” the youngest pig asked.

  “Don’t be stupid, brother,” the oldest pig scolded. “Why aren’t we blaming the children who STOLE AND ATE THE CANDY IN THE FIRST PLACE?!”

  “Once again, my name is Hansel and I am having a growth spurt, thank you!” the little boy said, crossing his arms. “I live in these woods alone with my sister, Gretel. What are we to eat if not candy?”

  “Um, greens?” the cat suggested.

  “Well that’s just offensive,” Gretel said.

  “Uh, guys,” the middle pig said, gesturing to the Backstagers, who stood slack-jawed on the stairs. Hunter stepped forward and began to speak but was quickly interrupted.

  “Great,” the oldest pig said, throwing his hooves in the air dramatically. “Now we have to share this hiding spot with even more children!”

  “I told you pigs to barricade the door!” Gretel said.

  “Nice,” the middle pig said, putting a hoof around his younger brother. “Asking us to do even more labor after you know our other two houses were blown down by that wolf just days ago. Really NICE !”

  “Will everyone please KEEP IT DOWN?!” the princess moaned from the corner, not bothering to open her eyes.