9/14

I'm in a small waiting room that is dimly lit by the desk lamps in the corners and four walls decorated with maroon wallpaper with gold trimming. I am reading over a script, even muttering some lines out loud, but not within hearing reach of those sitting next to me. A woman opens a door and calls my name. I timidly step through and into an office. I am greeted by another woman and we shake hands. She sits at her desk and I stand, rigid, holding the script. I tell her I will be singing the theme song from the play Annie, about the sun coming up tomorrow. She smiles and waits. Five slim figures wrapped head to toe in black spandex rise up from the floor in between her and I. They are silent but in complete unison they begin to jump and flail and perform what would be deemed a type of modern dance, nowadays. I do not speak or sing. I watch them and look to the woman at the desk. She sits, still smiling at me, she can not see them. I begin to follow the figures' movements. We spin and leap and flail around the room. The papers from the script are being tossed out of my hand and fall through the air between my movements. We continue dancing until they slow down and sink back into the ground. In the end I am crouched against a wall corner, panting. The woman sits silent. I tell her I am demonstrating my lithe abilities as a dancer to accompany my singing. I rise and suddenly become nervous. I stutter the first note and stop. A knock comes from another door, not the one I entered but one on the opposite wall from the entrance.

The door is small and gold. I am closest to the door so I walk over and grab the knob to open it. The woman suddenly panicks, jumping up from her seat, shouting 'No!' I'm only able to open the door just a crack when something long and bulbous slithers into the room. It is the color of ochre, it resembles a tube worm but wears a collar and bears the face of a man. The woman is screaming and the creature is growing in size and devours her in a single bite. I jolt for the door I entered, and slam it behind me. The remaining people in the waiting room are startled and look up at me cautiously. I smile awkwardly, tip my head in farewell and leave the scene.