After finding the right door, we were led to the backstage hallway by Amy's detached hand holding on to one of her eyeballs. We were startled at first sight as it flashed right through the door, and being paranoid about May did not help, but we snuck inside and found ourselves in the grey hallway. The left side was the bathrooms and water fountains. Straight ahead was the room of props and background art, which was wide open with the light on and revealed everything that was not going to be used, some furniture that looked like it came from woodshop class, and a floor with neon paint splattered all over. All of the actors were inside that room rehearsing and changing. That would be an amazing place to hang out before performing or even in general. But if you walk in and turn to your right, there is a large garage-like door that leads to the actual waiting area right behind the curtains that is dark, narrow, and has a single sofa for lounging and the props about to be used. That garage-like door was closed so we entered the waiting area through the right-side door of the hallway.
Amy's hand and eyeball returned to her as she was lounging on that couch near the drum kit which was waiting to be played. We dropped the rest of the instruments off by it and joined Amy on the sofa, which faced the curtains where the play was about to be in session. With the drama teacher or director doing an intro and the lights slightly dimming, we would softly chat until we join the audience.
"Any signs of May?" Amy asked as we approached.
"Yes," I worried. "She possessed someone and one of us might be next."
"She can take me," Nick boldly stated.
"She's probably not gonna take you just 'cause you said that out loud," Rose told him.
"You would make a good Beatrice," I remarked. "Just a random thought. You have that sass."
"You think I'm some sort of stuck-up feminist or something?" Rose shot back.
"You did only recruit ladies," Amy noted.
"And here we have Hero," Rose hand pointed to Sam's direction. "The naive romantic who can't handle public humiliation."
"I'll give you that," Sam admitted.
"All this talk about the play," Nick suggested. "You all ready to go down and watch the first half? Keep an eye out for May. And if you have to in the literal sense, Amy, go ahead."
"Okay," Amy laughed.
The auditorium lights were turning off so we all got up and walked through the door that led to the part of the stage out of the audience's view. There was a ramp along the same side of the auditorium entrance that led to the two-by-three rows of seats. While we were walking to the back middle row, I was looking for the Gorillaz, but I could not tell they were there because it was already dark and there was a surprisingly large amount of people in the crowd. Right before she could walk up the steps to the back row, Rose paused and hid her face behind her hand as if she was suffering from a migraine.
"Please excuse me," she muttered. "I'll be right back."
She went through the side entrance squeezing through others walking in. We continued to find the best seats, but I was a bit concerned for her.
"That sounded out-of-character," I thought aloud. We then stopped and looked at each other with a horrible realization.
"May!" we whisper-shouted.
Amy held her nose, shut one eye, and blew as the same eyeball shot right out like a bullet. It ricocheted to the wall and out the open doors that Rose left.
"Oh," Nick's face lifted. "So that's how you did it."
"Yuck," Sam giggled.
"It looks like... She's heading towards the elevator," Amy observed from her detached eye.
"I'll get her," Nick suggested.
"Before you go," Sam dug in her purse. "Here's the holy water I promised."
"You're a life-savor," Nick grabbed it and followed Rose out the door.
Amy, Sam, and I chose to sit in an area away from everyone else so Amy could whisper to us everything that was going on. Although we would sometimes get distracted by the performance when it became really interesting. Her eye quickly levitated low on the ground out of everyone's view to detect what she could. Like a drunkard, Rose appeared to be stumbling to a restricted lift at the corner inside the entrance only used for the student stage crew and janitors. The button that controlled the lift required a key to open, so she pulled out a bobby pin and found her way in. Without drawing attention to himself, he tried to stop her from entering but was too late and only the eye made it.
The inside of the lift was dual-coloured under a dying light and silent. They had become Rosemary. Through Rose's reflection on the shiny metal door, she saw May staring back. They began to argue as they went from the lift to the hidden bedroom-like area of furniture and utensils crammed in to make another great hang-out spot.
"I'm glad she gathered the band to come and watch her die," May stated. "And you'll be the one to kill her. I started with the easiest one to possess."
"As if!" Rose switched back. "Unlike you, I still need her."
"You need her to be your punching bag, you poor vulnerable thing. Who will you have left after I do Pazuzu a favour and gas her? Murdoc never had children so she's the next option. That just means the entire band will be affected by his curse."
"The coward didn't even bother showing up himself. That's what you all are! A bunch of cowards! You only know how to tempt people into doing your bidding and could be easily swatted away like flies!"
"You wish it were that easy just to say 'no' to me. Look at who's being dragged to the catwalk."
Amy could only see where they were walking and struggled to read their lips.
"I should have brought an ear with it, too," she realised. "They're getting heated up in there!"
"Where are they going now?" I anxiously asked.
"They're going upstairs now and it looks like they're heading towards the catwalk up there."
I could not take my eyes off of the catwalk above the stage. I had no idea what the two were up to.
"You see this here golf ball?" May continued, summoning a red golf ball with a black skull imprinted from her violet mist. "This is exactly what you're gonna shoot at her. For such a small thing, there's enough gas in here to suffocate all of those suckers down there. I was just going to kill good ole No-Boobs, but then I thought 'why not just kill everybody in the room?'"
"Only I get to poke fun at her stupid nickname!" Rose shot back.
"She's got balls!" Amy accidentally blurted aloud.
Some in the crowd and even some of the actors turned to us. I froze with a stunned expression and Sam blushed so hard, trying to duck under her seat.
"Yeah!" someone in the crowd jokingly agreed. "Go, Beatrice!" Everyone began cheering for the actress that played Beatrice because she has balls, apparently. The actress felt the need to react.
"Finally!" the actress improvised. "Some people with common sense around here!"
"Sorry, guys," Amy whispered to us. "She has a red golf ball in her hand. You said she was out to get you, No-Eyes? I'll make sure I catch it so nobody else panics."
Amy's eye was accidentally caught in the corner of Rose's eye.
"Looks like I dropped one of them," May turned to grab it, but Amy's eye bounced away in terror.
"Let's check on Nick, shall we?" Amy nervously laughed.
The eyeball found its way out of that room and spotted Nick waiting for the lift to come back down after he pushed the button that was still unlocked. He was staring at his phone only appearing to be hologram-calling someone so he would not look too suspicious around the people in the concession stand. The eyeball floated above his phone, catching on to what he was doing.
"Amy!" Nick smiled. "Did you spot her...? Oh, you're just an eye. You can't speak or hear me."
A lady was staring at him ever so confused but looked away to not be caught judging. The eyeball led him to another way upstairs. He ran back to the backstage hallway looking for the other way up. Backstage, he found a blocked stairway that led right to the catwalk. He climbed the gate and landed on the other side. Amazed at his little accomplishment, he continued up the stairs and made sure he was not caught by the actors waiting for their scene, with the help of the area being dark.
Rose found the door with the label "CATWALK" and used the same bobby pin to unlock that door against her will. She opened it and was met by Nick right next to her, startling them both.
"You in there, Rose?" he asked, but the only answer he got was a demonic hiss accompanied with bright blue eyes.
"Sorry if I ruin your dress," he reluctantly splashed some of the holy water in her face, emitting a smokey violet mist that she tried to block with her hands that became claws. May's only option was to escape Rose's body, making her fall to her knees. May's face, now partly melted with eyes glowing white, was revealed to be similar to Pazuzu's.
"Er," Nick began. "Was I supposed to do that?"
"Look what you've done to me," May seethed. "You're really pushing it. I was gonna wait until the band started because I thought you guys could use some smoke for a dramatic effect, but I could just drop this right now."
"I can't believe that water actually did something," Rose stood up, disguising her weariness. "Gimme that bottle."
Nick held out the water bottle for Rose to grab, but she instead pulled out a dagger, sliced the top and dipped it in to soak it with the holy water, scaring Nick.
"Whoa," Nick stammered. "Okay, er, I'll just stand here in case the dagger dries up, I guess."
After slipping off her heels, Rose dashed towards May in an attempt to stab where her heart would be. May constantly dodged and backed up until they were at the centre of the platform. May would slash her with her claws. Because they were fighting long enough for the interlude to commence, May was too distracted to drop the golf ball so they continued until one was terminated. Holy water would fling from the dagger and sting May's skin like drops of acid slowly tearing her apart. Most everyone had walked out of the auditorium to buy some snacks from the concessions, but us remaining Tamarinz stayed and watched in suspense.
"Are the stage crew kids totally missing this?!" Sam asked.
"They were probably dead focused on their cues," Amy thought.
They were actually distracting themselves, messing around and not noticing the fight because nobody ever really uses that catwalk unless it was an emergency. I've been listening to them. Glad they were having fun, though. We can take this ourselves. Suddenly, a stage choreographer came up to us, so Amy hid her face behind her hair thinking her ghostly face was scarier than Sam's white eyes and my pitch-black eyes.
"Hi," she greeted. "Are you the Chimpanzees?"
"Sure we are," I replied.
"Follow me backstage."
"Er, okay..."
Amy, Sam, and I panicked and had to think of something quick now that we could not sneak up to the catwalk to help Rose and Nick. And nobody else is noticing the fight even though they are clearly causing a ruckus with the faintly heard footsteps, rattling, and some sort of leakage. I suppose people generally look down rather than up. What will be of that red doomsday device? What will be of the band?!
...