#shoutout to wren and ash for enabling this

[stageplayhero]

The stage is set. The Actor is in his place.

Normally, the manor would be lively on Christmas Eve. Decorations, lights, guests singing and dancing as music filtered through the halls. It is a stark contrast to its current state: dark, quiet, empty.

Mark plans on retiring to his room early. No use in drowning in long distant memories, or even in drink, for that matter. Not tonight. The few staff members he still has are under strict instructions to not disturb him for the remainder of the holiday.

He's alone, as much as he ever is with the Entity that hovers over him. He's sure he's alone.

…Except.

Except it doesn't feel quite as empty as it should. He has a strange, creeping feeling that won’t leave him be. Anticipation, in a way. It isn't a good sense of anticipation, nor can he pinpoint what he thinks is about to happen.

Mark searches the manor for a long time. For what? There doesn’t seem to be an intruder. No more moving shadows than there usually are.

"Is this you?" he asks, issuing the question to the Entity.

A low hum. No other response. Trying not to shiver, he turns on his heel to return to his room.

The telephone mocks him as he passes by. Taunting. Offering. He has paused with his hand outstretched towards it, before he remembers why he can't call any of them. Why he doesn't want to! He doesn't.

The two of them have plans for them. All in good time.

A book is picked up on the way to his chair, now settled in his bedroom. All he wants is a quiet evening with no one to remind him what day it is.

The strange feeling doesn't leave him. He keeps glancing up at the door, uneasy. The clock tick, tick, ticks with a steady heartbeat. Caught in a state between half-sleep and half-alertness, Mark finds his glances lingering on the door in longer stretches.

They weren't dead to begin with. Not in this universe. But time bends and warps and tugs in strange ways, drawing on the future, drawing on alternate paths. Parallel lines beginning to cross.

Anything could happen. Anyone could happen.