James reached out his hand, looking at Daniel inquisitively.
“What is this?” he asked. He looked down when he heard the sound of coins clinking as Daniel opened his fist.
“I want you to take this, and have a doctor come to see him,” Daniel said.
James looked at him, his eyes wide.
“Specter,” he began, but Daniel raised his hand gently.
“I insist, James,” he said. “Your father is a wonderful man, and I wish to help in any way that I can.”
James’s eyes filled with tears, but this time they were happy, relieved tears. He sniffed and wiped his eyes and held out his empty hand.
“Thank you, sir,” James said, giving Daniel a hearty handshake.
Daniel opened his mouth to say something more to James, but just then a loud, whiny voice resonated through the backstage area. Daniel groaned, knowing before he turned around who it was screeching.
“How dare you,” Allison shouted. Daniel could see that she was holding a red envelop in one hand and a piece of paper in another.
Allison stormed past him in a huff, and Daniel had to jump back to keep her from knocking him over. He started to call after her in protest, but she started screaming again.
“Did you really think to frighten me with such silly threats?” Allison shrieked.
“What on earth are you going on about now?” another feminine voice said. Daniel looked to see Catherine Dross, the actress playing Hermia, and Allison’s bitter rival, standing with her hands on her hips and looking both confused and annoyed by Allison’s outburst.
Allison strode over to the actress, actors scattering to avoid being trampled in her wake. She stopped within inches of Catherine and shoved the letter in her face.
Catherine pushed Allison’s flailing hand away from her.
“I do not have a clue what you are talking about,” Catherine said. “But I will only tell you once to turn around and take your tantrum elsewhere.”
Allison shoved the letter in her rival actress’s face once more. Daniel silently applauded Catherine for keeping her wits about her.
He felt certain that Catherine must want to wring her neck, but she remained reasonably composed, especially for someone who had a crazed, shrieking diva shoving things in her face.
“You are as terrible a liar as you are an actress,” Allison hissed.
Catherine’s face turned red, and for a moment, Daniel believed that Catherine might succumb to her urge to strangle the diva, after all.
“If you think that I will stand here and tolerate you of all people calling me a liar, you are mistaken,” Catherine hissed back.
“And if you think that I will let you get away with making threats such as these, you are as crazy as I have always known you were,” Allison said. For a moment, the rage on her face vanished, replaced by a smugness that said she thought she had delivered quite the clever insult to her rival.
Catherine, however, was not impressed. She closed more of the distance between her and the dramatic actress. Instead of touching her, however, she snatched the paper, which Allison was still holding dangerously close to her face, out of the diva’s hand. Just as she was lifting the page to read it, a distressed, panicked scream rang out.
Without hesitation, Daniel dashed across the backstage area and out into the front part of the theater, following the sounds of the screams.
The room was not yet full, and the first spectators had just begun to take their seats. Therefore, it was not difficult for Daniel to see from whence the screams were originating.
However, the entire cast of the play and the backstage theater employees were also rushing toward the sound, and Daniel had to push his way through to get a clear look at what was causing the distress.
When he did at last reach the woman who was screaming, it took him a moment to see what the problem was. When he did, however, his heart leapt into his throat, and for a moment, he froze.
The large, heavy central chandelier that hung over a large portion of the spectator seats was swaying precariously. That in itself was frightening enough. Upon closer inspection, Daniel could see that it was dangling.
Shaking off his paralysis, he pushed through the crowd and closer to the chandelier. To his horror, he realized that the rope of the counterweight had broken, and that the frayed remains of the rope and pure luck were all that was keeping the chandelier suspended.
At any moment, it was going to fall to the ground and crush anyone who was beneath it.
Without another thought, Daniel sprang into action. He ran to the mechanism that controlled the chandelier and did his best to steady the swaying of the heavy, lit object.
Other people who had been standing beside him in the same state of paralysis seemed to shake off the shock simultaneously and rushed over to aid him.
“Help the patrons get to safety,” he shouted to no one in particular, just hoping someone would hear him and obey. Fortunately, another small group of people did. They began ushering the patrons from the seats directly beneath the chandelier and into the safety of the aisles. Daniel felt the strained and frayed rope start to give, and he could see that their efforts would soon be in vain.
He could hear some of the theater employees calling for Lord Roxbough, and he silently prayed that he and the people struggling to contain the chandelier could hold it just long enough for the Earl to safely lower it to the ground. His prayers, however, were in vain.
Suddenly, the rope snapped, and time seemed to slow. Daniel watched, frozen once more, as the heavy chandelier crashed to the ground. The screams of everyone in the theater registered in Daniel’s ears, but they sounded far away and muffled. People rushed past Daniel, but he did not notice.
He closed his eyes and steeled himself for the carnage he expected to see. He was certain that some of the patrons must have been crushed, and he had to force himself to look. He had, thankfully, been mistaken. Every last patron had been able to make it to safety.
However, Daniel had no time to be relieved. He would have never thought that things could get worse, but he stared in horror as he realized how wrong he was.
The candles which the chandelier had housed had scattered in the crash. Unfortunately, many of them had not been extinguished in the fall, and they had rolled to various areas throughout the auditorium.
Immediately, Daniel could see many small flames beginning to form, and that there were too many of them for anyone to extinguish before the flames spread. Within moments, the flames were rising, licking at the upholstery of the seats, tapestries, and people’s clothing.
The frightened and pained chorus of screams set Daniel into motion once more. He blindly rushed to the nearest flame and began stomping it. He ripped off his coat and threw it over the flame and stomped again.