Nova's shoes were still warm when Luna reached for them.
They sat in the center of the stage like they were waiting to be filled again.
Jasper pulled her back.
"You saw that, right? She didn't run,she didn't fall,she was erased."
Velora twirled beside the piano, humming a new melody.
Casual,Content.
"The script feeds on secrets," she said. "But it thrives on regret."
Luna stared at the burning script in her hand.
Ten pages left.
She flipped through them, hoping for something an escape route, a loophole, anything but the pages were blank except for the next scene heading:
SCENE TWO: The Rewrite
Her breath caught.
Below it, faint and flickering, was new ink forming, not typed,not printed, handwritten
By her.
She recognized her loops,her pressure points.
She can change what happens… but only with blood.
Velora's voice drifted through the stage fog.
"You've always been the author, Luna.
But now? You're the editor."
Luna dropped to her knees and whispered, "Jasper… I think I can rewrite the script."
He knelt beside her. "How?"
She looked down at the shoes,then at her palm.
The line from the dream flashed in her mind:
"Only love can rewrite the death."
She pulled a safety pin from her jacket and pricked her finger.
Blood hit the page.
The ink shifted.
SCENE TWO: The Rewrite changed into:
SCENE TWO: The Undoing
The words blurred, re-formed:
"One erased soul returns if a lie is confessed aloud."
Luna stood and turned to the cast.
"I want to confess."
Velora's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.
The piano played a single note.
Jasper gripped her hand.
Luna stepped forward, voice shaking.
"I lied to my friends," she said. "Back at Crestfall. I told them I wanted to break the curse. But the truth is…
She swallowed.
"I didn't just want to stop Damoné, i wanted to finish the show, i wanted to know how it ended, I was obsessed."
The lights flickered.
Luna kept going.
When the theatre burned down the first time, I wasn't just scared, i was jealous, of Lucinda. Of her tragedy, of her legacy, i too wanted mine.
She shut her eyes.
"I didn't care who got hurt not really, not until it was too late."
Silence.
And then
The violin case opened itself and Nova stepped out of it,breathless,pale but alive.
The entire room gasped.
Even Velora.
The script in Luna's hand stopped burning.
Ten pages remained,no more were lost for now.
Velora's smile tightened.
"Well done, playwright."
But something in her tone had changed.
Not amusement anymore.
Warning.
Backstage, as Luna helped Nova up, Jasper leaned close.
"You changed the rules."
Luna nodded. "But I think she's changing them too."
He looked at Velora.
Who was now holding something behind her back.
Another pair of gloves.
Black velvet.
And long enough to cover an entire arm.