All I Ask

by KT Webb

He made no attempt to answer this time, but she knew he was listening. “Listen, I’ve kept other people at arm’s length for most of my life. I’m used to removing myself from situations. Thank you for teaching me to feel the music. I know that’s why you came to me. I don’t know if you owed my father a favor or if you thought you were being nice, but you’ve accomplished your task.”

  She started to walk away again, only to be stopped by a gentle hand gripping her upper arm. Her heart thudded against her chest. It was at that moment that she fully understood the depth of her attachment to the unseen man. The feeling was complicated and impossible to define. Aria’s connection to her mysterious tutor was the first of its kind in the eleven years of isolation she’d imposed on herself.

  “Please. . .”

  Aria turned on her heel. She felt the proximity of his body and tried desperately to fight the urge to reach out to him. Her hands moved of their own accord, landing on his chest. D’Angelo stiffened at her touch.

  “You’ve brought me out of my own darkness. I can’t repay you for that. I can repay you for helping me find my voice by going to sleep and actually showing up at the audition tomorrow,” Aria’s hands still rested against the unseen man.

  “You’re ready.”

  “I am, you saw to it. So, I guess this is goodbye then,” Aria fought to keep the tears at bay.

  “No,” D’Angelo pulled her into his arms and held her against him.

  Aria felt the beating heart in his chest, the warmth and desperation in his arms as he embraced her. Suddenly, she knew the affection she felt for him was blossoming into the love she had pushed aside for weeks. She couldn’t love him. He didn’t want to be loved. She breathed in his scent, committing it to memory before she took the plunge. Aria lifted her head and reached up to touch his face. A simple gesture of affection, she thought would be not only anticipated but possibly welcomed. He tried to draw back from her, but it was too late. Aria had already felt the strange and unpleasant texture of scarred skin.

  “Damnit, Aria!” He was instantly out of her reach again.

  “I didn’t know you wou. . .”

  “What? You didn’t know I would be a hideously scarred monster? Well, now, you know.”

  Aria stumbled back at the sting of his words. D’Angelo had only spoken to her in whispers, but now he shouted at her. His anger penetrated the darkness and hit her like a slap across the face. Aria had fallen to the floor when he roughly shoved her away. “That wasn’t what I was going to say, but you’re going to think what you want.”

  Firm hands grasped her and helped her to her feet, “This changes everything, Aria. Everything.”

  “I think you should go. You’re free to continue living in the theater, but we should go back to being strangers. You’ve done what you came to do, now leave before you destroy my opinion of you.”

  Silence greeted her just before a rush of air swept past where she stood. He was gone. Aria walked over to the nearest switch and flipped it on. If she wanted to keep the creature of darkness away, she would have to leave the lights on. Her tears were flowing freely by the time she returned to her apartment and collapsed in her bed. Loss wasn’t a stranger to her, but this felt like something far worse than losing someone she loved to the permanence of death. This was the sting of a rejection she had never dreamed anyone would be in the position to deliver.

  Andrew Overland returned to New York City for the first time in ten years. After his parents and brother died, he was shipped off to London to live with his uncle and simply hadn’t felt the urge to return. He went to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama to complete his education. His experience from New York afforded him a particular reputation that helped him break into Theaterland. After completing an efficacious run on stage in London’s West End, starring in the highly acclaimed Les Miserables, he was drawn back to the place he spent his childhood. The new D’Angelo production was now the most anticipated new musical in Broadway history. He would have been crazy not to audition. Something like this could really launch his career.

  On the way to the Majestic Theatre, it was impossible not to be drawn back to his memories of the childhood he spent engulfed in the arts. His parents were filthy rich and had nothing better to spend their money on than their sons and funding various productions on Broadway. It was that interest that led them to meet an aspiring actress with a hopeful future. Marie Durant was the wife of the most celebrated composer of their time. Andrew often wondered if his parents developed their friendships based more on their obsession with show business. Neither were suited to perform on stage.

  Drew and his twin brother were talented, there was no doubt about that. But their talents landed in different categories. Erik had won the genetic lottery when it came to his musical abilities; he could visualize the music as it played and translated that into a natural ability to compose brilliant pieces that garnered the attention of Alfonse Durant. Andrew had tried not to think about any of those events for years. Now he bitterly reflected on the day that changed his life forever.

  When the twins were twelve, Alfonse Durant invited their family to visit him and his young daughter. He wanted to evaluate the boys. The Overland’s were ecstatic; their sons were special, and soon the world would know. That evening, the boys each spent time with Durant in his music room. Drew went first. He sang a piece from Oklahoma!, and loved watching the composer’s face as he reached every note with the strength and vibrato of a well-practiced singer. At the age of twelve, the ability to sing without flaw was mostly unheard of.

  To say Durant was impressed would be an understatement. The man lavished him with praise for his vocal abilities. But, when the man asked him to compose a short piece, Drew realized he wasn’t going to be the shiny new toy for the composer to mold into a younger version of himself. Of course, Durant wasn’t an unfeeling man and insisted that the world needed talents such as the ones Drew did possess; the damage to the boy’s confidence had been done. Once again, his identical twin would come first.

  It was a source of pride for Erik to tell everyone he was Drew’s older brother. The boys were born three and a half minutes apart, but Erik was first. It wasn’t something he admitted to anyone, but losing his brother hadn’t been as bad as most would think. In a way, it had freed him to live a life outside of the giant shadow cast by the twin who went from his best friend to his most significant competition in the course of an evening. Drew would never know exactly what happened when Erik went into the music room; the only two people who would ever know were dead and gone. All he knew was he went home with parents who forever after saw him as the lesser of their two sons and a smug brother who became Alfonse Durant’s protege. If only they were still alive to see just how much he had accomplished on his own.

  The driver stopped for a red light. When Drew looked up, he saw the sad and vacant remains of the Durant Theater. It reminded him of all the times he had searched for Aria Durant online. The girl was much younger than he and his brother, but she was a force all her own. There was no denying that she had inherited the musical talents both her parents possessed. Drew had kept up with her after both their families were killed, but she would never know. Long ago, he’d set up to receive alerts any time her name appeared in articles online. Over the years, she had all but disappeared from the news. He never found her on any social media platform. As far as he knew, she was still living at the Webber Academy, under the care of Madame Rossi.

  When the car started to move again, Drew stared long and hard at the abandoned theater. The man it once celebrated was dead and gone. The music lived on, but the man everyone had immortalized was nothing more than a memory. Part of Drew felt a sense of relief wash over him; that part of his life was over.

  By the time they arrived at the Majestic, there were lines of hopeful actors waiting to be seen for whatever part they hoped to play. Most of them would never get a chance to audition. A man of Drew’s status didn’t have to wait in a line, he was expected. When he got out of the ca
r, reporters from various Broadway magazines and news publications snapped pictures and asked questions.

  “Mr. Overland, how does it feel being back in the Big Apple?”

  Drew laughed, “It feels like visiting an old friend.”

  “Have you been to visit your family’s graves?”

  Drew managed to keep his composure, “No. I arrived late last night, and this is the first time I’ve left my hotel.”

  Thankfully, he was ushered into the shining golden doors before any more questions could be asked. The theater looked precisely as it had when he had last set foot in it. Everything was perfectly polished; the marble floors were sparkling clean. Drew inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. Now, this felt like coming home.

  “Mr. Overland? Come with me please, the director is ready for you.”

  Drew nodded at the pretty young woman and followed her through the hallways that led backstage. The view of the empty seats from the stage was both intimidating and exhilarating. The orchestra pit was occupied by the musicians who had undoubtedly been practicing the songs to perfection, just waiting for the voices to complete the full magic of the theater. He walked to center stage.

  “My name is Andrew Overland, I will be auditioning for the part of Ben.”

  “Yes, welcome, Mr. Overland. I was pleased to hear you would be auditioning. I daresay you are the ideal candidate for this role in every aspect, now we just need to hear you sing this piece.”

  Drew smiled, one of the reasons he had requested to audition in the afternoon was to give the director a chance to see how many actors would be utterly unsuitable for the role before he arrived to share his talents with them. Now he could see in their faces that the exhaustion had set in, and they were waiting for something to bring them back to life. He would deliver that performance.

  With a nod to the conductor, Drew released the song from his lungs. The anticipated reaction was delivered in quick succession. The director, choreographer, and producer sat forward in their seats as though drawn to his voice. Once he finished, the standing ovation was exactly as he imagined it would be.

  “Bravo!” The choreographer shouted in her heavily accented voice.

  “Stupendous!” The producer offered.

  The director simply applauded. He looked to the other two who take part in the decision-making process, and they huddled together to discuss his performance. They weren’t gathered together long before they turned to face him again.

  “Can you return in two weeks to read lines with the actresses we narrow this down to? We’ll have Christine, the young lady who brought you in, take down your contact information. She’ll give you a call to schedule the callback.”

  “Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to callbacks.”

  Drew left the theater with a lightness in his step that hadn’t been there in years. The name he made for himself in London may be enough to help him break through the curtains of Broadway. Now he just had to hope the less-desirable aspects of his life in London didn’t follow him. This was a fresh start.

  “We’re ready when you are, Miss Durant,” the director prompted.

  The stage lights were blinding. Aria felt the fear begin to take hold of her. She silently cursed D’Angelo for insisting she sing in complete darkness. So many eyes were focused on her, waiting for what seemed like an eternity for her to give the conductor the go-ahead. Aria closed her eyes and swallowed against the voice inside her head that insisted she couldn’t do this without him. She could, and she would. Aria found her strength and gave the anticipated nod to the man with the baton.

  The song flowed from her softly at first, gaining volume and strength as the feeling took hold of her. This time, her eyes were open wide, and she allowed them to travel across the faces watching her from the auditorium seats.

  Patrick Butler hadn’t been expecting Aria Durant to grace the stage at any Broadway production, let alone one he was directing. He licked his lips in anticipation as the woman who so closely resembled her late mother walked onto the stage. She hadn’t called ahead to set up an audition time as the bigger named actresses did. This girl waited in line with the other nobodies in the frigid New York temperatures. Now, he was wholly enchanted by the voice that rivaled the beauty of her face. Butler felt every emotion the way it was meant to be, this girl had known love and loss in a way few others had. The part was practically written for someone like her.

  The fact that he was already considering casting Andrew Overland was not lost on him. There was sure to be the right amount of tension and chemistry between them to make their performances more realistic than he could ever have hoped. He chuckled to himself, the tragedy they shared was likely to inspire pure genius.

  Aria’s audition was flawless. The director asked her to return in two weeks for callbacks and to run lines with the candidates for the role she would be performing opposite. It was a feeling she never thought she would experience; the thrill of playing a lead role on Broadway. Due to the popularity of the show, the casting committee had been tight-lipped about their shortlist of actors and actresses who were being considered for significant roles.

  At the Webber Academy, Aria sought out Madame Rossi to share the good news. Classes were over for the week, so the teacher was a bit more challenging to track down. She wandered the building, thinking back to the childhood she’d spent in those hallowed halls. Many of the teachers were once Broadway stars, some hailed from other parts of the world, but they had all known her parents. Other than the profound sadness she experienced each day in the years following the fire, every memory of her time spent at the Webber Academy was filled with love and happiness. True, she had no family to speak of, but the people touched by her father’s music had become the largest family she could imagine.

  Madame Rossi had already received a call from her old friend Patrick. He was taken with Aria’s performance and had already set his sights on her to take the lead role. There was something else in his voice when he spoke, a hint of a private joke, that led her to believe his decision had already been made. The amount of intense pride she felt was immeasurable. All the hard work Aria had been putting in with D’Angelo had paid off. No matter what came of their time together, at least Aria gained enough confidence to come out of her shell.

  The only thing that concerned Lena was the reappearance of Andrew Overland. When she’d gotten the call from one of her friends in London, she’d hoped he wouldn’t have the opportunity to cross paths with Aria. She could only imagine how painful it would be for the girl to see the twin brother of the boy she once thought she loved. Not to mention that Madame Rossi herself had often reflected on the strange reaction Drew had when he learned his family was dead. There had always been something off about the boy, even when he took classes at the Webber Academy. Her friend in London was checking into some of the things that were rumored to have happened while he was performing there. She eagerly awaited that call.

  Aria found Madame Rossi in her office, reviewing compositions from students. Lena sprang to her feet and enveloped the young woman in a fierce hug. Aria instantly burst into tears of elation, it meant more than she could express to have Madame Rossi’s support.

  “I should have guessed you would already know how it went,” Aria laughed.

  “Patrick called me. He was very impressed by your performance. I daresay you may have the part already.”

  Aria shook her head, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It went well, but I’m sure there were better auditions. Some of those girls have been in a lot of productions.”

  “When are you going to accept your talent?” Madame Rossi wiped her own tears away.

  Aria looked troubled. Sadness interlaced with the joy emanating from the young woman. Her former teacher couldn’t help but recognize the expression from her years of working with Aria. It was the face she made when the loss and loneliness crept up on her.

  “Tell me, how have things been going with D’Angelo? Have yo
u learned any more about him?” Madame Rossi tried to change the subject to something that would bring less pain.

  Aria sighed, “I don’t know that I’ll be seeing him again. We’ve been working so hard to prepare for this audition. He sang with me last night. It was the most beautiful moment, but it didn’t end well. I don’t think I’ll ever know his true identity. I told him to leave.”

  Madame Rossi tried not to portray the relief she felt. She’d lost a lot of sleep over the idea of the two of them spending time together. There were more ways to hurt someone than to cause them physical harm. The young woman had been dealt enough pain for two lifetimes; she didn’t need anyone else to add to it. Now, Aria would not only be stepping out of her shell, but she would also be stepping into the spotlight of a highly anticipated musical. With any luck, her darkest days were behind her.

  “I think this is a good thing. Really. You’ll see.”

  When Aria left the Webber Academy, she felt the old shadows of melancholy weighing heavily on her shoulders. In warmer weather, she would have walked back to the theater; today, she hailed a cab and gave instructions to take her to the Durant Theater.