Chapter 1
"Ok, script. Phone. Headphones. Purse" Euryl said quietly as she hurried around her hotel room, taking hurried sips of her ice cold tea that she had made as soon as she'd gotten up at six am. She was dressed and ready to go but she knew she couldn't leave her room without checking she had everything. Sarah would be here in ten minutes to take her to her audition, quite possibly the biggest audition she would have yet.
It was going to be a big budget lavish musical movie directed by Laslo Brennerman himself, who had directed Love and Sin, one of her favourite movies. The title was called Bat out of hell and it was based on the immortal music of Meatloaf and Jim Steinman and a hit international stage show. She had never seen it but the little she knew, she loved. And Rai Lowell, a Hollywood superstar and hero of hers was set to play the lead of Strat, the leader of a rebellious group and her love interest.
She was auditioning to play Raven, the sweet but headstrong daughter of a powerful business magnate and dictator of the dystropian New York City, whom Hugh Jackman was playing. When shed been sent the script by her agent, she'd found she had a beautiful but challenging song to sing in the middle of the movie and she was wondering if she would be able to do it justice.
Suddenly her phone buzxed and she grabbed it to see the message that had come through.
Good luck, Bach, you're gonna rock it!" It read and Euryl smiled, shaking her head at her dad's chosen style of language.
"I hope so. If I mess up a meatloaf song you can be the first to kill me. Love you." She text back, placing her phone in her handbag. Since she had been given the audition, messages had been flying in non stop to wish her luck from her family to past Co stars and friends. She could only wonder how many more she would get if she managed to score the role. Her phone would probably blow up, she laughed to herself.
Checking one final time her makeup was intact, and adjusting the rocky but formal outfit she had put together for it, she grabbed her bag and headed out, smiling at a chambermaid as she jumped in the elevator. Her nerves building as it descended. Then the doors opened onto an opulent foyer of the hotel with throngs of people rushing around, bellhops carting luggage. She spied Sarah at onxe, leaning against the desk.
"Finally." Sarah grinned as she jangled her car keys. "You look amazing."
"Too much?" Euryl asked, smiling shyly.
"No. You look like Blondie. 70s Blondie. Those producers aren't gonna know what's hit them. Now get your self into the car."
"Blondie was bad, edgy, I'm playing a good girl." She pointed out.
"There's no good in rock. Only badass." Sarah countered as they went through the wide glass doors and towards the car.
"If you say so." Euryl slid into the passenger seat.
"What scene are you reading for?" Sarah asker as she turned the ignition and the engine roared.
"Uh I don't know. I just hope they don't want me to sing straight away. If I sing "Heaven can wait", I'll permanetly traumatise them and break every window."
"No you're gonna blow the roof off and they'll kick themselves every day for rejecting you. You're gonna kill it." Sarah said.
Euryl smiled, knowing she could always count on Sarah to give her a boost of confidence. Then another thought struck be as they drove along the busy New York streets, heading for Kaufman Astoria studios where the auditions were to be held.
"God what if I have to do a scene with Rai for it?" Euryl wondered.
"Then you grab hold of the opportunity, especially if it's the only one you have, and kiss him. And not let go. Is kissing in the script? There's gotta be kissing."
"Yeah and then I'll get dragged away by security and he'll file a restraining order against me and it's cat litter adverts both here and at home. Oh and playing a corpse on Death in Paradise.
"No you'll just stare at him in reality then get escorted out. I still have your reaction taped watching him kissing Emily Chan in Maybe One Day. I still don't know how you didn't melt into the floor right there. Especially when he growls."
Euryl facepalmed, that event crystal clear in her mind. In the scene Rai, playing an exaggerated version of himself, strode into the restaraunt as Emily''s new boyfriend much to the shock of her childhood friend and she still remembered swooning when he had growled "I missed your light." lowly to her after the kiss.
"I'm so not mentioning that to him. I'll just say how I loved Order of Alcántra."
"Fine then I'll mention it for you." Sarah grinned mischievously.
"Oh no you don't." She gasped. "Anyway it'll be a miracle if I even get a call back."
"Hey with Bowie and Freddie Mercury looking down on you, you will." Sarah assured as they pulled into the studio parking lot. Euyrl could feel her heart already racing and she glanced in the mirror. "OK, how do I look?"
"Perfect, you're gonna knock them out. Oh wait!" Sarah said before Eyrul could exit the car. "A little good luck gift."
Eyrul smiled at the tiny box. "Aww sis you shouldn't have.' She grinned, opening it. Then she gasped. "Oh my god is that-?"
"A Ziggy Stardust lightening bolt crossed with the phoenix wings from Queen''s logo? Yep." Sarah replied joyfully as Euryl marvelled at the silver charm hung on a chain.
"I love it." She giggled, already feeling calmer as she turned for Sarah to tie it around her neck. Enveloping her in a grateful hug, she opened the door.
"I'll be here for you whatever the outcome. Good luck sis." Her sister said as she got out.
"Love you!" They echoed before she ran into the reception area.
A young woman sat behind the reception desk, shuffling papers as Euryl approached.
"Hi, I'm Euryl James. I'm auditioning for Bat Out of Hell." She said timidly.
"Ah yeah floor 3, room four. You're the 103rd girl to audition, apparently they've been swamped with applications. I think they're over half way through the auditions."
Her stomach flipped. Great, she either had a long wait or a hell of a lot of competition. Either way she knew she had to push through. She smiled, thanked the girl and ran to the elevator, punching the button labeled three swiftly.
The elevator ascended to the floor and in front of her lay a long carpeted corridor but she found the room immediately. When she entered the waiting area, she was nearly knocked away by the noise and the room full of girls chatting, laughing and doing vocal exercise. Taking a deep breath, she walked in slowly, heading immediately for an open seat near a girl buried in a script.
Sensing that was the best idea, she sat down and opened her script, going immediately for the lyrics to Heaven can wait then deciding on a scene to practice. Scanning the lyrics, she chose the scene where Sloane, her mother, told Raven of the origins of the Lost.
"Nervous?" The girl next to her asked softly, her dark eyes looking merrily at Euryl.
"Very, how many have gone in?"
"98, and they've all come out either shaking with anxiety or smiling like a cat who's got the cream. So it's a gamut of either definitely. blown it or omg I'm so getting it bitches."
Euryl giggled. "Like leave girl bye." She joked.
"Exactly! As if Im not nervous enough." Dani agreed.
"Do you know what we're supposed to sing?"
"Heaven can wait, apparently since I just heard the 98th version of it. Apparently one girl blew the really high note at the end, like the last one. She came out in tears."
"Oh god." Euryl out a hand over her face.
"Oh I'm sure you'll be brilliant. Apparently the next part of the audition is a group challenge and get this, Anne and Zendaya themselves are helping cast it."
"You're kidding!"
"No. And apparently any girl who gets a callback has ascreen test with Rai himself. Both singing and speaking. Laslo wants chemistry and spectacular above anything else."
"No way. No way." Euryl whispered.
Dani giggled. "Absolutely true. I think they're gonna have to give all the girls pulse checks and hydration."
Euryl laughed at the rmabrasisng truth of it and quivered, imagining how amazing singing with Rai would be.
They chatted and laughed for half an hour until Dani was called in. Euryl could feel the panic coming on but warded it off. This was her big break and she couldn't let anything ruin it.
Soon Dani came out and a casting director appeared behind her. "Audition number 102?" She asked as Euryl smiler and stood up.
"Good luck." Dani whisperdd, seemingly unaffected by her audition. Euryl wished her the same back and followed the director inside the panelled roon.
"Hi I'm Euryl James, I'm auditioning for the part of Raven."
:Alright when you're ready." The director said.
Euryl took a deep breath and stood on the cross in the middle of the room. "Screentest for scene seven of Bat out of Hell. " The lead casting director said.
A rapping sound was played and Euryl leapt into the scene. "Don't come in." She called shrilly.
"I told you not to go out there." The casting director read back to her. "Have you said your prayers?"
Euryl gave a mock sigh of frustration. "The sky is watching the sea. the sea is watching the sky. Nothing will ever happen." She lamented, trying to sound dull and not over dramatic. "Don't close the-"
A whistling sounded as a breeze flitted through the imagined window.
"OK, OK. Just get into bed."
"Mom why are they so different? The Lost, I mean." She asked, trying to inject wonderment and curiousity into her voice.
"Because they don't have a mother to love them like I love you."
"Mom," She moaned, recapturing the angst of her teenage years when she wanted nothing but to be away from her parents embarrassing things. "I'm not a kid, tell me. Please?"
")OK. Those people out there in the street? They're mutants. Twenty five years ago, an earthquake hit the city — it toppled buildings, gases filled the subways, people fought for their lives — but they were trapped in a tunnel. And when they came out they were mutants. They’d been poisoned. Their genes had been frozen, now they don’t age. It’s awful. Forever Lost. They’ll never grow up, they’ll never have families. Doomed to be wild and reckless with no one to look after them, no one to love them, and no one to care."
Euryl widened her eyes in awe. "Is that meant to be scary? Because that actually sounds wonderful." She replied, in a dazzler tone.
"Depends on how you look at it. To be forever twenty one, it'd be fucking great." The director rasped, tempting Euryl to laugh ad she strangely became comfortable.
"Mom, you're so inappropriate!" She cried.
"Am fucking not." Read the reply ad out of nowhere a surveying casting director tossed a pillow at her. Age picked it up and threw it back, growing into a mock pillow fight until the sound of shoes came.
"Ssh, it's your dad."
Euryl made to look tense as a male casting director stepped in to read as Falco.
"I'm a lamp, turn me on." The woman deadpanned. "Ouch."
The noise of a motorcycle revving sounded and Euryl started, darting over to an invisible window.
"Get away from the window, Raven. I don't want you near it."
"Why do you hate everyone? you never let me outside. I'm locked in here." Euryl protested hotly, at which she saw more than one casting director perk up.
"Like a good girl." The man replied.
Euryl scoffed, crossing her arms. "You know no one asked me if I wanted to be a good girl. You both just decided for me."
"Do you see what they did to me?" The casting director volleyed back, showing his lacerated face and stepping towards her.
"Hey hey!" The woman interrupted.
"Those people are dangerous. Do you want this to happen to you?"
"No.: She sulked.
"Haven't i given you everything?"
Euryl shrugged in childish stubbornness. A director smirked.
"What more could you possibly want?"
"I don't know. Nothing. Something." She exasperated.
"Anyway it's your birthday darling. Isn't that brilliant?" the director switched his time and Euryl felt more than confident as she set on the next few lines.
"No its not. I'd rather be frozen." She spat.
The woman mock gasped in comedic affect. "It's only twenty years, kid."
"Yeah twenty years in a convent!" She threw back, furiously.
"Cut!" The casting director called as Euryl stepped back, her heart racing and her mind overwhelmed. She had just read for the part and she wasn't feeling sick with nerves.
"OK Euryl we just want you to sing and then we'll be done. Can you sing a few bars of heaven can wait, from any of the lyrics."
"Oh um year sure." She smiled, her confidence begunning to crack as she focused on the middle of the song.
"JUST LIKE A CHILD AGAIN
HEAVEN CAN WAIT
AND ALL I’VE GOT IS TIME UNTIL THE END OF TIME
I WON’T LOOK BACK, I WON’T LOOK BACK
LET THE ALTARS SHINE
It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t run away, none of this would’ve happened.
AND I KNOW THAT I'VE BEEN RELEASED BUT I
DON’T KNOW TO WHERE
AND NOBODY'S GONNA TELL ME NOW AND I
DON’T REALLY CARE, NO, NO, NO
I GOT A TASTE OF PARADISE
IT’S ALL I REALLY NEED TO MAKE ME STAY
I GOT A TASTE OF PARADISE
IF I HAD IT ANY SOONER YOU KNOW
YOU KNOW I NEVER WOULD HAVE RUN AWAY
FROM MY HOME
HEAVEN CAN WAIT
AND ALL I GOT IS TIME UNTIL THE END OF TIME
I WON’T LOOK BACK, I WON’T LOOK BACK
LET THE ALTARS SHINE
LET THE ALTARS SHINE#
Euryl let her voice rise, high and sweet, praying she could hot the high note. When she opened her eyes, she thought she was dreaming but no there were actual tears on the directors faces and sniffing and passing around of tissues. She bit her lip, just amazed she had gotten through it.
"Euryl thank you for auditoning. That was.... incredible. Please take a seat outside and we'll give you our verdict shortly." The female casting director said.
Blood rushing in her ears, Euryl murmured a thank you and walked timidly out, her mind buzzing with the sobbing directors. This felt like a prank, buy at the same time it felt powerful. Maybe she was one step closer to a role of her dreams.
