Show Must Go On

She sat gazing at herself in front of a large oval mirror, wondering who could be the pale slim person staring back at her. The pale face brightened with glossy makeup and a slim body structure resembling a delicate china doll that was completely adorned with jewelry seemed like it belonged to a complete stranger. But before she could quite figure out the stranger staring back at her, the bell tolled loudly sending chills through her veins.

It was showtime !

Feeling like a complete robot programmed just for this particular task, she began her performance automatically without any fear and doubts. She danced around the stage to the electrifying music that played in the background taunting her feelings; feelings that should not be shown on stage but would have been noticeable to the discernible eye. Bright waves of light glimmered on stage as she spun around lightly in her shimmering dress and opalescent jewels all the while tossing and catching small knives that glinted in the spotlights. And as she spun and twirled around the stage, pirouetting in circles while playing with knives in a way that could make one’s blood run cold, everyone in the audience applauded. All of them clapping, some of them sending whistles in the air and cheering out loud. It was the performance of a lifetime, a dream come true.

But every dream turned into reality comes with a price. Everyday, every week and every year, the performance was the same, the audience were the same and so were the whistles and the cheers. Eons ago, when she was part of a traveling circus, she thought she caught the break of a lifetime when she signed the deal with the manager of this show.

The day after the deal was agreed upon and sealed in what looked like red ink, she gave her last performance as a part of the circus. The moment that she stunned the circus audience by spinning and twirling the knives around her like a thorough expert that she was, she miscalculated (though she couldn’t have) and one of the knives dropped on her neck slicing it open. And that was indeed her last performance in the circus but only first of the many that she was going to give on the grand stage that she had been offered.

As she performed on the glorious stage and received the adulation that she desired from the people in the audience, she felt like she had earned the sweetest fruits of her labor. But the sweetest fruits eventually turned bitter, as her corpse rotted in the grave but her soul danced to the music everyday until she lost count of her performances for the next 300 years.

After all, that is what one received after signing upon a deal with the manager, Ms. Devilin Hellman.