Love Act 1

There was once a girl who dreamed of dancing. When the music played she couldn’t stop her body from moving in time. Ballet was her preferred form of dance, she didn’t feel the pain that other ballerina’s felt as the pleasure she got from dancing was far too great. She was not a well off girl; she didn’t come from a wealthy family, nor a large family, or even a small family. She lived alone, dancing on the streets trying to raise enough money to keep herself alive.

One night when the sky was particularly bright, she was in the middle of a dance routine, the audience around her was gasping at all the moves she gave when she heard the most amazing music swim across the night’s sky. She had never, in all her years heard music that made her feel so. Such a rich melody, such deep emotion, whoever was playing the music was playing from the heart, just as she danced from the heart.

The crowd parted to let the music player through, it was a young man with a flute, he did not come to steal her audience, he came to be the perfect accompaniment to her dancing. He stood off to the side, the song changing every time she moved differently. The music player and the dancer worked perfectly together and the crowd oohed and ahhed as the performance continued.

When the performance ended, the dancer and the music player were showered with more coins than they ever had been before. It was the start of something new, a partnership was formed on the night where the stars were shinning more brightly than ever before. Their performances became a regular attraction, crowds flocked to see them perform, and they started to make a fine amount of money – but they didn’t get greedy, it was still about the passion and the joy of what they were doing.

However, as we all know, good things can never last long. As the partnership between the dancer and the musician evolved first to friendship and then to a relationship there was one man on the side-lines that was not happy. He was a young city Duke who had spotted the fine young dancer many months ago and had decided to court her. True he could have any young maiden he wanted but there was something about the dancer that captured his attention. He rather liked that she would be dependent of him, he wanted to keep her and show her off, he did not love her – she was beneath him, though she did possess a fine beauty.

Then along came the music player, snatching away the dancer and her heart and ruining all the Duke’s plans. He did not take lightly to losing, he had enough money to secure that he always won. It did not matter what the cost would be or what price he would have to pay, he wanted the dancer for himself and no music player was going to stand in his way.

The Duke was devious in his scheme, his standing in the town provided him with many open doors and there was always someone willing to do nefarious deeds for the right price of money. It was far too easy for the Duke to pose as a humble beggar off the street and offer the music player a drink. It was far too easy to watch the music player’s kind thanks as he drank the drink. It was far too easy to sit idle by as the music player chocked on his drink, his eyes glancing frantically about as his life was taken from him. And it was far too easy for him to act concerned and sympathetic as the dancer mourned the passing of her love.

The dancer felt trapped in the coming months, she mourned the loss of her love dearly and did not believe for one second that his death had been a natural occurrence. However, the poor dancer was stuck in a town that was corrupt to the bone and deeply stuck under the Duke’s thumb. They weaved in and out of her life, telling her tales and stories that she tried hard not to believe. Though she wished to escape the presence of the Duke was suffocating her, he wanted to keep her but not love her, show her off but not cherish her, and break her and kiss her.

The Duke felt proud that he had attained his goal, he had offed the music player and captured the prize dancer for himself. None of the town was none the wiser, all believing that the music player had died naturally, and there was no evidence suggesting otherwise. Unfortunately his victory was short lived, one evening when he returned to his residence, he found the dancer dead on the floor.

She’d found the same poison he’d used to kill her love and killed herself. In her hand she clutched a note, it read; ‘I know you’re secret’. The Duke panicked for a second before remembering that the dancer was dead and therefore couldn’t hurt him.

The Duke’s arrogance and self-assurance would be his downfall. Death had been watching things unfold all this time, and he could not stand back and let this continue. The souls of the dancer and the musician were restless.

One evening Death materialised in front of the Duke.

The Duke screamed, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’ he demanded.

‘I am Death, I have come for your soul’ replied Death.

‘Why? I am young, I have plenty more life left in me’ replied the Duke.

‘Your time is up, you forfeited your life’ said Death.

‘I have done no such thing’.

‘You killed an innocent man’ said Death.

‘Pft, no one missed him’ replied the Duke.

‘You are wrong, there was one that missed him terribly’ responded Death.

‘She got over it’ said the Duke arrogantly.

‘She killed herself at the hands of your doing’ said Death, ‘Now it is your turn’.

‘She was mine!’

‘Her love was never yours’ said Death.

‘But I won!’ said the Duke desperately.

‘No, you lost’ replied Death, and Death crept forward, opened his arms and took the Duke with him to the darkest corners of the caves below. The Duke would forever remain between the living and the dead unable to move on from his position until he realised the gravity of the choices he made.

Five hundred years passed for the Duke to realise all his wrong doings and as he took his last breath in the world of in between his eyes landed on a vision of the music player and the dancer, a performance perfectly synced, completely in love, seeing no one but each other and the Duke finally realised that she was never his to begin with, he never stood a chance and he’d ended something so pure and real that he knew he deserved the eternal darkness waiting for him.

With a last look he closed his eyes and was gone.

And the dancer and music player were finally at peace.