Damien gave Penny his hand and she held onto it, her eyes taking in the large building that stood in front of them.
“This is really tall,” she commented as they started to head inside.
“It is one of the oldest and possibly the biggest theaters in the four lands. Similar to how Wovile gave way to the rise of the witches, giving them home, Valeria is where most of the pureblooded vampires originated. The concentration was more in the land of the West before it moved to the East. Land of Bonelake,” Damien educated her with the little history about it.
“I didn’t know that,” she said, walking closer to him when she caught sight of other people in here. It looked as if the town was a deserted one as she hadn’t seen a single soul nearby until they had got in here, “Where is this place?” she asked him curiously. Her voice was not too loud and only for him to hear.
“This is a city that has been abandoned for more than a century now. It was told that the city or the town was plagued by some disease which was actually a curse that a witch placed.”
“But the theater still functions?” her eyebrows furrowed in question.
“Strangely it didn’t affect the theater but if you go look at the town outside, you will see nothing but dust.”
“Why not get it renovated?” the magistrates could demolish a good working village but they couldn’t fix this?
“Even if the buildings are rebuilt, it won’t push the curse away. Unless the curse is uplifted, no matter how many times a person builds and makes it new, the plague will again hit and destroy the lives of the living.”
“So strange,” she commented. She wondered what made the theater special that it still stood tall while letting the other things around it die.
Two women who were standing in the narrow passage of the reception helped them take their coats and went to place their coats on the stand. Damien pulled out a black card which was embroidered in gold color, showing it to one of the women who bowed her head, leading them through and away from the reception.
The walls were made of brown and white in color but the soft lights of candles that were fixed at the end of every wall gave out a soft glow of gold and brown. It wasn’t too dark but there was enough light for one to see what was there. Penny looked up at the ceiling which felt not too far away with the length of the walls which was built decently.
When they entered the main seating of the hall with the stage that stood not too far away, Penny’s mouth opened wide. For someone like her who had worked only in one theater and where she had taken a peek at the night theater once until now, this place looked like heaven in her eyes.
Red seats were placed across the room in a series of lines where she stood. The stage was big enough for one to have enough sectioned rooms to play a long script with different settings in it. But that wasn’t all that this theater was about. Before entering this place, they had stepped down. Taking the stairs as if they were going underground to reach this place. What she had seen outside was the top of the building which was magnificent.
There were chandeliers that were placed at the top, multiple ones with candles that were burning brightly to illuminate the paintings which were at the top of the ceiling. The entire placed illuminated in a color of warm gold low and she had seen nothing like this that made her eyes only continue to look at it.
Damien let Penny take in her surroundings. Giving her the time she needed to enjoy something she had never seen before while he instructed the lady to say what he wanted her to bring when it came to the drinks and food so that they wouldn’t be disturbed later once the play would start.
“Come mouse,” Damien said, slipping his hand to hers and tugging her gently along the empty path as they crossed the series of seats.
“It’s so beautiful,” Penny praised the theater, her green eyes looking wide like a child. She wondered how it must be for the actor and actresses who worked here. She wondered how it would be for her to act here. There were around six people at the front of the stage who sat next to the instruments. Two pianos, two violins, one cello and one which looked like drums.
The place where Penny used to work, there used to be no such facility and she could only envy now on how it would have been if she had worked here before. But then she was living in Bonelake, not Valeria.
“Damien, do you think I can work here for one day. One hour,” Penny asked him, hope-filled in her voice. A long time ago, in the beginning, Damien had denied her from working in the theater.
“Why?” he asked her. His voice lacked any excitement of curiosity in it.
“This place looks so beautiful. It would be so nice to play here with the music and everything else,” Penny like a child was still looking up at the ceiling, her eyes gazing at it while she was being led up the stairs this time.
“Few things are good to look at, not touch or be part of it,” Damien replied back to her and her shoulders drooped down.
“One hour?”
“No,” came the quick reply from him.
They made their way up to one of the private galleries. The room was small but sufficient enough for two people to walk around. On the side table sat two binoculars. At the front stood the balcony-like atmosphere which was half made of glass at the top and the other half at the bottom was the extended wall.
