The Mere Player's Final Act

Warning! Blood and Gore!

The world’s a stage, and all the [people] merely players: they have their exits and entrances; and one [person] in [their] time plays many parts[…] - William Shakespeare

Act II, Saturday Night at the Forest Behind Laver Manor

Player: Astonia Hart

Entrance: Act I

Exit: ???

Part: The Policeman’s Daughter

The world’s a stage.

I gazed calmly at the spotless scene.

It really was hard to believe that, just yesterday, my manipulative fiancé had been murdered in front of me at this very spot.

“Georgina cleans up quite well,” I murmured to myself.

Georgina. The murderer.

The one who had maimed my fiancé with a stake in a fit of rage after she had discovered he was engaged - and to me, of all people.

The one who my fiancé had cheated on me with.

Georgina Alberns, the mayor’s daughter.

Last night, she hadn’t stopped at murdering him, oh no.

I had watched quietly from behind a stone statue as she had slit his stomach opened with a prepared knife and consumed his intestines in the dark forest behind Laver Manor. I had even recorded her midnight feast.

Of course, I had winced once or twice after Georgina had declared her love for him after the second intestine. The fleshy pink tubes had gone in her mouth as easily as she were slurping noodles. Ramen. 

I shuddered as I remembered the scene [reference: Act I]

You’ll live in me forever, she wailed, her fingers stained with scarlet liquid.

Although being a horror movie fanatic had desensitized me to gore quite a bit, the scene had still left me a tad queasy. I had tried to film it.

Not to blackmail the Alberns, no. I had no interest in coup d’etat-ing the Alberns from their throne. Besides, Benjamin Laver hadn’t exactly been a good person - to put it frankly, I hated the man. I had just wanted a shred of evidence, just in case Georgina attempted anything against me in the near future.

I had been the only witness who had fled the scene after accidentally deleting the shaky footage, so I had no evidence nor right to accusation.

Now, I had nothing other than the fact that Georgina didn’t know there was a witness.

Pro: Ben, the crappy human being that he was, had died.

Con: I had become the witness of a murder that had never occured.

Returning the next night, I frowned at the leafy earth - none of the surrounding foliage had any trace of the gore-y scene that had folded out, and the stone lion statue (one of the many that had been scattered conveniently through the grounds) was left unblemished.

Armed with the luminol spray I had nabbed from the forensic lab after visiting my father, I quickly spilled it evenly over the scene. The leaves that radiated a blue glow, no matter how slight, were quickly plucked into a prepared basket.

This should be enough evidence, just in case.

I was tempted to slit open Georgina’s stomach and wrest the digested bits of intestine from her, but this would have to do.

Slinging the picnic basket of leaves, I left, ready to continue my act of grief.

Act III, Sunday Morning in Laver Manor

Player: Astonia Hart

Entrance: Act I

Exit: ???

Part: The Worried Fiancee

“Astonia…You know Ben wouldn’t run, you know he wouldn’t..” As Gertrude Laver blew her nose in a tissue, she looked at me with a distraught expression.

“It was my fault,” I lied. “Ben ran from me, it was me…” Feigning sadness, I let my eyes brim with tears. As Gertrude and I started sobbing, Frank Laver coughed uncomfortably as he patted his wife on her back.

Gertrude’s husband, Frank Laver.

The very person Ben had inherited his crappy personality from.

Before fooling around with half of the mothers in Arisville while he was engaged to Gertrude, he had set up a construction company that had cheated hundreds of Arisvilleans out of their money. He was backed up by the generation-old wealth that the Lavers had obtained as an influential family, and was all in all an incredibly crappy person.

I hated him.

He was the very person who had forced our engagement.

Continuing crying, I threw myself into Gertrude’s arms. I honestly was surprised at how realistic I sounded.

The policemen in front of us looked as uncomfortable as Frank as one of them awkwardly offered a tissue. I took it, blowing my nose loudly.

“So...um..Miss Hart, you were the last person to see Mr. Laver after his disappearance, correct?” The dark-haired one asked after a pause.

I nodded. “Correct…” I hesitated, meaningfully looking at Mr. and Mrs. Laver as if I was scared of something.

One of the policemen caught on, waving them out of the room with a serious-looking gaze. After they had reluctantly left, I leaned closer to the two policemen.

“I-I loved him,” I confessed, “but that day h-h-he said he was going to break off our engagement soon. H-h-he said that I-I was too easy.” I hiccupped, sniffling. “I-I knew I wasn’t the only one was seeing...but I w-w-wanted to marry him either way.”

Keep up the act.

I let bitterness lace my expression. “L-l-love really is blind.”

Covering my smile with a tissue, I almost laughed. I had them.

Hook, line, and sinker.

Act IV, Sunday Evening, Before Dinner in Laver Manor

Player: Astonia Hart

Entrance: Act I

Exit: ???

Part: The Used Pawn

After the policemen returned home, I finished up my lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Laver. They had first been suspicious, but I quickly got them off the scent.

Or, at least, I thought I did.

Finishing off my steak, I made it my task to wander aimlessly as if Ben’s disappearance impacted me greatly. Mr. and Mrs. Laver had given me permission to wander around the halls, and I was familiar with every corner of the Laver Manor.

But when I stumbled upon a strange-looking door, I frowned.

All of the doors in the Manor had been made with coffee-colored wood, but this door was made with a striking ebony. It had never seen it before, but then again, I’d never wandered this far.

Curiosity killed the cat.

I heard familiar voices, and a loud buzzing.

Georgina and the Lavers? I thought they had retired...why is Georgina here?

The voices were in a heated discussion, and I heard the repetition of ‘Ben.’

Did they know? Did they?

I drew closer to the ebony door, reaching for the handle.

Click. Twisting the ornate knob, the door creaked open.

A dark room. I stepped inside, watching the parents of my ex-fiance and his murderer crowd over a grotesque human corpse. The stomach had been pried open, the guts spilling out on a medical gurney as flies rested on them. Ben.

My breath stopped as I saw Georgina’s mouth, bloody and stained with pieces of organ, smile. In her hands was a dark spleen.

“Mother! Father!” she clapped her hands together, dropping it to the ground. “She’s here! Our pawn!”

The two parents looked up.

Gertrude’s mouth quirked. “So you are here.” Her tone sounded cold and mocking, completely different from the mourning mother I had conversed with just hours ago. Her eyes were dead and devoid of emotion. Ice.

Frank’s expression was completely the opposite, cheery and bright unlike his usual awkward cold personality.

They-

I clambered for the exit, shaking the knob desperately. Locked. 

So they knew? Georgina had called me a pawn…that meant…

The Lavers watched my expressions change.

Gertrude laughed. “So you know. You were playing into our hands all along.”

Frank excitedly smiled. “Do we get to cut her open? Do we?” His tone was that of an excited child, looking forward to a piece of candy. It was then that I spied a scalpel in his left hand.

Oh no.

“I don’t know what you want.” I slowly backed away. “But I promise, I didn’t see this, I didn’t-”

“Dead people can’t see, Nia.” Gertrude smiled wickedly as Georgina started to advance towards me.

Dead people.

I was going to die.

A shaky smile appeared across my face as Georgina’s cold dead eyes met mine.

The last thing I saw was her smile.

I had been a witness.

I had been a pawn.

"The world really is a stage."

And it was time for my exit.

Player: Astonia Hart

Entrance: Act I

Exit: Act IV

Part: The Witness

Status: Deceased