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Last month's lower-tier drawing was supposed to be just an in-progress TF but, I was running lat so, I decided to make up for it and do a sequence! Hope you like it.


The Story:

Marvin could not believe his luck.

The old Pelzig Theater was going to be torn down and he had a full day to photograph the interior. The current caretaker even so much as told him that, as the developers were philistines, Marvin could take anything he wanted as souvenirs. So lucky.

He loved old theaters. Not cinemas so much as ones that had once specialized in live performances. The Pelzig was one of those. Built in the late 1800s, it had hosted performances from Shakespeare and Dickens to burlesque and vaudeville. It had transitioned to a cinema in the 1940s but, would still hold plays and musicals into the 1960s. And now it was being torn down.

Marvin arrived before dawn to set up his large and medium format cameras. He loved the architectural details, the care that seemed to go beyond just making a place for people to sit and be entertained. It was a testament to the builders that the theater didn’t look all that bad considering it had been abandoned since the 80s. He stood in center stage for a while in silence, letting the history wash over him. He was no performer but, he wondered what it would have been like, standing in the glare of the limelight, playing to shadows.

He shook his head and walked to the back stalls to take his first photo. It would be a ten-minute exposure on his large format Polaroid. Setup took even longer but, finally he was ready and pulled the plunger on the remote. Then waited.

Something, a noise or even just a feeling, made him look to his left and he saw a dim light through a doorway. It was odd as he was the only one in the theater. Curious, he grabbed his Cannonette and walked towards the doorway. When he reached the doorway, he found it wasn’t lit but, that there was now a light farther down the corridor.

Marvin felt no fear, only curiosity as he stalked the light. He checked his camera, winding the film and turning on the flash which whined as it charged up. He turned another corner then stopped.

He was in another corridor but, this was different than anything else he’d seen in the theater. Firstly, it was brightly lit. Brass light fixtures with old-fashioned clear bulbs with huge filaments cast a yellowish light around the hallway. The hallway itself was not even slightly dilapidated. The carpet seemed new and the wallpaper was fresh and bright. The place even smelled fresh; smelling of some sort of insence mixed with distant cigar smoke. There were six doors which he assumed were dressing rooms. Each had a star on the red-painted wood door.

But, even the stars were odd. In the center of each star was a stylized animal head. He saw a fox, a pig, a mouse, a poodle, a rabbit and something that might have been a bear. The door with the rabbit was nearest so he examined the star more closely. It was painted with what looked like real gold leaf and could have been painted yesterday; there was absolutely no sign of wear.

Marvin decided he had to know. Licking his lips, he reached for the shiny brass door knob. It opened very easily with a barely audible click. He opened the door and stepped in…