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[ELISE scrambles down from the lighting booth, phone out and trained at DOROTHY and THE PHANTOM . Even if she’s not fighting, she’s got to get some footage of it to look back on fondly…]
[DOROTHY stays focused however. She runs towards the masked figure, but is surprised when they jump up… and remain floating? THE PHANTOM just gives an ominous laugh, which DOROTHY finds more irritating than intimidating.]
[Now suspended by a fly system, they begin to run across the backdrop to the different catwalks, dropping down sandbags and hanging props in an attempt to catch DOROTHY off guard. She nearly does get hit by one of the bags, but it’s quickly sliced in half by her blade, covering her with its contents.]
[DOROTHY]: What is it with you two and sand?!
[She shakes her head, attempting to get it out of her hair. Unfortunately in her disoriented state, she forgets the cracked part of the stage, leading her to walk backwards and find her leg firmly stuck into it. Right as she falls, ELISE rejoins the group on the stage.]
[ELISE]: Aw, look at that… we didn’t even need to do anything…
[THE PHANTOM]: Of course… anyone who does wrong by you will get their comeuppance in the end, my Visi…
[ELISE gives them an invisible smile as they embrace and celebrate. DOROTHY, still stuck, just stares angrily at the duo. She knows the truth. She could say it. She shouldn’t say it. But-]
[DOROTHY]: …They aren’t real.
[ELISE looks over at DOROTHY.]
[ELISE]: Uh, what? What’d you just say, farmgirl?
[DOROTHY]: The Phantom isn’t real.
[The two monsters look at each other for a moment before laughing.]
[THE PHANTOM]: Oh, and what will you say next? That vampires are a myth? Werewolves just a trick of the light?
[ELISE]: Look, I know you’re used to being in made up fantasy worlds, but I don’t need to imagine someone to love me. I have them already~
[She can’t hold back her anger any longer. DOROTHY leaps out of the stage with an incredible blast of wind, and leaps directly for THE PHANTOM … which is quickly thwarted by an impeccably timed rope trick by the masked figure, grabbing her blade and shooting it into the rafters, and a swift kick from ELISE, which sends DOROTHY out into the seats. Much like every other time she’s been tossed, however, no pain occurs on landing. Just the pain of, y’know, being kicked. With her blade so far away, her will to fight twindles considerably.]
[And, with that, for once, the five-note jingle actually seems to make sense.]
[BRONTË]: Elise is your victor. Congratulations.
[ELISE]: THERE we go. About time…
[She looks out into the seats, in DOROTHY’s general direction.]
[ELISE]: I guess you'll never be quite as popular as me...
[ELISE]: Or, popular at all, really!
[She smirks, then turns to find her partner.]
[ELISE]: Did you hear that, Phantie? I won!
[ELISE]: Not like I expected anything else…
[But, when her attention turns to the stage. They’re nowhere to be seen. She looks up in the rafters, or in the backstage area… but. They’ve disappeared.]
[ELISE]: …Phantom?
[She takes another moment, frantically looking around for them- they weren’t in the lighting booth, or… in the trapdoors… why would they be, anyway? This is a time for celebration, not for hide and seek. She’s just, she-]
[Her. She whips around to the seats. DOROTHY has gotten up by this point, having retrieved her blade. ELISE walks over to her, grabbing her arm.]
[ELISE]: What did you do. Where did you send them?
[DOROTHY rolls her eyes, and pushes ELISE off.]
[ELISE]: No, you don’t get to IGNORE ME. Where ARE THEY?
[DOROTHY]: I didn’t do anything with them, Elise.
[DOROTHY]: But…
[She gestures above, up to where the jingles and announcements usually come from. As soon as ELISE looks back down, she’s gone.]
[And ELISE is left alone.]
[Once again.]
[Sometimes, victory can be hollow, with no one to share it with.]