Chapter 73 - Part 1
Silence filled the room where Penny avoided Damien and instead occupied herself looking at the fireplace before placing her eyes on the playbook in her hand. At least there was something to drive away from the awkward silence which had been created after Damien and Penny played something that was not part of the actual play.
He wasn't wrong though. The man Mr. Scrutioner was a spinless man in the play who was indecisive. At first, he wooed Annabeth and then he fell for another woman. The man promised both the woman wherein the end he decided to go with his new love interest. Men like them were really spineless who had no backbone.
Who knew that Damien had the ability to act so well. Remembering the closeness of his face that was a few inches away from hers, his breath falling on hers which had her heart thumping loud enough where she was sure he had heard it in the silent room which was why she was hiding her gaze from him. The cruel master had shown one side of his emotion which had only been part of the play but she couldn't refuse to not acknowledge that he had done a good job which had caught her attention.
Though Penny would have appreciated if he had let her know about them not following the playbook entirely so that she wouldn't have played the character so dramatically.
"Since when did you start playing in the theatre?" she heard Damien's voice float to her ears and she turned to look at him.
She saw him looking at her, his eyes much relaxed as if the entire view in front of him was sinking and consuming in his eyes, "It was two years ago. I was a worker in there who had to play a log of a tree."
"Why a tree?" he c.o.c.ked his head to the side.
"I had only been part of the props where I was delivery items when I was asked to be part of someone's replacement."
Damien appeared to be curious about her progress in the theatrical world, "How did you get into playing from a log of wood to side characters then?"
Penny smiled, "One of them fell sick and the schedule was tight. I had been there the entire month enough to learn the little lines which weren't a lot. Just three minutes."
"Three minutes is a lot," he commented for her to smile. It was true. To be an actor or actress, even a minute on the stage was enough to change the entire course of life. Just that Penny's course of life didn't go the way she wanted it to be.
She could have been given the main roles, to be a well-known actress but before that time could come with a good pay her mother had fallen sick due to which she had to stop going or rather was asked to stop coming due to her irregular time where she had to spend time looking after her sick mother.
"What were your dreams before your mother passed away? Were you hoping to take the lead? Be famous?" asked Damien, his eyes gauging every movement of hers.
"Just have a roof over mine and my mother's head. Enough food for us to pass the days without having to worry we might not have enough. Respect," she whispered.Did it matter if she spoke about it now though? Few dreams were meant to be dreams, thought Penny to herself.
What Penny didn't realize that Damien was an extremely clever pureblooded vampire. To him, the girl was an open book where he didn't even have to change the page as the page turned itself without knowledge. He could see and imagine how her dreams might have slipped through her fingers. Respect, thought Damien to himself. Penelope wasn't a perfect artist but given the time maybe she could have had the potential to turn to a star by her hard work where many men and women of different kinds would have willed themselves to come to see her.
And though it wasn't late right now, Damien had no intention to have her walk in the same path. It wasn't that he had anything against a person being an actress or an actor but he didn't like the idea of a stranger or anyone that matter to have their eyes on this girl.
If there was one thing one had to know about Damien Quinn. He didn't share anything with anyone. And this girl here was off the list for anyone that matters.
To test her, he asked casually, "Do you want to be part of the theater again?" his eyes carefully looked at her lost expression as if she was thinking about something.
Penny wondered if she wanted to be part of it again, "I don't know."
"That's not an answer. It is either a yes or a no, Penny," Damien didn't bother to hint that he was looking for a specific answer.
"No," she replied back to him for him to nod. Not knowing what was going on in that mind of his, she asked him, "Have you been interested in taking part in the plays?" and the more she thought the more questions arose in her mind, "Do you go to see the plays in the theatre?" her question made him ponder, a mischievous smile falling on his face.
"That depends on my mood. Would you like to be a spectator of the theatre?" he asked to receive a surprised look from her. He added, "Not the ones you used to play in. People like us don't go to the theatres like those but we have other ones."
Of course, thought Penny to herself. The pureblooded vampires and the other high society people had their own world of theatre where people like her couldn't even imagine to take part or even take a peek in there.
"Is there a deal in here?" she asked skeptically as there was always one and Damien doing it things for free was something hard to imagine.