Jules, Novah, and I scoured the entire theater. We were certain that Anton wasn't there. We'd found a mess of what looked like blood on the stage but no sign of our director.

There wasn't any blood, real or otherwise, in the production. The costume and makeup rooms had a lot of various odds and ends, but neither of us remembered seeing fake blood in the back.

Hugh and Kai did a second sweep of every room in the building. When they came back, we'd all moved away from the mess in the theater and into the lobby.

Not long afterward, Samantha and Juan joined us. Samantha kept rattling off conspiracy theories as she paced back and forth. On the other hand, Juan barely seemed bothered that we were starting late. 

An hour later, it still didn't make sense. Anton was never late. His car was in the parking lot, but we couldn't find any trace of him. Carson had finally gone to drive by his house, and we were all waiting on pins and needles for him to return.  

I wasn't afraid of blood, but there was the unpleasant uncertainty that it was either staged or, I shuddered to admit, real. I didn't even want to think about where it had come from if it was real.

The theater door opened. Carson pulled his headphones off his ears as he entered the building. He looked at all of us and sighed.

"He isn't home," he said. "And neither is Jack or Shayna."

My thoughts rushed around. Anton's car was here, and he was not. He wasn't at his home. Jack and Shayna weren't at rehearsal; according to Carson, they weren't at their houses either.

"We've waited an hour," Kai said. "I don't get it. Anton is never this late."

"He's never late, period," I pointed out.

"We should just go," Juan said.

Novah just shook her head. "Sure, he's absent-minded, but he wouldn't forget about rehearsal."

Personally, I wouldn't have described Anton as absent-minded. My father put off doing all types of tasks. Anton would never leave us alone. Something wasn't right.

"The place was unlocked, though," Kai said. "And Anton and Shayna's cars are here."

"Something's wrong," I insisted.

I looked at my phone again. My texts to Shayna, Jack, and Anton remained unopened and unanswered. Not one of them had even seen the texts.

Kai also texted Shayna without success. Jules was texting Lilly. They hadn't received a single response. I'd even gone as far as to text Tasha, and she couldn't get ahold of Anton, Jack, or Lilly either.

Jules looked up from their phone. "Shayna just texted me. She said she had an emergency and was on her way."

"Does it have to do with the blood?" Kai asked.

Hugh shifted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Clearly, something happened. Did she say anything else?"

"Shayna's text said she'd be here as soon as she could," Jules said. "There was an emergency."

Carson looked up from his phone. "I texted Jack again. Nothing."

"Shayna's not picking up now either," Juan grumbled. "This is a waste of time."

"She's mad at you," Kai said. "Of course, she's not picking up for her ex."

I ran a hand down my face. Fighting further was not going to help us anymore. We needed to be united, but we were as divided as ever.

That was why we were expected to fail. We were all here for very different reasons. Only a few of us were here because we liked Shakespeare. The only thing we all had in common was Anton and his play.

"I still think we should leave," Juan said again.

"I wanna know what happened," Carson said. "We all saw the blood on the set."

"I'll say it again," Juan said. "Someone made a mess with costume makeup and didn't clean it up."

He was in denial about the whole thing. At first, he thought Anton and Jack were playing a practical joke. Then he started saying it was a mess after Shayna never showed up.

Samantha wrapped an arm around Juan's waist. "Something happened."

I sighed. "You've said that like ten times. Something obviously happened. The question is, what? What do we know?"

"We know that Anton isn't here, and neither is Jack," Kai listed things off like a detective. "Shayna has been held up too."

"And the blood," Samantha added.

Juan crossed his arms and took a step away from Samantha. "It's not blood."

"Yes, it is," Samantha insisted.

"Would you two stop?" Carson massaged his temples.

We were all confused and frustrated. No one knew what was going on. Fighting about our speculation was making it worse.

We'd called our missing cast members and director too many times. The only thing keeping Hugh from calling the school principal was the potential threat that the school might shut the production down if there was concern about Anton.

My mother was an expert at giving commands and having others follow her. I wished at this moment I had an iota of that talent to command a room without a fictional character to get behind. I could pretend to be brave on stage, but I, Rita Finchyl, was a trembling wallflower in real life.

Hugh tapped my shoulder. "I'm calling Anton again."

He tapped Anton's number on his smartphone, and I could hear the dial tone even though Hugh's phone wasn't on speaker. He held it up to his ear and, a moment later, set it down and sighed.

"No dice," he said and then pantomimed a computerized voice. "The current owner of this phone has temporarily been disconnected."

I heard a car pull up in the parking lot. My heart started beating double time. I peeked out the door but only saw a flash of silver.

A minute later, a woman approached the building. She was of average height and had that perfect platinum blonde hair that was only seen on TV or in movies. It hung around her head in a perfect bob that reminded me a bit of the Broadway musical Chicago or a modern-day Daisy Buchanan.

She wore a short purple dress, strappy silver heels, and a black scarf around her neck. She didn't seem lost. In fact, she seemed to know exactly where she was going.

She opened the door and frowned at our little group crowding the lobby. Her blue eyes seemed on the edge of tears that might threaten to ruin her shimmery silver makeup.

Samantha was the first of us to pick her jaw off the floor and address the stranger. "Who're you?"

It was enough to snap me back to reality. "Don't be rude."

The stranger couldn't have been older than thirty, but I wasn't good at guessing age. I felt like I'd seen her before, but I couldn't place where.

"No way," Novah's voice was barely a whisper.

"Where's Tony?" She asked in a melodic and striking voice.

"Who?" Kai stared at the woman with a bug-eyed expression.

"Tony..." her frown deepened at our blank faces. "He uses his real name with you, doesn't he... Sorry about that. Let me try again. I'm looking for Anton Sterling."

"He didn't show up today," Hugh said.

The woman didn't look impressed and pursed her red lips. "That is so unlike him."

Carson rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we know, lady. Who are you?"

It was the question we were all asking ourselves. She looked like she belonged on a movie set, not in some run-down theater.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm Jamie Skylar."

"The actress Jamie Skylar?" Hugh asked since the pieces had clicked together sooner in his mind than mine.

"Of course, Tony and I have done several productions together," Jamie said. "I thought he told you about me."

Anton had mentioned her once or twice. We just hadn't expected to meet her since she was supposed to be in New York. She'd been in more movie musicals than anyone in the last decade, as well as numerous guest appearances on various TV shows and several Broadway shows.

My brain tried to think of something cool to say, but all I managed was, "Wow... Jamie Skylar."

So, talking to celebrities wasn't my strong suit. I tended to blubber in front of anyone remotely popular. Jamie Skylar seemed less intimidating somehow, but my brain couldn't quite process her here in our theater.

"Aren't you on Broadway right now?" Kai asked.

Her smile brightened as if glad to meet a fan even though, as far as I knew, Kai knew very little about musicals.

"We just closed up our show," she said. "I'm going to take a little sabbatical for the next season."

Juan remained unimpressed. "So, you're a big deal, Ms. Skylar?"

She waved a hand. "My critics and my playbills call me that. All my friends, like Tony, call me Jamie."

"Oh, you're that, Jamie," Samantha said. "Anton is always talking about you."

Jamie smiled, and I thought I saw a little blush creep on her cheeks. I didn't know much about Anton's personal life, but I got the feeling he was a little more than friends with Jamie.

"I got worried since he stopped answering my texts last night," Jamie said. "I decided to pay him a surprise visit, but none of you have any idea where he is."

"We've been trying to reach him for a while," Jules said.

"What about his nephew?" Jamie looked around like he was hiding behind one of us. "Where's Jack?"

"We can't get a hold of him either," Novah said.

"And not for lack of trying," Carson added. "I even drove by both of their houses."

Hugh held up his phone to his ear. "I'll try one last time."

"Tony's poured his heart and soul into this production," Jamie said. "He wouldn't abandon you without good reason."

She was right. There had to be something big keeping him away. Jack's Mom was in the hospital, so maybe we'd find him there, but before I could mention this, Carson dropped his phone with a loud clatter.

"Shit," he said. "I think I know where Jack is."

Hugh retrieved Carson's phone from the floor and gasped when he looked at the screen. I crowded around with the others to read the headline at the top of the local news website Carson had pulled up.

Local Lawyer Arrested on Charges of Aggravated Assault Against His Four Children.

"What happened?" Kai asked.

"Local Lawyer Edward Garrison was arrested at three thirty am this morning on charges of aggravated assault against his son and three daughters," Novah read the first line. "The charges were filed by his seventeen-year-old son after Garrison allegedly fired a gun at a family pet, missing and hitting his daughter twice in the stomach instead."

Jamie gasped, and the rest of us remained silent as we tried to read more of the article. There wasn't much else besides the fact that the investigation was ongoing, and Mr. Garrison was currently being held without bail.

The door opened and shut behind me. I turned to see Shayna dressed in a wrinkled Crestview cheer sweatshirt and rumpled leggings. Her curly hair was pulled back from her face, and her eyes were bloodshot.

"Are you okay?" Jules asked.

"Hey, everyone," she said sheepishly. "Sorry, I'm late. I've been up all night, and I'm exhausted, but I'll do my best to answer all your questions."