The lion-cheetah laughed loudly to himself. “The headmistress, the number one desirable, and my future bride to be, Anguish the Blood Siren, will be so pleased!”

Mena let out a terrified muffled shriek and convulsed in his arms as he restrained her.

“What’s wrong?” the lion-cheetah asked, suddenly concerned. “Are you having some kind of fit?”

Mena’s mouth broke free of his hands for one quick moment, “Yes, I had to imagine having you as my step-father!”

"Come on," the lion-cheetah complained. "I wouldn't be that bad."

Without warning, Mena bit into his paw, causing him to scream, “Youch! I hope you had your rabies shot, you little brat!”

Escaping his reach, Mena ran as fast as she could in her heels, but the lion cheetah held his hand to his head and summoned his imagicnation. “Slip trip magic, make the floor beneath her rubber so she’ll flip”

The wooden floor suddenly bunched up tightly in front of Mena’s ankle and she tripped over the mound of rubber floor. She fell flat on her face. “Owie zowie,” she moaned dizzily. “Why’d I have to wear heels?”

The lion-cheetah ran to her and scooped her up. “There’s no escaping from me, little girl,” he bragged. “Or your marveliously malevolent mother.”

The lion cheetah chortled to himself, “No one can help you now!”

“Except me!” a flighty, high pitched voice said, nearly squeeing with excitement.

Mena and the lion-cheetah looked up to see Janus standing triumphant in her vicar's outfit.

“Who are you?” the lion-cheetah scoffed, “And why do you think you have a chance against a burly fellow like me?”—he looked Janus over some more and added, “Eat a sandwich skinny and then face me!”

Janus looked innocently to the depths beneath her. “Oh, I don’t need meat on my bones to fight you.”

The lion cheetah laughed, bewildered. “Why?”

Janus’ eyes darkened and a cracked and bony smile broadened on her face.

“I’m the daughter of death himself.”

She snapped her finger bones and the lion-cheetah trembled. His hands turned cold on Mena’s cheeks and he stumbled backwards. Mena watched in utters shock as a pale, white spirit emerged from his paling frozen body. Two fluffy angel wings emerged from lion cheetah’s spirit body and he smiled at them. “Hey thanks, bony girl. I’m free from Anguish’s branwashing spell”—his soul lifted higher towards the ceiling—“wait a minute,” he cried. “Where am I going. Where am I… nooooooo!”

His spirit floated high into the heavens and Mena’s jaw dropped at Janus’ terrifying ability.

“Janus, did you just…”

Janus nodded. “Daddy said, I should never do that, except in the sole case of an emergency.”

Mena’s friend smiled warmly. “It looked like you needed help.”

“I did…” Mena said, still a bit freaked out over what had transpired.

The show must go on...” Janus said with a bony grin.”

“That it shall,” Mena said, her face twitched as she backed away. She thanked Janus and headed towards the stage, deeply thankful Janus hadn’t missed the lion cheetah and taken her life instead.

She heard Tal’s voice clamoring at the foot of the stage. As she climbed up to the balcony of Julianna’s manor, Tal had finished a dry monologue comparing his fair Julianna with the sun. When Mena finally cast her face to the audience, everyone applauded with faces of glee. Everyone except Ta, of coursel. Instead, the prince comedically shielded his eyes, and quipped dramatically. “Much liketh the sun, her visage…and cruel words, burns me with great radiance.”

Everyone laughed causing Mena to drolly remark. “Romulus, Romulus, wherefore art thou, Romulus…” and she rolled her eyes. “No seriously, why do you have to be Romulus?”

Tal grimaced as everyone laughed again, thinking it was part of the play.

“Stop adlibbing,” he grimaced.

Mena stuck her tongue out at him. “You started it.”

There was a loud “psssssttt….” from the left side of the stage. Both players looked, and Electra glared at them with thunder ready to shoot out of her eyes and fry them to a crisp. Both Mena and Tal took this as an ominous sign to stop fooling around. They walked through the rest of their lines with the eloquence of a senile priest reading an obituary, and Mena finally breathed easy when that excruciating dialogue was over.

Once they reached the backstage, Stellaris and Electra both greeted them with incredulous looks. It was impossible to tell which headmaster had wider eyes and a more dumbfounded expression. “What happened to your chemistry?” Electra demanded.

“We don’t have any,” Tal said, and stormed off. “We never did.

Mena turned aside, crossing her arms with a hmmph. She didn’t care about Mr. Pompous Poofy Pants either. The only thing that mattered at this point was present a good play.

Muck to their good fortune, aside from Monkler, who had seemingly left the premises, and the lion cheetah murder, the play ran smoothly. Mena watched tensely on the edge of the stage as Tal and Leo faced off as Romulus and Tyrone, and fortunately, nobody was stabbed this time. Mena didn’t care if Ashlan’s brother punctured him in the abdomen this time, but at least the play wasn’t ruined.

Once they left the stage, she cringed at her own edgy thought towards Tal. Perhaps she had spent too much time dating that edgy prince and his mannerisms had rubbed off on her.

At last, the time arrived for Julianna to fake poison herself with the help of a crafty vicar and some deadlock potion.

Mena breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally, a scene without Tal. Thank the dream goddess. I have so much better chemistry with Janus and I’m not even into dead people.”

“I dunno why,” Janus winked. “Rigor mortis keeps us stiff as a boar….”

“I don’t need to hear that,” Mena said plugging her ears. But once she looked at Janus in her goofy vicars outfit, she gave a very wide, brace-y smile. “Performing with Janus will be a breeze.”

She plugged her nose as Janus walked by. “A very stinky post-mortem breeze.”

As Mena mounted the stage, there was an odd chill in the air. Night had fallen and darkness tinted everything with its greys and shadows. Janus didn't seem to notice the pinpricking chill, and Mena figured, it was because she lacked skin. Mena was ready to scream, "What the bloody Dickens" at any moment if Anguish or the Phantom of the Performing Arts Center showed.