256 "Random" Selection

Irina went on stage, leaving me standing in the roadway leading to the stage on my own. In all honesty, I do not know where I am supposed to be and where I'm required to go. Lost in the confusing frenzy of the backstage environment, I turned around and looked at the opened door leading to the dressing room. Maybe in there, someone can tell me what I'm supposed to do.

I began walking towards the dressing room, with my steps slow as they were weighed down by my own confusion. In my chest, there was a heavy feeling of uncertainty as I roamed through the dressing room and approached the person with the most authoritative aura.

"Um..." I spoke up, attracting the man's attention. "Where do I go?"

This man was the person that had rushed in and notified the director of the disappearance of the two extra's for Irina's panel from earlier. Therefore, I assume that he must know the flow of things, and he must at least know where I must go for the task that I'm given by the director.

"You're the boy the director wanted right?" he looked over at me and then immediately back to his tablet as he quickly scanned through whatever was displayed on the monitor. It was probably status reports by the different departments or the schedule for the event.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Go through the front and to the stage," the man said as he started walking towards the door opposite to the one I came in through.

I followed after him towards the other door. Since the walkable space in the dressing room is limited, we had to turn our bodies to make room for other employees to make their way past us as they rushed about in a frantic manner.

"Just wait in the crowd and you'll know when to go on stage. We've notified the host already. He's got it," the man continued saying as he opened the door and stepped out beneath the blue, summer sky. "Hurry and get to the stage. Show a staff nearby the stage this before you do anything else."

He handed me a lanyard with a plastic card contained safely inside. The card was blank, but on it was a special marking that made no real sense to me.

"The staff will know once you show them the card," the man explained to me as I followed him away from the dressing room. "Don't ask any questions and get on standby."

With that, the man quickly walked away at a rapid pace, speaking into the radio he had in his other hand. Watching him walk off, I couldn't help it but feel a hurried and frantic emotion on my end as well. It's like the atmosphere of the backstage has rubbed into me, permeating my skin and synchronizing my own pace to match the workers.

Now that I know where I have to go, I decided to quickly head there. I left through the guarded roadway entrance that led to the dressing room, and after acquiring directions to the stage from the security guard, I quickly went on my way.

I walked at a faster pace than usual, weaving through the crowd and avoided running into people. It was surprisingly taxing on the body doing this, making me feel rather fatigued after a while. My heart palpitated and my breathing became deeper and deeper. However, I continued without stopping, making my way towards the stage while following the flow of the crowd.

I was curious about what Alvelyn and Muria are doing at the moment, but I didn't dare ask Alvelyn. I feel like if I allow my concentration to slip right now and try to communicate with Alvelyn through my mind, I would run into people. Besides, they're probably tasked to do something different, as it would appear that the two of them were no longer present in the dressing room when I returned to it after walking Irina to the stage. Presumably, the two of them probably went with the woman for other preparations.

There was a crowd of people standing around the outer edges of the stage, standing behind the rows of seats as these were all people who were unable to find a seat but still wanted to watch. One other thing that I noticed was that among the crowd, there were males than females, which is the exact opposite as the situation with Henvle. But whatever. The population of the audience doesn't matter. What mattered is that there's plenty of people.

Reaching into my pocket, I felt the outer edges of the lanyard and the blank card contained within it. The pale and hard to see patterns on the card probably meant something that only people in this field of work understands, and the reason why there's nothing written on it was to prevent the scenario if one carrying this card were to drop it and it is picked up by someone random. Then, the whole thing with the supposedly random picks from the audience actually being preselected would then be exposed. Even though most people already suspect it, there really isn't any physical evidence, so I suppose that is the reason for the lack of design on the card.

I wasn't in the mood to squeeze through the crowd, so I surveyed my surroundings for an event staff like the man had told me from earlier. After spotting someone who were walking around, surveying and taking in the crowd near the stage dressed in the uniform of the event workers, I approached him. I felt rather nervous, but I know that I have nothing to worry about as there is no reason the man would lie to me. What I was nervous about is speaking to a stranger about something so...unusual. Well, it might be unusual to me, but it's probably not to them.

"Hello," I said to the young woman in her early twenties. After attracting her attention, I reached into my pocket and showed her the lanyard.

The woman took the lanyard from me and stared at the pale patterns, squinting her eyes as she confirmed the design. Then, she looked at me and nodded as she handed the lanyard back to me.

"Go have a seat in the reserved seat up front corresponding to this ticket number," the woman discretely whispered to me and handed me a ticket. "That is the seat the monitor will display when the host says that they will randomly choose someone from the crowd."

"How're you so sure that it's not been taken already?" I asked her.

"It's in the reserved seats section, which means each seat corresponds to a ticket," she quickly explained. "If when you go there and you see someone in your seat, and if they won't leave when you ask them to, tell the security guards and they will take care of it. But make sure to show them the card in the lanyard while doing so."

After hearing my next directions from that female staff, I did as she said. I approached the crowd who gazed at the stage while standing behind the seats and used the open walkway before the center of the stage to walk down towards the front reserved seats. It was...rather weird walking down the the walkway on my own, but with everyone's attention fixed on Irina on the stage, it really did take much of the stares away from me.

I quickly found the open seat that corresponded to the number on my ticket and sat down. However, as I did so, I felt the focused gaze of the nearby security guards who all trained their eyes on me. It was...rather awkward, but I sat down anyway.

"Hello sir," a nearby employee walked over while maintaining a low profile, crouching so as to not obstruct the view of the stage. "May I see your ticket?"

I nodded my head and showed him the ticket the female staff had handed me earlier. And just in case, I also had my lanyard out and kept it visible.

The man checked my ticket, but he mostly just skimmed through it after making sure the seat number was correct. However, he spent longer staring at the lanyard as he studied the barely visible pattern. He squinted as he focused his gaze, but after a short while, he smiled and nodded his head.

"I hope you enjoy the show, sir," the man then walked away, leaving me to my own devices. Following his retreat, I realized that the security guards no longer stared at me. They probably understand the situation now, so I guess now all I do is wait.

"Thank you, Irina," the host nodded and said into the microphone with a large smile on his face. "Now that you've talked to us plenty about Daddy Please Don't Stop, how about we play some games with the audience and have some fun?"

"Yeah!" the audience cheered.

"We'll be selecting one lucky person from the audience," the charismatic host said. "Everyone, please check your seat number, because the computer will be randomly choosing one seat number from the many available. Whoever's seat number is chosen, please notify a nearby staff and have them confirm. And once that is done, please come up onto the stage!"

Then, following some dramatic and yet cheerful music, the monitor changed from its formerly vibrant and colorful background to a screen with a letter and number on display. Then, following the push of a button on the host's hand, the letter and number began to change as if they were on a wheel being spun. The two wheels spun for a bit longer before the one for the letter came to a stop following another press of the host's button.

"Row C," the host announced into the microphone, and immediately following up were groans of disappointment from those not seated in row C. "And it will be seat number..."

The host then pressed the button once again, and the number wheel came to a stop. The number on display corresponded to my seat.

"Row C, seat number 22," the announced into the microphone.