The Theater Coalition

The Theater Coalition Written and Illustrated by Yeebing Tse

The bright green grass greets me as I open the door to inside the theater, breathing in the fresh air and smelling baked bread from somewhere nearby. The sun also shone into my face, shining upon the grass and clearing up the bright blue sky.

This is where my case has taken me. The disappearance of Victoria Chen, one of the first friends I made here in this school. She disappeared about a week ago, the last time she was seen entering the Hammer Theatre Center, which was close to the eight foot tall library that was always full of students walking in and out to study or go to online class.

You’d think with the theater being right next to the always busy library, someone would’ve witnessed her entering and saw something that could’ve helped us figure out what happened to her.

But, for some reason, there wasn’t a single witness in the entire city.

The campus police and the city police were alerted six days ago, but for some reason, the ones who were sent to work on her case also disappeared into this theater. And so do the ones that get sent to look for them. And the ones who get sent to look for the ones that were sent to look for them.

Since the police clearly aren’t helping, I decided to go and try find her myself. I went through the door of the school’s theater expecting to find something horrid, but am instead greeted with…whatever this is.

I opened up her diary, which she gave to me to hold before she disappeared, scanning the pages for anything specific.

“Dear Diary, August 16th, 2021

Today is my first day on campus! I got to go inside the buildings for the first time and both of my classes were a lot of fun. I feel like things will be good here, unlike with high school. I also saw this really cute cat! It’s brown and striped and it wears a little flower necklace. I think it’s a tabby! It reminds me of the stray cats near my house except it didn’t run away from me when I went towards it. I’m not sure who the owner of it is, as I didn’t see anywhere near it.

There was someone was looking at me weird while I was petting it. I know this probably sounds weird, but I don’t think they had eyes. Their eyes were pitch black. It was a little scary, but luckily they just walked off. Hopefully that was just a hallucination or something. Maybe it’s contacts! I’m sure nothing ominous is going to come out of this. Signed, Victoria.”

A student with pitch black eyes, huh? Maybe this is actually her creative writing portfolio. She said she wanted to get her work published one day…

I flipped the page to the end, and scanned the last passage of her diary.

“Dear Diary, November 26th, 2021

I went to check out the theater today! Or at least, I tried. When I entered, I ended

up inside of a grass field. I met a girl with black eyes who said she was a member of the ‘Theater Coalition’ Apparently it’s a theater club here on campus! And they said something about helping me reach paradise. I’m guessing it’s probably a theater kid thing. Sounds fun, though! I guess I’ll give it a try tomorrow! Also Marshmallow was there too. Apparently Marshmallow is the pet cat of the club president! I hope I can see that cat again.

Signed, Victoria.”

“MEOW.”

I turn, noticing a striped brown cat beside me, wearing a little flower necklace with a collar underneath it. I bent down to look at it, my hands shaking.

“Marshmallow.”

One of us!

They’re here. The black-eyed members of the Theater Coalition are here. And they’re going to come after me, just as they did with her.

I sprinted to the left, before bumping into a tall, pale man with brunette hair tied into a ponytail. He was wearing a white blouse, paired with the ugliest brown suit that I had ever seen. He grinned, and I quickly ran in the other direction before crashing into another person in a straw hat and a pink dress with a strawberry pattern. I stared at her face, noticing the black eyes of Victoria Chen staring at me.

“Victoria?” Victoria grinned soullessly, and I felt my soul shaking from somewhere inside me.

“Isn’t this paradise?” she said. “Come join us.”

I ran left, sliding under a dark skinned woman with long, curly hair, who was dressed simularly to the man I had seen before with a green blouse and long trousers. I bolted, not daring to look back, trying to look for the door that lead me here.

“MEOW.”

My legs froze, and I found myself unable to move. I looked back, noticing what seemed to be hundreds of people walking towards me, including some in police uniforms. In front of them was Marshmallow, whose face contorted to the cat equivalent of smirking.

One of us!

“We will not hurt you,” Marshmallow said, a deep, echoing voice coming out, “We’re going to take you to a better place.” “What did you do to Victoria?” “Do not fear,” Victoria said, taking a step forward, “I am in paradise. Come join me.” Black dust appeared from behind me, and more people appeared, circling around me.

One of us!

The people got closer, and I felt them pin me to the ground, placing Marshmallow on top of me. I stared at the cat’s pitch black eyes, as the sky started getting bigger, engulfing parts of the grass. The smell of burning bread flew in the air, before bread started falling from the sky, pelting me as I felt several people grab my arms and legs, a hand placed over my mouth to stop me from

One of us.

One of US.

ONE OF US.

And with that, the curtains were drawn, and the light was gone.