Christmas Full Throttle
Part 13: Behind the Stage
Behind the stage, it suddenly became quieter. The noise from the square sounded muffled here, as if through a thick wall of fabric and technology.
Lea went first. Purposeful. Without looking back.
Jonas followed closely behind her, Mehmet a few steps offset, Sofia last. So that they didn’t look like a group.
No one stopped them. No one asked for passes or permissions. That was exactly what made Lea nervous.
“Too easy,” Jonas murmured.
Lea nodded. “On purpose.”
Between cable cases and trusses they saw the man with the clipboard again. He stood at a monitor and watched several camera feeds at the same time.
Tom could be seen on one of them. He was just taking off the beard. His smile disappeared.
“There he is,” Mehmet whispered.
The man only noticed them when Lea stopped right next to him.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said calmly. No anger. No surprise.
“Yes,” Lea said. “Right now.”
The man examined them. Four teenagers. No fear in their eyes. Only determination.
“You think you’ve understood something,” he said.
“No,” Jonas replied. “We stopped believing what you tell us.”
An almost invisible smile flickered across the man’s face.
“Clever,” he said. “But too late.”
Sofia stepped forward. “What exactly is WinterSpark?”
The man looked at her. Then at the monitors. Then back at her.
“A staging,” he said. “A perfect experience. Controlled. Planned. Safe.”
“Manipulated,” Mehmet threw in.
“Curated,” the man corrected calmly.
Lea crossed her arms. “And Tom?”
“An element,” the man said. “Like the lights. Like the music.”
“Like us?” Jonas asked.
The man hesitated for a moment. “Almost.”
At that moment, Tom appeared behind them. Without beard. Without smile.
“No,” Tom said. “Not almost.”
They all turned around.
Tom looked at the man. “I’m not an element. And neither are they.”
The man sighed. “You should have left.”
Tom shook his head. “I wanted to see who makes the decisions.”
Silence.
Then the man said: “And now?”
Lea looked at the monitors. At the people outside. At the children who were still laughing.
“Now,” she said, “we start asking the right questions.”
The man didn’t smile anymore.
And for the first time, he looked uncertain.