Theater Reviewers
**Trigger Warning: Violence & Guns**
Theater Goer
“Come on! It will be fun! We’ll get to immerse ourselves into string quartets and dream of dances in our sleep once it’s over.” My best friend, Lily, is a huge fan of arts and she begged me to come along with her. My answer to her was no, of course, since I am not the hugest fan of seeing people prance throughout the stage and falling asleep to beats not dropping. You invite me to a music festival with DJs performing… I will one hundred percent go with you. Although Lily and I don’t exactly have the same music taste in that department so it may take a bit of time to decide what music we like to go see. She is my best friend, and it is her birthday, so I caved and decided to go for her.
We took our seats, and the performance was about to start, and I thought to myself “This isn’t too bad…” except it still doesn’t beat electronic music festivals. The first half of the show goes by, we were finally in intermission, which means do whatever you need to do for yourself. Lily asks me, “What do you think so far? Isn’t it beautiful?!” She looked so giddy, “like, did you see how that ballerina tip-toed in one stride?! That looks so easy, but I bet it’s not easy at all.” They did make it look easy and it’s not half bad. “Lily, you know I’m not a huge fan of this, but I got to give it you… it’s not as bad as I thought—” Suddenly, we heard a loud bang and a shot gun above us, and people started to scream, and ran towards the exit to escape the place.
Lily started to run towards the exit, then realized I wasn’t following her. “Come on! We have to go!” I wasn’t scared… I was curious where the shooter could be and why that person was shooting because there was only one shot that I heard. I looked up and noticed several people standing, and they were looking at each other. There she is. The shooter. She was holding the gun as if it were a toy, carelessly swinging it about as if it would not shoot out to anyone. I noticed the other woman standing in front of the shooter is trying to calm her down by the way both of her arms are gesturing at her. Then, what surprised the most were the two kids standing next to the woman who was trying to calm the shooter down; Why were they still there?
The Criminal
“Martha let’s put that down. We don’t want to hurt anybody.” What is my sister even talking about? It was nothing. It was only a piece of shitty device. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. People make things such a big deal out of nothing. My sister told her kids to go outside and to run and hide to a place where they would be safe until Aunt Judy is there to pick them up.
I rolled my eyes, “Why are you so worried? I’m fine, and everyone is fine. This isn’t going to hurt me. Look.” I pointed the device towards my head and pressed the button on the handle… everything went dark. The last thing I saw was my sister’s horrific face and the sound of her scream echoing through me.
The Kid
I stood next to my mommy. I was only 10 years old, and not sure what was going on… I saw my aunt holding a blow dryer, but my mommy looked so scared. I looked at my little sister who is only six years old and gave her a reassuring look that everything would be okay. My aunt kept waving around the blow dryer—it was a wireless blow dryer. My mommy whispered to me, “Go outside until Aunt Judy comes, and go find somewhere safe to hide-in until she does come. Okay, sweetie?” My mommy looked so scared, and she was crying too! I nodded to her that I would do that, so I grabbed my little sister’s hand and ran outside. It was very bright, but I kept running and running with my sister until we’d hit the parking lot. I saw my Aunt Judy’s red van; She saw us and climbed out telling us to come inside the car. We went inside the car and waited until my mommy came out.
The Mother
A sound came out of my mouth that seemed unreal to me. My own sister shot herself in front of me. My only sister who cared and loved each of our family in a different way. I was too stunned to move or to call anyone for help outside, but I heard someone come in from behind me, it was the ambulance and a couple of cops. They were trying to lead me away from my poor sister… I didn’t want to go, “No! My sister!”
I was led outside by the police officers while the ambulance was rolling her body away from the scene. I was still bawling my eyes out… my precious sister. Nobody knew there was anything wrong with her. She always had off-moments, but they were never serious ones to a point where she would harm herself. I saw Judy’s car; She stepped out of the car, and I ran towards her embracing her as she told me, “It’ll be okay. The kids are okay. YOU will be okay. She is in a better place now.”
