The Understudy

Night after night for six long weeks I had played the silent shopkeeper. I knew the lead role inside out, back to front, and upside down. Yet the leading actor, so sickeningly good in the role, seemed resistant to any form of ill health or injury.

His face was a picture when he walked into his dressing room and saw me standing there in his Act One clothes.

"What the...?”

"I thought you were indisposed this evening," I clarified.

"Why would you think that?"

I didn't give him the chance to even glimpse the knife before it penetrated his abdomen.