Erin Insists Her Show Must Go On!

All Erin had to guide her was what Jeff liked when she went down on him, but judging by Bret's reactions she was doing well! She managed to not let herself get so swept up in what she was doing that she forgot what Julia still needed to do, using her right hand to feel around for the props the crew had taped to a part of the bed out of the audience's view. The crew members who worked on them had been bragging about the props; now their moments in the spotlight were about to happen! Erin continued bobbing up and down on Bret's now fully erect cock, but looked up to make eye contact with him, eventually getting his attention. She motioned with her eyes to the props in her right hand. He made a slight nod to signal that he knew what was about to happen.

Julia grasped the shaft of Ursinus's cock and held it steady. The audience saw her slide her left hand up, hiding the head and some of the shaft, then heard him screaming, his face contorted in pain. A second later they saw the cause of his agony.

Erin held the prop up high; the modified dildo had stage blood pouring out of its ragged base where Julia had just bitten Ursinus's cock, completely severing it. It also had been rigged with a small compartment toward the head which spurted a fairly realistic imitation semen when the dildo was squeezed!

Julia had only a brief moment of triumph, as Ursinus slashed her throat, the last act in his life before he bled to death. She dropped the severed cock and clutched at her throat!

Erin squeezed the pouch of fake blood still hidden in her right hand, sending a deep red stream down her neck and her chest.

Julia collapsed on the stage floor next to the bed; Ursinus lay dead on his bed, Bret was quick witted enough to drape an arm over his clearly still attached and functional cock. The stage lights dimmed, but did not go off; the New York theatre audience was sophisticated enough to recognize that the play wasn't over yet and didn't react. Half a minute later Julia slowly rose from the floor and turned to face the audience. Lit by a powerful spotlight, her fair skin looked appropriately pale to be Julia's ghost. As the narrow beam of light intensified the rest of the stage lighting was dimmed.

Erin had imagined herself delivering Julia's monologue often enough that she was able to make it through the two minute long speech despite the considerable awkwardness inherent in standing alone, embarrassed to her core, in front of a thousand or so strangers, completely naked, with fake blood still dripping from her breasts!

Julia's ghost explained that her killing of Ursinus was not an act of hatred, but one of love for her son, and how she would gladly be banished to the underworld to save him. She ended her speech with a challenge in the form of a question, asking any mothers hearing her voice, "Would you not do the same?"

A few seconds after Erin finished the monologue the house and stage lights all came on. Before Erin had time to react the rest of the cast joined her to accept a standing ovation. After several bows, everyone except Cara and Bret had retreated backstage. Bret had found a towel to wrap himself with, but nobody had thought to have a robe or towel ready for Erin, so she took a few more bows in the nude before finally hustling backstage.

The mood backstage was practically euphoric, and everyone thanked Erin for saving the performance when it looked like it was going off the rails. Bret was teased mercilessly, with several students asking if Julia had left him anything. He was more than willing to be teased once Donna, who had played one of Ursinus's concubines, whispered in his ear that she'd like to check for herself later! The entire group got cleaned up and went out for a late dinner, leaving the theater by way of a back door.

After their dinner, The tired group headed back to their hotel; once there, Dr Namen settled down in a quiet corner of the lobby. He kept refreshing the Theatre section of the New York Times, hoping to see if their play had been mentioned. After an hour he was thrilled to see their production not only mentioned but receiving praise for its gritty and bold version of the play. The short article singled out Erin, "not only for being daring enough to take on a role with such graphic nudity, unexpected in a collegiate production, but also for making her powerful defense of her family believable."

"A mixed blessing," Dr Namen thought, "its a wonderful review, but now the audience will be expecting to see nudity during the rest of our performances!" He was about to go knock on Erin's door to see if she would even be willing to repeat the performance she'd delivered that evening when Hannah stumbled into the lobby. She plopped herself down on a chair across from him, whining that her audition hadn't gone well and that she wasn't being considered for the part.

Hannah seemed to assume that she could take the role of Julia back as if her abandonment of her group had never happened! It was obvious she'd been drinking. His earlier anger about the way she'd skipped out on her fellow students resurfaced and he told her, "I'm sorry, but Erin did phenomenal work in your absence, truly above and beyond. I don't see why I should give the role back to you!"

"Maybe because I'm better than her," the tipsy student slurred, and everybody knows it!"

Thinking about it for a minute he finally replied, "I'll reinstate you on three conditions. First, You can only have the role back if Erin agrees to let you have it. She very well might, tonight's performance was very demanding. Second, You will have to follow her lead, making the same adjustments exactly as she did tonight. Third, if you get her to agree to let you have the part and then fail to do the play as she did, you will be permanently removed from the Theatre department."

"No worries," she said haughtily as she got up and wobbled away, "I'll take that deal. I'm sure I'll be able to match whatever improvised bits she's come up with. I'll tell her I'm back tomorrow morning."

Dr Namen called Erin several times, each call going to her voicemail. He was determined to talk with her about his conversation with Hannah before Hannah did, so he went to Erin's room and knocked on her door. She opened the door with a towel wrapped around her and asked what he wanted. He explained his discussion with Hannah, assuring her, "As far as I'm concerned, the part is yours for the duration of our run, but if you would rather not have to repeat the amount of exposure you did tonight, Hannah could take it over." He explained that since the Times reporter had made a point of describing the nudity in the performance, the audiences going forward would expect it, and to eliminate it would be seen as a sort of "bait and switch" trick.

"And Hannah is okay with appearing naked?"

"She needs to be," he said, "if she still wants to finish her degree in our program! Her abandoning us less than hour before showtime is what caused all this chaos, so as far as I'm concerned she's brought this on herself. She'll be looking for you tomorrow morning, to ask you to let her play Julia the rest of the week!" He turned to leave, apologizing for disturbing her so late and mentioning her phone going straight to voicemail as his reason for showing up at her door uninvited.

"Oh," she replied, "I turned it off before our performance; in all the excitement I must have forgotten to turn it back on!"

"Ah, that explains it," he said, then asked, "So, should I assume you'll let Hannah have the part?"

"Maybe," she said, "would it be possible for me to keep the part for one more performance, on Saturday?"

"If that's what you'd like," he answered after a moment to think it over.

"I believe it is," she said, not mentioning her hope that Jeff could make it to New York by the weekend!

After Dr Namen had left, Erin turned on her phone to check her voicemail and texts before turning in. The twenty-six texts were mostly from friends, either complaining about how bored they were waiting for their family's Thanksgiving get together to take place or saying how much they were enjoying being home. She had four voicemails; the three from Dr Namen she deleted, but she saw that the one was from her Mom. Ever since her Dad had had a minor heart attack during her freshman year, messages from her Mom at odd hours always made her nervous, so she opened it immediately.

Her Mom's voice came over the phone's speaker, sounding excited but not upset, straining to be heard over some background noise, telling Erin, "I don't know if you'll even get this before your show, but we wanted to wish you luck...oh, that's wrong, I'm supposed to tell you to break a leg, aren't I? Anyway, we'll be rooting for you from row F. Your Dad insisted that there was no way he was going to miss his daughter's Broadway debut!"