No One Is Watching Him
Everyone in the theatre that wants to see the movie has already arrived, but it hasn’t started yet. Instead the trailers for other films are playing, and the entire crowd is looking, only moderately engaged, at the images flashing across the screen. A few people stand up, remembering that they wanted to use the bathroom or buy some popcorn before the film starts, but they quickly make their way back once their tasks are done. Everyone is waiting. No one came here just to see this, but they are united in their impatience, no matter how well they mask it.
Then another trailer starts to play, this one quite clearly for a horror film, unlike the action trailers that have previously graced the screen. Throughout the theatre the different patrons react differently. The film they’re here to see isn’t a horror one, so a good few of them close their eyes and cover their ears, telling their companions to tap them when the trailer is over. Some of them lean in, more intrigued by this trailer than they have been by the past ones. Some of them decide to make a game of it, not jumping or letting on that they are frightened at all.
In the back of the theatre, a young adult who doesn’t want to have nightmares for a week, knowing his own limits, closes his eyes. But as he does so, he reaches into his container of popcorn, continuing to grab handfuls and stuff them into his mouth even as the sounds coming from the projector morph into screams of terror and disjointed scare chords. He focuses on staying still, and takes a sip of his soda. He figures that the people sitting near him will be impressed with his lack of flinching, with the fact that he appears completely unconcerned by the images that even the people who enjoy horror films are flinching at.
However, perhaps unsurprisingly, no one is watching him.
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