Claire
written by: Anna L Bennett
Horror had never been Claire’s favorite genre. She didn’t care much for crowds or for people, really, and would have preferred her friends to wait a week or two until the theatre wasn’t packed. Yet there she was, sitting among strangers, her palms damp, her pulse fluttering.
Tonight wasn’t just another movie night.
Tonight, she was in the movie.
Her family and friends had filled two whole rows to see her debut on the big screen. And as the lights dimmed, a new kind of terror swept through her, one far more real than any scripted scream. What if they hated it? Or hated her performance?
It wasn’t like being on stage, where the spotlight burned and the audience felt close enough to touch. This was different— colder, larger, permanent. This was her first film role, her real break. Gods, she was terrified. She gripped the armrest until her fingers ached, scanning the faces around her, searching for signs of boredom, disinterest, or pity.
She remembered the months of rehearsal—lines repeated until they became poems in her mind, until dialogue turned into music only she could hear. She’d rehearsed every beat, every cue, waiting for her co-star’s look or the whisper of a camera move. She had seen the rough cut, the director’s version, even the editor’s notes. Film was expensive, time even more so, and patience had never been her virtue. Waiting for lights to reset and reels to load had drained her dry.
But she’d miss it now— the adrenaline between takes, the raw pulse of fear in every scene. That fear had never been entirely fake. She’d been terrified more often than she’d admit: terrified of failure, of mediocrity, of being forgettable.
As the film flickered before her, she made herself a promise— don’t look at them. Don’t look at the audience.
Yet she couldn’t help it.
They gasped when they were meant to, screamed at the right moments, even cried when her character did.
And as Claire sat in the dark, her reflection flickering across the screen, she realized something unsettling:
The most terrifying part wasn’t the movie itself – it was watching herself become someone else.
