Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

accident,” said Elizabeth. “A stupid accident. So tragic.”
    Her voice trailed away. They all looked at the photo, at the bright young things. Full of talent and promise, not knowing what lay ahead of them. And one by one, Benjamin and Elizabeth called back names to fit the faces, helping each other out when necessary, so no-one would be forgotten and left out. So many of them were dead now: illness, drugs, suicide. Actors tended to dramatic deaths as well as dramatic lives, it seemed. And of those who did survive, only a few had gone on to any kind of success.
    The theatre is a harsh mistress who doesn’t care how many hearts she breaks or how much you love her.
    Judy gave up acting to be a singer. Phil gave it all up to work in the family business. Andy had one big hit on television, then didn’t work for years because they said he was type-cast. And poor old Rob…he got tired of banging his head against a brick wall, trying to get noticed, for one chance to show everyone how talented he was…and disappeared back into the everyday world.
    “We were all going to see our names in lights, in the West End,” said Benjamin. “Not our real names, of course.”
    Happy looked at them both. “You mean…you’re not really Benjamin Darke and Elizabeth de Fries?”
    “Well, hardly, darling,” said Elizabeth. “I was christened Elizabeth Flook, and he was Bennie Darren. You can’t put names like that up in lights.”
    “Though Alistair really was Alistair Gravel,” said Benjamin. “The lucky bastard…”
    As Elizabeth looked from face to face in the photo, she looked older than ever. “We were so close, then, all of us, and such good friends. But…you lose touch with people so easily as you move from job to job, and city to city, from theatre to television to film…and back again.”
    “We’ve always preferred the theatre, though, haven’t we, darling?” said Benjamin. “It is good to be back.”
    It seemed to Happy that Benjamin was trying to convince himself as much as Elizabeth.
    “You’ve got some nerve, coming back here after allthese years,” said a new but still-familiar voice. It was Elizabeth’s voice; but she hadn’t said it. The voice came out of the photo, as the young Elizabeth turned her face to glare out at her older self, her eyes dark and blazing, her red mouth a flat and bitter line. The young Benjamin turned his head to scowl out of the photo at his older self; and he looked grim, even dangerous. The young Alistair Gravel, sitting between them, didn’t move at all, and neither did any of the other actors in the photo.
    “You ran away and left us,” said the young Benjamin. “Abandoned your dreams, blew off all your hope and ambitions, and settled for what you could get.”
    “We were going to be someone!” said the young Elizabeth. “All the great things we were going to achieve! Set the British theatre on fire!”
    “All the things we planned,” said the young Benjamin. “And you threw them all away, in pursuit of that stupid play.”
    “It wasn’t like that!” said Elizabeth. She and Benjamin stood close together, frozen in place, their gaze fixed on their younger selves in the photo. But Elizabeth didn’t sound scared, or even intimidated, by what was happening. Her voice was harsh, even strident.
    “Wasn’t it?” said the young Benjamin. “You can’t hide from the truth here. Darling. Not here, not in this place. Where it all went so horribly wrong.”
    “What is this?” said Happy. “What are you talking about?”
    They ignored him, the young and the old.
    “Did you really think you could come back here and start again?” said the young Elizabeth.
    “After what you did here?” said the young Benjamin. “After the awful thing you did, for fame and glory…”
    “It wasn’t like that!” said Elizabeth. Her face was pale and drawn, but her voice was still hard and steady. “You know it wasn’t like that!”
    “And even after what you did, you didn’t get the fame, or the glory,” said the young Elizabeth.
    “But what you did here, all those years ago, has never been forgotten,” said the young Benjamin.
    “And you have never been forgiven,” said the young Elizabeth. “Time to pay the piper. Darling.”
    “Tell him,” said the young Benjamin. “Tell the poor little Ghost Finder what you did. And how it was all for nothing, in the end.”
    The two young people lurched forward suddenly, long-clawed hands bursting out of the photo,