Sinister Strings

A window in a small house, in a small town open just slightly with a part in the curtain, a man sat in an old rocking chair listening intently seemingly relaxed but aware waiting for its approach as it silently began to fill the room, craving it yet fearing its presence. The sound so sweet fascinating him from the beginning and no doubt would until the end of the piece, yet it frightened the old man. The old man pursed his lips, his glasses slipped further onto the bridge of his nose; he cautiously turned his head towards the window. His eyes widened and he gasped trying to cover his ears, but he was too late. The old man dropped to the floor letting out an anguished cry still unable to cover his ears, the pull of the sound making him want to hear more, he began to claw his face instead trying to get it out of his head. 

Mike walked briskly to the third house down from his own towards Francis Bishop’s, the old man. He had, as they all said, began seeing things and it had gotten worse as he had tried to kill himself more than once and the constant yells during the night had most people scared of what he would be doing to himself. But Mike had known him a long time and he knew that it would take more than old age to make Francis crazy or even try to end his own life, but then mike began thinking of the rumours again and doubts began forming in his mind, he still owed it to Francis to be there for him before he left. It was inevitable that they would take him away. 

     

Mike walked to the door and grabbed the handle but the door began to open at his touch. He carefully stepped into the house wary of the door being open, the place was full of dust motes and with all the curtains closed the place looked as though it hadn’t been occupied in so long. Mike called Francis’s name but got no reply, so he warily walked up the stairs and saw that only one room door was closed so walked towards it. He didn’t know what he expected to see when he opened the door but he had a sick feeling as he did. He looked into the room and saw the old man huddled in the corner of the room sobbing as he held his arms around his knees.

Mike walked towards the old man noisily so that he would know that Mike was there with him as he sat beside Francis and he then put his arm round the old man’s frail shoulders, Francis lifted his head and held his sob but gently put his head back into his arms and began to cry softly. Mike hid his shock by rubbing Francis’s arm attempting to comfort a shivering Francis but the image of the old man’s scratched face would not leave him, it looked as though someone had tried to claw his face right off. Mike stared down at the old man who had always been like a father to him, like a grandfather to his only daughter and saw how much he had changed and thought someone had done this to him, but maybe he didn’t know Francis as well as he thought he did.

“Francis” Mike said gently as he nudged him softly. “What happened? Who did this to you?” Francis lifted his head from his arms and replied “They did.” Then began to hum and kept humming and it formed a sequence one Mike thought he’d heard before but he couldn’t quite place it, but there was something wrong about it and he felt as though he was missing something. Mike shook his head and tried to help the old man from the corner and as the old man began to get up he picked up his walking stick which lay beside him and suddenly just whacked at Mike’s head. Mike looked up at Francis as he said “Get out! You can’t kill me, none of you can, and I won’t let you.” 

As Mike walked through his own front door he heard his nineteen year old daughter begin to play her cello and such beauty came from it but it brought a sad smile to his face as he thought of how much she had also cared for Francis. As he leaned against the closed door and thought of what had just happened, the song that Francis had kept humming began to sound so much more familiar and he felt as though he could hear it now but as though it wasn’t in his mind but that he could actually hear it with his own ears.

It got dark as Mike sat on the sofa thinking about how he had not been there for Francis when he had needed Mike, these thoughts stayed with him for so long that mike almost felt as though he didn’t try hard enough and he was the one at fault. He felt as though he needed some rest to clear his mind and thought that when he’d wake up he would see things differently. Mike went to his room and lay in his bed beside his wife as she slept soundly, he held her hand stroking it and then it sank in, why the humming was so familiar to him, when he thought he’d heard it before. Mike thought it was a little different to Francis’s humming but it was almost identical to the one he had heard before when he had thought the tune sounded so much more real when he’d gotten home, because he was really hearing it.

Mike got out of bed and walked towards his daughter’s room and opened it, when he heard the sound it was because of his daughter playing it from her cello and she hadn’t just been playing it when he had gotten home, but she had been playing it every night for the past 2 weeks. As he looked around the room he saw that she wasn’t in there and neither was her cello again he looked around her room but this time carefully and saw a sheet of music. Mike walked towards it and what was written on it was the name of the song; the devil’s trill, he wasn’t a superstitious man neither did he suspect his daughter of doing anything wrong. Worried Mike began to walk out the room to find her but then he heard it again and turned towards the direction of the sound and saw that it was coming from the open window in her room and on the balcony there she was. 

As she sat there with the shadows of the night covering her she cradled her cello and began playing it. Mike felt as though something was trying to split his head open, he fell to his knees unable to stand or even form the words to call out to his daughter but even so she wouldn’t hear him from the sound of the cello as she looked out of the balcony she was blind to the pain that it was causing him. Then he heard it, three doors down, above the sound of the cello he heard the old man bellowing louder and louder then so suddenly he stopped in sync with the ending of the cello’s song.

Unrequited

"You fell in love with someone else?! Then why did you marry HER? You could’ve stopped all of this. Why did you bring her here? Did you tell her you love her is that how you got her here I’m right aren’t I? But what good will it do you and what about her did you think about her?!"

She stopped a hand covering her mouth as she looked over her brother’s shoulder. I stood in the doorway holding a tray, as I stood tears began to form in my eyes but I looked down blinking them away, when I finally looked up meeting his gaze I plastered a smile on my face and said "I’m sorry for interrupting." putting the tray down I went to walk back out of the room. As I did this they both watched me closely but there was no expression on his face but hers was one of guilt as she began to apologise " I’m sor-" she stopped as her brother interrupted her "That’s not necessary." he spoke to his sister then he turned to me "You can leave now." I left the room with my head held high. But every second of that moment burnt into memories as I felt like my heart was ripping apart when she had spoken those words. But it was something I already knew.

I saw the way he looked at her and how his eyes saw right through me, it hurt me so much then and it still hurt. All I have are the memories of before he met her when it was just the two of us when I thought he loved me, he cared so much about me then as I did for him; but it all changed after he met her. I would never say anything against her after all it wasn’t their fault, no one ever said love was planned and she is my cousin, my best friend, and she never would have done this otherwise. I still care about her but sometimes I want to tell her how much my heart aches because of her, but I couldn’t tell her anything, not anymore, not the way I used to. 

I walked up the stairs to our bedroom leaving the door open, though I knew he wouldn’t come, not until he thought I had fallen asleep. But I never slept; I couldn’t not until I knew he was there, the heat of his back as he lay beside me. Tears started filling my eyes as I began taking my clothes off and I wept silently making no sound. After I had taken my clothes off and seeing the bruises I couldn’t stop the weeping and I just stood for a few minutes with my eyes closed. Why did I cry for him? Why was I even here? because I loved him even if he no longer loved me. I knew what I had to do so I opened my eyes and he was stood in front of me just looking, his eyes intense as he watched me. I covered myself with my hands and crossing my legs over as I stood, "Put your hands down" he said with a bleak voice. It didn’t even affect him seeing me like this, but I put my hands down anyway and reached for my bedclothes, he quickly and forcefully grabbed my arm and put his head next to my ear as he said "Sleep like this". I didn’t want to, the pain of the words I’d heard earlier echoed in my head as I tried to pull my arm away, then finally he let go.

I walked towards the bed and lay beneath the covers holding the blanket over my shoulders tightly my back turned against him. I heard him move towards the bed and saw his shadow coming closer, as soon as he reached the bed he grabbed the blanket and pulled it off the bed staring down at me as I lay curled up, I looked at him and felt embarrassed as he watched me while moving closer. I went to grab the blanket but he pushed me back on to the bed his voice so soft but deep "No I don’t think so sweetheart" in his mind I knew he didn’t see me. I moved to get off the bed from the other side and he grabbed me again pinning me to the bed "Don’t make me hurt you, because I don’t want to," he said this while tightening his grip on my wrists and pressing his legs down hard on my thighs. He had changed the man I knew would never have hurt me or treated me like this; he would have held me softly telling me how much he loved me, not this. I felt scared he wasn’t who I thought he was, I didn’t know what he would do except the burning feeling in my wrist and the pain in my thighs was not near the ache I felt in my heart. 
 

I couldn’t take the pain that he had put me through, not anymore I couldn’t hold back all the memories of before and now I started screaming and crying I couldn’t stop I couldn’t pretend anymore or hide how I felt, the ache was too much.  He was on top of me just watching shocked and I saw him realise what he was doing to me, he let my hands go. "I’m sorry" he said to me looking so hard at the tears coming from my eyes. "Just don’t cry" but I couldn’t stop because he’d hurt me and my heart was aching, I loved him so much yet how could I think of him as a stranger, why was I so scared when he looked at me? I don’t understand. But I knew that I was going to leave, that I didn’t want him anymore because there was nothing left and I felt cold. It was over, because I knew she loved him back.

Strength Of Love (prequel)

They ran as fast as they could both of them struggling to get as far away as possible, his hand holding on tightly to hers afraid to lose her again. But as they ran she began to slow down, still he wouldn’t let her go trying to take her at his own pace but she kept going slower and slower and gently as she could she let her hand fall free of his, the fear etched on her face yet she stayed. He kept running not knowing that she had stopped and that he was no longer holding her, she was glad as she took one last look at him tears spilling down her face. She began to tremble as she heard them running ever closer but she kept looking ahead and watching him go he was almost there, she silently prayed that he would make it. She knew now was the time and steeled her body as she began turning to them, seeing them so close behind her she instantly knew what was going to happen. She knew this was the only chance he had of escaping because with her there, there was nowhere to hide, they would find them the way they always did, so she decided not to run anymore because he had to live, to live a life without fear and pain, a life without her.

She thought of him and snapped her head towards them, her resolve keeping her from going back to his arms the way she always did. She tried to remember everything; the way his warmth enveloped her, his smile that lightened her heart, his kiss that was so sweet it brought tears to her eyes, she wanted to remember everything as she closed her eyes wanting to give him another chance at life, one without complications. They headed for her, coming so fast they were almost a blur, but for her? time froze, she could see the face of the stranger close to her with his face hidden behind a dark shapeless front except for his eyes and she felt no emotion just the chilled silence from behind the cover.

She saw in the strangers hand that he was holding a small blade as he got closer and closer, then she felt it, he had pierced her already burning heart, one that was already filled with hurt for leaving him. She gasped as the faceless stranger moved to her left side with his long arm forcing the blade in further, forcing out from her the torment she had felt for everything that had happened, letting the most anguished cry escape from her mouth for the pain in her heart, her chest and the sinking knowledge that she would never see him again. The boy suddenly stopped and gripped his chest covering his heart as he felt the wrench inside him and quickly turned around seeing two things she was no longer behind him, she wasn’t near him anymore, how could he have not known? The same time seeing her so far behind, her body impacting a faceless enemy but not before he had seen the blade.

He was frozen as he heard her cry, tears escaped his eyes watching her and seeing the faceless stranger pull his blade out from her chest leaving her body to slump, filling him with further hatred, yet even more suffering. He began to move forward closer to her his legs barely able to keep him up, he could see the faceless strangers coming towards him and he didn’t turn away but kept watching her slowly give way and fall onto her knees, his hand still gripping his chest he fell to his own knees, legs unable to hold him up anymore.

She turned her head so that she could see him and that when she let go she would be happy that he was the last of her thoughts and the last in her sights. But he watched her with an ache in his heart as he gripped his chest and got up once more to run towards her, the faceless strangers closing the distance between them but he didn’t turn back he just kept running faster to her and watching as her smile began to fade and then she fell. Her hair swirling around her, eyes wide, her lips parted as she whispered “I’m sorry” because she finally understood, he wouldn’t leave her not now not ever, she had made a mistake but yet she was grateful the torture was over.

He let out a yell and ran faster wanting to reach her, a masked stranger grabbed him midstride but he would not be restrained, he knew, he finally knew what she had tried to do. She knew she would die she wanted him to get to the boat and leave, he knew, but how could she not know that he would never leave her? The torment, anger, and the sadness crushed him but he didn’t care that he would die anymore he just wanted her, wanted to be by her side to be able to lay by her one last time.

He tried to get out of the faceless strangers grip but he couldn’t, though he kept shouting to her “you can’t leave, you hear me? Don’t leave me, get up now!” He knew he had lost her and he wouldn’t give her her last wish, he wouldn’t live a life without her, he refused to. “I refuse to live a life without you! Do you hear me? I refuse!” As he yelled this towards her he felt a stab in his back and knew that they had at least granted his wish, he saw all the faceless strangers leave almost without a sound, their duty was at long last fulfilled.

He tried to walk closer to her but she was so far away, his legs gave out and he fell onto his back looking up, he turned his head to the side and he could see her, she was right there. He wanted to hold her once more, though he knew he couldn’t, but still he reached his hand out towards her, his heart pounding for her, his face twisted he was almost silently sobbing begging whoever it was out there just for one last chance to be with her. He knew no matter what life, or however many chances, it would never happen she never was in his reach, she was always so far from him and even while dying they were still so far apart, so he closed his eyes and let go, let go of ever being happy, let go of hope, of passion but above all he gave up what he cherished more than anything, his love for her.