Fantasia

LII

Of course, that would be the time when Eddy would get pulled back into the "real" world.

"Brett!", Eddy yelled once again when he woke up, covered in sweat, his heart beat through the roof like so many times before.
He breathed heavily, his shaky hands already reaching out for his phone to write down everything as detailed as possible.
Brett. Eddy telling him he was in a coma. Brett crying like Eddy had never seen before, Brett trying to cover it up again after the worst was over, them looking for a solution, some kind of plan to follow, the importance of the violin, the empty book, containing nothing but staffs...

He had done it! He really had told Brett about what was going on. It had been brutal, but it had gone okay too... at least Eddy had grounds to assume that Brett would be fine, even though the other got the whole picture now.
Eddy sighed deeply, lowered his device and blankly stared into the dark.

Was Brett really going to be okay?

There was not much time to ponder over it. Apparently, he'd slept through his alarm, so he had to get ready in like five minutes in order to avoid a very embarassing run to the bus. At the office, he got called in by his boss first thing and they had an indepth discussion about all the clients Eddy was in charge of, their prospects and their feedback on his work. Luckily, his hard-working attitude had left a good impression on most of them and the others didn't really care that much, so Eddy's superior was quite content with him, despite his fuck up two days ago.
And because that meeting ate up two hours of his morning, he had to work through all the piled up phone calls and mails in highspeed in order to get somewhere today. By the time the clock hit three p.m., Eddy hadn't eaten lunch yet.

"Bro, take a break!", Theo at his desk next to Eddy's exclaimed, eyeing him worriedly while simutaneously typing stuff into his computer. After all, Eddy wasn't the only one stressed out today.
"Can't man. Can you get me a sandwich or something?"
"You got it! Give me a minute."
Theo reappeared with a club sandwich five minutes later, stuffed with so much meat and salad Eddy wasn't sure how he was supposed to eat it without all the contents falling out. Eddy smiled at him and gratefully took the plate out of his great co-worker's hands.

"Brett's in a coma? And you didn't tell me the minute you heard?", Belle's voice rang through the phone line and Eddy was certain the person next to him on the bus heard every word as clear as Eddy did.
"Sis! You have no idea how busy I've been!"
"Of course, sorry", she said a bit softer, "And then?"
"Well, I freaked out of course, but I told him."
"In your dreams..."
"Where else", he rolled his eyes, but who could blame her? What he'd just laid out for her wasn't exactly sane. Thank God she was already used to it. He prayed the lady wearing a black dress on his right couldn't catch enough of their conversation to think he was crazy.
"Of course. How did he take it?"
"Bad at first, understandibly."
"Mhm"
"But he recovered quite quickly. We started to look for a way out and there are hints we can follow."
"Like what?" Belle sounded doubtful.
"The violin! My violin playing seemes to have some kind of influence on how things develop in my dream, or rather Brett's world or whatever. I just have to figure out how I can use this to turn things our way. And we found an empty score. No idea what that's supposed to mean or if it's just something random, but we'll see, I guess."

The tone Belle had when starting her next sentence wasn't one Eddy liked. She used it whenever she wanted to warn him, make him aware of something uncomfortable. Something he didn't want to face.
"Eddy... it's great that you guys are hopeful and that you're there to help Brett out. But a coma? This is serious stuff. I don't know if playing the violin from time to time is able to wake him up."
"But don't you see?", Eddy said, way too agitated for a bus ride full of tired commuters. The black dressed lady eyed him with a frown. "I've been having these dreams as long as Brett has been in that coma. I mean, I don't know when he fell into that state exactly, but the fact that it's the same amount of time, give or take, can't be a coincidence."
"Yes, but just because you guys' situation have one thing in common doesn't mean you can actually help him!"
"If not me, who else, Belle? Who else is there?" Eddy needed to get her to understand. He couldn't have his big, reasonable, yet always hopeful sister doubt that there was something they could do for Brett.
She sighed. "Eddy, listen. I'm not saying you shouldn't try. I feel like it doesn't matter what I say, you'll do your thing anyway."
Yeah. Belle knew him well.
"I just don't want you to get your hopes up for something that's very difficult to achieve. And I don't want you to put too much pressure on yourself. It doesn't just depend on you what happens to Brett. If it's like Hyung said and he worked too hard for too long, maybe he needs to work things out himself so he can return."
Eddy took a moment to think about what Belle just proposed. Could she have a point?
"What you CAN do is help him realize things. With you being there he can actually talk through stuff, which is a real blessing for him."
"But that's not enough!", Eddy stated, "There must be more I can do. Why else did we meet in this subconscious state?"
"I must admit, it is pretty special."
"See?"
"That doesn't mean you're the key to his recovery. Just... don't pressure yourself, alright?"
Eddy took a deep breath and glanced out the window. "I'll try."
"And if you need anything, just tell me! I can take some holidays and go down there for example. See if Brett's really in Sydney."
"You know London's like half a day travel further away from Australia than Singapore, right?", Eddy smiled. It was so Belle that she'd actually fly around the world to help out her little brother.
"I can go see mum too, no biggies", she meant.
"No, Belle..." There was a loaded moment before Eddy said, "I think I'll have to go down there myself."

At home, the first thing that got between Eddy's fingers was his violin. He started with Brett's piece, played it two, three times, until some not so distant memory popped up in Eddy's mind.
The first time they had talked about this piece, Brett had stated it's importance without knowing why. Could this piece be some kind of key? What about the variation the musicians played several nights ago? It had to mean something, right?
Eddy played it again to see if he noticed something new, but nothing. He changed it up, pulled out some scores from the ISMLP-site and tried his luck with Bach. After all, there was a portrait of him hanging in one of Brett's corridors. Turned out Bach was quite difficult to tackle if one's technique was as frozen as Eddy's. And yet, it was still fun to rediscover the pieces he'd played a long time ago, when his fingers had been faster and more agile. Eddy's slight smile grew with every note he played until he felt his body relaxing, his mind letting go of the exhausting day he'd had and even all the questions swirling around in his head. By the time he laid down his violin, it was way past dinner time and since he'd had that huge sandwich only a few hours ago, Eddy decided to just straight up head to bed.

It wasn't like eating dinner was a possible task anyways with Eddy wanting nothing more than to return to Brett's side...