Ghosts {L.P.}

3:35

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ａｒｅ Ｈｏｒｒｉｂｌｅ
Ｃｏｎｖｅｒｓａｔｉｏｎａｌｉｓｔｓ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 0:46

Riya didn't waste another passing second before running to her room to collect the rest of her gifts.

Unlike the shining guitar the amplifier had certainly seen better days, it had splotches of unwashed colourful paint along the edges, with some indents on the sides as well.

However, when Riya plugged the amplifier into the wall socket and adjusted the levels with her connected guitar into it, not one bit of the sound system was damaged, every last string carried along the walls with the exact sound it was supposed to make.

At first Riya took her time tuning the guitar, then testing out various different chords she knew by heart, she could already feel new callouses forming at the tip of her fingers from the much thinner strings than she was used to with her mother's acoustic guitar, but every last ounce of pain would be worth it in the end.

The sun warmed at Riya's back as she finally settled upon what to play as she danced around her living room couch and the long cables sitting around her feet.

"And rise. Through the night. You and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever," It could have been Riya's imagination, but she could swear the song sounded much better coming from her own guitar than the school's, or it had something to do with the fact that she could actually hear what she was doing instead of running on pure muscle memory.

"And rise. Through the night. You and I. We will fight to shine together. Bright forever." Riya carried along the note for a few seconds before letting it drop to leave space for a new riff which had just played into her mind.

The problem with Riya and music was she couldn't think about it. She couldn't think ahead of the time what chords to play or what string to pluck with her dinged up pick, she just went with the flow of the rhythm and her instinct regarding notes, which was the only instinct she trusted.

Which led to the best part of Riya's relationship with music, almost every improvisation she had was near godly.

Somehow her subconscious knew just what to play, what string to press against, which one to let vibrate and which one to stop no sooner than the note was played.

And that guitar riff being amplified into the air around Riya was no different, even if it had only been a product of her imagination only seconds prior had just become the best string of notes ever.

Only further confirmed by the sudden clapping off the corner of the room.

Riya shrieked at the sudden scare, tripping over the cables around her feet only to crash against the couch, guitar tightly hugged to her body so it wouldn't be hurt and wild hair covering most of her face while the zipper of the cushions dug into her back.

"That was awesome! You should've played that on stage." Riya pushed the hair out of her face before flattering it down her scalp, sending a sharp glare to the bouncing Luke behind the armrest of the couch adjacent to the one Riya had toppled onto.

"Be glad that I managed to play at all," Luke contemplated it for a long second before humming in agreement, jumping on her couch to lay on it, his feet dangling off the edge while his arms propped him upwards.

"And you need to stop doing that." Riya scolded, to which Luke only grinned.

"Sorry." He clearly wasn't sorry; however, Luke did seem distracted. From their short encounters, Riya had grown accustomed to his constant excitement bubbling like an over-boiled pot, constantly stating whatever was on his mind.