Fantasia

XCIII

"It was bright you know."

After an eternity of wailing, Eddy had settled with sniffing here and there, his face still hidden in Brett's hospital gown. The tears were still running down his face, when Brett started talking in a calm, soothing voice. 
"It was so weird. One second, I was standing on stage with you and next thing I knew, there was only light."
"When was that exactly?", Eddy croaked, unsure if Brett understood anything that his bruised vocal chords produced. 
He did though. "Right after the climax. I'm not sure anymore, but I reckon shortly before the piece ended?"
"And it was bright?"
"Very. There was just looots of white light and I had no idea where I was."
"Did you still have your violin?"
Brett hesitated. "I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if I had a body or not. I felt so light, so free." 
Eddy lifted his head out of Brett's arms a bit and looked at him, at his dreamy expression. 
"Was it nice then?"
The smaller nodded. "Very."
"You wanted to stay?", Eddy concluded.
"I was confused. I thought 'Why am I not awake? We've performed our piece, didn't we?' However, the confusion quickly faded and then, all I wanted was to be at this wonderful place."
Eddy nodded, waiting for Brett to continue. 
"I guess that's why it took a while for them to get me back. It's not that I didn't want to return. It was just so much nicer up there... or wherever I've been."
"And then? Where were you when they got your heart to beat in-between?", Eddy asked as the well underneath his eyes finally stopped overspilling. 
"I'm not sure...", Brett exhaled, a frown between his brows this time. 
"You weren't back in your world, were you? I was looking for you."
"No. It was dark. Like, pitch black. That's why all I wanted was to go back to the bright place. I had nothing with me too. I saw nothing, heard nothing."
"Must have been spooky."
"I was freaked out, to be honest. So I ran around, or flew or whatever, until I suddenly got back to the light again."
"What made you come back anyway?"
Brett caught Eddy's gaze while the corner of his mouth lifted, once again bringing rays of sunshine into the room and into Eddy's heart. 
"You know what."

Eddy looked down almost bashfully.
"It's a really nice piece, the one you played."
"You really think so?", he had to ask, his eyes on Brett again. After all, it was the first proper piece he'd composed by himself.
"When I heard it, there in the light, it reminded me of everything I have here, everything I would leave behind if I would decide to stay", Brett laid out, his gaze cast into the distance before it focused back on Eddy. 
"And like I've mentioned, it was like you called me. When I heard the piece, I was instantly sure that it was you who played it. I mean, it's as beautiful as if the Heavens would have written it."
"Now you're exagerating big time", Eddy huffed and wiped his tear stained cheeks dry.
"Not at all! It's like soaring through the sky. And the way you brought the motive of the variation of my piece back, that's very impressing. But the way it was played... your musicality is very distinctive and I could feel the pull it had on me. It was practically dragging me back."
Great! Now Brett had managed to make him blush hard. Eddy moved his head left and right. "Will you stop now? It's not that great!"
"It literally has the ability to bring back the dead! How much better can it be?"
"Should have played Beethoven nine. Would have brought back a whole zombie army."
Brett's laugh echoed through the room. "But seriously", he said, when he caught his breath again, "I guess what I want to say is, thank you, for saving me."
Eddy swallowed hard and hoped he'd keep the new set of tears in check like that. "That was for sure the most important performance I've ever given", he declared and earned a hug from his best friend. 
"Thank you for doing it. For playing the violin when I most needed to hear it."

"Didn't you hear the Adagio?", Eddy asked after a minute or two of him recharging and gaining his composure in Brett's arms. 
Brett leaned back a bit so he could look at him. "No", he lifted his brows, "you played it?"
"It was the first piece I played in order to bring you back", Eddy answered with a small bob, "When it didn't work, I played my piece. I thought maybe it had to be something else than the one we performed together."
"When did you have time to compose it?"
"Right when you were gone, after our performance. I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I looked for the empty magic score. You know, the one our piece is written in."
"God!", Brett exclaimed, "Right! We didn't have it with us when we went on stage, did we?"
"No. But I've found it. It was in the changing room where we chose our suits. And guess what: The mirror in that room, it burst."
Brett's eyes went impossibly wide. "What?"
"Yeah."
"But, it was intact when we left."
"I have no idea when it happened. And I also don't know what that means. I'm positive though, that it's the same mirror I saw over and over again before I stepped through it and met you", Eddy stated.
"Maybe", Brett began, "maybe it means that there's no turning back. Not for you. And not for me. I didn't go back to that place either after I had entered Heaven, or where the hell I've been."
"Nice one", Eddy commented Brett's unintented pun. Brett sniggered briefly. 
"Does that mean, we're not gonna meet in our dreams anymore?", he then asked whistfully.
Brett grinned. "No need, since we can hang out here, no?"
"You're right", Eddy sent a smirk back and placed a hand on Brett's shoulder, "Also, I really don't want to go back anymore."

No. There was no going back now. Not to Eddy's old dream on and around that fateful hill, not to Brett's world where he'd been stuck during his coma, not to their old, stressful, yet unfulfilling lives. As Eddy looked at Brett's kind, open face, he smiled at their future, laying ahead of them and awaiting them with open arms.