The Man In the Mask {POTO}

Chapter 2

Wednesday Morning

In the large mansion, beautiful music could be heard from every corner. The mansion was a huge, breathtaking stone house, and home to two people- Erik Destler and Nadir Khan.

Erik is a musical genius. His talent exceeds the best composers and instrumentalists of any time, such as Mozart and Beethoven. His talents are so exceedingly great, that he is a billionaire because of it. Erik composes, and then has Nadir takes the pieces to his publisher. Erik knows how much money he has, but he doesn't care. He doesn't even know how truly famous his music is, nor does he care about that either. He just cares about creating music and making sure no one sees him. He is tremendous at making people- besides Nadir- not to see him that no one knows who writes the breathtaking music. They know his name, but not his face. There are countless vague biographies online with no pictures. He is known as the "faceless musician".

The reason people do not know his face is because Erik rarely, if ever, goes outside of the massive house. He doesn't see a reason to leave his safe-haven of no-judgement and music. Also, Erik bares a horrible deformity on the right side of his face. The deformity is so bad, he was left without any parents and deserted. Nadir saved him from death as an infant, and raised him as his own son.

Erik is nothing less than an absolute genius. If he were to be in school, he would have probably been a 5 year old graduating high school. He is also very sneaky and manipulative, but what else could you expect from a genius who is forced to stay away from the world that he thinks is all cold, cruel, and mean?

Nadir was walking down the hallway of Erik's wing of the mansion to make sure he was doing okay, and to see if he needed anything. He stopped short in the doorway to be stunned at the short stack of music Erik had composed that day, and the large stack of crumpled up papers on the floor. Usually, the stack of music that Erik had composed during the day was about a foot tall, and he never made mistakes. This time, there looked to be only a few short songs on the piano and tons discarded on the floor.

Nadir was pulled out of his surprise by loud banging on the keys. The banging didn't make out a pleasant tune, it was a tune of frustration. Nadir cringed at the sudden noise. As soon as it happened, it stopped. Erik put his head down on the music stand on the shiny, black grand piano.

"What do you want, Nadir?" asked Erik, sounding irritated.

"Hello friend. I just came to see if you needed anything, but I can't help but notice your frustration. What is wrong, Erik?"

Erik whipped around, faster than the speed of light, to deliver Nadir a steely glare. "Do not ever ask me that question like there is nothing in the world that could be bothering me, Khan. You know that there are more than a thousand things that could be wrong at this moment, and in my life. I do not need anything. Leave now," Erik snipped at Nadir. The calmness of his voice was chilling. He turned back around and arranged his hands to get ready to play again.

Nadir was used to this side of Erik. He sighed and started to walk out. Before he left, he turned and told Erik in a fatherly tone, "You know I just worry about you, Erik. I hate to see you so unhappy all the time."

Before Nadir got out the door, Erik sighed and closed his eyes. This made Nadir stop, thinking he got through to him and was about to say something. But, Erik just continued on with his playing and wrote down the few notes he was able to come up with.

Nadir sighed and continued down the hallway. Maybe sometime he'll see that there is someone that truly cares about him and values his feelings, Nadir thought.

After just a few minutes, Erik got frustrated again and put down his head. Why can I not successfully compose today? Am I broken? Why can I not concentrate on anything I try to do? After sitting there for a few moments and thinking about what could be wrong, he quickly stood up and headed to the kitchen, thinking maybe this could be a rare occasion and that he could just be hungry.