Scales [ON HOLD]

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Memory

   I didn't hear what he said on the end of his sentence, but I just shrugged it off.

   "I'd love to go to town with you guys!" I told him happily. I stood behind my chair and mentally counted down the seconds until the bell would ring. Moving my frizzy fringe out of the way, I let Jack speak.

   "So," Jack began. Just as he was about to carry on, he was cut off by the bell. He sighed and picked up his bag. When we were out of the stuffy classroom, the bell stopped and so he carried on. "are you ready for some piano?"

   "Of course I am!" I exclaimed, remembering the meeting in the piano room I had arranged. I linked my arm with his as he dragged me off to the piano room. We took a series of turns, stairs and straights.

   "What's your timetable for today?" Jack asked me. We weren't even halfway to the piano room yet. I thought about it for a while before answering him.

   "Well, I had history and I.T, now it's break, then I have English, then it's lunch and then I'm completely free."

   "Okay. Mine is fairly similar. I had History, in a different class of course, then I.T, break, English, lunch and then I am free and I have R.E." He replied.

   "Hey do you want to meet up at the end of the day?" I suggested. I saw his cheeks go slightly pink, and so I chuckled.

   Why do I make him blush all the time? Is he nervous? If so, about what?

   "S-Sure. Why not?" He whispered again.

   "Jack?" I almost interrupted him. He gazed over at me and stopped walking.

   "Yes?" He turned to his left and began to type a code into the door. I cleared my throat slightly as he opened the door and ushered me in. Pulling out from his arm, he sat down on a piano stool and opened the lid, his face still flushed.

   "Why are you blushing?" I asked him. He opened his eyes a bit more than they were and laughed nervously.

   "Well, uh-"

   "It's fine. It is quite hot today." I stopped and assured him. He sighed in relief and covered his face with his hand.

   My eyes flicked around the dimly lit room. It was quite small, and yet it seemed to hold one full sized piano, around twenty different brass instruments and a set of drums. The windows were dusty and grimy and one of them was smashed as if a fist had gone straight through it, the walls and windowsills weren't in any better shape either; they were grey and mouldy.

   "Nice to know that the students take care of this room." I joked, chuckling a bit. Jack laughed too.

   I turned to the piano to see Jack had already put his book upon the shelf opened on a page with Für Elise. Stepping closer, I noticed that the grade was level six.

   Before I could open my mouth to ask him what grade he was, he began to play. His hands glided across the piano without hesitation as he read what was in the book. Despite the fact that it was there, he only looked at it once or twice. When he reached the end of the page, he blew a sharp breath on it quickly and the page turned over.

   The next thing I knew, his eyes were closed and he wasn't even reading the music at all. His hands were barely touching the keys as he played the beautiful music. As I was looking at the book, I noticed that he was adding in his own notes that created a perfect harmony with the original song. He told me that he had only just started to play piano, and I'm not sure that was true!

   Halfway throughout the song, his hands ignored the music completely and played something that wasn't like any piano song I had ever heard before. It brought back memories of when I was younger, but they weren't happy childhood memories, they were memories that I never wanted to remember.

   I was locked in my room listening to Für Elise from my phone. As the song stopped, I could hear my father's frustrated yelling throughout the house, only to be clouded by my mother's loud crying. Picking myself up, I sat on the end of my bed and listened in to the argument. The house began to shake as my father's shouting became louder and louder. He shouted words I had never heard, and those were words I never wanted to hear again. The next thing I knew, the kitchen was consumed by large flames of fire, spreading to the stairs and the living room. 

   "Octavia! My darling, where are you?" She called out to me, forcing the hiccups out of her voice. I was in total shock from the screaming and the fire, and so I couldn't respond. I tried my hardest but nothing came out. I felt like I was stuck in a dream, the kind of dream that you couldn't move, breath or speak in... the nightmares. I used all of my senses to run towards my bedroom door to open it, but my father had locked me in there to keep me safe from my mother, although I was more scared of my him than I was of her. I managed to pick up my desk chair and throw it at the door, causing it to crack through the middle. My fists pounded against the door in hope that my mother would hear me, but that was when I saw it.

   Thick curls of smoke seeped through the cracks in and around the door, spilling into the room like there was no tomorrow. Stumbling to the other side of the room, I let tears roll down my face. The smoke became thicker and thicker until I couldn't see the ceiling anymore. I caught my head in my hands and tried to scream, but my voice box was stunned.

   "Octavia!" My mother banged on the door, calling out to me in between coughs from the smoke. I stood up and took a deep breath to shout back, but instead of air filling my lungs, it was smoke. I grabbed my throat and began to cough, trying to push the smoke out of my lungs. The deprivation of air weakened me, and the next thing I knew, I had fallen, hitting the back of my head on the hard wooden floor.

   Jack had returned to the ending of Für Elise and was slowing down to create a dramatic ending. I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes as I heard the music begin to crescendo. On the last note, Jack slammed his hands onto the piano as if he was in pain, and that only made it worse. He slid his hands off the piano and closed his book, sighing.

   "I-"

   He was interrupted by my quiet whimpering. Turning his head, he saw me up against the wall crying my eyes out. I fell onto the floor and buried my head in my hands, pulling my legs up to my chest and hugging them tightly. I couldn't stop the flow of tears as I attempted to force the memory out of my head.

   "Octavia!" He shouted in surprise and ran over to me. His hands grabbed my shoulders as he shook me lightly. "Are you okay? What's the matter?" He bombarded me with questions.

   "I-I... no..." I choked out.