Reach out for the Sun [UsUk]

Eighteen: Paganini, La Campanella

So he played.

With his eyes closed, Alfred played the first note, and Elizabeta caught right up on the piano, no hesitation. They found their rhythm already at the start, and it took them less than thirty seconds to get completely into the music. La Campanella echoed through the concert hall, each sound possessing a different emotion, all of Alfred's deepest feelings hidden within the energetic piece.

Arthur listened carefully, clinging onto every note, wanting it to never end. Oh, if only it was possible.
If only Alfred's illness was nothing but a terrible nightmare, an illusion, a hallucination coming from the mind of an unstable writer. But, it wasn't. It was real, and now it was in the music.
He could sense it all around him, as the melody playfully, yet sorrowfully flew through the arena. And he didn't understand how Alfred was able to perform each beat of the piece so perfectly despite the pain, despite the weakness, the exhaustion... 

The music took him to a different dimension. For Arthur, the colour blue was never as strong and clear in his mind as it was when it mixed with the melancholic sound. For Alfred, imagining and feeling the mystery of the colour green had never brought him so much sadness. 

This was the last time he would be able to feel it in such force.

Elizabeta gave the American a few sideways glances as she played, but most of the time kept her focus on the keys. She hit every key vigorously, with as much energy as she had in her. Not for victory, not for the meaningless, petty points that the jury might give them, but for life. 
For the Universe, its kindness and cruelty, for Alfred and Arthur and their infinite love, for Gilbert and his craziness, for Matthew and Adrienne... 

I must hold it out, Alfred thought to himself, gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes tight as he felt a wave of panic wash over him, tingly pain spreading throughout his body. 

The melody was reaching its peak.

More, more, I cannot end here! Give me strength to go on, please! Anything, just to finish it!

It has to reach Arthur, it just has to... Please, please, hold on... Forget about the pain. There's only music, pain does not exist in this world, it shouldn't exist, it never has existed...

The colours of the music soon spread all through the room, from the palest shade of yellow to the brightest green, from the most heavyhearted blue to the angriest red... Everything he had ever felt, his entire life - all the despair, each scar left on his broken soul, and each happy moment that he gracelessly let slip by.

Arthur felt every single one of them, and Alfred was overwhelmed. As if his life was suddenly nearing its end, he remembered his childhood, how he laughed with Matthew and their parents, walked down the streets of Pennsylvania and strolled through the parks that used to be fully grey, but he loved them nevertheless. He thought of the first time he ever played the violin, and the first time he received the instrument as a present, the surprised expression on his brother's face when he heard the sound of it. He recalled everything, even the tremendously difficult pain of losing his mother, and the attempt at taking his own life, every detail rang through his head as the melody kept flowing through him as much as it did through the whole concert hall. 
He looked back at the moment his clumsiness gave him love, the moment in which he was never before so thankful he was bad at holding things. Now, that same clumsiness is going to take love away from Arthur just as forcefully as it brought them together.

It hurts, it all hurts far too much... Did it reach him yet? 

I swear, I'll play it until the last note, I swear I won't disappoint.

This is for everyone that I love. Matthew, who was there for me since the start, my only brother and the person who knows me better than anybody, Elizabeta, who I practically just met, but already learnt so much about her deepest self, Gilbert, the man with the craziest eyes and the most childish heart, Adrienne, the brightest girl with the fanciest dress and the most seductive eyes...