Something to Believe In

One

Having been at work for a couple hours now, twenty-two-Year-old Lyric Braxton couldn't help the mood she was currently in. Few aside from her boss knew the backstory of her Life, and she preferred keeping it that way more oft than she didn't. She wasn't one of those who wanted to give a sob-story to whatever bartender happened to be serving her, unlike most of the fuckers that showed up in this particular dive bar Night after Night. But just 'cuz she didn't wanna do that shit didn't mean others didn't, so she always offered up an open ear when she was tending the bar.

        Unfortunately, ever since being offered a job when the bar's owner'd seen how down on her Luck she was, she'd heard so many sob-stories, she was ready to scream. As tender-hearted as she was, a lotta those stories brought back memories she'd rather be drinking away, but didn't have the money to without this job. When she'd heard enough of those kinda stories and needed a break from them, she usually wound up on the small stage to give at least a short performance.

        Before being thrown out by her mother, simply 'cuz she lacked a job–and therefore, a source of income–the young woman'd been a pretty talented musician. She could usually figure out at least two parts of some of her favorite songs, if given enough Time, were she able to get her hands on the required instrument. However, it was her voice that was her best and strongest instrument, something she'd known since around the Time she hit puberty ten Years ago. The thing that she'd really become aware of in the past few Years, though was that her voice was far more powerful than she'd given herself credit for. While she'd an uncanny knack for being able to wind folks up with her voice, it was when she got to singing Power ballads that her talent really showed itself.

        Taking a deep breath as she settled at the keyboard that remained on the stage at all Times, Lyric prepared herself to unleash that very side of herself now. Ever since hearing it for the first Time after nabbing a copy of Poison's new album earlier that Summer, the song Something to Believe In tended to get stuck in her head more oft than it didn't. She could relate to it in a couple different ways, but the thing that few realized was that it dredge up memories and Emotions that oft got buried. It was cathartic as all hell for her to listen to, but it was even more so when she actually got to singing it. As powerful as her voice was, she could throw fifty extra layers of Emotion into it that its recording artist prolly couldn't have hoped to when they'd recorded it.

        "Well, I...see him on the TV, preachin' 'bout the promised Lands–he tells me to believe in Jesus, and steals the money from my hands... Some say he was a good man–Lord I think he sinned, yeah, yeah..." she sang roughly twenty seconds after starting the piano intro.

        Katie–one of her co-workers–was hiding in the Shadowsta add a backing line during the chorus and outro, but that wouldn't kick in for a while yet.

        "Twenty-two Years of mental tears, cries a suicidal Vietnam vet, who fought a losin' War on a foreign Shore to find his country didn't want him back," the young woman continued, expertly ignoring the group of guys she'd seen turn around in their seatsta stare at her. "Their bullets took his best friend in Saigon–our lawyers took his wife, his kids, no regrets...in a Time I don't remember, in a War he can't forget... He cried, Forgive me for what I done there, 'cuz I never meant the things I did...and gimme somethin' to believe in, if there's a Lord above... Ah, gimme somethin' to believe in–oh, Lord, arise..."

        Lyric forced herself to bite back tears already at the memories that verse dredged up, and she knew it was only gonna get worse as she kept playing.

        "My best friend died a lonely man in some Palm Springs hotel room–I got the call last Christmas Eve, and they...told me the news," she sang, practically drowning in her memories. "I tried all Night not to break down and cry as the tears rolled down my face–I felt so cold and empty, like a lost Soul outta place... And the mirror, mirror on the wall sees my smile–it fades again!"