The Silenced Souls [Editing Process]

Ch. Ten - Fracture

With his fingers on mine, he led me towards the left, at the low sounding end of the piano, which honestly came to me as a surprise, because that could only mean one thing.

He committed my song to memory, with just one read through.

The piano had been a colossal part of his life.

That composition I had heard earlier by him did ring familiar echoes, although I didn't understand why.

Simply because there had only ever been one person I had heard of who could play like that.

But that was a long time ago.

Brought back to life, I started to play, continuing to be directed by him.

It was as if I were stepping on my partner's feet while dancing. At one point, my fingers slowed to a halt, out of embarrassment; unbothered, he pressed his hands on to mine, encouraging me to continue.

Clumsy as I sounded, I tickled the keys again, his gentle warmth permeating my skin as I did so.

Low.

My heart skipped a beat.

By this point, I felt the tension depart, my focused eyes release tension, and fluidity walk slowly in, through a different door I had never opened.

The melody was so enchanting, I had nearly forgotten it was my own song on the keys.

I felt the need to sing along, but I stopped myself; I wanted to hear the instrumental like before. I wanted to learn, look outside of myself, out of my element, and into something I had always been inquisitive but too precarious about.

At the start of the first climax of the melody Jude was barely touching my fingers now. Merely grazing them in the direction I had to play was enough to feed the confidence I needed to get through this note.

It was the beginning of the difficult, intricate part of the song.

I didn't read music, so there was obviously no point whatsoever in having it open for me to glance at, even though it was written in the pages of my notebook, the ones Astrid had written herself.

Astrid ... Just how long did it take us both to come up with this? I can barely remember now.

The notes went from a passive, melancholic, quiet heartbreak, to an inexorable, unbridled, liberated tempest that burst forth.

Along the way, my fingers trembled the slightest bit, but like a child learning to swim, I was caught just in time, before I went under.

Jude transitioned from lightly touching my fingers to lowering his palms on my hands, as he had first done when we began to play the song.

I was above water once again.

Memories came rushing towards me when I started the second part of the climax.

Everyone was downing beers and chips, congratulating me and each other for having completed the demo. Astrid teased them about the fact that they felt moved the entire time I sang, and they played.

"Can't blame ya. Kristen wrote the very definition of a heavy break up. Perfectly conveyed if you ask moi."

I had laughed, noting that it was an exaggeration.

Unshed was too sticky of a title for the song that we all thought of, so I had to go off alone and think about it.

And I did.

An exhale of smoke left my mouth, as I leaned against a fence in the dark night, looking at the stars above me.

Brought back to the present, I was at the height of the song, the part that almost brought everyone in the studio to tears.