Valentines Day Story Challenge...

A while ago I suggested a 1000 word writing challenge entitled "Hell and Love Hearts" on the YA GLBT forum on Goodreads... to be posted tomorrow, an alternative valentines day story, and this is my attempt....

The concert was nearly ending as Murmur slipped into the back of the auditorium and took a seat in the back row; the soft snick of the door closing drowned out by the string quartet playing on the spotlight flooded stage.  Technically, as a demon, he could have just materialised in his seat, concealing his arrival from the rest of the audience; but somehow that seemed, well, wrong.  As it was, no one noticed; or at least almost no one.

In the darker half of the stage, sitting on the bench seat, Luke slouched over the keyboard of the grand piano.  Long blond hair fell around his face, almost a shield between himself and the audience.  As Murmur took his seat Luke jerked upright, his head snapping round.  Vivid blue eyes scoured the audience until they focused on a fixed point.  Although he couldn’t see to the back of the auditorium, he could feel the presence of his mysterious watcher; his muse.   A slow smile crept across his face and he sighed softly before returning his focus to the instrument in front of him.

That sigh sounded like a gentle breeze in the demon’s sensitive ear and to his horror he felt a slow warmth grow from within, spreading through him and heating his cheeks.  He shook his head gently as if trying to clear it, this wasn’t right, demons didn’t blush.  For Devil’s sake, he was one of Satan’s minions, a Count of Hell. He’d stalked the depths of the netherworld and the surface of the Earth gathering souls for his master for centuries. He wasn’t some delicate warm blooded human, run by heart and hormones.

Even as he told himself this Murmur knew that he lied.  He had been drawn to his charge from the start. Instructed to bring over the talented musician’s soul for his master what had started out as simply another job had slowly grown into something else, something different, something he’d never had before.

The audience around him burst into applause, startling him from his thoughts.  Glancing at the stage he saw the members of the string quartet rise and bow to the audience before filing off the stage.  A tuxedo clad MC crossed the stage and took the spotlight.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” he announced formally.  “For our final piece this evening I am pleased to introduce you to our solo pianist, Mr Luke Shaw, an extremely talented twenty year old who this evening will give the first public performance of his debut composition, In Dreams.” 

The spotlight swept across the stage, the filter softening from white to a golden yellow as it settled over the piano, Luke’s hands now poised over the keys waiting to begin.   

The first few bars of the piece were fast paced and strangely discordant, almost jarring.  Underlying the jangling melody, a series of notes in a minor key, repeating again and again; like the stuttering heartbeat of a human in fear. 

Ignoring the startled looks from others in the audience, Murmur closed his eyes and smiled, in dreams indeed; in nightmares. 

Luke had woken screaming, tangled in the bed clothes and drenched in sweat for almost a month after Murmur had first appeared to him in his dreams.  In these nightmares, Murmur had hidden Luke’s musical gift, locking it away deep inside Luke’s mind where it couldn’t be reached.  Pale and listless, unable to hear the music that had been the heartbeat of his life, Luke had taken to wandering the streets in the dark, exhausted yet too scared to fall asleep. 

With Luke no longer able to use his musical gift, Murmur should have moved in with his offer, the price that his master demanded; the return of Luke’s musical talents for the duration of his life, in exchange for his soul and an afterlife in hell.  It never happened.

Echoing around the auditorium the music began to soften, the thrumming heartbeat slowing; the nightmare easing.

One night, lost in the nightmare and unable to focus, Luke had stepped off the pavement into the path of a speeding car.  Following him as usual, Murmur had watched as the vehicle raced towards Luke, the icy grip of a fear that he didn’t fully understand overtaking him.  He had acted without thinking.  Changing instantly to his true form and launching himself between the frail human and approaching death he had snatched him from in front of the car and with a giant sweep of his wings lifted him from harms way.

Cradling Luke’s inert body in his arms Murmur had been overcome with a strange unfamiliar feeling, the need to protect the young human.  As they flew over the city Luke’s blue eyes opened and stared directly into his; and he’d fallen. 

Yet again the music changed, becoming even lighter than before and growing sweeter.  A lullaby.

In the days and weeks after the rescue, risking the wrath of his master, Murmur didn’t leave Luke’ side as gradually he released him from the nightmare he’d created.  Slowly as his gift resurfaced from where it was hidden the bond between the demon and the young man grew.  Murmur knew he should leave, but each time he tried to pull away, to return to his fate in the netherworld, Luke would play again and, like a fish in a net, he was trapped.

Satan raged from the pits of hell, demanding Murmur’s return, seeking retribution, punishment.  The threats had no effect as long as Murmur followed the beat of the music, the beat of Luke’s heart, Hell could not touch them.  Whilst Luke played they were safe.

Long after the music ended and the audience filed out, Murmur remained in his seat, eyes still closed, listening.  Footsteps approached him and stopped, but he was not listening to them, he listened instead to the music of the accompanying heartbeat.  Opening his eyes he smiled as he looked up in to the face of the young man who had completely changed his afterlife.