Dark academia (oneshots)

The mystery of the selves

As your pencil moved across the page, the lead leaving grey marks behind on your history assignments, you could hear the piano on the ground floor of the library. At first, it was only one note, and you excused it, like the library and grand piano were both rather old and creaks could be heard even over the loud rainfall outside. But as notes continued, you realized slowly that this was not just random notes, but a beautiful melody.

You stood from your chair, the wooden legs of it scraping unpleasantly against the dark hardwood floors. Your shoes made light taps against the flooring as you walked through the empty building, making your way to the stairway that led to the ground floor and taking the dusty railing as you started your descent. You'd left your bookbag and homework on the table upstairs, figuring you'd return back to them after complimenting whoever was playing that gorgeous song. But it became apparent as you got halfway down the steps that nobody was sitting at the piano where you'd expected them to be, the library was as empty as ever at this late hour. You were puzzled, if nobody was here then where did that song come from?

The grand piano had no technology that made it capable of playing songs on its own as modern keyboards could. You resigned yourself from your thoughts, surely someone had been playing it and hid between some of the bookshelves, there were rows upon rows of them. A hiding spot was easy to find in this large, roomy building. You went back up, not even bothering to reach the landing at the bottom.

You were just sat back down in your chair when the notes started up again, and while the music sounded enchanting, alluring, you found anger rise in your chest. Was someone pranking you? Your friends did have a tendency to mess with you, as you were a rather quiet person who preferred being alone to the classic crowd or having a spotlight on them. So instead of going down those old creaky stairs and alarming whoever was at the piano, you stood and simply peeked over the railing of the second floor, where you could see directly down from the first floor to the piano and several rows of bookshelves. Sat on the cushioned piano stool was a grey-skinned woman, wearing a dress adorned with beautiful embroidered flowers and greenery onto the skirt of it. She had dark hair, pulled into a bun with a gorgeous diamond crested hairpin holding it in place, a singular strand of the hair draping over the woman's face. Her slender fingers moved quickly and masterfully over the piano's keys, pressing each one with precise timing and pressure, before moving to the next one. You didn't know how long you'd been staring until you heard the start of the fifth song, and you snapped out of it.

"Hello?" You called softly, and the woman moved her head, searching her surroundings on the ground floor for anyone that could've seen her.

When she saw no one, she slowly craned her neck up, locking eyes with you. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, dark as the ocean yet glistening under the moonlight beautifully. Her pale cheeks were speckled with dark freckles, over her nose and cheeks. Her lips were dark, presumably due to dark lipstick. And in an instant, she vanished, like she had never been there, to begin with, the deafening silence now evident to you. You missed her already, she was beautiful and talented with her music.

As you gathered up your assignments and packed up for the night, you kept finding your eyes trained back on that grand piano. Standing by the door with your books held to your chest, your lips drew into a small smile.

"Keep playing. I'm sorry to interrupt." As you walked away, your bookbag weighing down on your back, you could hear the song pick up where it left off, considerably more peppy

i- 😃🤚