Reverse Rivalry

A Crescendo Upon Ruin

Trigger Warning: Child Abuse. I tried to make it as mild as possible. Homophobia. Proceed with caution

A chilling sound of sharp piano notes filtered through the house as he stepped inside. It was tranquil, peaceful, a lucid tale, but Jale knew it was nothing short of a warning. The haunting notes of Bach always sent goosebumps down his skin. It created a fake serenity he had gotten used to, the dreadful semblance of it settled into his bones.

His teenage mind could even visualize the robust long fingers on the pure white keys pressing them softly with care, playing with precise skill. It was the only thing that man could touch with kindness. Jale couldn't remember such a touch. All he knew was that those very same hands were nothing short of brutal, merciless, unforgiving.

The journey to the source of his horrors felt too near. The blue walls in the hallway felt tight as he walked forward with his bag on his back. His body felt like a heavy tank threading through wet cement. He bit his lips and forced the fear back down his throat. He didn't want to see or even walk into that place. 

But he had to enter. He had to atone.

His body knew the impending situation, but he couldn't avoid it. His hands were trembling slightly, aware of what was to pass. The suspenseful sound sped up as he took each step closer. Each cord represents the soft stump of his feet on the carpeted ground.

The intensity of it all strung through his veins. It was just a promise to his impending pleas of forgiveness to spare him the pain. Sweat cascaded down his brow. His clenched fingers holding his bag straps tightened when he stopped at the large white door at the end of the hall. The music was at its climax now, speeding up to its most exciting high.

Jale's beating heart was in tune thumping against his suffocating lungs. When he lifted his growing hands and pushed the door open with a loud creak, the music came to an abrupt jilting halt.

The room was big and seemed as if it would stretch into infinity. The largest space in the house where his father resided. The room should have been a place of beauty with its lilac walls and its diversity of instruments, but instead, it held all of his nightmares.

Hands in mid-motion stood poised above the large black piano. Light shone on a slightly wrinkled face, and straight blonde fringes flew up from the night wind blowing through the open windows at the end of the large room. Green eyes like emerald sophistication moved down slowly and then turned with a sharp edge to stare right at Jale. They were dormant but then deepened with familiar swirling disgust.

Jale lowered his eyes to shield himself from the disdain and stepped in. He took off his bag and let it fall to the floor. Rather than the fear that was haunting his mind, a sharp blade of hurt stabbed through his chest, and his eyebrows sunk into a crease on his face. The contrast of his memories was agonising. Those same eyes use to gaze at him with love, affection, warmth. Now, it was like he was staring at the filthiest dirt of the planet, a scalding virus to be avoided, as if, Jale wasn't his only son.

Jale remained silent and stationery at the spot he stopped. Not too close or too far like a submissive servant who was afraid. The eyes boring through him made him feel like vomiting his lunch contents on the ground. His stomach coiled into a violent ball of dismay. He could feel the thoughts behind his father's eyes, the judging, the disappointment.

The scraping of the stool against the ground traveled up his shin from the vibrations of the ground. He wanted to escape, turn, run, find someone, anyone to save him from his father, but that was fruitless because he had to bear it. He had to learn. He had to repent.