Up in the Stars

Beginning

I always find that the most difficult part of writing is actually starting.

This proved to be no different.

Here is chapter one.

I hope you enjoy!

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Her hand trembled slightly as it brought the bow up to the strings of her cello.

She took a deep breath, blocking out the rustling of the others sat in the grand auditorium.

She hadn't looked at them as she had walked on stage.

Looking into the eyes of the people who held her life in their hands was a bit too much for her to handle.

Air rushed past her lips as she exhaled.

This was the audition of her life.

It could change everything.

Then she began.

Her arm was bent in the precise position she had perfected as a child.

She knew how to play music better than she knew how to do much else.

The first note struck against the ancient walls of the hall.

Long and drawn out, she began to tell a story.

The mournful sounds stretching around her, wrapping around her arms like ropes.

It was the sound of an ending, of the destruction of dreams.

Her breathing quickened as her playing did, anticipation dripping.

Yearning clashed with trepidation as the bow flew quicker and quicker.

She swayed with the music, lost to the whims of the instrument.

Quicker and quicker the notes climbed, growing more and more joyful.

Her aching lungs breathed in the hope, filling the emptiness between her ribs and deep within her chest.

It reached a point of almost painfulness.  She choked on the magnitude of the moment.

Her body nearly raising out of the seat, she reached the crescendo.

Slowly, she floated back down.  The notes slowing and twirling through the air.

The warm notes were like an old friend to her.  They caressed against her skin and tangled in her hair.

Heavy with reluctance to leave the world she had created, she played the last few notes.

For a few moments, she sat with her eyes still closed.

Her body heaving with gasps as she tried to reel herself in.

She had never played for strangers before.  Only for him.

He used to say that listening to her felt like living an entire life in a manner of minutes.

She opened her eyes and looked at the judges.

They felt it, too.

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Comments fill my heart with joy!

Love always, Sappho.