To Save Our Families, Let's 'Marry' (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 38

Things calmed down; the practice session completely finished. Joshua, who had found himself leaning against the door frame, thought it was finally time to go to his room. But before he could set the plan into motion, his sister suddenly perked up.

The girl had been flicking through her folder of sheet music and came across the piece she predicted would be her first performance once healed. The concert was a little under half a year away and was the next thing she had planned after the Mozart competition. It was unlikely she would be allowed to take any jobs before then.

Why she had suddenly gotten excited was now what interested her older brother. He knew what the folder was and that it was not something one would usually get like this over.

"Are you too tired to play or not?"

The question threw Henry off, him turning to the teenager and being met with large, pleading eyes. Originally, he had planned to play a little too, but he did not want to reveal his real mood. For this reason, he had avoided it, only playing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' right at the beginning. The other pieces she had asked for would have exposed him. But, none of those times had Penelope been this expectant.

However, he did feel a little bad, so perhaps he could give in a little. "Which piece?"

Penelope snapped her head to the blond man, Joshua easily seeing her eyes light up as she hurriedly showed Henry the piece. "It was actually after listening to you perform this seven years ago, I decided to take piano seriously. Is it too much to ask you to play it now?"

There were a few seconds of silence, Henry only looking at the score, before he gently shook his head. "Move over to the stool, I don't want to accidentally hit you." Hearing him agree, Penelope wasted no time in giving him the space he needed.

Curious, Joshua ended up staying, not understanding but wanting to hear the performance.

The melody started off soft, ethereal, like the gentle trickle of water down a mountain stream. The chords were soft, the notes almost fluid, filling both siblings listening with a calming warmth. But there was a sinister undertone, nothing one could obviously hear, Penelope only aware of it because she had been researching and making notes on the piece and its performances. Joshua, with his ears mostly untrained and having never heard the composition before, could not hear it, but he could feel something, almost like the calm before a storm.

And that was exactly what it was.

Slowly the sound started getting heavier, occasional sounds of discord getting more and more frequent. Joshua found that the notes didn't exactly clash, but something made him feel nervous, like anxiety welling within him.

The music had become sad, it was almost as if he could hear heartbreak, he could most definitely feel it. Had his emotions been even a little bit immature, he really might have started crying.

But then it changed again.

The sound became frustrated, turbulent, violent almost. The low minor key combined with the heavy chords and inhumanely fast melody. Penelope was in awe at how Henry could play the part so well without any preparation. But Joshua was finding himself almost lost in the echoing sounds; it was almost like whatever message the song was conveying was slowly being lost to insanity.

Every note and chord was played with purpose and distinction, yet the over sound lacked in clarity. It really did make the man feel like he was spiralling or momentarily losing his mind. Joshua really couldn't understand it, but the music seemed to be greatly influential. If the part before hadn't done so enough, this part made him emotional to the point where he really did want to cry and give up, that was the kind of frustration that came through.