Short Stories

Musically Inclined

A/N: Finished this up today, just a short one with 492 words.

The lights dimmed. Silence descended over the auditorium. The air vibrated with anticipation, radiating from the hundreds of people who were seated there. A young man's thickly lashed, cornflower eyes darted eagerly from the thick, red curtains to the black barriers separating the audience from the band. With a sudden flourish of a baton, held high by a wrinkled hand, the world sprung to life. Music wafted into the air; high, fluid notes created spine-tingling harmonies when layered with the bass line. The young man, James, clutched at his thighs with delicately painted nails and fought for breath as the marvellous melodies appeared to snatch all the oxygen from the room. The garnish of the baton continued in a 6/8 format, the band following along in perfect sync.

  After three minutes had trickled past, a scrolling, whirring noise joined the fray and the red fabric parted at the centre, lights focusing on a shining, raised stage. The surface was adorned with a bookshelf, worn couch and various other domesticated items which didn't belong there but somehow made sense in the context of the musical. The dancing baton finally slowed and the music flowed through a decrescendo into the piano dynamic.

  Footsteps padded firmly across the wooden stage surface and although they were inaudible over the gentle music, all eyes suddenly focused in on the man as he approached centre stage. In one confident flourish of his cape, the dark-haired beauty parted his lips and began to sing. Hairs stood to attention along Jason's exposed arms and he shuddered in his seat, heart racing with unexplainable emotions. The sweet music and deep, masculine voice complimented one another and the audience sat rigid and silent, veins flooding with excitement.

  The performance seemed to pass in an instant, yet felt to the observer more than a lifetime. Not a single face was left unsmiling and no negativity spilled from upturned lips as the crowd filed languidly from the building and into the frosty night air, a contrast so sudden that many members drifted hastily from their stupors. The young man James seated himself beyond the doors, allowing the stinging air to calm his racing pulse. His cornflower eyes remained unfocused as they drifted across the milling crowd, passing by vaguely familiar faces with a detached and non-threatening air.

  A large clock, three streets over, standing mightily in the night struck ten o'clock, sending deep chimes echoing across the city, and James barely noticed the dissipation of his fellow crowd-members until a particular figure caught his attention. The young man's body flooded with incomprehensible emotions as his heart began to pound and stomach coiled in a manner not entirely unpleasant. His eyes met with the other man's; the masculine, dark-haired love of his life looked down upon him with a smile and the men strode to meet one another in a tight embrace, all chill lingering in the air suddenly vanishing like smoke in the night.