Experimental Short: The Music

Experimental Shorts are works based outside of the writer’s normal scope of genre and ideas, conceptualised and written in under twenty minutes.

The piano plays. The hero walks on to the field of battle. His legs shake, his heart rakes... the inside of his chest. The piano draws a long stroke, the tone sings. The sword draws, the metal sings. The song begins with quiet, the battle not.

The horde descends with fury, the chords play soft. The rhythm is fast. Volume increases, the ground shakes, the hero dashes. Enemies fall like fingers against ivory and black. It does not last.

The sound echoes, surrounding. The enemy bellows, surrounding. The hero twists, turns and spins, his sword the baton, conducting the music. The score is frightful, fast and chaotic. The hero is frightened, he can not last.

Battling on takes its toll, the music reaches its crescendo. The climax comes, the red blood flows. The music stops.

The composition is incomplete. Build the music, let it stop. The audience withdraws, they do not know. Life comes again, the piano plays and the sound begins a new. The theme is the same, the spark is greater. The audience is pulled back in, the final chorus.

The hero stands, no weapon, just bloodied hands. He fights on. He claws, he kicks, he bites. The horde grows around him, the music grows. Then! He dies. The music dies. His story ends. The last chord has been played.