Chapter 9 – You’ re Betrayal
The students make their way to the side entrance of the music room; they pause for a regrouping while consoling Henry, he is sitting on a rock stunned. He grows restless, rises up pacing around as he shouts,”Is this what you want from me? To relinquish myself and suffer the consequences? I can”t be who you want me to be!”
The students worry about Henry he seems to be giving in, Shivon walks behind him lifting her hand then taps him on his right shoulder,
“How is this going to help? This is not you, get yourself together man, you can beat this, you have the power to do something now get over your fear, do it, do it if not for us, then for Olivia. You owe it to her!
Henry turns around, he looks at Shivon, the rest of the group approach Henry to console him as he lost his true love only moments ago; after she proposed to him; after two years of never being able to muster up the courage even to call her on a telephone; she broke the silence herself saved up her money for two years and travelled over an ocean to be with him forever.
They hug for a seemingly endlessly long time.
Gabriella watching the students help Henry slips out of sight as they console and continue to hug Henry and each another. Garbriella runs up the stairs silently into the hall following the streaks of blood smeared on the tiled floor from where Orson was killed. She Enters the music room glancing to the mirror portal now seemingly quite, she looks into her pocket and pulls out a ring. A voice is heard as she walks to the stage directly behind her.
“Conjurer, come.”
Gabriella looks behind her.
“Oh great Beleth, I am but your humble admirer, do with me as you please, I am at your device.”
Beleth speaks in another language,”You have been a loyal servant. Lure the people who seek to destroy me to the mirror.”
She acknowledges, but just as she does the students run in through the side door of the music room, they see her with the ring.
Henry trails behind the students, entering to see Gabriella already there in the centre..
She looks up at Henry, “Henry, it’s here, I know it is here somewhere.”
Henry walks through the students with caution, “
“What are you doing here by yourself?” He asks.
Gabriella smiles, “Ah, Henry you are so beautiful, predictable however. Do you know how much power is in music? It can be used to effect a person so so much.”
Henry realising Gabriella is not herself asks, “Gaby, did you have something to do with this?”
Staring into the ring, she laughs, “So much power indeed.”
Henry assertively questions Gabriella again,”Gaby, is all this because of you? Is my fiancé dead because of you? Are you the conjurer?”
She is annoyed at Henry and mocks him,”So many questions, blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah.” She walks to the mirror and turns around to face Henry. “Do you like Music, Henry?” She doesn’t wait for his response this time,
“You know it is said as long as 43,000 years ago the first remnants of music were heard by the ears of that time. When it comes to specific songs, however, the oldest known examples are relatively more recent. The earliest fragment of musical notation was found on a 4,000-year-old, Sumerian clay tablet, which includes instructions and tunings for a hymn honoring the ruler Lipit-Ishtar. But for the title of the oldest song, well most historians point to “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” an ode to the goddess Nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient Hurrians, sometime around the 14th century B.C. Interesting isn’t it, Henry?”
Henry warns,”What are you talking about?” He comes to a conclusion,” It was you, all along? “
She adds, “So much power.”
Henry pleads with her, ”Gaby, stop this, you can stop this.”
“It’s for our own good. I made a deal, in exchange for this world, I will be rewarded with power over it as Beleths wife, thus using music to destroy the human race. I must say there are so many songs about sorrow, I really am doing this world a favour to be honest, riding everyone from their misery of love, trauma, anxiety. This ring will control well, everything if one can hear at least, do as I wish. Even you Henry.”
Henry realises she will not stop ,”Gabriella it’s not to late, give me the ring, I’ll stop all of this.”
Gabriella is locked into a dark trance, “Beleth will set us free!”
The rest of the students run into the music room, A laugh is heard just beyond:
Henry looks over to the instruments scattered around the music room, he notices a triangle and remembered in the text a triangle was to be stricken, used to send Beleth back to his realm, to be rid of the demon once and for all. He thinks about the music he used, turns to Jude and Shivon, “Tell me now all the songs you heard, we have to write it, now!”
Jude and Shivon scurry to find a pen and paper they find them on a music stand, Jude calls out the songs from his memory. Shivon writes the song names on the paper and hands it to Henry. Erica joins them and adds what she heard to the list.
Jude looks at Shivon, “Okay.” Shivon looks around for something to use, she sees a piano in the corner, “Here, we can use this!”
Puppets are heard in the background beyond the room, snarling, they remain in place as Beleth enters a song is triggered:
As the music starts playing Shivon, uses the piano:
Henry holds the triangle in his left hand, strokes it in each direction and begins to sing:
“I saw a twinkle from your eyes,
Like a glow from a morning star,
Your tears and your sorrow,
Laugh, Punchinello,
For the love that that never fades,
Lead me to you on this lasting night.
I saw a smile inside your hardened tears,
wo oh oh oh oh oh oh!
I saw a passion in your dying love,
the kind we used to think of.
Some People come and some people go,
But we can be free this I know,
for,
I see you,
I see through!
The darkness inside our faulty hearts,
Let it not control,
The music lets us go! Woah oh!
I see you now from the Grassy hills,
until the darkness begins to wane,
I see you,
I see you too!
Honeyed smiles feast the fear,
we’ re so very close so close so near.
Gabriella charges after Henry, she grabs a knife from her pocket quickly stabbing him in the chest. Thunder followed by a flash of lightning flashes through a window just behind her. The ring drops to the floor unbeknownst to the ravaging Gabriella, she grabs another knife from her leg forcefully raises it at Henry as he continues to sing,
“We fight with all of our might!
Courage becomes who we are,
I stand tall and prepare to go.
I see you
I see through
This lonely night
to love each other, near and far.
taking down our foes,
Henry looks at the knife pressed into his heart, he grasps the handle, falls down onto his knees, he weakens at the knife in his heart, he can feel it beating slower and slower draining his body of energy as his vision fades out blurring, Henry remembers Olivia and her kiss, a flash of his life fills his mind, his father like him to be, his Mother’s instructions to just breathe, he breathes in and out controlling his pulse, he sees the first time he met Olivia in the courtyard the very day he had his first puppet in his hands, he knows it is time right now, right his moment, second to take control of his life, to become who he was meant to be even if it meant this to be his last day, this would end right now.
Henry regains his composure, tenses his muscles, looks down to see ring half way nestled in between Gabriella and himself.
Gabriella takes a swing at Henry with the second knife, he quickky removes the knife in his chest ducks under her attack, rolls and grabs the ring, he slides to a stop, places the ring on his left ring fingure and whispers,
“infinity.”
He looks at Gabriella, blood flowing out of his wound he stands tall, places both feet firmly on the ground and continues to sing even louder.
“I SEE YOU!”
“I SEE THROUGH”
Gaabriella. charges at Henry again stabbing Henry a second time, and a third, fourth, he wavers but stills his footing, his chest caving, sending sharp pains up his left arm, he collapses again, looks over at Beleth now hovering above Gabriella, he places his hands over his chest stands up and contines to sing,
“Laugh Pichello, no more sorrow, laugh.”
Henry laughs holds the triangle and strikes it with the ring on his figure down (south) right and then up north, then places the ring on his face, causing a sound wave from within the mirror to disperse outward, instantly killing the puppets jumping through the door, Beleth is pulled in as the wave recoils back into the mirror and closes the portal shut without a sound.
Henry watches as Gabriella is hunched over, he falls to the ground, struggling to stay alive, the students run over to him hoping he can endure, Gabriella noticing this becomes maddened by rage, she looks to harm the students but a platoon of military men run through the door just as she charges shouting commands surrounding Gabriella, she shrieks, takes her knife and charges at the heavy gunned forces, they do not hesitate and open fire instantly killing their target; her body blasted backwards onto the mirror breaking the one way reflectively coated glass into tiny pieces, she lies on the workbench silent, lifeless like a thousand words lost on a page, the workbench Henry spent most of his time preparing for his original show from his abstract mind. A time before the chaos.
The rest of the students arriving to the school from the faculty rush into the music room, they gather around in the center of the room, circle Henry as he is lay in a pool of his blood, they sing as they pick Henrys body up and off the floor hoisting him over their heads, they pass Henry over to each other paying respects as other students run in to the music room to see him, to offer help, a salute to his courage for standing up for them.
Henry the timid indigenous young man who stood up to fight the evil Demon Beleth and become the true,
Puppetmaster.
The End
Written By Colin R. Mah
Proofed by Cj Wolf
Credits:
Music and Sound:
Ham 