Much to my surprise, as my vision faded in to darkness, It was not accompanied by the familiar maniacal laugh and the sight of my favorite purple demon. Instead, the world just dissolved and stayed black. I couldn’t see anything or hear anything to point me in the direction of where I was or what was happening. I couldn’t feel myself, but I had to assume my body was around somewhere. I began to wonder around the darkness, hoping to find some hint of anything whatsoever.

After what felt like an eternity of nothing, I heard something. It started off faint like a snapping or repeated clap. As the sound drew closer I came to find that it was the sound of footsteps. They didn’t seem too rapid or anything. The source seemed to be in no particular hurry to reach their destination. But then, just as soon as they’d begun, they stopped. I looked around, expecting the source of the footsteps to jump out and scare me, but nothing like that happened.

After some time of waiting, I heard a voice. “I’d recommend staying quiet for this.” The voice sounded female. It was soft. Kind. I was going to protest, but I decided it might be best to just listen to her.

Then, out of nowhere, my vision was consumed by whiteness. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the sudden surge of light, but once they did I was met with a bit of an odd sight. Sitting in from of me, with a spotlight fixated on it, was a large white grand piano. It looked to be in perfect condition, shining brilliantly under the light. Sitting at the piano was the person I could only assume had told me to be quiet.

She was dressed in all white, mirroring the piano. She wore an elegant and very clean suit along with white dress shoes and a white fedora. As if there wasn’t enough white, inside the ribbon around the fedora was a white feather. The woman seemed to be stretching out her hands. Maybe it had been a long time since she’d last played. That was what I thought at first, but then she pushed open the piano and began to play.

The playing was absolutely magnificent. I hadn’t heard much piano in my lifetime, but this was easily the best I’d ever heard. She rivaled any classical composer without a doubt. If she really was out of practice, it must have been quite the sight when she was in her prime.

“It’s really not all that hard once you get a feel for it. You must simply let it flow like a river. Let your fingers dance across the keys,” she said as she continued to play.

The song changed from calm to sorrowful in an instant. I barely had time to process what had happened. I could feel the emotions rolling over me and engulfing me. My thoughts almost slipped to think about that, but thankfully I pulled myself back.

“If you’re wondering why you are here, I don’t know. Any guess you have is as good as mine. And do not worry, I am unaware of who you are. If that was meant to be, I would, but alas I do not,” she said to me as if reading my thoughts.

All of the sudden, a strange symbol appeared on the piano. It was a shifting dark grey mark made of two octagons with lines connecting each point. Dark mist billowed from the mark and rolled down the piano before disappearing in to the darkness below. The mist began to collect, taking form. It was taking the form of a person. Once fully formed, the mist took on colors, forming clothes and skin, but the shifting appearance remained.

The mist had taken the form of a tall man dressed in all black. He was quite the contrast to the woman sitting at the piano. They were almost like perfect opposites. I couldn’t see the skin of the woman, as she had her back to me and was wearing gloves, but the man had dark skin that was so unsaturated it was almost grey. He wore a creepy grin that remind me of a certain purple demon. Atop his head was a top hat that seemed to smile the same as him.

“You are late,” said the woman at the piano. Her tone was far sharper when she spoke to me and she didn’t even look up to meet the man.

“Oh, come on Sengario, you’re such a chump. Sorry, but I’m a little bit held up at the moment. Reaching you all the way there is quite the endeavor,” said the man. His voice was higher pitched than expected and it seemed to mimic his clothes. It was constantly shifting and even doubling back on itself making him remind me way too much of Sylak. In fact, this entire scene reminded me of the many conversations I’d had with the purple demon.

I snapped my focus back to the scene in front of me. I kept my mouth shut just like the woman, Sengario apparently, had said.

“Well, I did oh so deeply miss our frequent talks, Zeraph,” she said.

He snickered. “I’m hurt Senny. I thought you liked me…” He faked a look of sadness, but when Sengario didn’t even acknowledge him, he resorted to a stern glare before laying down on the piano. He stretched his legs out, taking up the entire thing. “Oh, it has been too long since I’ve been able to move around. Too bad it isn’t even real…”

Sengario coughed, changing her song to something I had never heard before. It sounded malevolent, perfectly matching Zeraph. The tempo sped up and I could see Zeraph was tapping his foot along to the song. The two seemed like old friends, but the dynamic and the way they acted towards one another was all wrong. Enemies seemed like it might be too strong of a word. Maybe “indifferent acquaintances” was a more apt description.

“Well, I’m here. Are you going to say anything or are you just going to continue to play the piano and shoot snide remarks at me whenever I say something?” Zeraph asked impatiently.

Sengario once again switched songs, but this time, I recognized the song. It was Piano Man. My mom loved this song, she would play it in the shop all the time. It became almost like our anthem. I would’ve usually hum or sung along with the tune, but I held back the urge. I was now convinced there was some reason I was here. Or I hoped there was.

“So, how are the kiddies doing?”

“They are doing perfectly fine, if you must know.”

Zeraph let out a snicker. “Ah, that’s quite a shame. After all, it certainly isn’t going to last, especially once…” he trailed off.

“Once what?” Sengario asked shakily. Her voice had changed so suddenly. It was a bit jarring.

“Well, my lord. I can’t that the ‘All Powerful Lord Sengario’ doesn’t know what’s happened with his own children. Dear me.”

“I don’t want to play these games, Zeraph. Just tell me.” Sengario had completely stopped playing now. The air had fallen still.

“Well then. There’s no need for that. I just thought you might like to know that there’s a new player on the game board and they’ll be moving very soon.”

“What kind of new player…?” Sengario asked as she slowly began to play again. Somehow, the new music created even more tension than the silence had.

“The only kind that matters anymore. The kind that we shouldn’t have. The kind that will gladly threaten the balance of this world depending on how he acts,” Zeraph said. His smile grew wider than ever before as he stared down Sengario who had stopped playing once more.

The silence was quickly cut through by the sound of Sengario slamming her fists on the piano keys eliciting a sound that sounded about like how I was feeling right now.

“Which one…?” Sengario said quietly.

“What’s that?”

“Which one?!” Sengario shouted angrily in Zeraph’s direction.

He seemed to back up slightly. Almost genuinely afraid, but he quickly regained his composure. “That, my dear Sengario, is for me to know and you to find out. All in due time though.”

With a shaky breath, Sengario asked, “What is the child’s name?”

When I heard the answer, my heart sank past my stomach and fell straight out of my body. “Avien, if my memory serves me correctly.”

I couldn’t think anymore. My mind was racing a million miles a minute and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it. This was all just a dream, right? It felt so real though. I’d never had a dream this vivid in my entire life. This was utterly ridiculous. These two people were talking about me like I wasn’t even there and only one of them even did.

“Well, do you know how old he is?” Sengario asked.

Zeraph sat there for a moment just thinking until he finally came up with the answer. “He’s actually sixteen today! My, time really does fly when you’re trapped in an ‘unbreakable’ prison…” he mused.

“Oh, how my heart weeps for you. But you are not getting out of there ever. Not so long as I have a say in the matter.”

Zeraph chuckled at that comment adding, “Well, if that’s what calms your existence, then sure, but you should know what this child means to this world. He could change everything, and he will.”

“How exactly do you know so much about this… Avien?”

Zeraph waved his hand, dismissing the comment as nothing but a trivial detail. “It’s not like you can do anything to stop me at this point. The gears are already in motion.”

“We will stop you. We did it once and we can certainly do it again.”

Zeraph snarled. “Ah yes, thank you for that. You denied me what was my right. It was my right by birth and you robbed me of it. You’re pretty damn selfish for a god.”

“I am no more a god than you are a devil. We simply are. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Sengario resumed her playing, the melody once again taking on a very somber tone. She seemed to have calmed down. That was something I definitely envied at the moment. My head was still spinning trying to wrap my head around everything that had transpired. I had no idea what I would do. Their talk seemed to be over now.

Zeraph seemed to realize this as he scoffed at Sengairo, “Well, since you seem to be quite done here, I believe that I will get back to my business. See you very soon, Sengario.”

He snapped his fingers and he once again turned back in to dark mist that slowly rolled off the table before disappearing completely. All that remained of Zeraph was a giant smiley faced that appeared to have been burned in to the top of the piano.

Sengario continued to play in absolute silence for quite a while. So long that I thought she would never stop and that I would be stuck here forever. The music was so sad I couldn’t help but want to cry. Unfortunately, I didn’t currently have a body so that was a bit impossible.

“I suppose you’re Avien then?” She asked. The question hung in the air but received no response. I was unable to answer and maybe that was a good thing. If I could, I would be asking several dozen questions all at once here, but since I couldn’t, I had to just sit there and wait.

“Ah, I see. I thought so, but I figured I would warn you anyway. I can assume you tried to talk at least a dozen times during that whole thing….”

The funny thing was, I hadn’t. I’d wanted to speak on so many occasions, but never once had I actually tried to. I trusted this woman I’d never met for some reason. It may not have been the wisest decision, but it felt like a good one, for some reason.

“I suppose you should probably be waking up now. After all, I believe you have a long road ahead of you.”

As she said that, the song finished, and the spotlight disappeared. I jolted awake, almost bashing my head on the ceiling, but thankfully stopping myself. Outside it was raining. Storm clouds had collected over the city and lightning had begun to rain down as well. It always seemed to be like this here.

A loud boom cut through the rain and lightning, but it was different. It was louder than the lightning. It sounded like an explosion. Then came another. And another. I looked outside of the window and saw smoke coming from the distance. I hopped of the machine and grabbed my jacket before heading out. I had to go see what that smoke was. I didn’t know why, but I just had to.