I The Requiem.
The final part.
There was no hypnosis this time. No invisible thread guiding my fingers, no soft numbness in my mind keeping the pain at bay, no unnatural will dragging me forward when I faltered.
There was only me, my shaking hands, and the piano in front of me.
I could not miss.
I could not stumble.
If I did, the performance would end.
If it ended, so would I.
'Steady. Keep steady.'
"…Haa…"
The sound of my breath filled my head as the silence stretched.
The conductor stood in front of me, its back perfectly straight, the baton raised high. The air in the theater had grown heavy.
It pressed down against my shoulders, sank into my lungs, and coiled around my throat.
The quiet was suffocating, so absolute that I swore even the audience had stopped breathing.
My fingers hovered over the keys.
