On Stage

I will never forget the tragic day my fiancee died. It was the happiest time of my life, only weeks before the wedding. But what happened that day changed my life forever. I have been living under the care of others, after trying to commit suicide several times. This is the first time I am openly telling the story of what really happened that day.

-"I can't take this anymore! All you do is play Piano all day! It's like the past year you don't even see me at all! Do you still love me? Do you even realise, that we are susposed to get MARRIED in a few weeks?!" - She said, furiously.

"Honey stop, don't yell like that. Just try to relax, after tonights performence I'll take you out to diner and we can forget all about this-"

"FORGET? What do you want me to forget?! I haven't seen you in months, you were so busy with your damn performances, and you greet me by asking me is diner ready? Do I mean anything at all to you?!"

She was now crying. She looked much older then she ever did, with puffy eyes, pale skin, and her hair hanging over her face in untidy strings.

I had to say something to relax her. Why was she always doing this? The truth was, since I proposed to her, there seemed to be something different about her.

She was no longer the happy young women I once knew. She seemed... Too attached, too dependent on me being there for her. I've been going away to Piano recitals, just to get away from her.

Yet always, when I was playing, even on the other side of the world, I could look into the audience, and see her there... All the way in the back, covered in shadows, and hard to recognize from the bright light shining down on me from the stage lighting.

I tried to forget about it while playing, but it got harder and harder with feelings of guilt, and seeing her strange, unhappy smile in the corner of my eye.

The longer this went on, the more I just wanted to get away from her. I didn't love her anymore, it seemed like she didn't love me either; she just wanted to absorb me, she was simply asking too much.

-"Darling, listen." I said, trying to remain calm. "I've been wanting to see you, but I've just been so busy with playing. You know I can't visit you when I'm traveling from Paris to Hongkong, from Sydney to Luxembourgh, there's simply no time! "

"No time? NO TIME?!" - She said. "I've seen you, you know. I have been everywhere you have been, been in every plane you were on, every hotel you slept in! I've been in your room! It seems like you had all the time in the world, but appearently you were to busy, trying to get away from me! WHY DO YOU HATE ME"

By now her face was not recognizable. It seemed to hang in between madness, terrible sorrow and something else I could not quite place...

I decided to end this. "Listen. The truth is you've been asking too much of me. Maybe we should blow off the wedding. I don't think this is going to work out."

Silence.

She looked at me. In total disbeleif. Her eyes looked dead and cold. "So this is how you want to play it, then? Have fun at your performance tonight."

She smiled at me. And slowly walked towards me, her pale face looking disturbingly different than ever before.

Scared of what she might do if I stayed, I walked out through the door, got in the car and drove away. Tonight's performance had to be good... Maybe it would take his mind of her... That scary, mad, face, the sick smile...

-- The lights went off. The stage lights went on. I heard the audience becoming quiet, and felt them awaiting to hear the music I was about to play. The large, beautiful piano that layed in front of me awaited the notes of classical music, perfectly tuned, and prepared long before he got on stage.

I hit the first note. It felt strange, and heavy. Continuing to play, I heard the notes weren't tuned right, or atleast sounded wrong. The whole thing started to sound awfull, and flat. I could hear the audience whispering, wondering what was wrong.

For the sake of performance, I had to keep playing; couldn't just stop and ask why the piano wasn't tuned. The piece I was playing went from piannisimo to Forte, and trying to make this piano sound more impressive, I played with more force than ever.

This is when a strange sound entered my ears. It sounded like little moans. Moans of pain. I quickly looked thru the audience, trying to look as normal as possible while playing. The moans got loader and turned into small screams. At this point some people in the audience started talking to each other, wondering if this was somehow part of the performance.

The piano now made no musical sounds anymore. I could hear strings breaking. I stopped playing. looking down I noticed a red fluid flowing out of the piano. It looked like... blood.

I stepped away, horrified. The lit around the piano started cracking, and fell apart.

It revealed the inside of the piano, all the strings, covered in thick blood. I could see my fiancee, mangled within the strings, cut open by the force of the piano. Blood flowed excessively out of her body, little fountains of blood coming out of her veins. With a loud thud she fell out of the piano. Her last words were "I just wanted you to love me"