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Today's round concluded with a mundane victory.
It's not like Shedletsky wasn't grateful for it. He would much rather survive and win than die and lose. It's just that the survivors had won at least a thousand times by now. Everything in The Spectre's realm was, for lack of a better word, getting old. Whether they survived or died, they'd always respawn back in the main cabin to be sent into another round tomorrow, over and over again, until the end of time.
Shedletsky looked around. His fellow comrades were either chatting or heading someplace else to rest.
Everyone was tired. It'd be best not to bother them.
He decided to take the survivors' resting period as an opportunity to take a walk. To take his mind off of things.
Purgatory was a strange place, to say less than the least.
It consisted mostly of landscapes copy-pasted from the real world, stitched together by The Spectre's inhuman hands. Rain had glitchy droplets, and descended from skies made of broken textures. Cabins dotted vast forests, filled with cold artificial winter air. Shedletsky breathed it in - it smelt antiseptic. Gravel crunched under his worn boots.
He stumbled upon a cabin. Not the ones the survivors resided in - this one was new.
Sometimes, structures manifested in the forests out of thin air, sprouting out of the ground like weeds growing in a graveyard. The main cabin's Halloween decor had been swapped out for a Christmas tree just earlier that week. (The Spectre wasn't trying to cultivate holiday cheer. It just wanted to trigger Noob's pine allergy.)
These structures also often hid "surprises" inside - explosives, clothes, tools, and sometimes even food.
Shedletsky shrugged, although nobody was around to see him, and tried the door despite the risk of blowing up. He'd respawn anyway.
It opened with some effort and a whiny creeeak.
Dust motes filled the air of the dark indoors. Abandoned, eerie- this cabin was the perfect setup for a jumpscare in a crappy horror movie.
He glanced around the room. No buckets of fried chicken so far.
Shedletsky's hand drifted to the sword sheathed at his waist instinctually. This cabin felt creepy, yet familiar. Nostalgic, and twisted. Like a memory too distant to recall, but he knew it was there, watching him from afar.
He was just about to leave, when a few notes echoed through the lifeless cabin. An ascending scale, coming from upstairs, as if whatever ghost up there was testing to see if its instrument needed tuning.
The first few notes of a melody played. A melody that he knew.
The air thickened and the temperature dropped.
Despite his wariness, his curiosity was piqued.
Shedletsky climbed the stairs as his grip tightened on his sword's hilt. The notes rose in volume with his each tentative step.
He reached the top. The peak of this mountain of mystery.
The source of the enigmatic song - a console piano backed against a large window. Moonlight shone through and glinted off its ivory keys. Hunched over the anemoia-inducing instrument was... 007n7?
"Heya."
007n7 gasped and slammed the fallboard down.
"Oh, uhm, Shedletsky.." He turned 'round as he adjusted his glasses. "Hi."
Shedletsky chuckled. "Didn't mean to startle you." He walked over and sat down next to 007n7, who blushed discreetly. "I didn't know you could play!" He lifted the fallboard back up and tapped at the keys experimentally.
Neither of them knew what they were doing there, in an empty cabin with nothing but a piano. But for some odd reason, they didn't want to leave.
"Oh, uh.. Yeah. I don't play in front of the others, it's a little.. embarrassing?" 007n7 shivered slightly, and Shedletsky picked up on it immediately.
"Are you cold?" Shedletsky draped a wing over his shoulders, its feathers as brown and as warm as a cup of hot cocoa. It pushed the two of them an inch closer together. "What's there to be embarrassed about?"
"I- It's just, I don't play that well..?"
"Seven, please, give yourself some credit! I think you play beautifully." And then Shedletsky smiled at him, not in the cocky & taunting way like he did to the killers, and not saccharine & sympathetic like the other survivors always did to him.
It was a genuine, warm, smile. Filled with so much love it felt intimate.
007n7 directed his gaze at the piano keys, and prayed that Shedletsky didn't notice his face reddening. "Thank you, Shedletsky."
Shedletsky stopped his experimental tapping. "Can I hear the rest of that song?"
"Very well then, if you insist." 007n7 took a deep breath, and started from the top.
The music was calming, majestic. Ethereal. And 007n7 playing it.. well, he looked as good as it sounded. Usually, whenever they talked, he looked either stoic or anxious. But now, he seemed so.. peaceful.
"Who taught you?"
"Myself. I didn't learn at school or, lessons. I practiced on the piano at my, er, orphanage." 007n7 didn't know why he was sharing this information with Shedletsky. The words came out before he registered them, but he couldn't care less, as the atmosphere between the two of them felt comfortable enough to do so.
Shedletsky recognised the song. "Hey, I know this song." He whispered just loud enough for 007n7 to hear, yet quiet enough to not disturb his focus.
007n7 met his wistful eyes and realised he wasn't smiling anymore. "Where have you heard it?" He whispered back.
Shedletsky closed his eyes and let the familiar symphony soothe his fatigue. "It's.. It was my late wife's favourite."
007n7 paused his playing for a few seconds, then resumed. "I see. I used to play this for my son."
He gave no tagged-on condolences, just listened and understood, which made Shedletsky smile (wanly) again.
"He used to cry all night when he was a baby. But when I played this.. he'd fall fast asleep, and it's like every worry in the world faded away."
The both of them closed their eyes as the music reached its crescendo. 007n7 had no trouble playing the correct notes, having memorised the song by heart.
A memory resurfaced in Shedletsky's mind.
The vinyl fuzzed in its record player.
"Come here, Telamon. Dance with me!"
"Brighteyes, my love, I don't know how."
"It's never too late to learn!" Her eyes sparkled like the stars, amplified by her rainbow shades. She took his hand and led him in slow twirls.
"Two steps forward, one step back.." Brighteyes smiled warmly at him.
The two of them frolicked all across the living room. He would've felt silly if he was with anyone else. But Brighteyes made him feel as if every worry in the world was trivial. Even his inability to dance.
"Ah, is this what humans call 'slow dancing'..? Or a 'waltz'?"
"Well, whatever it is-" Brighteyes embraced him in a hug, threading her fingers through the golden feathers of his wings. She leaned on him and rested her head on his chest.
"I would call it 'perfectly romantic'." She whispered, just for him to hear.
He hugged her back.
"It's been so very long."
"Mhm."
"I miss you. Every day, and every night."
"I know."
"And I know you're not mad at me, but.."
I'm mad at myself.
Brighteyes looked up at him. She brought down his hood and cupped his face in her hands, wiping the single golden tear that rolled down his cheek.
"You're not replacing me, ok?"
He nodded silently.
"I want you to be happy. To find love again. To listen to this song, and remember all the times we made each other so very happy. Because,"
She pressed a kiss to his lips.
"I love you."
"I love you too-"
..She was drifting away. They held hands, interlocking fingers, as the living room dissolved into eigengrau. The music resonated clearer and clearer, reaching its final notes.
He let her go.
"..Goodbye, Brighteyes."
"Goodbye, Shedletsky."
He waved her goodbye.
She waved back and shouted across the void, "He seems like a good choice!"
"Shedletsky..? Hello?" The music had stopped.
Shedletsky woke up on 007n7's shoulder.
"I don't- I don't mean to disturb you, you must be tired from the round just now but, you're a bit, you're kind of- heavy!"
He looked up at 007n7's face, which was bright red.
"Oh, sorry for drifting off. The music was just so calming!" He sat up and smiled. "That was a beautiful song, 007n7."
"..Thanks."
"007n7."
"Shedletsky?"
"For quite some time now, I've.."
"We both know, don't we?" 007n7 rubbed the back of his head. "I'd feel silly but, well, you just make me feel.. ok. Y'know?"
"I do."
007n7's breath hitched as Shedletsky cupped his face and gave him a kiss.
They walked back to the main cabin holding hands.
And just like that, every worry in the world faded away.