(The Dead Musicians’ Support Group)

The room was dead. Peeling wallpapers and broken lights… it was as dead as our motivation.

“Great. A new spider family has settled for that corner,” Lun said, jumping away from the wall in disgust. “I should really buy that bug spray.”

“Hey, let them be,” exclaimed Sunny, ever the peacemaker, walking to the corner.

“Umm…” came a voice from the corridor. “Hello?”

Our eyes turned to the figure.

“Is this the Musician Support Group…?”

“A new member?” Murmured Lun. “That’s impossible.”

“Hey, watch it,” I hissed back. “Everyone is welcome to join.”

“I know… I’m just surprised someone shows interest.”

Ignoring Lun, I walked over to the figure in the doorway.

“Hey there, my name’s Zane,” I said, holding a hand out to shake. “This is the high school’s Musician Support Group.”

The newcomer shook my hand, though I could see their hesitation, which was probably amplified by the ghastly sight of our classroom, with its flickering lights and peeling paint.

“**Dead** Musician Support Group,” Lun corrected through gritted teeth.

I could see Sunny nudge Lun out of the corner of my eye, followed by a hushed remark, “Don’t be so hostile!”

“Or rather,” Lun continued. “The **dead** musicians’ support group, being that we as the musicians are **metaphorically** dead.”

“Quit it, Lun,” I said, turning to face him.

He shrugged, adding, “Hey, newbie. Run while you can.”

He then strolled out the room, brushing off the dust from his clothing.

“He… he doesn’t mean that,” Sunny said, walking over to face the newcomer with me. “My name’s Sunny. What’s yours?”

“I’m Par,” she said slowly. “I was wondering if the society could give me help with this piece I was learning…”

“Sure thing!” I said, firstly walking over to the light switch by the door. “One… second.”

In that ‘one second’, I struggled substantially to switch the light switch on and off, and embarrassingly I lost the battle. The whole light system of the room powered off simultaneously with a bang, and we were left standing in the darkness.

I sighed.

I didn’t even bother walking over to the curtains, because I knew dust and insects would fly free if I disturbed them from their century’s rest.

“Y’know what…” I said, walking over to the one decent looking table in the centre of the classroom . “Who needs those lights anyways? Here, Par, grab a seat here.”

Par followed, with fear radiating off their presence, and honestly I couldn’t blame them.

“So, what do you need help with?”

“Just… this part of the piece,” Par said, pulling out a terrifyingly large musical textbook. “I play the piano. The notes in this passage confuses me, since they didn’t change it to treble or bass clef. They left is as alto.”

“Right, right,” I said. “I can help you with that. Sunny, could you please shine a light?”

Sunny walked over, with Par looking at him with such wide eyes that it seemed like she expected him to literally start glowing, hence his name being ‘Sunny’.

Sunny pulled out his phone and put on the flashlight mode.

“Gotcha,” he replied, shining it over the paper.

Par flipped to the page.

“This,” she said as calmly as she could.

“Mhm, I see,” I said, scribbling the new notes on a piece of paper.

After a few moments of awkward silence (excluding the muffled talking from outside and the scratching of my pen), I proudly held up the paper to Par.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you!” Par said, immediately stuffing it into her backpack and showing signs of bolting as soon as possible.

“No problem, feel free to come… again…?” I said, though to nobody in particular apparently, as Par had already vanished out the classroom.

Sunny let out a partial laugh beside me.

“Really scared her, huh?”

I shrugged, a tiny smile forming on my face.

“We should really clean this room up, huh?”

“Though… I wonder,” Sunny said quietly. “When will your sentence end?”

“Hey. Don’t call it that. It sounds like I’m a criminal.”

“Sorry, sorry, I mean your curse,” Sunny corrected. “When would it be lifted?”

I paused.

“Whenever they decide to let me out, I guess,” I said with a forced grin. “Thanks for sticking by me.”

Sunny sighed.

“I’ll bring cleaning supplies next. We can sort out this room,” he said. “Might as well make it pretty if you’re going to be trapped here for… who knows how long.”

—-

Etc.

Sorry i keep consecutively writing bad things lately

Maybe I’m in a creative writing slump

I’ll hopefully write better stuff soon

Thanks for reading