Interference Not Acceptable
A pale hand was pulling the bow, the tightly wrapped horsehair making the two of the strings emit higher pitches than they was supposed to. Fingers delicately turned the D peg and the E peg… and tried again. The bow drew across the strings now slowly, like a haunting mix of four base notes stringing together for the beginning of an unknown song. This time, the pitch was exactly right for his ears.
White Owl smiled and placed his violin on his shoulder, comfortably resting his chin on the black chin rest. Closing his eyes, his mind began to form a tune in his head. A, G, F#... no. Too simplistic. And not frenzied enough. The White Owl wanted a tune that breathed chaos and disorder, to reflect turmoil and pandemonium and frighten anyone and everyone who heard his song.
And he began to play. The bow dragged across the bridge as the fingers positioned on the neck moved from one string to the next. One second, the man’s middle finger was on D string and about halfway down, his index finger on the G string, farther up. And then suddenly they were suddenly drawn back towards the peg box, index on E string and middle on the A string.
High notes danced with low notes as White Owl pivoted his feet around. His eyes were closed and a small, but insane smile was crossing his lips. It felt good to be able to play like this. The world that would meet its demise soon already seemed to fade away in the mind of the Fool as he played out the end of humanity. He was the one to witness the closing stages of civilization as the sun set on the earth on which he stood, after all.
The Fool’s number was zero, and a zero card could not interfere with any affairs on either side, no matter how much he might want to. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to be the bystander, the onlooker. He wanted to see the chess match play out before him in the same way he played the tune for such a struggle. Yes, there was an inner desire to see such fear be displayed on both sides of the fight, fear on the face of Alexis and yet the same fear on the face of Cain. Like father, like son? Hardly!
White Owl giggled with glee as he picked up his pace and soon began dancing, turning his feet this way and that to get him to move from one place to the other. “Yes… yes…” His voice was hushed under the sound of his stringed instrument as he played and played and-
He stopped.
As the faint echo of his last note went through one ear and out the other, he froze and the crazed tune from moments before just seemed to fade off like a distant memory. The frenzied, chaotic melody was gone and silence reigned, taking control of White Owl’s heart and not letting go. The White Owl let out a long sigh and bowed his head to an invisible audience that silently clapped. And when he lifted his head, he saw the dark sky dotted with stars of pearls and of white and blue.
The Fool blinked once behind his glasses before he smiled. The end of the world…
It sounded beautiful.