Close Encounters
By Dria Belle
He'd been dreaming of her again, the beautiful girl with sad eyes. He kept trying to tell himself that she was just a hallucination…nothing more. But with each passing day she was becoming so clear he could almost reach out and touch her. In his dreams…she was waiting for him. Hoping he would make a choice that was not really his to make. In spite of himself he wondered what it would feel like to hold her gaze and offer her the world that had been so cruel to her. He wanted her in a way he could not explain… and in this private moment with her he was lost. Lost in her quiet smile, her soft skin, the smell of rain in her hair, the taste of her…
"REN!" a tall intimidating ginger's voice suddenly broke the trance his friend was under.
"Yea?" Ren questioned slowly (as if he had just returned from hyper sleep from another galaxy).
"Man…I've been calling you for the last 5 minutes. We're on!"
"Now?"
"No…in 150 years. Yes now! Snoke is about ready to have both our heads if you don't get your sorry ass on stage!"
"Aw crap! Ok man I'm ready let's go"
And with that…Ren grabbed his guitar and ran onto the stage. Normally, Hux would badger his best friend about why (on the biggest night of their professional lives) he had decided to take a nap before their set. Hux had known Ren for most of their adult lives and his recent habits were borderline worrisome. Now was unfortunately not the time to berate the famous "Kylo Ren"…they had much bigger fish to fry at the moment.
As they rounded towards the stage a crippled aged man stood anxiously by the curtain. His skin was so weathered and wrinkled it looked as though it could possibly blow away in the wind. Anyone could tell that this man was downright furious at Ren for his carelessness. The withering man could sense the young foolish men drawing near and began drumming his fingers across the cool steel railing leading to the stage.
"You're late" the man croaked angrily
"I know Snoke…couldn't be helped" Ren tried to explain
"All excuses Ren which will not help win this competition!" Snoke had this incredicble talent of being completely terrifying without raising his voice above a whisper "You have a gift Ren...and it's something you should cherish not waste. I am here because I believe in your talent but I won't be if I think you are wasting my time. Are you wasting my time?"
"No sir…definitely not wasting your time" Ren replied sheepishly.
"Good" Snoke replied with characteristic confidence "Now run along…quickly! Phasma is already on stage and Maz is about ready to introduce you. Remember you're training and crush them."
Ren took a deep breath as he stepped onto the large stage. True to Snoke's word…Phasma was on stage making sure the sound quality was good. Both Hux and Ren plugged their instruments into the amps…preparing as quickly as they could before Maz made her appearance. Ren had hoped he'd be able to walk onto the stage and tune his guitar in peace. He was, of course, wrong.
"Well look who decided to show up" came the sarcastic voice of one Phasma Storm. Standing at 6'3" with platinum pixie cut blonde hair shaved on one side...she was not someone you wanted to mess with. Ren was used to her snide remarks and sarcastic attitude so most days Phasma's intimidating personality didn't bother him. Unfortunately for Ren, today was not one of those days.
"Phasma…could you do me a favor and maybe wait to chew me out until after we finish our set?" Ren pleaded harshly.
Phasma's initial response was along the lines of "Fat chance" or "Hell no"…however before a word could be spoken an elderly woman of 70 (although she looked more like she was 50) stepped onto the stage. She was a short little woman with obscenely large glasses that accentuated her bright round eyes. Her greying hair was tied back into a tight bun. The only way one could sense the years she'd endured was in her voice which held a thoughtful strength one only can acquire with age.
"Good Evening everyone and welcome!" the little woman's voice demanded to be heard amongst the crowd "As many of you know my name is Maz and I'm very excited to welcome you to the 15th annual Light-Speed Records Battle of the Bands here at the Takodana Cantina."
A thunderous round of applause was the response Maz received.
"Thank you…thank you. You know…I've always been such a huge lover of music. How it seems to flow into ones soul without saying a word. Connecting us all in ways many of us can't quite understand. It's for this reason I really pushed for the Battle of the Bands to be here this year despite the fact that I am supposedly an old woman who has no business organizing major competitions."
The hollers that came from the female attendees following that statement were deafening. For some reason Ren felt there was one voice that carried more so than the others but he couldn't understand why the hairs on his forearm were standing up at the sound.
"Out of 50 bands that auditioned for this contest only 10 are left to perform tonight. The bands that will be performing this evening will be judged by you (the audience). The 5 bands with the most votes at the end of tonight will move on to day 2. And of those 5 bands only 2 will be able to perform at the Grand Finale on day 3. The winner of the Light-Speed Records Battle Bands will not only win a record deal with Light-Speed Records but also $100,000 either to help them make their first album or drink themselves silly here. So, without further ado…I welcome you to the first night of the Light-Speed Battle of the Bands!"
With that the crowd burst into a thousand different cries of excitement and Ren could feel his stomach drop. He knew it was foolish to feel nervous…he and his band has this competition in the bag. With Phasma on drums and Hux on bass there was no other band that could even come close to winning this thing. But as the curtain widened forcing Ren to look out into the vast crowd he could feel is pulse quicken and palms begin to sweat which he never did before a show. The question was why? Forcing himself to ignore his fear he grabbed the microphone. He hoped he'd be able to get through a sentence with the spotlight being right in his eyes.
"Hello everyone!" Ren began his voice a little shaky.
"Wow. It's wonderful to be here at the Light-Speed Battle of the Bands and to see all of you…even though I can't really see you I'm assuming you're all there. I'm sorry but could you move the light just a little?" With that the blinding spot light shifted and Ren could see slightly better and continued "Oh…that's better thank you. Anyway we've got a great show for you guys. On bass we've got the ferocious Hux. On drums we've got the stellar Phasma Storm and boy can she beat those drums! You may know me as Kylo and together we are the Knights of –"
Ren stood there frozen. His vision seemed to blur…what he was seeing couldn't be real. Yet there, in the middle of the crowd, where the blinding spotlight had once hit his eyes was now in her face. The face he'd been dreaming of for what felt like his entire life. And before he could stop himself a single word escaped his lips…a word that would shatter everything.
"—Rey?"