FINE! I GIVE UP! Forget what I said about releasing this earliest January 2004… THE REED IS BACK!
I can't bear to see the current state of the Marching Band section… so few stories, so few reviews… I just had to do this. To all my reviewers who begged me non-stop to post this, you got what you want. So, reward me and review this! Thanks. ^_^
THE REED PART 3: THE RETURN OF THE REED
Chapter One
Sometime in the far future (I know the previous chapter said one thousand years, but ignore that. I think it's too far.)
Nicholas was beginning to feel a little uneasy. From the time they left the archaeological dig to the time they arrived back at the hotel where they were staying for the moment, all Selvin had been doing was staring at that oboe reed thing with a maniacal look in his eyes. Nicholas shuddered. He had never seen his partner acting that way before.
"What're you going to do with that?" he asked, breaking the silence between them as they walked along the hotel corridor.
Selvin turned to face Nicholas with an evil, hungry grin and replied in a raspy voice foreign to him. "Keeps it. It's MINE, my preciousss…"
Nicholas shuddered again and decided to say no more about the matter…
"My preciousss…"
…but Selvin's Gollumese was starting to get on his nerves. "Selvin?"
"Yesss?"
"Uh… can you… um, stop that?"
Selvin gave him an evil look. "Why?"
"J.R.R. Tolkien's fans can sue you for that."
"Suess? We don't knows suess. We knows our preciousss…"
Nicholas was beginning to feel very, very scared.
And that fear followed him all the way to his room and into his bed, when his sleep was suddenly shattered by a piercing scream.
Jolting out of bed, Nicholas knew at once that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. He threw open the door that joined his and Selvin's room, and his worst fears were confirmed.
Selvin was lying face up, dead, in a pool of blood, The Reed sticking through his heart.
Nicholas watched, heart thumping in fear, as it removed itself to lie on the floor.
He watched as the robot cleaners sensed the blood and came in to clear it up, dragging Selvin's lifeless body away as they did so.
And he looked back at The Reed… and he knew for all certainty that it had to be got rid of as soon as possible.
Just one day later The Reed had been safely delivered to the National Museum of Music, where it killed a few staff members, so much so that they decided it had to go despite its historical value.
They dumped it in the trash and thought no more about it.
~-~-~
A few days later…
Janson the oboist sighed as he trudged along the spotless corridors of the National Museum of Music with the rest of his bandmates, all in varying stages of boredom. Couldn't the museum even let them sit down? Or at least install one of those people-mover things inside so they wouldn't have to walk…
This was BORING. True, he liked music, which was why he had joined band in the first place, but this wasn't music. This was boring. Who was the idiot who thought they would be interested in this sort of thing in the first place?
Around the length of the corridor were positioned various screens that displayed information on the various exhibits – paper music scores, conductor batons, music stands and so on.
They were now in a room filled with ancient musical instruments of the kinds bands used centuries ago, big, bulky, heavy ones. For the first time ever since the trip started, Janson felt a spark of interest in something the museum had. Those instruments were interesting… though quite a few looked somewhat familiar…
"Hey, don't we have that?" Lexi, a F-flute player, asked as she pointed to one of the ancient flutes. "I thought I saw that under our band cupboard yesterday."
One of the flute recruits peered closer at the exhibit Lexi was pointing at. Strange, it looked almost exactly like hers.
Then again, no one really knew the true age of the instruments the recruits got. According to band legend, a certain trumpet had been around since the time of the Roman Empire.
"We've got that too!" a trombone player yelled, pointing to another ancient instrument. "I played it when I was a recruit!"
Similar shouts were heard all over the band, until it became quite apparent that the space under the band cupboard held a great amount of possibly valuable antiques.
Janson looked at the exhibit of an old oboe, a little disappointed that the display did not have a reed in it. He would have liked to know what they were like before all reeds were switched to plastic ones to save the trees.
He turned away, when suddenly something in the open trashcan caught his eye.
An oboe reed… an wooden one…
No one was paying attention to him, as most of the band members were currently caught up with bribing the recruits to give them their instruments in exchange for newer ones.
Slowly, Janson reached into the trash and took out the oboe reed. He stared at it with fascination in his eyes. It seemed in almost perfect condition. He couldn't believe the museum had just thrown it away like that; didn't they know how valuable an ancient reed was?
No one was watching… no one would know… and the reed seemed strangely attractive… surely it wouldn't hurt to take it? It was in the trash after all…
Janson made the decision, and stuffed The Reed into his pocket.
TO BE CONTINUED… Please review! ^_^
Oh, and go read Play to the Future! It's only got two reviews so far, which is really pathetic… I know the first chapter isn't that great, but it'll get better, I promise! I just got the second chapter up. And it's a companion to The Reed, so most of the characters are the same if you want to know what happened to them after The Reed Part 2.
I know I already replied to the reviews in the first chapter of Play to the Future (I've deleted them.), but since no one appears to have read it and things have changed I'll put them here too:
Vixen7: That… was one of the longest reviews I've ever received. I don't know if it's the longest; I'm too lazy to check; but it's definitely the craziest. Even my classmates agree… Um, what trumpet problem? What's wrong with standing in July heat? Where I live, it's hot all year round… we march in the car park…which isn't much better, really. As for the rest of your review… no comments. ^_^ Split personalities? Okay…
KireiNa: Thanks for reviewing!
Kiwikendra: Yup, it is. ^_^
Perc Mad Hatter: It's still 20 in total; 13 competitions, but 20 years. Or was it 11 competitions… anyway, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ENDINGS THAT GO 'MY PRECIOUSSS'? It's a nice quote, it is.
Nightling: Thanks for reviewing and your congrats! Write more? More what? *looks innocent*
Eilonwy, Princess: 'OOGABOOGA'? 0.0 Thanks for your four reviews! =D
Tan_mx: So you DO know Jasmine… ookay…