Shirahime-Syo

Ande Cat and Amami Rabbit

Chapter: 4

Crescendo: Berri Shirayuki

Stolen Melody

Music wandered around the household. Calming peaceful music. The piano and the player were perfectly in sync. Graceful white hands lightly pressed the keys. Not much force was needed to make the music come. A gold slippered foot lifted itself and pushe ditself upon the left pedal. Deep pink eyes red the music sheets of her own composition. A lilting melody sprang from her lips as she sang with the song. Music and melody.

A maid rushed in and the music was silenced. The melody ended mid measure with a small scream. The piano was left alone. The music was left unguarded. The girl pounded up the stairs and banged on the door. The door did not yield and a scream rang througout the chilling air.

The girl sank to the floor, kneeling by the door. Tears streaked down her cheeks. She stayed this way for two days. She would neither eat nor drink and would take no sleep. On the third day she rose. Empty eyes framed a death pale face. She went down the piano bench and looked at her song. A small being, a ghost girl peeked up through the floor. She had long forest green hair and wore ascarlet 1800s dress with black lace on the collar and making up the headband. This ghost looked at the girl and saw the melody inside her. Poor girl, sigh, her hold on the melody had once been quite strong, but was now weakened by some tragic event. The ghost looked at the sheet music beside the girl and reached inside the blonde girl. Her transparent had grasped the melody and yanked. She pulled the melody out of the girl and smiled, placing the melody inside of herself. She then vanished, back into the darkness of whence she had come.

The girl set her hands on the piano, and though she played as she had before, the life and vivity was gone from it. It was an empty song, a tuneless melody. The girl looked at the song again and shuffled the papers, looking through the whole song. A black haired boy entered. He sat quietly on a soft couch near the piano and listened to the empty playing.

The girl put the sheets of music down and took out a creamy white folder. In this she placed the lilting melody and she set the folder down, placing it on top of the piano. She retrieved a dusty black folder from the shelf and read the titles. She set up three new sheets of music and set to her playing. Chords in a minor and d minor filled the room. Haunting notes accompanied them throughout the house. Her voice did not join the gothic chorus, for there was nothing to sing. The girl sat at her piano, playing her morbid melody.

The boy rose and walked over behind her, watching her play. He searched for the reason her playing lacked her heart. The blonde girl looked up at him and their eyes locked. He saw the emptiness in her eyes, the lack of life, of purpose. He said some words, smiled and walked out. The girl looked after him, as though she was wishing to say something, but didn't quite know what to say. The kitchen door shut and she knew her companion had left.

A few days later, she took out blank music sheets, intending to make up something of her own, like that detestful lilting melody. She looked at the piano and willed herself to play something. All that came out were clashing chords and chaotic notes. Where had her ability gone? This new discovery dampened her life even more. Her deep pink eyes filled with empty sadness and she rigidly stood from her ivory piano bench.

That night, the ghost from before appeared once more. She set the girl's melody down upon the piano and played. Then the ghost looked upon the blank music sheets and smiled. The melody within her glowed as she composed a morbid melody. The downtrodden human girl awoke to the sound of a forboding tune. She opened her eyes and looked outside. The crescent moon was blotted out by dark clouds. She carefully lit a candle and softly walked down the stairs.

The ghost finished writing down the music on the sheets. She heard the footsteps of her victim and initialed the music sheets before stepping back from the piano. She watched silently as the blonde girl came out of the darkness. She bore a long thin candle, thin and eerie looking, like the girl. Her pale blue nightgown was iridescent in the dim lighting. She walked over to the piano and looked around with lost eyes. The ghost felt as though the girl could see her. The girl looked about, and confirmed no one was there.

She spied the song sheet and read the notes and chords. Her slender finger played over the ivory keys, letting a hauntingly eerie melody fill the room. She looked at the initials: 'YR'. She looked around again, and, seeing no one, slowly walked back to her room. The ghost followed her with haunting eyes until the girl vanished upstairs.

The window in the girl's room softly opened and the handsome dark haired boy slipped in. The girl questioned him andmade a reply. The boy smiled at this and bowed with a flourish. He put out his hand to the girl and she placed her hand delicately in his. He walked her to the luxurious canopy bed and threw off the covers. The girl climbed inside and the boy tucked her in. He leaned over and whispered some words to her before leaving.

Dark clouds covered the moon and it began to snow. Delicate snowflakes flew down and the temperature dropped. The boy was caught in the snow as it began to storm with icy coldness. He crawled to the shelter of the front patio, but found the door locked. The snow soon covered the ground and the level was rising.

The ghost watched the girl vanish to the upstairs. She sat down on the piano bench, but did not play. Instead, she thought. Was that the girl who lived here now? The ghost girl floated up to the attic and looked around. She lightly walked through dusty boxes and old cloth trunks until she came to the very back. A large stack of maroon leather books was neatly lined up against the wooden wall. The wind howled outside and the ghost girl looked to the round attic window. Snowflakes drifted down. The girl took the top one down. Her pale fingers opened the dusty book and the old cover rest on her scarlet sleeve. She flipped to the middle of the book and turned a few more page after. She ran her finger down the page and stopped at the last name. She was theonly heirof the house.

In the 1600s, the ivory house had been bought by the Kinomoto family. It was passed down through the sons until finally, there was only a daughter. When she married, the house went from the Kinomotos to the Reginas. The house then stayed in the Regina family for the longest time. Soon though, there was only a girl left to inherit the house and she married Toshino Shirayuki. The house now, in the early 1900s, was to suffer the same fate which kept on calling. The only child of Hanajima and Tosaku Shirayuki was a girl. A beautiful, talented one, but a girl none the less. The only one left to inherit the house. In a swirly ancient handwriting, the girl's name was written. Berri Shirayuki.