It has been many centuries since the first plague. Over the centuries, The plague was slowly fading away because Rattengott had managed to calm down and his body was beginning to pull itself together literally. One by one, Rattengott's body was formed immediately but there was a problem…
It was a sunny day.
There was a festival in Hamelin. The people were celebrating Ratcatcher's day. There are people marching and dressing up in rat costumes or red and yellow harlequin-esque outfits and playing the flutes, children watching puppet shows about the legendary ratcatcher, food vendors selling rat-themed food and fresh German cheese, customers buying rat merchandise from the gift shops and of course, the famous building itself, the pied piper's house.
Among the crowd was an 8-year-old girl and her mom walking to the theatre. This little girl with a hearing aid is named Piper Lyric.
"Why are we going to the theatre?" She asked in a sing-song voice while skipping.
"We are going to watch Hamelin's famous legend, the Pied Piper!" her mom said to her cheerfully.
Once they got inside the theatre, Piper's mom gave her money to buy some snacks and she then went to the receptionist to buy tickets. While walking to the snack bar, Piper looks around the theatre with awe. There are beautiful paintings on the wall and ceilings that show illustrations of fairy tale characters like Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Cinderella and even Pinocchio. They turn out to be previous plays.
She was so distracted by the paintings that she accidentally bumped into someone. It was a quiet little boy who looked like he was roughly nearly five years old and was holding a flute. Startled, Piper quickly apologized to the boy.
"Oh! I'm sorry for bumping you! I was just too busy staring at those cool paintings!" She reaches out her hand to help him stand up. "My name is Piper! What's yours?"
Before he could say anything, He saw a line of actors walking to the stage door. He quickly ran off, leaving Piper behind.
"Wait! You forgot to tell me your name!" she shouted out to the boy. But Piper remembered the play started in five minutes and she had to buy the snacks quickly. She ran to the snack bar and bought two popcorn buckets, orange soda cups and a pack of Haribo Gummy bears. She then ran back to her mom who was waiting for her.
The play starts to begin when Piper and her mom get in their seats. All the actors spoke German when playing their roles but Piper didn't need to worry about that because there is a group of sign language interpreters sitting to the side of the stage that helps her learn what the actors are saying. She was taught how to learn and understand every kind of sign language all her life even before she got her first hearing aids. She also even learned about lip-reading too.
Why? The answer is oblivious
Piper was born deaf.
Ever since she was a baby, The doctors diagnosed her with deafness. Her father was extremely upset when he and his wife were informed of the news. Her mom reassured him that everything was going to be fine and they should accept their child's hearing loss but he was not having that. One night, the parents had a massive argument that lasted for hours until her father screamed at her that he didn't want a disabled daughter. He angrily ran to his room, packed all his bags and quickly left the house without saying goodbye.
After her dad left, her mom faced a big decision: how her daughter would communicate and be educated.
She spent her time working hard on her two new jobs to get money for Piper's treatment, day and night. Thankfully, her older brother(and his husband) and her parents babysit her daughter while she works. When not working herself to the bone, she began researching a lot about deafness and hearing loss. She read books about deafness, watched videos about people talking about deafness and even typed articles about deafness. She takes sign language classes hoping she can teach her daughter to learn sign language and then join a support group of parents of disabled children.
It all changed when Piper's mom bumped into her old high school friend, Mitchie Maxon, at the tech store she was working in. Mitchie turns out to be the CEO of a high-tech company that sells gadgets and electronic devices like high-tech wheelchairs and hearing aids. Once she learns about her friend's situation, Mitchie optimistically offers Piper's mom a job in her company with a better, higher salary. Piper's mom remembered how she enjoyed inventing cool gadgets during her free time and being a top student in every science class and course so she happily agreed to the offer.
Now it's been years after Piper's mom got the job working in Mitchie's company and things have gotten better.
Let's cut back to Piper and her mom watching the play, shall we?
The story slowly began to unfold as she watched the play. From what she learns from sign language interpreters and seeing the actors acting on stage, the story is about a town hiring a ratcatcher with a magic flute to get rid of the rats but end up stealing the children when they refuse to pay him.
The first scene was rats scattering and scuttling around the town. They were all sneering, gobbling up any food they could see and scaring everyone. The actors who play the rats are actually children in costumes and makeup but the one who leads the rats is clearly an adult wearing a mascot costume and a fake crown.
The next scene was the mayor and the villagers gathering in the courtroom. The mayor had a very loud and booming voice and kept yelling about rats so much that Piper had to lower the volume level in her hearing aid.
The next scene was the pied piper arriving in Hamelin and introducing himself to the town. The actor they chose to play the role of the pied piper was a 21-year-old cover model. He is a total heartthrob and is so handsome that all the women who first see him begin to masturbate and have wet dreams of him every night(the only ones who are immune to his arousing beauty are lesbians, AroAces and children). With his dreamy ocean-blue eyes, long locks of golden hair styled into a smooth pompadour and pure-white teeth, it's no wonder he is at the top of every German men's magazine.
The next scene was the pied piper playing his flute to hypnotize the rats into following him to the river. The pied piper's actor was actually pretending to play his flute and the real music came from an old flutist along with other musicians and instrumentalists in the pit orchestra.
The next scene is the mayor and the villagers laughing at the pied piper who gets angry and leaves the town swearing vengeance. Piper couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the pied piper. He did promise the town back by getting rid of the rats but the town turned out to have broken his promise and he didn't get the reward he got.
The next scene was the pied piper returning to Hamelin and playing his music to hypnotize the children into following him to the cave. The children all danced as they followed the piper except for the boy with a lame leg who just limped along.
The next scene was the lame boy trying to keep up with the children only for the cave to disappear in front of him. The lame boy ran back to Hamelin and told everyone the sad news. The adults of Hamelin are devastated and try to find the missing children but to no avail.
And finally, the last scene ends with everyone mourning for the lost children and the mayor regretting breaking the piper's promise.
All the actors lined up on stage and bowed down as the audience clapped and applauded before the curtains closed.
It was around 5 p.m. when Piper and her mom left the theatre. The two decide to have dinner at the Charlie McCheese restaurant when they learn the pied piper's actor is going to be here as an entertainer for children.
As they entered the restaurant, a combination of children's laughter, screams and loud, electronic rock music shouted through. Piper winced and squinted in discomfort as she put her hands to her ears to block out the noise but she remembered she had her hearing aids on and she filtered out background noise.
They stand in line for a table and a waitress on rollerskates heads towards them. The waitress was quite pretty with her short wavy platinum-blonde hair dyed with deep blue highlights, emerald-green eyes and sun-kissed skin. Her waitress uniform is a loose-fitting red blouse with short puffy sleeves, a pair of yellow lederhosen, a green fanny bag, striped leggings and a rat-eared headband atop of her head.
The waitress popped her bubblegum and spoke in an accent that is a weird mix between German and Valley Girl, "Hi, Welcome to Charlie McCheese, My name is Elsa and I'll be like your server today". She bent over to Piper and said to her, trying to sound cheerful despite her voice ending up monotonous and deadpan. "Here is something special about this restaurant, not only do kids eat for free but they can get a free toy after that". Piper hopes the free toy she gets is a Charlie McCheese plushie.
"Table for two, please," Piper's mom told the waitress as she held up two fingers.
The waitress nodded and showed them to a booth. Piper and her mom took their seats in the booth and the waitress unzipped her fanny bag and handed out two surprisingly big menus to them. Charlie McCheese seems to be more of an entertainment centre than a restaurant one. They had many arcade games(including virtual reality sets), a ball pit, indoor amusement rides, an indoor playground with lots of slides and crawl tubes, escape rooms, a laser tag room, mini golf courses, a bowling alley and a big animatronic show of Charlie McCheese and his friends playing music. Mimi Milky the cow plays the tambourine, Eddie Egghead the rooster plays the piano, Henry Honeycomb the bee plays the guitar, Billy Buttercup the goat plays the drums, Yancy Yoghurtt the sheep plays the bass and obviously, Charlie McCheese plays the clarinet. They even had a museum of the restaurant's history in the basement. As they read, the menu had a lot of fast food options like burgers, fries, hot dogs, fried chicken, onion wings, chicken nuggets, pizza, wings, nachos, tacos, soda pop, doughnuts and ice cream but they also had healthy options like salads, light sandwiches, soups or a smoothie.
"Are you all ready to order?" asked the waitress once Piper and her mom finished reading the menus. The waitress unzipped her fanny bag again and brought out her pen and notebook.
"Yes, I would like the Weiner schnitzel club sandwich with extra tomatoes and a potato salad with dressing on the side," ordered Piper's mom. "And an ice tea to drink with"
The waitress nodded as she popped her bubblegum again and quickly wrote the order down in her notebook. She turns to Piper.
"Ok, and what would you like to order, little miss?" The waitress asked.
Piper was busy looking at the Charlie McCheese mascot who was sitting by the counter, having a meal consisting of Käsespätzle(German version of mac and cheese) and Rattenkiller(don't worry, It's an actual German drink, not rat poison). But she wasn't staring at him. She was staring at his flute in his backpack. It seems to be no ordinary flute. You think it was made of silver at first sight but the more you see it, the more you realize it was neither silver or painted. Piper could guess the flute was actually a lot older than it looked. It's like the flute was created around the early medieval times.
"Ahem!" The waitress called out to her and Piper snapped out of it and turned to her. "Your order?"
"Oh! um…" She glanced back at the menu and then said, "What do you recommend?"
"Well, I would like to recommend the Käsewurstwurnden pizza. It was topped with Käsespätzle, several different bratwurst cuts and drizzled with curry ketchup…" She then did a sign language that said "and I heard they had stuffed crust".
Knowing the sign language, Piper smiled widely and answered. "Thanks! I'll take it and a fruit punch to drink with it!"
"Alrighty then!" The waitress finished writing the order down and put the pen and notes in her fanny bag. "Wait for your meals and I'll be back with your drinks in a minute"
They watched as the waitress skated away to the kitchen.
"I'm glad she knows sign language," admitted Piper's mom.
The animatronic show ends and the curtain closes. The mascot, who was almost finished with his meal, checked his watch and quickly hurried to finish his meal before grabbing his bag and leaving the counter. The flute from his backpack dropped into the floor as he left. It rolled to Piper's feet and she picked it up.
The announcer's voice boomed over the restaurant from the speakers.
"Families and children! Go to the stage and watch this amazing event…The duet of Charlie McCheese vs The Pied Piper! For viewers who speak English, Don't worry! The language we use is English!"
Piper held the flute in her hands and spoke to her mom. "Can I go and watch the show?"
"Yes but you had to return to the table when the waitress came back with our meals" responded Piper's mom.
Piper leapt off her chair and ran to the crowd of excited children waiting for the curtains to open. The Curtains open and instead of the animatronics, It is Pied Piper's actor and the mascot having a standoff.
"I am the Pied Piper!" The actor spoke in a voice that sounded like that dreamboat love interest from that daytime soap opera with lots of kissing and crying. "The town's Mayor calls me to get rid of this pesky pest…Charlie McCheese!" He dramatically pointed at the mascot.
The mascot quietly waved at the children who cheered at him. The actor and mascot trailed around each other with eyes glaring at each other like big predators ready to fight each other. The actor reaches into his pocket pulls out his flute and starts to play. Well, pretend to play. Despite the children being impressed by the actor's so-called music skills, Piper is the only one being unimpressed.
Why? That is because she saw him playing the flute wrong. While the children remain innocently unaware that the actor isn't actually playing his flute, Piper has spent watching and listening to Metube videos of musicians singing and playing their instruments. Not only does she know about lip-reading but also instrumental-reading!
The real music came from the same old flutist playing behind the curtains.
Piper rolled her eyes and sarcastically thought to herself. That so-called piper probably never even bothers to play music in public, This is pretty much Milli Vanilli all over again except it's finger-syncing instead of lip-syncing.
The mascot chuckled and waved his pointing finger at the actor, making him annoyed and offended.
"What!? Why are you not enchanted by my music?" scoffed the actor haughtily.
He chuckled and was about to reach for his backpack but to his surprise, it was empty. Everyone and everything went silent until the mascot slowly began to panic when trying to find something in his backpack. The crowd soon began booing and taunting him. He stops when someone blows a whistle at him and he turns around to see Piper holding his flute.
"Here, Catch!" cried Piper throwing the flute at him.
The mascot nodded and caught the flute in his hands. He put the flute into his mouth and began to play...
A strong wave of music fills the air and everyone(including the staff) in the restaurant stands still and silent once they hear it. They did not know how to describe it when they listened to the music that was connected to their minds.
It was like time had stopped and their souls slowly left their bodies and soon floated up into the sky, beyond Earth, the stars, the planets, the asteroids, the comets, the Milky Way and then, the galaxies.
The slow journey throughout the galaxies is infinite.
Seconds turn to minutes, minutes turn to hours, hours turn to days, days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, months turn to years, years turn to decades, decades turn to centuries centuries turn to millions, millions turn to billions and billions turn to…
...until they reach the black hole.
The black hole began to suck all of them in, little by little. One by one, they were finally Inside the black hole. Inside the black hole was nothing but darkness. Beautiful and blissful darkness. After a moment of peacefulness, there is a light. It starts off as a speck but when it flickers, it grows bigger inch by inch. Growing and growing until…
The music has stopped and they open their eyes to find themselves back in the restaurant and in their bodies.
Extremely gobsmacked and speechless, They stand up, rub their eyes and their jaws drop to the floor. Everyone felt like they had woken up from their long trillion-year sleep. They turned to the mascot who had put down his flute and gently bowed down.
The crowd looked each other in the eyes. Neither don't know what to say or how to react. But they quietly smiled and one by one, they began clapping and cheering at the mascot for his crazily amazing and astonishing performance. Even the actor and the old flutist are clapping and cheering at him.
After a delicious dinner and some fun activities at Charlie McCheese, Piper and her mom later left the restaurant. They were eating black forest ice cream cones for dessert and Piper had gotten a free toy. To her delight, It was a Charlie McCheese plushie.
Piper hugged her toy tightly and squealed, "Thank you for giving me this awesome experience! I will love you forever and ever in my heart!"
Her mom chuckled and said "Settle down, Strawberry, you had to lick up all this ice cream before it got completely melted"
She picked up her phone and began texting.
"I'm going to call Ryde to pick us up, Go wait on the bench"
Piper sat on the bench while her mom was busy on her phone. While she played with her plushie and ate up her ice cream, A strange man walked out of the restaurant. He is very skinny, and tall, with a long pointy nose, and extremely pale skin and his long black hair is tied into a single braid, resembling a rat's tail. He was carrying his backpack, the same backpack belonging to the mascot. This makes her realize he is the mascot out of the costume. Excited, She jumped out of the bench and ran to him.
"Your music was awesome! How did you do that!?" she cried.
The man patted her head and unzipped his bag to pick up his flute. He showed her his instrument and said, "It takes years of hard work, training and experience to become a musician but my dream isn't about becoming the greatest musician in the world.."
He looked her in the eyes. Piper gasped when he revealed his eyes to her. His pupils are nothing but swirl spirals and his eye colours are a mismatch of red and yellow.
"..My dream is about sharing my music and story with the world," he smiled softly. "And thank you for returning my flute"
Piper smiled back until she heard her mom calling for her.
"Piper! Our ride is here!"
"I'm coming!"
She turned to see the man again but he was gone as if he had vanished in thin air much to her surprise.
As she and her mom got inside the car and the driver drove away, Piper watched the horizon of Hamelin in the window. Should she return to Hamelin someday? Who knows.
Piper soon began to fall asleep and slept in her mother's arms. The car drove past the woods and a rat crawled out from the trees with the same mismatched eyes as the man...