Chapter 0: THE RESIDUE
PRELUDE:
The air in that room was thick mixed with lingering scent of lilies, something akin to the smell of a funeral or an elite man’s house. Wait... I’m not even sure which it was anymore.
My hands were trembling, my fingers felt so heavy, yet the piano keys were cold, as if they were made of the same ice that had settled in my chest. Every note I pressed felt like a footstep into a dark room where I wasn’t supposed to be.
I closed my eyes, and there, the ghost of a different life flickered and I let the words that had been hiding finally spill out. A song flashed in my head that felt like the only narrative left for my life.
Instead of the soft longing I used to sing, I felt the weight of “Armored” pulling at my throat.
As the lyrics left my mouth, every word haunted me. I could feel the invisible plates of steel sliding into place with every chord.
It wasn’t just music; it was a description of the cage I had built around my heart to survive this house. I sang of silence that acts as a shield and the distance that has become my only safety.
My mind, as I sang was racing back in time, trying to repeat what I could’ve done better. I felt the “armor” thickening, the cold, unyielding weight of the Kishimoto name pressing against my ribs until it was hard to breathe. So suffocating.
I stopped. I felt empty.
The sound of the piano died instantly, swallowed by the heavy velvet curtains and the vast, empty halls of the mansion. The deafening silence that followed was a physical weight, pressing against my eardrums.
I knew he was there, even if I didn’t have to turn around. I could feel his presence, him standing in the doorway... the man who owned the house and the man who now owned my name. I finally ended the silence with a whisper that hit like a jagged confession.
“How did we end up like this?”
I turned my head toward the window, watching the rain blur the lights of the city into smears of neon and grey.
When did the music stop being a bridge and start being a weapon?
I murmured at the empty space.
