Hunting for the Right Note Pt. 01

"Honey, are you sure you want to do this alone? I know I said I'd wait out here, but I can come in with you if you want."

I took a deep breath before shaking my head. I had been working up the mettle to do this all day, I wasn't about to take the easy way out now.

"No mom, I've gotta do this on my own, just like fighting that wendigo so I could get my Silver skull. I can't have you stepping in."

She nodded, still looking concerned. It was comforting, she still cared deeply about me, even all these years later.

"If you say so, I'll be right here, if you need me, flare some power, I'll be there in an instant."

I thanked her, and got out of my car, I was ready for this, I hoped I was at least. As I stepped up to the front door, I used my key to unlock it, walking into the front room, a duffel bag of holding under my arm. Thankfully Reapers who were moving were allowed to use them to condense as much stuff into a single place as possible, returning them when they were moved in.

As I stepped through the door, I looked around the small living room. There, curled up in a special chair was Myrlla. She was a constrictor type lamia, with her hair and scales being a deep blue, her eyes were a poisonous green. Those eyes came up to meet mine as I opened the door. She looked shocked to see me, as I hadn't called to say I was coming back.

She launched up from her chair and was in my face a moment later, equal parts concern and anger as she turned my arms around, looking at the bruises on them.

"Where did you go?! None of our friends have seen you, you usually stay with one of them, and why do you have bruises on your arms? Why is there blood in your hair! Did you get into a fight?!"

As she spoke, the concern faded, and became replaced with more anger. I was also a little annoyed. It was always like this, she seemed to always want to know where I was. It was suffocating, really. At this point, I was tired, and fighting piralla always put me in a bad mood because it took at least three full showers to feel truly clean. Plus, my ribs were starting to ache, but Myrlla just kept rambling on, her voice finally reaching a full on shout as she demanded to know where I went, what I was doing, what I was thinking, et cetera. I was just about sick of this shit, and I finally snapped.

"SHUT UP!"

You would have thought I slapped her in the face with how she recoiled. She looked absolutely hurt, but I just plowed on, my voice dropping from a roar to an average shout.

"I am so sick of your shit! It's always you you you! What about me! What about a relationship being a fucking give and take, all you do is fucking take! I'm done with this charade, we're fucking through, for good!"

I turned away from her, making my way to the bedroom, unconsciously channeling power to my legs, making me dart off before she could respond. I pulled my shirts off their hangers, stuffing them into the bag. Next were the drawers with my pants, socks and underwear. Those quickly followed my shirts. By now, Myrlla had shaken herself from her shock and was in the doorway. She looked furious, her hands on her hips as her tongue flicked out, much like an agitated snake.

"Where do you think you're going! Just going to run out on me! You aren't even going to try and make this work!"

I ignored her and grabbed a band poster off the wall that belonged to me. This was the only thing that she allowed me to have, everything else in the house was something she bought, or wanted me to get her as a gift. Without that one poster, the whole place felt colder to me, like I wasn't welcome here.

"I'm not done talking to you Jason!"

I rounded on her then, my eyes pulsing as a dark energy leaked from the corners. She looked scared for just a moment, but she hardened her expression, until I retorted at least.

"But I'm done talking to you, we never get along for long, we always fight, I'm so tired! This is sucking the life out of me, and you're the only one getting anything out of it! You never let me breathe, and I don't even have any friends of my own, they're just your fucking friends, people you approve of! You're just a manipulative bitch!"

She hissed at me, rage in her eyes. In all our fights, I rarely got this mad. I usually would just get pissed off, then leave before she could finish yelling at me. This time, I was fighting back, so tired of her treatment of me. It was the last straw, as so much wool was removed from my eyes. She lived up to her species name, she was constricting me in her coils, slowly killing what was truly me. Making me a little marionette, dancing to her tune as she pulled my strings. That realization sent me into a spiral of rage.

She launched herself forward and tried to slap me, but I wasn't entirely out of my combat mindset from fighting the piralla. Her arm seemed to move in slow motion, and I easily stepped out of its reach. Myrlla stumbled as her open palm met empty air, but she was soon on the attack again, this time her tail whipping out to crack me in the head. I stepped into the blow, using my arm to block it easily as I felt the weight of my cloak and blades appear on me. If I had the mind to think about it, I'd say they had appeared in response to my fight response activating. Right now, however, I was not concerned about why they appeared, I was to angry. I knew my cloak was still covered in blood, and that was not a good thing.

Myrlla's eyes grew wide, she wasn't ready for me to be able to block her strike, and definitely not ready for my combat gear to come out. She recoiled again; her face draining to a pale color.

"W-what the fuck are you."

I paused, and flipped my cowl off, showing my face to her. I was glaring, and the dark energy leaking from my eyes only made it even more intimidating. The words that came from my mouth were almost the exact same ones my mom had told Chloe and I when we asked what she did for a job.

"The thing that nightmares are scared of."

She looked at me, her fear turning back into anger as she began screaming at me.

"You... You're... YOU'RE A FUCKING HUNTER?! GET OUT! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

I shook my head as I walked past her, forcing my gear back into the ether as I went. She moved out of my way, furious tears streaming down her face. I saw that the front door was open, and mom stood in the entrance, looking at me with concern. I walked past her, exhausted, but secure in the fact I had done the right thing. I tossed the spare key I had hard, embedding it in a picture of Myrlla and I, shattering the glass.

"Let's go home mom, this cunt doesn't want me here anymore."

She nodded, and we left, Myrlla making her way to the front door to watch us leave.

*************************************

Chapter 5

A couple weeks later found me lying in a hammock we had in the backyard. It was strung up between two trees that were a few yards from the pool. I was so happy mom had splurged on this place when we were babies. We had everything a kid could want, like a really deep end, and a diving board! I was just drifting, doing absolutely zero real thinking as I absently strummed my Martin guitar. I had my eyes closed as my fingers picked some basic exercises real slow. Each note ringing out with the distinctive pitch every Martin made. After coming home from the final fight with my ex, I showered a couple times, then collapsed into bed, sleeping off the stress of the day. I stayed there until almost ten the next morning, where I got up, showered again, and went to go lay in the hammock. That was roughly my routine for the next two weeks, I just generally felt like trash. Four years of my life wasted while I dated that bitch. Time I would never get back.

Even though I felt like shit, I had never felt freer than I was now. I was sad that things ended between Myrlla and I, but at the same time, I felt like a collar was removed from my neck, and some unseen weight was taken from my shoulders. Overall, it was a confusing feeling, so instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I shoved it to the back of my brain to deal with later. It wasn't the healthiest decision, but I needed to do it. Right now, I wanted to just play my guitar and vibe, nothing complicated.

I continued on like that, until I heard the patio door slide open, and the sound of girls chattering coming through it. I only recognized my sister's voice, but hers in the mix caused me to shrug it all off. Normally I would've looked, mild curiosity over the strangers, but right now I was just too comfortable to care. I assumed it was her and her friends coming over to use the pool. Chloe had done it in high school, and we had an agreement, they don't mess with me, I'd leave them to their fun. I guessed these were girls she met recently, because they definitely weren't her high school friends. One voice came through clearer, it was beautiful, with some kind of undertone that almost compelled me to stop playing and go meet her. I shook it off though, I didn't care enough right now.

"I know what you mean Chloe, I am just beyond ready to find someone who actually cares about me, that last guy who asked me out was just a creep... Do you hear that?"

I heard Chloe groan in annoyance, and if I had to guess she was rolling her eyes.

"That's just my brother Kaitlyn, ignore him."

I just finished the exercise I was on, but before I could start another one, I felt someone stop the rocking of my hammock. I opened my eyes, and met a brilliant pair of emerald ones, set in a lightly tanned, heart shaped face, framed with crimson hair. She was gorgeous, and I felt my heart skip a beat as she grinned down at me. I was so surprised at her appearance, I fell out of the hammock, making sure I didn't hurt my Martin at all. The woman, because she definitely wasn't a girl, giggled lightly as she smiled at me.

"Well hello there handsome. Chloe, you've been holding out on me."

I shook my head before I stood back up, setting my guitar in the hammock before dusting my legs off. I heard Chloe grumble something under her breath before she called out to the woman.

"Ignore him Kaylee, if we don't bother him, he won't bother us."

The woman laughed lightly, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear as she called over her shoulder.

"And why would I leave him alone? I want to hear even more."

She then turned to me, smiling gently as she gestures towards my guitar.

"Do you play more than acoustic, or...?"

She left the question hanging, but I understood what she meant.

"I mainly play electric, but I wanted some sun."

I heard a grumble from Chloe, something along the lines of 'every fucking day?'. I ignored her as Kaylee smiled widely at me before grabbing my hand with both of hers. They were warm, and I felt something. I wasn't sure what I was feeling about this sexy lady anymore. She was one of Chloe's friends, but she was obviously not opposed to Kaylee touching me, as she was with her high school friends. After her one friend broke my heart, Chloe was adamant that her friends would never do that again, making sure they knew I was off limits.

"Then show me, I want to hear your sound."

With that, she dragged me off to where we had a music room set up. As we passed Chloe and Kaitlyn, who looked exactly the same as Kaylee now that I looked at her, followed along after us. Once we got there, she released my hands, a small smile on her face. I didn't need to glance around, just walked over to my Fender, picking it up and slipping the strap over my shoulder. It was still plugged into the amp from the last time I was here a couple days ago. She looked at me, that happy grin still on her face as she looked at my guitar.

"You know, I always wondered who that belonged to, Chloe never said, just that we shouldn't touch it."

I shrugged before plugging it in, taking a few test strums to check the tuning. Once I was satisfied, I turned to face her, noting my sister and Kaitlyn were standing just inside the doorway. Kaylee coughed lightly to grab my attention before she gestured to my guitar.

"Well, play something, I want to know your sound."

There it was again, she seemed to have an odd obsession with 'my sound', but I shrugged it off, I was here to play for a very attractive woman, not debate if she was crazy or not in my own head, and to be fair, even if she was a little nuts, she was hot enough that I wouldn't care. I picked each string, and once their noise combined into one tone, I started.

I opened with The Darkness Settles In, a perfect fit for my mood over the past couple weeks. As I kept strumming, the anguish, the regrets, everything about ending things with Myrlla came flowing from my fingers, giving the song the proper feeling it deserved. I felt the words moving though my head, and the emotion Ivan put into them almost made my eyes water. It hurt, but it hurt so good knowing someone else out there knew what I was feeling right now. I closed my eyes; I didn't want anyone to see them tearing up.

As I came up to the solo, I let my Fender weep, shedding the tears that just wouldn't fall from my eyes. Even after the true gravity of my ending things hit me, I hadn't cried, not over ending something that took so long to build, nor over having lost someone I genuinely still had feelings for. They all just stayed bottled up, but here, and now, I let so much flow from my music, I didn't feel better, but I think it was a step in the right direction. As I sank deeper into myself, letting the music carry me away, I started to feel some anger, some spark of resentment. I only ended things because she was toxic, she wanted to control me. I knew I wasn't blameless; I could have tried to make it work, but I was done. Done trying to bail water from a sinking ship. I felt the anger bubbling up even more, and before the last note of that song had finished it's sound, I launched into the next one.

The Bleeding was a perfect next track, as my guitar unleashed the anger that was now burning through my heart. The lying, the bleeding, the screaming, tore us apart. Why I never walked away, it bothered me. Why had it taken me four fucking years, constant fights, to realize I was better off alone than I ever could be with her. That one, little word, roared inside my mind. Why. I didn't even know where I was, having fallen into myself, but a hand on my shoulder brought me back to the now. Kaylee looked at me, worry written all over her face as tears gathered in her eyes.

"Your sound, why does it hold so much pain?"

I felt something in those emerald orbs, something telling me she'd understand, so I was blunt.

"Look, I just ended things with a girl I loved for four years, I feel like absolute dogshit."

My voice was hoarse, the raging emotions in my head making me sound so much worse. Though, I guess it was a fairly good measure of the state I was in. Something in my mind told me that I should go back to Myrlla, try to patch things up, but a much larger, angrier part told the first one to shut the fuck up. Kaylee took my words in stride as she let go of my shoulder.

"Is that the snake cunt Chloe used to complain about all the time?"

I let out a bitter laugh, of course she'd call Myrlla that. If Chloe didn't hate her guts before, she certainly did after the breakup. I wanted to say something, but Kaylee stood up straighter. Now that I took the time, I noticed she was just an inch or two shorter than me. She wiped her eyes and put a smile back on her face.

"Alright, time to change that sound. Do you know Iris?"

I looked at her curiously, but nodded, it was one of mom's favorite songs, so she taught me it fairly early on. I was in the wrong key to play it though, so I started tuning it. String by string, I picked and turned until I had every note ringing out just right. Before I started, I looked up to Kaylee, and she nodded as she took a breath. The opening notes came from my guitar, and she opened her mouth, her eyes flashing green before closing.

"And I'd give up forever to touch you, cause I know that you feel me somehow. You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, and I don't wanna go home right now."

She began singing, her voice was beautiful, and I felt something pulling words from my mouth. I had never sung around anyone but mom before, something about when we played together brought it out. But here and now, this redhead was dragging it from me, something comforting my very soul. Her voice fell off, but mine came in to fill the gap as I sang, even though I didn't plan to.

"And all I can taste is this moment, and all can breathe is your life."

Her voice joined mine now, and they twisted together in an amazing duet.

"And sooner or later, it's over, I just don't wanna miss you tonight."

Chloe and Kaitlynn were staring at us, but my attention was on the singing beauty before me as she stepped closer to me. There was enough space between us that I could still play, but her eyes and mine were locked to each other as we sang the chorus in a duet.

"And I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am."

I stopped singing as she picked up right after the chorus, one hand coming to rest on my shoulder. I felt my eyes watering again, but the tears still weren't coming.

"And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming."

"Or the moment of truth in your lies."

"When everything feels like the movies."

"Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive!"

We went back and forth through the second verse. Her voice and mine intertwining again as we came to the chorus. She now placed her other arm around my neck, and started swaying, like a slow dance. I started moving as well as the tears finally started falling down my cheeks. She was pulling everything out from the back of my mind, and I finally wept, over everything. She brought out the pain, but her voice was soothing, helping heal the hole in my heart, even though I had just met her maybe twenty minutes ago.

"And I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am!"

We came to the bridge now, and she drew even closer to me. I was hit by the smell of the ocean and hibiscus, salt and sweet, and I knew that was her. She remained that close as we went into the final chorus. The scent relaxed my body as she looked deep into my eyes, and into my very soul it felt.

"And I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am."

As the final note rang out from my guitar, she pulled me even closer, and planted a kiss on my lips. I was so entranced in the moment that I kissed her back. It was a slow kiss, but still rather chaste. After a few moments, she pulled away, to my regret. She held me then, her hands on my shoulders as she smiled gently. One hand coming up to wipe the tear streaks from my face.

"That was a much more beautiful sound, don't you agree?"