Chapters Her fingers danced across the keys, gently pressing them down before gracefully leaping to another, barely there for a fraction of a second before it was gone once more, off to meet the next note in an endless stream of melody. The lightest weight pressed perfectly on the key, touching hammer unto string. She didn’t even have to think about what she was doing. Her arms, her hands, each individual finger moved on its own accord from hours upon hours of practice until she had mastered it. And she had.
Of course you should expect as much from someone who's been playing the piano for thirteen years. And given that Lyra was only thirteen, it was quite a feat at that. It had started as her smacking one of her toys into her Fisher Price sound board. She’d already broken the one made by Hasbro so her parents thought they’d get her one that was made better than the last. Soon enough though, she’d started playing music on it. Crude smashing music, but music all the same.
From there she began to slowly improve, pressing single keys at a time and by the time she was just two she’d learnt how to play her favourite TV show’s theme song. Though she was young, her parents saw her potential and hired a tutor to teach her how to play. Of course it took a while before they found someone willing to teach a two year old but eventually they did. And by the age of six, before she could even read, she could read music like it was written in plain english and play it as if it were as simple as the spoken word.
From her parents and tutor, to her class of thirty, to a school talent show of a hundred and now this. She was in front of a thousand people, playing as the opening act for the local high school orchestral symphony of which she would be joining the very next year. If not entirely out shining before then. Okay… it wasn’t quite a thousand people. In fact it was slightly less than nine-hundred. But to her, well, if you have a million dollars and spend one dollar, you still have a million dollars.
Suddenly, it happened. Nearing the end of her song, a full four and a half minutes in, she made a mistake. The briefest of hesitations between keys. The one flaw in what would otherwise be her greatest moment. No one but her noticed it but she knew it was there. The imperfection that haunted her... but before she knew it, the final key was pressed. She’d done it. She’d made the performance of her life. The one that would never be topped!
The crowd cheered, amazed by this young prodigy. Roaring and clapping, they began to stand as Lyra turned to face them. She couldn’t see the standing ovation for the spotlight on her but nothing could drown out the thunderous noise they were making. Making for her. She stood from her seat, smile never leaving her face as she turned towards them. She bowed to her left, she bowed to her right… hell she even jokingly did a courtesy towards them in her trousers.
Then, the screen went black. Related videos began to pop up as video ended. Nightmare Night Piano Cover performed by Lyra Heartstrings: 3752 views. Breaking Bonds Piano Cover performed by Lyra Heartstrings: 2104 views. 20% Cooler Piano Cover performed by Lyra Heartstrings: 8235 views. There were more, but instead, Lyra just pressed replay. Discord Piano Cover performed by Lyra Heartstrings: 16723 views. Now 16724 views. Uploaded three years ago.
She sat in front of her computer, nothing but some pants and a bra on like she usually had when alone, watching herself play over and over again. It was the last song she’d ever performed. The person who’d uploaded it… she wonder if they knew. Wondered if they were making a fraction of a cent from her every time she rewatched the video. Wondered how many thousands of the views on it had come from just her. Today alone, at least twenty in the last two hours she’d been there.
For three years, she hadn’t touched a piano. For three years she’s wanted to but couldn’t bring herself to dare even try. For three years… for three years, thats how long it had been since she’d lost her left arm. And until not too long ago the memory of what happened, of what she’d seen that day had kept her from living her life, from trying anything, from even getting out of bed for days, sometimes weeks on end.
And even now she still wept watching herself, her former self play what had once been so natural to her. But seeing herself performing wasn’t the worst part of it. She was still performing, she could feel it. She could feel her arm, her hand, each individual finger as if it was still there, dancing across the keys as if nothing had happened. The sensation of delicately pressing a key, of gracefully leaping to the next in a chorus of endless melody still ran up what remained of her arm, emanating from the place only a cook-clamp attachment was now.
Phantom Limb Syndrome it was called. But knowing what it was called did little to help her cope with it. Even this, without watching herself play from years ago, sitting in front of a computer had given her panic attacks from time to time. Typing. Hitting the keys with one hand and slowly devolving into how she used to type. Still feeling her fingers press the button for a few seconds before releasing half of her words were missing. Or worse, that her claw had destroyed another keyboard.
Even this solid steel board in front of her now had numerous dents on the ASDF side where the JKL: side was free of them. Fifty-two words per minute. Now, down to around fifteen presumable. Much like the piano, she hadn’t dared to find out. Though, had she checked, it would actually be more around forty. Worse, but nowhere near as bad as she feared as even back then she was an hunt-and-pecker. She herself couldn’t see it but although her life had changed dramatically, what was holding her back more than anything else was herself.
No one could blame her though. Stronger people had broken from less. At least that’s what her therapist had told her. How it was meant to be encouraging was beyond her but in some weird way it did. As the video ended once more another crop of her songs appeared on screen, along with some completely random video of a man slapping his friend with a fish: 11756493 views.
Instinctively she went to press replay on the video but something else caught her eye. It was already 3pm. She had to go. Lyra clicked the X and closed the page before shutting down her computer. She didn’t want to leave but she figured it wouldn’t set a good impression if she was late to her therapy session… for the 4th time in a row.
Doing her best to compose herself, she wiped her face clean of anything on it and spun her chair around. Her room was small, just her computer table, a single bed, a basket, a rack of cloth, and another small table. Standing up she grabbed whatever was the closest shirt to her and threw it over herself. Pants? She’d only worn them for two days, these were fine? Underwear? She reached down. Yep, put those on this morning. Lucky because there was no way she could be stuffed putting them on now if she hadn’t. With everything done she opened her door and stepped out into the courtyard and began her short walk.
She lived in the hospital’s psychiatric ward and had for just over three months now… again It wasn’t the first time she’d been in here and probably wouldn’t be the last. She was free to leave the premises at any time, well ,at any reasonable time, unlike some of the other ‘guests’ in the higher security area, and was for the most part fine and completely normal.
It was just that three months ago she’d lain in bed for nearly two weeks straight, not having the will to leave and towards the end of it the strength to get out of it either. It happened from time to time and that’s why she was here. Though it wasn’t as common as it used to be, for the first year after the accident she had spent over 90% of her life laying in bed. Now, with that being said, she lived that other 10% to its fullest still. And the second year it was way down to about only 20%, and further down this year at less than half of that.
Right now for instance, she was fine. Both mentally and physically. But when the mind holds her down, her body soon follows. Along with the loss of her left arm from the elbow down, she’d broken her right lower leg and left ankle. With the damaged that had been dealt to them, whenever her lackadaisical episodes occurred, the muscle mass of those areas quickly degenerated, leaving it so even once she’d mentally recovered, she’d have to physically recover all over again.
As such her therapy was also both mental and physical. It didn’t take her very long to get there, five minutes at most. She even managed to arrive a couple of minutes early today. She opened the door to the physical therapy lounge, seeing the other patients walking between arm bars holding themselves up or suspended from support apparatus from the ceiling. There were five patients in the gym at a given time, all with a constant slotted time allocation and so they all knew each other. Though given the circumstances, they rarely spoke.
Including herself though, today there were only four people here. Not surprisingly, the bald guy, a former DEA agent who’d been attacked by two cartel assassins had been walking with nothing more than a cain in their last session. His will, his grit, his sheer determination, he had probably left thinking or even knowing he could take care of himself from then on. Lyra wasn’t aware of it, but subconsciously, she was envious of all that. Deep down she knew that even though she was walking fine now after over a month, it was only a matter of time before she was set back to square one. It had even once been that thought alone that had made her unable, or unwilling to leave her bed.
For now though, she had free reign. Her personal doctor wasn’t here yet, likely seeing off the patient before her and with one less person here, she had all the more room. That and with the bald dude gone there was a lot less swearing. Still some from the others but a lot less all the same. She made her way over and sat down on an exercise ball. It was easily her favourite work out. Mostly because it was sitting on a ball. And who doesn’t love that? However today…
She fell off of it and landed with a thud on the ground, drawing the attention of the other docs and patients. She’d put her right hand on the ball to balance herself. Unfortunately, she’d also, at least she’d thought she had, put her her left hand on the opposite side and leant on it. It was something she’d never experienced before the accident and yet the sensation of a soft giant inflatable rubber ball against her non-existent hand was akin to that of her real one.
She pulled herself together as she sat up on the ground, reaching around awkwardly and rubbing the spot on the back of her head where she’d bumped it. The floor in here was made out of weird kind of foam that was hard to press against but springy on sudden impact. Reaching over with her right arm, she felt the stub of her arm and rubbed it too. It took her a moment to realise that her prosthetic had come off in the landing. It never did stay on all that well.
She looked around for it and saw something she wasn’t expecting to see in here. A girl, roughly her age, maybe a bit younger, maybe a bit older, with medium-long dark curly hair leaning down gingerly picking up her fake arm with both hands. The doctor who’d been helping the bald guy leant down with her hand grabbed it as well. Once the new girl was fully upright once more and holding the arm in her own, the doctor let go.
“Thanks.” Lyra said as she stood up and walked towards the girl. The girl took a few slow steps towards Lyra inturn, her doctor right behind her. Lyra stretched her arm out and grabbed the limb. The girl daintily and slowly extended both her arms and placed it in Lyras hand. Lyra made a brief attempt at putting it back on but the straps just wouldn’t slip onto her stub and after a few attempts she just sighed and gave up. Putting the thing under her armpit she faced the new girl, extended a hand and said “Name’s Lyra.”
Lifting her right hand to meet Lyra’s, the girl replied “My name’s Bon-bon. It’s nice to meet you.” she winced as she said it and shook Lyra’s hand. Lyra had always been a small bit of a tom boy and had taken the habit of squeezing someone’s hand while shaking it. This was not exactly the smartest place to do that and it was emphasized by how light Bon-bon’s grip on Lyra’s hand was.
Realising her mistake, though not acknowledging it, she told the girl “Let me show you around a bit. Over there’s the torture chair, that’s the torture rack, that thing’s the torture rails and that’s the toilets… you don’t wanna know the torture of that room.” Lyra smirked.
“Lyra!” Bon-bon’s doctor scolded.
She just chuckled and replied “Fine. But seriously though, don’t use those toilets. Not everyone here had full control over their lower half.” she said, getting a mild laugh from Bon-bon. “That guy’s name is Soarin’, that guy’s name is Beard Face.”
“It’s Beardfacé!” he called out.
“Whatever. And that guy there! His name is Jerky McJerkhole!”
“I will shove my boot up your arse girl!” the man holding himself up on two bars while trying to walk yelled back.
“Yeah? Why don’t you walk over here and do it then?!” Lyra replied.
“That’s enough.” Bon-bon’s doctor stepped in.
Lyra just waved her hand towards him dismissively “Eh, he loves me…” she said with a smirk. “Right McJerkhole?” who just muttered something back to her. “See.”
“Sure…” the doctor said as he gently lead Bon-bon away. “Well, it’s about time we started our Session. Come along Miss Sweetiedrops.”
Author's Note
Sadly I think I swing it too hard in the direction you're used to later and quite fast.
She was pretty much back to normal a week ago now but noooo… she had to go to ALL her sessions. Doesn’t matter that it was a waste of her time in a room that smelt like sweat, piss and vinegar. Not to mention a few other bodily byproducts from time to time. At least this was her last day having to deal with these quacks. To be fair though, she’d recovered a lot faster than she had last time and they’d just booked as much time as it had taken before. And last time she'd recovered faster than the time before that.
What surprised her though was Bon-bon. She’d been here for the past four days now and she seemed… normal. Most, in fact all, the patients who had come here before her were here with spinal or leg injuries and practically had to learn to walk all over again. Bon-bon though, she could walk, even if it was slowly she could certainly walk. She’d tripped over at one point, lay there for like ten seconds, then got right back up without any help. What she was here for were her arms. Well, her legs too but primarily her arms.
Something, presumably a stroke, had caused nerve damage making her lose most of her fine motor function. Walking, turning her head, point her arms she could do, but simple movements like placing her foot in an exact spot, or moving individual fingers was difficult for her. But the fact that she could do them at all made Lyra dismiss it as nothing more than a minor ailment. She was wasting this limited space for someone who needed it more than her. As much as she disliked McJerkhole, she could at least see that he needed this treatment.
Bon-bon was off in the other side of the gym, sitting at a table, holding a giant, and I mean GIANT pen, scribbling away on some paper. They hadn’t really talked much past that first day. The most Lyra had said to her was ‘Hey, could you help me get this thing off?’ talking about undoing a clip on the back of her prosthetic arm. Other than that she’d heard a few laughs from from Bon-bon and Bon-bon had probably heard a few arguments from Lyra with her doctor about still being here.
By this point in the day Lyra was just chilling, trying to burn the remainder of the time sitting on a large exercise ball. She had taken her fake arm off, it usually just annoyed her while doing this pointless exercise. Even a few weeks back when they weren’t pointless. The thing itched, it chafed, it did everything shy of work. “Just another ten minutes…” she muttered to herself as she looked at the clock and seeing it was almost five. A mandatory two hours here everyday was totally killing her mood. But once she was out of here today she knew she’d be over the moon.
A small clatter followed by “Damn it!” shouted suddenly interrupted her thoughts. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence in this place. But to hear it coming from Bon-bon over at what Lyra had been mockingly calling the ‘kiddy’s colouring table’ certainly was. It was the closest thing to profanity that Lyra had heard from the girl in couple of days. “Damn it…” she said aloud again but nowhere near as loud as before.
Leaning down from her chair, Bon-bon’s hand went for the giant pen she’d been drawing with. Lyra had looked in her direction a few times but didn’t quite know what the girl had been drawing. Whatever it was it didn’t look too bad. Better than anything she could draw, that’s for sure. As Bon-bon’s hand reached the pen, she grabbed it. Or at least tried too. Her fingers around it, she lifted, only to have it slip out like some crappy prize grabbing machine. She tried twice more but failed both times before her doctor eventually just picked it up for her.
Back up facing the table, her therapist placed it in her hands. “I’m afraid we only have a couple of minutes left. You’ve made great progress today and I’m sure we’ll get even further tomorrow. Why don’t you keep going and I’ll go prepare your exercise for tonight. Okay?” he told her. “It’ll be okay.”
“Okay.” she said back to him but uncharacteristically looking away from him as she spoke. Before he left though, she turned to look at the doctor “Thank you for all the help.” she said with what anyone would call a forced smile. The doctor stayed silent, only nodding in acknowledgement. Anyone could tell she hadn’t meant it but bless her heart for trying. Before he went off, Bon-bon returned to the paper in front of her and continued to draw.
Figuring she’d kill some of the time she had left in this dump, Lyra walked over to Bon-bon’s table, deciding to take a look at whatever it was she’d been drawing for the last hour. She wasn’t drawing at the time when Lyra approached though. Yep, definitely better than anything Lyra could dr- she was crying? A quiet gasp every couple of seconds, small twitches of her shoulders and the biggest give away, the tears running down her face.
Instant uncertainty filled Lyra’s mind but she’d come over here already, she couldn’t just leave after walking right up next to her. “He-hey. Nice drawing, what’s it meant to be?” she asked sheepishly, forcing a smile of her own.
“I’m not drawing anything. It’s… it’s meant to be my name!” she said before her light sobbing turned to all out bawling. She dropped the pen and her head onto her the table and covered her face with her hands.
“So… that’s NOT a pony then?” Lyra joked. It was at that moment she realised that Bon-bon needed this place more than she’d originally thought.
“I can’t do this… I can’t-I can’t even write my own name… I’m pathetic…” she cried.
“Hey, hey…” Lyra said, dropping down to her level and throwing her good arm over Bon-bon’s shoulder. She didn’t know what she was doing, she just knew that she couldn’t exactly walk away now after walking right up to her and saying all of that. Lyra may not’ve been the most sociable person here but she doubted anyone else could do any better. “You’re not pathetic. I mean, you’re here right? This place is for pathetic people to get better. Wait, that came out wrong.” or do any worse...
“I know, I just, I just…” was all Bon-bon managed to say back. Lyra managed much more with her actions than she did with her words though as bon-bon slowly began to raise herself off the table with her right arm while her other hand came away from her face and landed on top of Lyra’s hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Lyra added. Once Bon-bon was fully upright again she removed her hand. Bon-bon's left hand remained on her shoulder though as she looked to her left where Lyra had been only to find her no longer there. Bon-bon’s hand fell off of her shoulder as Lyra came from her right and knelt down beside her. “Let me give you a hand, kay?”
“Thank you… but my physical therapist's been helping me all day… and… well…” she said as she looked away from the girl kneeling down beside her and back towards where she’d ‘written’ her name.
“Trust me.” Lyra said as she grabbed the over-sized pen and handed it to Bon-bon. “Those bulk billing robots have so many hang-ups it’s unbelievable.” she finished as by placing her hand on the back of Bon-bon's with the pen in grasp.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I mean you’re under eighteen for starters. And you’re a girl. There’s like a jajillion regulations and red tape about EVERYTHING you would not believe. I doubt they’d even be allowed to touch your hand like this.”
“Really?” Bon-bon asked as she finally stopped crying.
“Uhhh, totally…” Lyra groaned. “I asked to get a woman doc once hoping she’d have more balls about it than the men and would actually touch my thighs where I needed them to a couple years back and my old doc got thrown under a bus with all the board meetings. It’s like I accused him of some bad stuff or something. It was ridiculous.”
“He didn’t did he?” Bon-bon asked.
“Na, he’s cool. Turns out the woman had just as many strings attached too and couldn’t touch more and a few fingers above my knee. But let’s see what you’ve got. What’s it? B-O-N-B-O-N right? Go ahead, I’ll help guide your hand.”
“Well, there’s a dash in there as well, but alright.” and with that Lyra felt Bon-bon's hand twitch underneath hers. She thought for a moment she’d put too much weight on it. But before Lyra could lift her own hand some, Bon-bon’s began to move. It was simply taking her that much effort to control her own limb. Already on the paper in a reasonably clear spot, she pressed the tip of the pen down and began to draw the first downwards line of the B. It ended up going down and sideways as if it was instead the first stroke of and X nearly the length of their hands.
Not giving up from there though, Bon-bon attempted the first loop. It started off well, though blocky as she draw straight out sideways. She then began to drift down from there. She was about to stop and give up when Lyra began to put a small bit of pressure on her hand. Not moving it for her, but just stopping it from moving in the wrong direction. A curve started to form and she almost made it connect back to the first line. And it did… but it ended up going a good couple of centimeters beyond it still.
From there, she managed to go in the right direction upwards with minimal help from Lyra’s hand on her own. She drew upwards and over but less than she had intended before curving back towards the top of the first line. She stopped early this time, not wanting to go too far past the line again but instead just left the top loop unconnected. It was a B, but only just with the second circle being razor thin.
“Nnnot bad.” Lyra said, lying of course. But whatever. “Let’s try do a bit better with the next. I mean, how hard’s an O right?” with that Lyra lightly gripped Bon-bon’s hand with her thumb and pulled it a couple of centimetres to the right. Releasing her hand in place with the pen touching down right where the top of where the O would start, Bon-bon began to write. Like Lyra had said, an O was far easier and it was all fine until the end when she’d reconnected the line too low, leading it half down the other side of the circle and through it slightly.
Moving once again, the N turned out pretty good. Though it was meant to be lower case it came out as upper and looking more like a Z turned sideways and compressed. Next was the dash, a simple straight line. It came out fine, though it too was angled upwards ever so slightly. The second lowercase B was horrible. Still recognisable as a B if you knew it was one but otherwise it looked more like a P. The next O was all but flawless except for a tiny squiggle where she’d came too close to the P… I mean B, and had over compensated before recompensating then having to compensate again. Finally came the last letter N. Not moving far enough down on the first line, it ended up looking like the number 7 with a curved top and a little line at it’s start. All in all, it looked awful.
As Lyra removed her hand from Bon-bon’s, the sitting girl was crying. She’d failed. Lyra thought she could help but despite her best effort she only ended up making it worse. Kneeling beside Bon-bon’s seat, Lyra turned to face the girl. She’d tried… she really had. “I’m sorr-” she was interrupted by Bon-bon.
“I did it…” she said softly.
“I’m sorry?” Lyra raised an eyebrow and said again but with completely different meaning, wanting Bon-bon to repeat what she’d just said. There was no way she’d heard what she thought she’d heard. Without warning Bon-bon turned to her and threw her arms out.
At first Lyra thought she was about to be hit by Bon-bon. But no, she was being hugged. But, why? “Thank you… thank you so much.”
“Sure… don’t mention it.” Lyra replied, not quite knowing what to say to it. She half-heartedly put her own arm up around the girl and returned the hug about as tight as Bon-bon was doing to her, which wasn’t very. Thank her? What had she done to be thanked?
“How can’t I mention it? Thank you so much! I never… I thought I’d never be able to write my name again. Thank you. Thank you!” she continued to cry and hug to the point where Lyra was probably holding more of Bon-bon’s weight than the chair. And yet she still had no idea what was going on. Her face almost looked aghast and afraid more than confused as she turned and stared at the sheet of paper still on the table.
It was crappy, it was barely legible, she was ashamed that she was involved in writing... no, drawing that scribble. And yet something so small, so… so nothing! meant everything to the girl Lyra held in her arm.
Author's Note
Woo-oow, we're half way there. Woo-oow! We're Lyra'n on a prayer! Take my HAND and we'll make it I swear, woo-oow! We're Lyra'n on a prayer! *base solo*
Heavily inspire by an episode of Scrubs and the scene from Wreck-to Ralph where she gets a crappy car but absolutely loves it.
“You live here?” Bon-bon asked as they walked in the front doors of the asylum. Two weeks had passed since they’d first met. Of course they hadn't really spoken for most of the first week. In the week after that however, they’d become good friends. At least online. They didn’t really see much of each other in person. Only twice, and briefly at that, since Lyra had helped her that day. They face-timed because go figure, texting wasn’t exactly either of their strong suits.
“Yeah. I’m probably going to go back home in a couple days. It was just convenient living here with the therapy place being right next door in the hospital.” Lyra explained as she led her way through the second lot of glass doors towards the more sturdy secured doors. She had free rein of entry and exit but not everyone here did. She was here voluntarily. “And now that you’re done with your sessions there too, I just don’t see a point in sticking around here anymore.”
“I’m not done. I’m just out of them.” Bon-bon told her friend. She’d only gotten so many sessions booked and although she’d made leaps and bounds in her recovery, there was still so much more she could’ve gotten out of that place. Lyra had a huge, HUGE cash settlement that had covered all her medical costs and then some. Bon-bon wasn’t so lucky. She obviously wasn’t happy about the situation but despite the dark words, her tone simply conveyed it as a fact. Nothing more.
They'd learnt a lot about each other in their nightly gab sessions. Bon-bon, although still recovering, was still attending school. She’d always wanted to be a chef and had come to the conclusion that that was likely no longer an option. But once more, it was never said in a negative way, just that she had to find something else now and so she didn’t want to fall behind in her education.
Lyra was the opposite. She’d dropped out about two years ago. Sure she wasn’t educated past year eight but she wasn’t stupid. She had common sense, which if the internet was any indication of, was far less than common these days. Where Bon-bon was looking at her job prospects in the future, Lyra was completely content to live off of 4.83% interest from 2.5 million dollars. Huge settlement.
Lyra was a year older than Bon-bon at sixteen to fifteen but their birthdays were within a week of each other in about a week before X-mas. They didn’t know it at the time but would one day come to the realisation that they were both St. Patricks Day drunken sex babies. Then both agree that that was a good name for a heavy metal band.
“So you coming in or what?” Lyra asked as he held the door open. “It’s completely safe. All the real craziess are kept locked up and if a one-armed girl can live here, well then that about says it all doesn’t it.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say.” she said in a I’m-offended-but-also-agree kind of a way as she walked in past her friend. Her mobility had increased but she still wasn’t fast by any standards. She'd been recommended to use a walking stand but hadn’t so much refused as politely declined aggressively. She was slow, not fragile. Basic motor function had returned to her for the most part but fine motion was still foreign to her these days.
“Hey, let’s play a game.” Lyra suggested as she closed the door behind her. “Let’s play ‘guess which patient’s the cannibal’. I think You’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
“Is it you?” she joked back.
“Uhh… you ruined the surpr-I mean no. Now hurry up and follow me to my room, I’m getting hungry.” they both had a laugh at it and soon enough, even at the shuffling pace Bon-bon set they made it to Lyra’s room. It was surprisingly nice in this place, an open air garden, large glass walls so you could see the garden from inside the main area and across to the housing. Of course it was just as much for observation as well, but it was still a lot more serene than Bon-bon had expected.
Lyra swiped her card in the door lock, the door clicked and she opened it wide letting her friend in first. It was sparse to say the least. A ‘secured’ [barred] window looking outside of the facility, a desk with a built-in computer and a chair in front of it, another table designed for eating at, a bed over the other side with a clothes rack and basket between them. There were a few bottles on the eating table and a few unopened bags of chips laying around. There was also a slide door in the wall.
“Aww man…” Lyra groaned. “I keep telling them not to take away the open packets. That was like, a month of Nature Box they threw away.” she said as she flipped on a light and let the door go to slowly close behind her. She grabbed one of the bags off the table “Eh, whatever… here, help yourself.” she said as she through the bag to Bon-bon.
It landed square in Bon-bon’s chest and she quickly wrapped both her arms around herself trying to hold onto it. She caught it “Who’s 'they'?” she ask but as she tried to grab the bag properly with a hand. She dropped it. She leant down and managed to get a hold of it on only her second attempt.
Lyra reached over and rolled up the sleeve of her left arm. “The cleaners. They gotta come in everyday and make sure that blah blah blah. You know, Your standard hotel dealie.” she said as she slid opened the door. With it open, Lyra moved her left elbow to the latch and shuffled it up and down against it until a small click sound was made. She then grabbed her fake arm, flicked one of the straps with her thumb and took it off.
She’d figured out an easy way to get at the clip in the hard to reach spot of her stump a while ago. Leaving the door open, she turned around towards the table and hung the arm up on the rack that hung above it. She had three prosthetic arms in all. The one she had been wearing and most oft worn was the most practical and useful: a hook hand with a clamp. The second, and least used one on the rack was an actual hand looking one. Skin tone and immobile, it was purely for show.
She’d worn it maybe three times in as many years. The first time was a couple of months after the incident to her middle school graduation. She was still in a wheelchair at the time and hadn’t been to school in over six months but her parents had insisted that she still be allowed to attend the ceremony and graduate from the school. Back then it had meant so much to her but ultimately, seeing her friends then, she made up her mind and when up on stage had grabbed the mic and told everyone that she wouldn’t be continuing school the next year.
The third arm was... “What the heck is that thing?” Bon-bon asked as she saw it there up on the door. Lyra just smirked and hung up her arm before grabbing the thing down. And ‘thing’ was really the only way to describe it. The attaching end looked identical to the other two in that it was a prosthetic but the ‘hand’ end almost looked like a torture device.
“This thing? My brother made it for me. He called it ‘The Swiss Arm Knife’.” Lyra demonstrated by putting it under her arm, holding it while she fidgeted with the mechanism until she pulled out a knife from it.
“You’re allowed to have a knife in here?” Bon-bon asked. Lyre just smirked once more.
“You call that a knife?” she said as she flicked it back into the arm and then clicked out another “THIS is a knife.”
“That’s a spoon.”
“Huh, I see you’ve played knifey-spoony before.” she joked. She dumped the arm on the table, grabbed a bag for herself and pulled the chair out and sat forwards against the back of the chair. “But seriously, they couldn’t not let me have the hook and I argued ‘em down to if I can have the hook how much worse is that thing?”
“Well I guess that makes sense. It still looks pretty dangerous though.” Bon-bon replied as she too took the seat from in front of the computer and turned it to face her friend in the swivel chair. She sat in it normally however, then began to try opening the bag. “Sweet potato chips?” she read then did her best at pinching the sides of the drop. She couldn’t get a strong grip on it though.
While she was doing that, Lyra got up and grabbed a shirt from the rack and pair of cargo pants from the basket. “I’ma ganna get changed. Ya mind starting the computer up for me?” she said before opening the door to the side of the room and entering the bathroom. It was cool in there now but her green jacket and leggings would soon get way too hot. Bon-bon found and pressed the boot button on the computer and a moment later she heard a very loud thud followed by “Damn it!... ough.” groan come from the other side of the door.
Not too long Lyra came up toon after, wearing just a t-shirt and shorts with no shoes now. The rest of her clothes must’ve been left in there but she brought her jacket out and laid it on her bed before sitting down on it, just behind Bon-bon sitting on the computer chair. “So… you like mint green I take it.” Bon-bon said, taking note of her clothes. It read ‘I’m not wearing’ then had a cute animal picture that Bon-bon didn’t recognise.
The walls were a beige-y colour similar to Bon-bon’s own clothes but almost everything else in the room was a shade of light green. The chairs, her bed spread and most of her clothing. All of it was a minty colour with white secondary and a few gold accentings. There were a few exceptions of course. A black pair of pants here, a blue shirt there but for the most part “U’unno…” Lyra shrugged “I guess. So you don’t like sweet potato I take it?” and replied.
Bon-bon had yet to open the bag Lyra had thrown her earlier. Though it wasn’t from lack of trying “I can’t get it open.” she said and demonstrated as she tried to get a hold of a fold.
“Pass it here.” Lyra told her friend as she extended an arm. Bon-bon obeyed and in a second Lyra had flipped it around in her hand so that she was pinching one side of the bag. Without her prosthetic on, Bon-bon wondered what she could even do with it but she was answered without even asking by “Took me a while to get used to things too, but I got the hang of it.” and with that she raised the bag to her mouth and bit down on it. She then pulled the other side with her hand and opened it right up. “Not bad, huh?”
Bon-bon reached out and grabbed the bag of chips back with both hands as Lyra offered it to her. “Yeah. Not bad… not sure that’ll help me out too much bu-wow!” she said as she looked down to her friends legs. The left one was fine but the right one was just covered in scars. And not normal deep cut scars, perfectly straight lines with small dots down the sides of them.
“Surgical scars from a car crash. Cool huh?” Lyra replied.
“So… so you really were in there for a reason after all…” Bon-bon said more to herself than her friend.
“What’s that s’post ta mean?” Lyra retorted, jokely acting offended as she raised her hand and put it fingers spread, pointed against her chest.
“N-nothing! I just… you seemed fine, and walk fine. Compared to everyone else there.”
“Yeah well, four bolts and a steel plate tend to do that to your leg. Happened like three years ago. I walk fine now, I just have a uh… what was it?... ‘loss of muscle mass’ in it sometimes and gotta learn to walk all over again. So annoying. I had a ‘relapse’ few months back and… you know.” Lyra told her friend the half truth, leaving out the reason why she’d had muscle loss. “Sometimes it’s just hard to get out of bed and I feel like sleeping for weeks straight.”
While she may’ve seemed calm and fine with telling Bon-bon all of this Lyra was holding more back then she’d let on. Which is kinda the whole point of holding something back. Bon-bon however didn’t notice any of it and simply thought Lyra was telling her everything. “So, how’d you lose your arm?” she asked. No sooner had she asked did Lyra’s mood shift.
Lyra had learnt long ago not to ask someone she’d met in physical therapy what happened to them unless they were flat out bragging about it or making it obvious they wanted to tell people their story upon request. And in turn, she’d also learnt to avoid telling her own story to others… or herself. “I… don’t actually remember it. I was told a bus hit our car.” she said, looking down towards her remaining arm to avoid eye contact.
It was surprising to her. For all the time they’d spoken with one another online she’d never seen Lyra with anything less than a cocky smile on her face and some pop culture reference she didn’t understand at the ready. “I never thought… it’s weird but, I never thought I’d see you sad. You always seem so… happy!” Bon-bon said as she thought out loud.
“Eh… we all have our moments. Besides, you always seem so happy. How am I happier than you always are?” Lyra asked as she looked up at her friend. She wasn’t crying and showed very little outwards signs of doing so, but internally, she was just on that edge, feeling that strange sensation that wells up in your nose and just below your eyes before the dam breaks.
“Not always…” Bon-bon replied, now her turn to look away and avoid making eye contact with the other person in the room. “You saw me last week. Crying like a little kiddy.”
“I don’t know… I like to cry.” Lyra shrugged back.
“Hmm…” Bon-bon let out. A low groan of disapproval. “I know that, maybe, you’re trying to lighten the mood, and maybe it’s needed a little, but that’s not a funny joke Lyra.”
This however made Lyra shoot to attention with “I wasn’t joking. It feels good to cry.”
“Um… huh?” was all Bon-bon was able to come up with.
“Yeah, like… it feels kinda crappy at the time, but when you’re done, it’s just… gone. Like it’s just, gotten out of your system. I cry sometimes. Hell, some of my favourite movies, TV shows, games, you name it… the sad ones are the best.”
“I guess… I mean, Wreck-it Rudolph was-”
“Oh my god that movie!” Lyra interrupted. “It was absolutely amazon!”
“‘Amazon’?”
“Amazon!” Lyra replied with manically wide grin on her face with near pinprick eyes. She’d lightened the mood of the room that’s for sure. And she hadn’t even meant to. She knew exactly how to re-darken it again now. “I’ve got this one show, it’s so happy and sad at the same time, it’s like… oh my god it’s so good!”
And with that she stood up and pulled a small box out from under her bed and grabbed a USB stick out of it before pushing it back under. Moving over to the computer she put in the flash drive and began to do stuff. “You… want me to move over?” Bon-bon asked as her friend leant over her in her seat to use the mouse.
“Nope.” Lyra said as she moved back and pulled the USB out of the socket. “This is your homework!” she said, holding the USB stick at full arm extension centimeters from Bon-bon’s face. “It’s just twelve episodes long so it’s a short length series.”
“What is it?” she asked as she reached up with both hands and took hold of the object, pulling it away from her face.
“It’s a 4gig USB stick.”
“I know that… I mea-”
“Also it’s a Transistor sword replica one too, be careful with it.”
“Alright, but what’s on it.”
“Your homework. I told you that.”
“Lyra!…” she groaned. “How come I get homework and you don’t?”
Lyra just chuckled and finally answered. “It’s an anime called Watapone. And you’re right. Tell me something I have to watch! That way, next time we meet up again we can talk about it.”
“Um… ok. But isn’t it stealing to give me a copy of this?”
“Pffthahaha… good one.” Lyra laughed for a moment before “Oh wait, you’re serious? Let me laugh even harder bwaahahha!” to which she got yet another annoyed groan. “Oh c’mon… even if it was stealing, which by definition has to take something away from someone else where as this is just making a copy of it trust me I’ve googled it, my brother’s DVD collection… yeah, we’ve more than given them enough money to make up for it. Seriously, like, tens of thousands worth…”
“Ok… well, how about... oh! You should watch Tangled!” she said remembering Lyra having liked Wreck-it Rudolph but knowing this movie had gone by with most people thinking it was just a Rapunzel remake.
“Disneigh?” Lyra asked.
“Disneigh.” Bon-bon replied.
“Alright then!” she said cheerfully as she leant back over Bon-bon and opened Windows Explorer #WindowExplorerMasterRace and opened up her favourite torrent site.
“You could at least buy it if you’ve spent so much on DVDs.”
“Uh… fine…” Lyra accepted and instead typed in the URL bar.
Of course Bon-bon had something to say about that too. “That’s meant to be amazon, not amazing.com.”
“Sh-shut up!” Lyra growled in embarrassment. She’d been used to saying and typing amazon that she’d legitimately gotten the two mixed up. “Look away while I put in my password.” she said and nudged Bon-bon to the side slightly. Her friend looked away while "One-one-one um… one ."
Bon-bon turned back as Lyra minimised the page. “Wow… that’s a lot of games.” she said seeing half the screen covered in thumbnails of various games. She even recognised a few. And that was coming from someone whose only experience with games was Candy Crush and 20-40-8. And the cheap rip off versions of them: Bejeweled and 3s.
“Yeah. I kinda have a problem with Steam sales… these are just the ones I’ve installed.” she said with a laugh that hid deep deep regret. “I’ve been playing a lot of The Gryphon Among Us lately.”
“You really like those horse things don’t you…” Bon-bon said.
“Eh, they’re alright.” although it hadn’t been what Bon-bon had really wanted to ask. It was just the first thing she could think of to avoid asking the question she had thought of: ‘How?’. From what she knew of non ‘filthy-casual’ games didn’t they require two hands to play?
As if reading her mind, Lyra said “Oh, let me show you something.” as she went back and grabbed the box from under her bed again. This time she placed it down on the computer desk in front of the two of them. It was all computer stuff, USBs, controllers, batteries and…
“Um… why are you showing me that?” Bon-bon asked nervously as Lyra pulled out a long purple rubber object.
“Huh? I wanted to show you it and let you test it out. Duh.” she said as she waved it in front of Bon-bon’s face. “Move over a sec.” she said as she attracted the object to the keyboard. “Cool huh? It goes over the WASD and presses them down when you move it. It’s kinda like a joystick.” she finished, getting more than just a chuckle from Bon-bon. “What?” she genuinely asked.
“I bet it’s a joystick…”
“What?...” she asked again, turning from Bon-bon to the big purple stick now standing on her keyboard. “Oh, eww!” she cringed. “My brother made this!”
“Your brother sure seems to make a lot of stuff.” Bon-bon snickered. It was immature of her but what do you expect? She watches disneigh films still…
“Well, yeah. He’s an inventor. It’s what he does. Most of it catches on fire though. Oh, we should totally watch some vids of time testing his stuff. Most of it catches on fire. He even once managed to pour milk into a bowl of cereal and have it ignite!” and with that the two spent the next half hour watching Lyra’s brother on viewtube.
“Wait a second.” Bon-bon said abruptly. “Was that a simpsons reference?”
Author's Note
Dat last line about says it all.
Also for basically making Lyra a nerd, I think of it this way. She no longer goes to school and has nothing to do all day for three years. Video games. Interactive, can take up hundreds of hours and they’re fun. Anime came soon after she played Ponysona4 and with the internet in tow, she had an endless supply of entertainment to weeb out on as a coping mechanism.
Deleted scene~
“I’ve heard of that show but I’ve never seen it.”
“It’s not a show, it’s a type of show. It’s like, japanese cartoons.”
“Oh, like Teen Titan?” [Note I would like to point out I mean the original Teen Titan cartoon, not teen Titan Go which I only found out about after I wrote this and it's horrible]
“Sure… we’ll go with that.” Must. Hold. Back. Weeb! “Let’s see… what would you have seen? Uh… Ponymanz?”
“Isn’t that a game?”
“Dragon Ball P”
“I used to watch it but my parents said I couldn’t anymore after I got in a fight at school. And Power Pony Rangers too.”
“Sailor Luna?”
“Oh, I’ve seen that one!” Bon-bon replied with joy. “It was on right before Card Captors. Oh, is that the anime too?”
“Yeah, and it’s a good one!”
“~Cardcaptors - a mystic adventure - cardcaptors - a quest for all time~” Bon-bon sung sweetly. Lyra still cringed despite her friend’s good tuned singing voice. This was enough for now, she’d introduce her to sub > dubs later.
“Fool!” Lyra yelled as she pointed a finger harshly towards Bon-bon across the cloth-covered table. “You’ve just activated my trap card!”
“No!” Bon-bon replied in shock as Lyra revealed her card: Skip!
“Your turn is over! Now, I play… Red Five! And I end my turn.”
“Uno… you forgot to call it, draw a card.” Bon-bon said cheerfully, taking extra delight in the mortified face Lyra made in response as her eye twitched and she stared blankly at her friend.
“I will not forget this declaration of war .” she replied, giving Bon-bon the stink-eye as she drew a card. Her hook-hand prosthetic wasn’t always the most useful but it certainly came in handy, a pun which Lyra extracted far too much entertainment from, in certain situations. Right now was one of those situations as she slid her newly drawn card into the gap between the hook’s clamp.
“Draw two.” Bon-bon said as she placed down her card.
“Y U do this to me!?” Lyra over exaggeratedly questioned with mock hurt.
Bon-bon’s answer was completely serious though. “Because you made me play mao with you and your brother last week.” and if you don’t know what mao is, we should totally play sometime!
It had been about two weeks since Lyra had moved back in with her family which had been just shy of a week after she’d first invited Bon-bon to her room there. Like she’d said, she had been staying at the institution voluntarily. There was a request that she speak with a shrink before she made the move but she declined… or flat out refused, either one. The move had gone quite smoothly. Mostly because she only had her arms, a few sets of clothes some junk in a box and her computer there.
Most of her stuff was was still with her parents and it wasn’t uncommon for her to sleep in her old room anyway. Despite how much the staff at the asylum disliked it, especially when she didn’t inform them until she got back, usually late the next day. There was one issue with the move however. Due to a crappy flash drive, the one that she just HAPPENED to have lent to Bon-bon not five days before, she’d lost most of her game saves from the last few months. And that, is why she introduced Bon-bon to mao. Luckily it wouldn’t be an issue now seems she was back home with her two beloved children: 360 and ONE. Instead of that adopted mutant child called PC #ConsoleMasterRace.
Once Bon-bon finished her physical therapy session she instead took that time after school most days to visit Lyra which became a lot easier once Lyra had moved back home. She still saw a physiotherapist once a week to help with her condition and one of the smaller more passive exercises they’d recommended was this. Playing cards. Passively holding thin objects lightly while individually selecting certain ones all the while thinking about the game rather than the holding.
Along with videos games and board games that until meeting Lyra she’d thought were only for kids and nerds and boys. Mostly because the only vidja gaemz she’d played up until then were what Lyra had called ‘Games for Filthy Casuals’ and the only board games she’d played were snakes and ladders, chess, and monopony. Also she was recommended legos but that was definitely only for kids… she’ll learn one day.
Once more, Lyra made it down to one card “Uno.” she stated defiantly. Bon-bon played her card. “Oh my god!” she reacted to the Draw Four Wild. “You’re not even trying to win are you? You’re just trying to keep me from winning!”
“You finally realised?” Bon-bon chuckled back. Lyra just slumped back into her chair and plopped her hands down onto the table. Rather than a ‘thoomp’ though, it strangely made a more of ‘doong...’ sound. “What was that? Bon-bon reacted to the unexpected noise. She placed her cards face down on the table, made a fist with her hand and knocked gently twice then a bit harder than she’d intended the third time.
Each hit made a similar echoy-reverberatey sound that continued for about a second after the strike. Lyra did the same, giving the table a single tap before she remembered. They weren’t sitting at a table. Not an actual table at least. She lifted up the cloth covering it and saw the deep black dulled sheen that looked like it hadn’t been clean in some time. “Oh yeah… I forgot about this.” she answered.
“Forgot what? What is it?” Bon-bon asked as she stood up and grabbed her cards, the discards and the main deck and shuffled them all back together. Lyra’s cards were still stuck in her claw.
“It’s a p… did you just , who said we were done? I was so close to winning!” Lyra exclaimed and pointing both her hands out jerry springer style.
“No you weren’t.” Bon-bon returned, in a factual tone that had just a hint of superiority to it. Bon-bon reached out and took the cards out of Lyra’s claw before adding them to the deck and placing them on her seat. “So what is it?” she asked as she daintily lift the cover to just see a black surface.
Without warning Lyra stood and flung the sheet off of the table. “It’s a piano.” she said flatly.
“Oh wow!” Bon-bon squealed. It seemed like an overreaction to Lyra but then again, she’d grown up with one. And she remembered her geek-out when she first saw a harp being played. “Can I play it?” she asked with a giant smile on her face.
“Uh… sure. I don’t see why not.” Lyra answered. As much as she wanted to say no and get away from this thing, just as much of her wanted to play it once more. Three years… it had been so long. She didn’t even know if she’d remember how. “Why are you so excited over a piano?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked as she circled around it looking for the keys. Eventually, halfway through the third lap she noticed the were underneath a little cover to protect them. Lifting it up, she found the black and whites to be absolutely covered in dust. “So much for that cover…” she said out loud to no one in particular. The cloth on top of it had kept that part of it clean but the sides and any untouched area had a film layer over it.
Running a finger along the side of the instrument and leaving a nice clean black line in its wake Lyra too said to no one in particular “Pfft, no wonder I haven’t played this junker in so long…” as she lifted her finger and looked at the collection of muck it had gather before wiping it off back into the piano.
“You can play?” Bon-bon asked. Immediately after her eyes drifted towards Lyra’s left arm, something she rarely did out of respect. She caught herself and looked back up at Lyra’s face but she’d been noticed before she noticed herself. “Oh…”
“Yeah…” Lyra replied, making a conscious effort not to fidget her stub. Lyra tried to keep cool and actually managed to do a good job at it. Surprisingly, this was easier than she’d thought it would be. “Hey, don’t let me stop you though. Have at it.” she told her friend with what she’d thought would be forced positivity, yet it seemed to come naturally.
For Bon-bon, half of her wanted to walk away from the piano. The other half however had never seen one in person before and dreadfully wanted to play it. She looked up to Lyra and recieved a look that only said ‘Well what are you waiting for?’. It pushed any and all conflict she had aside and with the skill of a baby elephant dancing she began to play. As Bon-bon hit a few keys Lyra’s ear picked up something odd about them. Then when Bon-bon hit one particular key she spoke up “Wow, that is WAY out of tune.”
“It is?”
“Yeah, it is.” Lyra answered as she walked around the side of it, looking for the latch. She found the small notch on the side and pulled it out and open. From there Lyra used the palm of her hand to lift the top of the piano open like a car hood and inspect the engine. A bed of fine strings stretched around a red velvet-lined bottom with what looked like kick drumstick on the end with the key as the string ran across it to the other end where they were each tied off to small blocks separated from each other to avoid cross veberation.
“How does the inside get this dusty with the lid closed and the sheet over the top of it?” Bon-bon asked as she reach in and slid her finger across the velvet. She’d been aiming for a string but the result was the same.
“It’s not dust, the strings are rusted…” Lyra muttered as she looked on horrified at what she had let happen to this wondrous instrument. “This needs a-” she was cut off as she tried to reach inside while still holding the lid open. Again, much like a car, there was a stick that could be pulled out that held up the lid but after a few half attempts to rest the lid on her shoulder as she reached for it, Lyra realised she wouldn’t be able too.
“Here.” Bon-bon said as she stepped in beside Lyra and put both hand under the lid to hold it up. She may not be very precise with her movement but her strength had stayed about the same. And this thing was pretty easy to hold up anyway. Lyra nodded in appreciation and reached down, putting the lid stand up to hold it open.
“Mmrrr….” Lyra groaned. “I don’t even know if we still have a some polita, and how much work it would be to clean, and if the base strings are rusted we’ll have to completely re-string those. You sure you wanna play? Might take a few hours to fix this girl up is all.” Lyra said as she continued to look inside at the strings, reaching in and running a finger along a few and flicking a few making tanging sound more akin to a guitar.
“Well, I guess we can go back to playing uno.”
“I’ll go get the polish.” Lyra said immediately. After a second she’d began to wonder if Bon-bon had just used reverse psychology on her… nah! Bon-bon was too sweet and nice to do that. She returned a few minutes later with a feather duster, a bronze metal file, a flat head screw driver and a spool of wire.
Lyra hadn’t lied, it was a long process. First, Bon-bon went over the whole of the piano with the feather duster while Lyra went about running the file along the wires. It wasn’t so much a file as a block of metal that she ran the corner of along all sides of the entire length of each string… at first. While she probably should’ve done that with all of the main body strings, Lyra just ended up getting lazy about an hour in and only stripping off the bits that had visible tarnishing on them. That and the polita had slid out of the grib once and that was not fun...
The lower register strings however couldn’t be treated this way and just had to be let to build up rust. If they were faulty they had to be entirely replaced. That’s where the screw driver came in. It was difficult with one hand, in fact all of this was, but this in particular. She needed to hold the string in tension while she undid the block holding it in place. If she didn’t the block would go flying once she unscrewed it.
Bon-bon held the blocks with two fingers over the top with Lyra undoing the screw between them. The imagery of that action spoke for itself and when Bon-bon finally figured out why Lyra was suppressing her laughter a block went flying out the front of the piano and hung by it’s string over the front. As it dangled there Lyra made a limp joke. And a joke about it making a deep sound. And how it was one of the thicker strings.
About four dick jokes later the piano was restrung. Luckily a good number of the base strings were fine and didn’t need replacing. Unfortunately about five of the normal main strings were too far gone and had to be changed as well. Tuning wasn’t exactly hard since it had more to do with the length of the string rather than the tightness. And as Lyra told that to Bon-bon she replied with “So… it’s the size that matters.” she said with a smirk.
“Did you just…?” Lyra said in mild shock to which she received a nervous nod in return from her friend. “I’m so proud of you!” she replied in an emotional squeak as she wiped a single tear from her eye. It had taken them just under two hours to fix the piano. Or at least repair it enough to play properly. If fully refurbished the piano would take at least three times as long as all this had, or longer. It had seemed so much easier back in the day.
At least Lyra remembered it being easier and there were three reasons for that. 1: She used to enjoy doing it. Making sure her most prized possession was in tip top shape was one of her favourite pastimes, right behind actually playing it. 2: she had never let it fall into such a state of disrepair and thus never had so much to do. 3: she had two arms back then. Probably the biggest difference. Still, it didn’t make a difference. It was hard yes, but she’d enjoyed herself. She hadn’t touched a piano in years and while that was more thought of the playing of aspect, she’d completely forgotten there was more to it than just that.
But on the other hand… “Oh Helix damn it!” Lyra blurted out suddenly.
“What is it?” Bon-bon asked, worried that Lyra had found something else wrong with the piano and it would be even longer before she’d be able to play it. Not that she minded too much. She too was having a good time working with Lyra to fix this thing up too.
“We have a keyboard in the cupboard… I could’ve just gotten that and saved us like two hours of work.” she answered, facepalming. She got a quizzical look from Bon-bon for moment before she realised that Lyra didn’t mean a typing keyboard but an electric piano. “And to think I was gonna continue fixing that junker up…” she muttered.
“Oh come on, it’s not that bad. I had fun doing it. And besides, we’re done now so we might as well use the thing.” Bon-bon said reaffirming as she sat down in front of the keys.
Lyra put her shoulder under the piano’s open lid and detached the holding arm before jostling around somewhat to put the palm of her hand under the lid and lower it closed. “Yeah you right. Well, have at it!” she finished, walking over to stand beside Bon-bon. “Know any songs?”
Author's Note
I had to google piano maintenance to make this accurate.
Metal Lyra Solid V: The Phantom Limb
“Um… I think I remember one.” she answered as she hit a few keys, finding the tune and trying to remember.
“Really?” Lyra asked in return, having only been joking about the girl that had never even seen a piano before knowing any songs. And as it turns out, Bon-bon wasn’t lying either. Though Lyra wished she had been…
“Hot… cross… buns. Hot… cross… buns. One-a-penny. Two-a-pen-ney, hot… cross. buns…” Bon-bon said with glee as she finished her song. It wasn’t exactly in key but it certainly was… ‘a song’ she knew. Honestly, if you don’t know that song then simply put you went to a horrible school. [this may or may not be the case outside of Australia]
“Well that was certainly… ‘a song’.” she said aloud and had an odd sense of dé jàvu. She got a look from Bon-bon in turn that somehow both conveyed pride and annoyance in that she had performed a song but been mildly mocked for it. “Here.” Lyra said as she reach down and hit three keys. “Those are the ones you want.” showing her the correct keys so that it was only half as horrible.
Bon-bon taking that as encouragement turned back to the piano and placed her hands onto the keys once more, using one finger from each hand to hit the keys. But instead of repeating the same song, she surprised Lyra with “Wild thing! *dung dung, ding ding, dung dung* you make my heart sing! *ding ding, dung dung* you make everything! groovy…” she sang and played. Lyra began to notice a pattern here: three-note songs. That being said it was still pretty good. Of course the keys for this one were off as well but it was still leagues above hot cross buns.
“Not bad.” Lyra applauded. “That was leagues above the last song… wow, I keep getting dé jàvu today…” she said as she looked up towards nothing in particular. “Anyway. Not bad at all. But let me show you something.” she said as she reached down and put her hand onto the keys and with one hand and three separate fingers played hot cross buns. But thankfully didn’t sing along with it. “Try doing it with just one han….d...” she trailed off.
Without realising it, she’d just played a piano for the first time in three years. For the first time since… her thought was cut off by a loud smashing of keys as Bon-bon tried to play the simple three tone song with a single hand. She had playn the last two songs quite slowly but Lyra hadn’t taken note of it due to the songs she’d been playing having a rather slow beat as it was. Despite her fluid larger motions of arms and legs, the finer actions of individual fingers were still out of Bon-bon’s reach. Pun intended.
Trying to push more than two keys with more than her single index finger pointed out had just ended with her placing three fingers down onto key keys followed by her sliding them across and mashing a few more. “Uh… I think I’ll just stick to using both hands.” Bon-bon said as she put both index fingers out again and once more in the slightly wrong tones began to play the third and final song she knew: the main chorus to Smoke on the Water.
As Bon-bon played, Lyra’s eyes drifted down to her left arm. He prosthetic hook had been taken off ages ago while fixing the the strings, only getting in the way of things. Her bare stump twitched slightly as she flexed her upper arm’s muscle unintentionally. She felt it still, every now and then. And now was one of those times… obviously. Memories of her last performance came to mind. The song she’d spent hours upon days upon weeks upon months perfecting…
“How was that?” Bon-bon asked as she turned around. She only caught a glimpse of it for less than a second but she saw the look on Lyra’s face and the clear fact that she was looking down at her own missing arm.
“Huh? Oh, pretty good.” she covered. She had done that thing where she hadn’t really been listening and didn’t hear what Bon-bon had been playing but after remembering that she was meant to have been, her brain auto-replayed what she’d heard to itself in a fraction of a second. It was actually pretty… adequate. She knew Bon-bon was smart but music was it’s own beast. Some people had a knack for it, some people didn’t, and she wondered if Bon-bon would have good enough memory to do what Lyra was about to ask of her. “You ever played Simon?”
“Um… like Simon Says?” Nob-nob deplier
“Like the memory game. You know, the button flashes and you have to remember what order to hit them in and you see how far you can get.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s an easier way to go about asking if I wanna learn how to play the piano.” Bon-bon chuckled back.
“Learn to play and memorise a song are two different things here.” Lyra said somewhat defensively. “And it’s only half a song. Sorta like… I’ll show you.” and with that Lyra walked around to the other side of Bon-bon where she’d been standing to the right of her before, now she was standing on her left. “It’s about twenty notes each with two keys each. Think you can handle it?”
“I think so.”
“Right, here’s what you do.” Lyra leant down and without the hesitation she’d expected to have at putting her hands back on the keys, hit the first two notes. It was two of the ebony keys about four keys apart from each other in quick concession, then there was a pause before hitting two more black keys slightly to the left of the first two twice in concession like the first two but without a pause before hitting the two next to them once and then hitting two ivory keys once then two more black keys just beside them twice. “Got it?”
“Uh… can you show me again?’
“Sure.” Lyra said and showed her once more what she wanted. Lyra then removed her hand and let Bon-bon have at it. She nailed it first try, though slowly and with two hands of course. She celebrated for a moment before Lyra told her there was a part two. And a parts three through five that didn’t have a break between them. It took many attempts on both of their parts. Bon-bon would usually get what she had been shown the first time or second time but when asked to string the parts together and at the correct pace she would mess up at some point.
Over the course of an hour she eventually got it, though Lyra would wager that even if she got it perfect, which she wouldn’t seems what she was teaching her friend was a dumbed down version to begin with, she suspected that Bon-bon wouldn't remember it tomorrow anyway. There were a few instances of ‘Can we try a different song?’ which was only answered with ‘Don't worry.’ and ‘Trust me, you’ll like it.’ which she did.
Since they began just over an hour passed and by that point Bon-bon had it down pat. Yep, one hour to learn ten seconds of song. Time well spent. “Got it?” Lyra asked as she stepped back, having just given her last piece of tutorial. Bon-bon nodded and turned back to the keys.Using her two index fingers she began. And nailed it! “Awesome!” Lyra announced. She didn’t expect this… she felt great. All these years of avoiding the piano, all the fear and painful memories. They were all still present, she wasn’t going to kid herself about that. But all the good ones, all the joy and excitement it had once brought to her, that was there too.
Bon-bon, smiling back at her friend who had for the first time let her play solo, having stood back instead of being right over her shoulder, asked “So what now. What was the next step you wouldn’t tell me about.” she paused, letting her smile drop slightly and not jokingly, she seriously asked “Please tell me it’s not just the next verse.”
“Relax, it’s not. Well it sorta is. But don’t panic. The next verse is the same tune over again. A lot of songs do that actually. But anyway, I want to to play the tune three time in a row. Just leave about the same pause between the first two notes and the second lot between the end and the new start, Ok?” She said as she stepped up beside Bon-bon, hovering over her shoulder once more, but this time to her right side. She pulled over a seat and sat beside her friend who without having to be asked, moved over slightly to let her down. “Well…? Start.”
And with that, Bon-bon began to play once more. This time though, this is where Lyra flinched. She had planned on doing this ever since Bon-bon had managed to copy her showing her the first few notes. Now however, she had her doubts. She knew she could, it wasn’t something she'd forget how to do. Like riding a bike… also something she hadn’t done in the last three years. But in fairness she hadn’t done that in the last five maybe six years… point is, she was sure she'd still know how to do it. She had to!
As Bon-bon finished the first play through of the tune, Lyra watched and the second Bon-bon began the turn anew for the second iteration she began to play along side. What she'd taught Bon-bon was what she'd used to play with her left hand. Her right hand began to dance across the keys, hitting nearly twice as many as Bon-bon was with her thumb, index, middle, ring and pinkie fingers all acting as if seemingly on their own accord. Despite all the time that had passed, she was still perfect and never missed a millisecond of timing as she worked the keys to make these beautiful, beautiful sounds she’d missed for so long.
She was playing just like she had been all that time ago. In her mind she was once again in front of thousands of adoring fans, there for the simple act of watching her work her magic across the ebony and ivory. Her hands, once again dancing across the keys as the song went on, seemingly without her even thinking about it, simply knowing what to do on pure instinct alone.
Her hands suddenly jarred as she made a mistake, she hadn’t changed to the next pa… she hadn't been the one playing it. Her right hand had gone on to the next verse of the song and although her left hand had also changed to play the next verse of the song, Bon-bon hadn’t. Instead she had just repeated the same verse over again for a fourth time. But… Lyra had felt it. She felt herself playing. She’d felt each of her individual fingers on her left hand pressing the keys down and getting a response from the piano in turn… she’d felt… everything! Yet hadn’t.
Her right hand hit a wrong note and quickly pulled away as the shock set. Bon-bon played for about a second more before she too stopped. She had played longer than she had been told to and only assumed that the mistake Lyra had made was actually part of the song. She had no idea what was wrong as she turned, smiling and said “Wow! You were right! You were SOOO right! That was amazing and totally worth it!”
Lyra however didn’t respond and had stood up halfway through her saying it. Her back turned to Bon-bon, not wanting to acknowledge what had just happened to her and the dead look on her face from ever being seen. It was only a couple of seconds but she had no sense of time during it and only snapped back to reality as she heard her name being called. Once again, though she hadn’t been listening, everything that had been said got processed in her head.
“H-hey, uh, let me go get something. You keep on keepin’ on, kay?” she said as she began to walk off. She was pretty sure she had sounded alright and that Bon-bon was none the wiser. It wasn’t that she was trying to hide what had happened to her for Bon-bon’s sake but rather that although she didn’t consciously know it she blamed Bon-bon for doing that to her. She’d later realise that and brush it off for what it really was, her own imagination still feeling what wasn’t real, but until then she just wanted to be away from her friend.
She returned about five minutes later with an iFruit and put it down in the spot meant to hold sheet music. “This thing used to help me out.” she said coldly, lacking her usual exuberance. She walked away again before Bon-bon could ask what it was. Instead Bon-bon just hit the big play button on the screen and watched as it began to scroll.
It was called a synph. And it reminded her of a game she’d seen a few years ago called Guitar Hero, where the notes would scroll down and then you hit them as they came. Only this had about fifty buttons and had about four or five notes coming all at the same times. She watched it through once in it’s entirety just in awe at all that went into playing a song like this. She watched it again in full before she decided that Lyra had given this to her for a reason. She watched the opening chorus part and quickly realised what she had been playing. Or at least half of it. Though what she’d been taught was slightly different to what was on screen the result was very similar, there were obvious imperfection compared to this robot playing it.
She had to have replayed the opening nearly a hundred times and had done pretty well with it if she did say so herself. She’d made attempts at the second verse with moderate success. She’d also played the song through a few times trying to play along with it. To much less success. Regardless of how well she played, she was having an absolute blast! The only thing stopping her from continuing was the fact the the tips of her fingers were starting to hurt. She’d have to learn to not hit the keys so hard so that she could go for longer without having to take a break that would ultimately lead to her stopping all together.
She looked and… “Holy guacamole! Two and a half hours?!” the last time she’d looked at her watch/phone was just before Lyra had started teaching her. It had only felt like thirty minutes, forty-five at the max and yet some how nearly four times that had passed. And though she’d though it only about twenty minutes, she hadn’t seen Lyra for over an hour now she assumed.
She walked away from the piano and it slowly faded out. She still had no idea where Lyra was though. Then the obvious idea of looking in her room came to mind. She walked back the way she’d came from, passing the piano as she did, beginning to hear the song again. She walked over to it and checked the tablet to see if it was playing it still somehow. It didn’t have anything running on it as she inspected it and even lifted it to her ear to be sure. Nothing. Yet there was definitely music coming from somewhere.
Putting the pad back down on top of the piano, the almost too obvious answer came to her as she walked closer to Lyras room only for the music to grow louder. She mentally said ‘Duh...’ to herself and palmed her forehead as she approached her friend's room door. She knocked on it twice, both because it was polite to knock, and because she wasn’t 100% sure that this was Lyra’s room. Could’ve been her parent’s or even for brother’s for all Bon-bon knew.
The music stopped a second later but no other noise came from the room. Bon-bon stood there waiting for the door to open but after ten seconds or so just got a “Come in!”called out from inside. she grabbed the knob and turned, pushing the door inwards to see Lyra sitting in her computer chair facing her in just a bra. Well, also the same pants as before too, it was just of note seems it wasn’t what she’d been wearing before. Most likely the one she’d been wearing under her top before.
“Hey Lyra.” Bon-bon said awkwardly. She had the sharp impression that she had interrupted Lyra masterbating. “It’s getting late, I’m going to have to leave soon.” she added, feigning a smile. It wasn’t entirely disingenuous but it certainly wasn’t what her genuine expression right now would be.
“Oh, well… that’s too bad I guess.” Lyra half muttered, clearly as embarrassed as Bon-bon was. “But hey, feel free ta go back to playing the piano if you want. Don’t let me stop you or anything.” she said, much more enthusiastically and like her usual self but still clearly trying to get her to leave the room.
It wasn’t in Bon-bon’s nature to do this but Lyra had really been rubbing off on her in the last few weeks. Which given the current situation should probably be dramatically rephrased. That didn’t stop Bon-bon however from instead of leaving, asking “No, that’s alright, I’ve been playing it for hours. My hand’s started to cramp. How about yours?” she said with a smirk.
“Uh yeah… sometimes. After I played for a while.” she said looking away.
“So what have you been doing for the last however long?”
“You know. Just watching some videos on viewtube.”
“Mind if I watch them?” it would be awkward but hilarious. But still a very fine line between the two if this went south. Which, like everything else said in the last few seconds had a double meaning too. Before Lyra could reply Bon-bon had stepped up to the computer and grabbed the mouse. She opened internet exploder but Lyra stopped her there.
“Here, let me.” she said reaching for the mouse. Bon-bon however just shifted herself in a way that blocked Lyra’s right side from being able to grab the mouse away from her. Bon-bon, with more accuracy than she usually mustered, went to recently closed pages and clicked reopen last session. She only missed the buttons twice and nearly closed the tab once.
“Let’s see what you were looking at shall we?” she said evilly. It wasn’t porn. Not what Bon-bon had expected. Instead the tab began to load a video on viewtube, just like Lyra had said. Discord Piano Cover performed by Lyra Heartstrings. There was a moment of buffering as the little dots spun on the screen before it began to play, already fully loaded from previous views.
Bon-bon stood there, slightly confused at first, but that quickly passed as she instead just began to marvel at what she was seeing. It was obvious to her that Lyra was good at playing the piano from her short display earlier but this… this was incredible. That her hands shot across the keys and she even leant into each movement slightly emphasizing the notes with her body language and clearly showing that she enjoyed playing just as much as Bon-bon enjoyed watching. And as the song finished and the beautiful piano sounds changed to thunderous applause, so did hundreds of other people watching enjoy it too.
As the video ended, related videos popped up on the screen. All of them named ‘some such song Piano Cover by Lyra Heartstrings’ which Bon-bon only just now figured was her friend’s last name. She went to click the first recommended video but instead clicked the second as the movement of her click pushed the mouse to the right slightly. It was still one of Lyra’s covers though. She turned back to Lyra, all smiles to see… to see her crying as she made eye contact with her friend.
“Lyra?...” Bon-bon asked as the second song began to play. She only then realised nothing of what she'd thought was going on had actually happened. Her tone of voice hadn’t been embarrassment like she'd thought, but sadness. Her eyes drifted down to her friend’s missing arm for a moment but was quickly pulled back as a loud sob escaped the girl.
“Damn it!” Lyra said softly as she turned around in her chair, stood up and then fell face first into her bed. She grabbed a pillow and pulled it into her face, squeezing it tightly with both hands. The act of what she had just done only made her cry even harder into it. A few moments passed before she lifted her head from the pillow and turned back towards Bon-bon. She was standing beside the bed now, one hand to her mouth and the other folded across her stomach in a worried manner.
Lyra simply just turned her face back into the pillow. Bon-bon was hesitant to do so, not sure if she’d only make things worse, especially after what’d borderline made fun of her friend a few minutes ago mistakenly but she reached down and put a hand on Lyra’s shoulder. She kept it there for a moment, still not entirely sure what to do before she, while still keeping her hand on Lyra’s shoulder, spun around and sat down on the bed beside her friend.
“Is… is there anything I…?” she half asked.
“Just… leave me alone.” Lyra responded, her words muffled from not having lifted her head from the pillow to say it. While Bon-bon was inclined to do so and very much wanted to, she couldn’t do that. She’d seen enough TV shows and movies with situations like this to know that she had to stay. She didn’t know what she was going to say or do, but she still had to stay all the same.
She remained silent as she sat there, letting Lyra cry. Every so often she’d pat her shoulder while keeping palm stationary. Something she’d never really realised was just how hot another human’s body was as her hand heated up. After about twenty minutes she removed it and placed it down on the bed beside the girl’s arm. That was when Lyra did anything other than have her head buried into a pillow. She turned to barely face Bon-bon and said “Are you leaving now?”
“I’m… No, I’m not leaving.” she replied, still not entirely sure what to do. Lyra just turned her head back and buried herself once more into the cushion. Bon-bon wasn’t sure but she swore she heard her mutter ‘Good.’ or ‘Thanks.’ Of course since those two words sounded nothing alike and yet she thought she’d heard one of them, she could’ve just imagined it entirely.
“I mean it…” Lyra muttered, though loudly enough to be heard clearly through her pillow before she removed her hand from under it and found Bon-bon’s. She took old of her gently at first, but began to squeeze once Bon-bon accepted the hold. She’d definitely said one of those words.
“Don’t mention it…” Bon-bon said happily, repeating what Lyra had said to her the first time she’d helped her out. Lyra had been pseudo-sarcastic in saying it then but Bon-bon didn’t know or care about that. They were words that meant alot to her regardless of the true meaning.
Lyra had stopped crying, at least outwardly. There were no sobs or gasps and she’d turned her head slightly to the side, letting her breath easier. She stayed like that, lying on her belly, looking out the side at nothing in particular for what had to have been nearly an hour. But unlike before on her shoulder, Bon-bon didn’t release her hand from Lyra’s own. And neither did Lyra.
It was well past the time she was meant to have called her mother to come pick her up and Bon-bon could only assume her phone was dead if her mother hadn’t rung her up in turn yet. “Why won’t you just go away?” Lyra asked without moving in the slightest.
It came as a shock to Bon-bon. Both because of its suddenness and the fact that Lyra had been the one to grab her hand. “Well, because… I, don’t think you really want me to. Do you?”
There was a long pause. Long enough that Bon-bon was just about to ask another question before Lyra finally answered “I guess you can stay… I guess.” but with more movement than she had before, be it only slight. She turned her head a bit to attempt to make eye contact with her friend, but still not quite enough to properly do so.
Bon-bon wasn’t sure it was the best idea but honestly, she’d been here for at least an hour now and despite how much she cared and how worried she was, she was getting a little tired of it. “Come on…” she said softly yet forcefully as she pulled on Lyra’s hand and lifted her out of her pillow. “Stop being so quiet and talk. Didn’t you tell me once you like to cry? It gets it all out right? Well, so does talking about it. You’ve had plenty of your way about by now. What do you say you give my way a try? So, what’s wrong?”
Lifted up slightly and turned further on her side, she faced away from Bon-bon at first and once again left a very long pause in the conversation. She sighed and resigned herself to it as she rolled fully onto her back and then pulled herself into a sitting position. “You really can’t guess?” she replied hostilely and waved her stub about.
She reached under her and grabbed the pillow from beneath herself, flipping it over her head and onto her back as she scootched up against the wall to lean against it. Bon-bon, shifted herself too so that she was more facing her friend now. “Yeah… I guess I can.” she said, looking away for a brief second before flicking her eyes back to Lyra’s. “It’s just… a little scary to see you like this.”
“Pfft…” Lyra retorted, if you could call it that, disregarding her friend’s emotions. No seriously, screw her! “You’re scared? About what? Little bit of reality? What?” she asked callously.
“It’s just… you’re normally so happy.”
“Hah!” Lyra laughed. “Coming from little miss Bubbles?”
“Well, yeah.” Bon-bon replied. Both not exactly understanding the insult and thinking it actually sounded more like a compliment. “You’re usually the happiest person I know. And so… well it’s scary to think that someone like you could actually… be sad ever.” she said with genuine fear in her words.
And with those words, Lyra’s anger disappeared entirely. “You… think I’M happy?” to which she received a nod yes in response. It blew her mind. Bon-bon: the poster child for well adjusted, carefree smiles, sunshine and rainbows thought she, LYRA one-arm life-long-dream-lost Heartstrings was happy. “You’re happy! I’m not! How am I happier than you? When are you not?”
“Well… sometimes. Not now, but I guess you guessed that much. But… normally, you’re always so much happier than I am. You’re always laughing… even if it’s at my expense sometimes. But you laugh at yourself too. I can’t do that. I… I… I just feel awful when something that you’d laugh about if it happens to you happens to me. And… but when you laugh at me…”
“I’m sorry, I didn’-” she began but Bon-bon didn’t stop.
“...it’s alright. Because, you laughing, it makes me happy to hear it. Because… you’re always just so much happier than I am ever am.” she said, beginning to lose her own words as she too began to tear up.
“I can’t believe it… you, you really think I’m happier than you. It’s like… wow! I, hate, everything… everything! I hate that I can’t balance properly anymore, I hate that I can’t go anywhere without getting stared at I hate that I ca-”
“Do you hate me?” Bon-bon asked. She hadn’t been hurt by Lyra’s word but from what Lyra heard, she thought she had been.
“No… no I don’t hate you.” she said as she leant forwards and reached for Bon-bon’s hand once more. Then with her stubbed arm, moved the upper half of it in Bon-bon’s direction. “I hate… I hate that I can… I still… I sti....” she scrunched her face and tears began to fall once more.
“It’s alright…” Bon-bon said gently. “I can’t balance properly either…” she said, trying to laugh at herself like Lyra would. She pulled Lyra into a hug and let her cry into the side of her head and in turn dropped a few tears onto Lyra as well.
“I can feel it.”
“I can feel it too…” Bon-bon said happily, completely misunderstanding.
“No… no my arm…” she returned as she pulled away from Bon-bon. “I can still feel it! Right now, I can feel it holding your hand. Like, having my fingers interlocked with yours. And I could feel myself grabbing the pillow. Too tight, that pressure you get trying to pull a pillow that’s stuck under you, pushing on the tips of my fingers. And the piano… I, I could feel it! Every single key as I watched the videos. And when I played… I hadn’t played in years and I couldn’t remember why and now I do and it’s horrible! I can feel everything! But I can’t! It’s not real but I can feel it! I did everything I used to and it happened and then you didn’t and I didn’t and everything hit me, just everything and I wasn’t playing and I was and I wasn’t and I just can’t take this and I don’t want to and I can’t and I just can’t do this and I wasn’t doing it and I don’t… don...”
Her words grew incomprehensible as she just fell apart, so distraught she couldn’t even speak properly anymore. Bon-bon put the tips of her fingers pointed upward gently over Lyra’s mouth. Tears instantly began to pour over the top of her hand but she still kept it there for a few seconds before she was sure Lyra had stopped. She removed it and slowly pulled the once more heavily crying girl into her arms, hugging her tightly. She understood now what’s she’d done to her friend and just wanted to make things right.
She wasn’t sure there was a way to though. Not right now at least. She stayed there, sitting on the bed, shifted to up against the wall like Lyra was, holding onto her as she cried her eyes out. Easily another hour passed before her crying ceased. But it wasn’t because she’d stopped, Lyra had just fallen asleep in her arms.
Once again, Bon-bon wasn’t entirely sure what to do in a situation like this, opting to try and just let Lyra sleep. She gently removed her arm from over her friend when Lyra’s arm came up and grabbed hers. Without opening her eyes Lyra muttered “Don’t go…” and leant her head up against Bon-bon’s. Whether she was awake or still half asleep didn’t matter to Bon-bon.
She just lay her head against Lyra’s.
Author's Note
I regret the title but I was running out of puns...
View Online
Boom Bon-Bon Boom! I Want You In My Room. We'll Spend The Night Together. Together In My Room!
She awoke sometime later. Possibly early night, possibly early morning. Attached to her was a very warm Bon-bon with her arms wrapped around her. “Well this is awkward…” Lyra said aloud in a just-having-woken-up broken voice.
“No…” Bon-bon muttered, eyes closed and still leaning against her friend’s head. “THIS is awkward.” and she began to lift her arm, making a ‘ffffssssslllerrrrllllpppp’ sound as the skin against skin plus hours of sweat and tears peeled off of Lyra’s chest accompanied by a feeling akin to getting off of a hot leather couch after sitting on it without a shirt on.
“Let us never speak of this again.”
Author's Note
Based on a true story.
When the story title is longer than the chapter.
No more Lyra pun song titles! Happy now!?!?!?
I've Run Out Lyra Related of Puns...
It had been a couple of months now since that night the two of them had slept with each other. No homo. And for the most part, things had been fine. Aside from Bon-bon getting a little scared on an amusement park ride a few weeks ago there hadn’t been any ‘relapses’ as Lyra’s therapist called them from either of them. But of course since this is where the story picks up again that’s clearly about to change.
Not a lot had changed really, at least Lyra didn’t think so. Her psychiatrist on the other hand thought a lot had. For starters she had played the piano for the first time in three years. Something to which Lyra had responded with ‘Yeah, and see where it ended up?’ which, while true, didn’t stop her from continuing to fix up the piano after seeing the horrible condition it had gotten into.
Only doing so much every couple of days didn’t seem like much to her either but regardless of how much or how little it was, over the course of three months it had been restored to its former glory. She’d also found her electric keyboard in that time but thanks to her repairing the piano it had disappeared, likely taken by her brother for parts seems the main one now worked perfectly.
It was the beginning of summer and to put it simple, it was too damn hot! Lyra had always hated summer and this one had been particularly bad. Walk outside for five minutes and you’d have to change clothes just from sweating so much. It wasn’t exactly common for her, but from time to time, even before the accident, Lyra would wake up in the morning, reach up, turn the air on and stay in bed the entire day.
The first day it had been completely fine. She did feel a little guilty knowing everyone else was outside on a day like this while she was sleeping in her bed, enjoying herself while she was in a 36 degree [103 fahrenheit] hell. She pushed it aside though with the feeling of snuggly wrapping herself in a thin sheet at just the right temperature all day long. It wasn’t until the second day she stayed in bed that she could no longer push it aside. It was more than just that minor bit of guilt and in truth she’d known so the day before too. She’d just hoped it wasn’t this again.
It was nearly the end of the third day now and her parents hadn’t even noticed it yet. They just assumed that she thought it was too damn hot. Of course her complaining about letting the cool air out anytime someone opened her door probably didn’t help. But really, nothing would. She knew from experience and some psycho-babble from her shrink that once her depression had set in, even if what set her off in the first place was resolved, it wouldn’t necessarily end these feelings.
What’s worse is what had caused it all to begin with. It had been small things in the past before, such as forgetting her own birthday or big things like going to clap and smashing her prosthetic into three pieces. While rationally, this time seems mundane and stupid, it was actually one of the bigger ones she’d ever had. She’d finally finished the Tell Tail’s The Gryphon Among Us and had absolutely loved it. Relating it to some meme pic she’d seen on the interweb, it seemed to sum up her current state quite well.
The story had been so good, the characters had been so real. She had to have more. And soon enough she found a new game to fill the void. Though all the good it had done. If anything it had only made things worse. The problem with games like that is if something happens to a character you like, it almost feels like it’s your fault for letting it happen. And when you personally relate to what happens, it only makes it all the harder to accept the ending.
Her door opened “Uhhh… you’re letting the cold air out…” she groaned as she rolled over, facing away from the light now coming into her room and pulling a handful of sheet into her chest. Her brother wouldn’t be home by now so it had to be one of her parents. They’d have to have noticed by now. On the other hand, it was Friday though which meant “What’s up Bon-bon?” she asked without facing her friend.
“Not much.” she replied as she walked over to where Lyra was laying. “It is SOOO nice in here!” she announced. Today wasn’t a particularly hot day but it was still a refreshing change. She heavily sat down on the bed beside Lyra. “What’s up with you?”
“Even less.” she replied, still mostly ignoring Bon-bon.
A couple of seconds passed before Bon-bon realised she wasn’t going to get more out of Lyra. “You ganna get up?” she asked, waited a few more seconds for no response then followed it up with “Am I going to have to crawl into bed with you again?”
“I thought we agreed to never speak of that again.”
“We did… but if we were role reversed don’t tell me you won’t be bringing it up anyway.”
She waited again to get no response and after a few seconds “Fair point.” Lyra answered back. She rolled over to face Bon-bon who although she’d dropped down initially with her back practically touching Lyra’s back, had now scootched over to only just sitting on the bed. “I don’t feel like getting up right now alright. So, go watch something on the TV. And don’t plan on staying the night, k?”
Bon-bon didn’t respond right away. Which Lyra only assumed was Bon-bon giving her a taste of her own medicine. But as always, she spoke up eventually. “Listen, Lyra, you’re brother told me I should try my very best to get you out of bed. He made it sound really important too.”
“So he did notice…” Lyra said out loud, though hadn’t meant to.
“So… would you please get out of bed. And come do… something with me? Come watch TV. We can even watch it in japanese like you like. What do you say?”
“Fine.”
“Wait. That’s it?” Bon-bon asked as Lyra threw the sheet off of herself and began to sit up. “Your father made it sound like it would be a lot harder than that.”
“Yeah. Well. Just because I don’t want to doesn’t mean I can’t.” she answered as she nudged Bon-bon with her legs, egging her to stand up so she could swing her legs out of bed. Bon-bon moved and allowed her up, as she stood she let out a yawn and stretched. Though it had only been two days, she could already feel the lax in her legs beginning. But who knew, maybe this could pull her out of it… because the attempts her parents had made had always been so successful.
“It’s your choice, what are we going to watch? And, well, I know I said it didn’t have to be in english… but can it be?” Bon-bon said as Lyra took a few steps towards her computar/TV. It was a small screen by TV standards but a large screen by monitor standards. And it was also 4k whatever that meant but Lyra was always proud of that fact for some reason.
Though she’d gotten out of her bed, once in front of her screen, she just plopped down into her chair. “Sure… just grab something from the shelf.” she said, waving her arm towards her DVD collection. She clearly showed nothing but disinterested despite Bon-bon’s best efforts.
“Oh, come on. I know you, there’s got to be something you’ve been watching recently. So what is it?” asked Bon-bon as she came and stood behind her friend, shaking the chair gently.
“A game. Haven’t watched anything in a week or two.” Lyra replied flatly.
“Then let’s play it.”
“No.” she stated quickly before adding "I finished it.”
“Well… does it have a number 2 or 3? or is there a number 1 of it?” she asked, trying to find anything that got a spark from the girl. She’d heard Lyra say she can get ‘bored’ as she’d called it but never expected it was like this. She usually would’ve loved any of the things Bon-bon had suggested. “Well… how about a movie? Um…” she trailed off as she went over to the movies section of the collection.
“Yeah. Sure. Pick something, I’ll watch it.” she said dismissively.
She perused the shelves for a few moments before a low but loud sound stole her attention. “Was that your stomach?” Bon-bon asked, holding a few DVDs and one redray .
Lyra hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Yesterday. And while she hadn’t felt hungry laying in bed all day, standing up and falling into the chair had stirred up her guts juices. “Yeah. That pretty loud huh?” she answered back.
“Well, I’m sure there’s more, but take a look at these ones.” Bon-bon said as she practically dumped the shows and movies she’d picked out onto Lyra’s now slightly upset stomach. “I’m going to go get us a snack.” added Bon-bon as she headed towards the door. Before she left, she turned to Lyra in her seat who had at least grabbed the DVDs [and one redray] and was looking over them one by one. Knowing that her friend was at least showing some level of interest in what she’d said, Bon-bon opened the door and stepped out. Then quickly stepped back in. “Oh wow… I forgot how hot it is!”
She forced herself back outside, now not entirely against Lyra’s idea of just laying in the wondrous air conditioned room all day long over the weekend. She’d return soon enough though and for now she just wanted to get them something to eat and hurry back to Lyra’s room. She had a feeling Lyra hadn’t eaten properly today so instead of just grabbing some chips she opted to make them both a healthy[ish] sandwich. Sure, she couldn’t fit it in her mouth but… it looked delicious!
Unfortunately, Bon-bon was about half way back to Lyra’s room when she remembered that those bags of chips were Nature Box and probably better than this sandwich was. Not to mention it was a little bit too close to dinner time for something this big. Too late now though. She simply sighed and gave a little smirk. A few months ago she’d have been annoyed at herself for it, but now thanks to Lyra, she’d learnt to laugh about things like this instead. And that was all the more reason she was doing this for her.
She returned to the room and just managed to open the door, having been holding the plate with the sandwiches on it with both hands. The chill of the air con instantly hit her as she entered and she let out another sigh, but this one for different and much better reasons. Lyra was still in her seat but most of the DVDs [and one redray] were laying the floor beside her. It didn’t look like they’d been thrown or anything, how far away from her they were, it looked more like they’d fallen and she just hadn’t bother picking them back up.
Bon-bon began as she stepped in beside Lyra and was about to hand her a sandwich “So did you find something yo-”. She was quickly cut off however.
“I am not watching this movie again.” she stated angrily before she then haphazardously through a case in Bon-bon’s general direction, landing just shy of hitting the wall behind her. Bon-bon put the sandwich plate down on the computer table with a small clatter, then turned to see what Lyra had thrown over her shoulder.
“Didn’t you like Tangled?” she asked as she reached down and made a grab at the case. She then made a second grab for it. Though surprisingly the first attempt failing had nothing to her with her nerve damage this time, rather just accidently going just short of reaching it. “I thought you said you liked it. I know I liked the cartoon you recommended me.” Bon-bon said, trying to Bait her friend by calling an animu a cartoon.
Sadly it didn’t work and Lyra instead focused on the DVD bon-bon was now holding. “I didn’t.” she said as Bon-bon opened the case, careful to make sure the disc didn’t fall out if it had been dislodged from the nipple. Which it had. She put her finger through the hole and thumb on the outer edge, picking it up out of the case.
Bon-bon came back over to the computer table and placed the case on top of it and held the disc up, shiny side facing her to check for scratched. “Sounds to me like you just forgot how much you told me you loved it. I think we should watch it.” she told her friend happily.
“I don’t want to watch that horrible movie!” Lyra shouted. Though it wasn’t exactly the kind she wanted, it had at least been a show of some sort of enthusiasm from her.
“But I thought you said you liked it?” Bon-bon asked in equal parts shock and disappointment that the first thing she’d recommended Lyra to watch, something that going back and forth getting the other to watch or play or read something that the other liked had become nearly the cornerstone of their relationship, she had secretly hated.
“There’s a god damn guy in it with a hook hand playing the piano! OF COURSE I hate it!” Lyra yelled as she lunged out and smacked the disc out of her friends hand. Or at least tried to. Bon-bon’s finger was still in the centre of the disc and all she succeeded in doing was painfully bending Bon-bon’s finger backwards. Not budging more than a few painful centimeters, the disc snapped from the impact.
“AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!...” Bon-bon screamed as she flinched from the hit, pulling her arm away and stumbling backwards. She tripped and landed hard on her back, she scream ending abruptly as she did.
“Oh shi-sorry! I’m sorry Bon-bon!” Lyra said, suddenly having motivation to get out her seat and having spun around and stood up. “Are you alright?” she asked. “Hey… Bon-bon?... Bon-bon. Bon-bon!” she ended up yelling as she dropped down onto her knees beside her friend’s limp body. Bon-bon’s eyes wide open and just staring up at the ceiling. “BON-BON!!” she yelled as she grabbed her with both hands and lightly shook her.
“I’m sorry…” Bon-bon muttered.
“Oh my god… don’t… you…” she just fell onto her friend and half hugged her as best she could without being able to get her arms around the girl laying with her back on the ground.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that was in the movie. I’ve only seen in once and before I met you, that’s not exactly something I would think too much about.” Bon-bon said as she gently wrapped her arms around her friend. “This feeling is horrible. And I’m so so sorry I made you feel like this too.” she continued, softly patting her friend’s head on her chest.
Lyra stayed there for a few moments longer before she pulled herself up from ontop of her friend. “No… I’m, sorry.” Lyra replied as she got onto her knees then stood form there before offering her hand out to help Bon-bon up off of the ground too. She didn’t take it though. “Hey, Bon-bon, you’re alright, right?” she asked, getting a little worried once more. Bon-bon had lain on the ground without moving for a good while after all.
“I fell.” Bon-bon simply replied, looking at her friend above her but otherwise remaining still.
“Yeah, I know. Now, get up off the ground. I know it’s cooler down ther-”
“No… I mean. I fell. That’s how I… it’s how this happened.” she said as she moved one of her hands over herself as if indicating her entire body.
It wasn’t exactly hard for Lyra to put two and two and two together, realising what she meant by ‘this’ was her condition. She’d taken a fall. “From like a horse or something?” Lyra asked, still extending her hand.
“No. I just… fell.” she said, putting grim emphasis on her last word. “I tripped over and I couldn’t get up. All I could do… was lay there on my stomach. I couldn’t move at all. I just lay there.”
“Bon-bon…”
“Every time I fall over I get so scared. I can’t move at all and I think it’s happened again. It’s so terrifying! I, I hate it so much! And I’m so sorry I made you remember something that made you feel the same! Even if you don’t remember it like I do.”
Lyra, just looked down at her friend. She fully understood what she meant. While Bon-bon was sorry she brought back those memories for Lyra, Lyra was just as hurt that she too had brought them back for Bon-bon. Hand still extended, Bon-bon finally took it and let lyra help her back to her feet. “Actually… I do remember. I remember seeing my arm ripped to shreds!”
Author's Note
"WHY YOU MAKE BEST PONY WEEBOO?" - McStuffin.reference
Deleted scenes.
A few minutes passed as she made what could only be described as a megawich, with 100g of ham, thick mustard and tomato sauce, with spinach and lettuce, sliced tomato, cheese, more tomato and then more mustard. She then covered it in vegemite. Not like, spreading it on the inside, literally covered it by dipping it into the jar. We call that a lamington . No seriously, google it. Dafuq am I writing? Good night.
~ ~
“How about a card game?”
“Mao.”
“How about not a card game.” Bon-bon quickly revised. Though she dreaded that horrible awful game she was at least rewarded with a small ‘tss’ laugh from Lyra for it. “C’mon Lyra, what’s wrong? Why don’t you want to do anything?”
“What’s the point?” she said. And instantly felt like a cliché of teen angst. “I don’t want to be some basement dwelling otaku wannabe who does nothing but play video game, watch anime, troll forums and pretend to have enough friends to play board games with.”
It took bon-bon aback. She’d never heard Lyra self deprecate like that bef- well, she’d never heard Lyra self deprecate like that and actually mean it before. What’s worse is she wasn’t exactly wrong. The majority of time they’d spent with one another, that’s exactly what they’d done. While Bon-bon still attended school and had a few goods friends there, Lyra was home every day doing practically nothing but what she’d just said. And all of those friends of hers didn’t exactly like Lyra and her very boyish choice of hobbies.
Medium gore warning!
It was summer. Hot and horrible summer and the car had no aircon. The windows were down and the hot air blowing in was the only think cooling the car down. Lyra had done it. She had been literally jumping around after the show where she had performed in front of a thousand people before they left the amphitheatre. It was a huge event! But certainly not the last. Nevertheless, tonight her whole family was going to celebrate.
She sat behind her father on the left side of the car, her brother beside her. She had the window down and her arm resting along the gap it left with her head resting on her shoulder, letting the wind whip her hair back and forth. Staring out the window, looking off into the traffic ahead, smile plastered on her face.
And the next thing she knew, she was laying in a bed inside of a hospital. It had been more than two weeks by the time she woke, not remembering anything. Had she been able too, she would’ve screamed. Not from the pain she was in, though it was a considerable amount with both of her legs broken. But what elicited the vague noise coming from her was her left arm. Or rather, the fact that she didn’t have one.
For more than six months she was confined to a wheelchair before she could only just walk on crutches. She’d accepted it. For the most part anyway and she honestly believed she would be fine in time like all doctor’s all told her. Then it returned,
First it was a dream, a nightmare. Then it was a vague sense ever so often. But eventually, the small pieces formed a whole picture that scared her more than what she saw when she awoke. What she saw before she passed out.
As if in slow motion in her mind, letting her see every singly miniscule fleck of skin getting ripped away from her arm as the bus slammed into the side her her car. The wheel spinning at a hundred kilometres an hour right against her arm on the window. scraping and ripping faster than any blood could escape until it ground all the way to her exposed bone. no pain registered to her. possibly the only good thing about what happened. But the worst was yet to come.
Her hand. Her delicate graceful fingers began to clip the spinning rubber. First a few tiny layers of skin of her pinkie finger were whisked away before the nail was caught and ripped clean off only to be followed by the entire finger crumpling out of sight before her ring finger followed in a similar manner, only instead of going under her hand it when above and away. No more fingers followed after that. Instead her entire hand was ripped from it’s place on what remained of her arm.
The car jolted to the right from the impact, finally dislodged itself from the bus. Lyra, along with what was left of her arm were hurled towards the bus for a moment before their momentum changed with the car’s. Her head on her shoulder, her arm went about her eye line, letting her see for the first and thankfully, though it would be a stretch to call it that, only time. What she saw was the entire left side of her left arm grinding away to and past the bone which too was ripped asunder with the forepart of it entirely chipped away, leaving what was left of her hand hanging on by nearly nothing more than a few stringy and still moving tendons.
She screamed for a fraction of a second before she was shunted forwards rapidly and her memory ended. The car had crashed into a pole after swerving from the impact. Whether she had passed out from fear and shock or the impact of the crash she didn’t know, and tried to never think about it enough to find out.
What she saw that day will haunt her for eternity.
~ ~
Bon-bon was doing her best to hold herself together. There was sheer terror in Lyra’s inflection as she went into horrid detail about her arm, she felt sick just hearing it. Her own fears were one thing but hearing about, let alone actually experiencing it first hand were on a whole other level. But despite what she was saying, Lyra was even crying. It was far worse than that. Her face was expressionless as her eyes stared at Bon-bon, dead and blank.
Hugging had always worked in the past, so naturally Bon-bon tried it again. It didn’t change Lyra’s expression though, she simply accepted it without returning any of the affection. There were a number of things Bon-bon wanted to say but was sure she’d hear them before. She knew she had herself after all. Amongst the strongest she’d heard was a simple phrase. “It’ll be okay.”.
Lyra didn’t respond at first, she didn’t even hear it really. She just stayed in Bon-bon’s arms for a few moments before what she’d been told fully sunk into her and she pulled away from her friend’s embrace. “No it won’t.” she said as she weakly tried to brush Bon-bon off of her. Bon-bon stayed resolute though and only shifted slightly to her side, keeping her arms around Lyra but moving her her left. One arm running across her back and the other across her chest, meeting in laced fingers on Lyra’s right shoulder.
“It will…” Bon-bon replied. “I know it will. do you want to know why?”
“Why.” Lyra asked flatly. Whether she knew it or not, she wanted a reason to believe her friend. She didn’t want to feel like this. Like nothing was worth doing, or nothing was interesting enough to warrant even getting out of bed and putting enough energy into taking a few small steps she had taken to get into this seat.
“Because I was told it too. And I didn’t believe it either. I was told it so many times by so many people and I know how cliché it sounds but… I know it’s true because, ‘it’ll be okay’ was what someone told me right before I met you.”
Lyra for her part merely turned her head slightly. It may have meant a lot to bon-bon, but to her it was just another story of another person. And while at least this story was actually tied to her, it wasn’t her. But at the same time, she didn’t want to take that away from someone just because she didn’t have it herself. “That’s… nice to know.” she said, trying to be as enthusiastic as she could without over selling anything. The tiny smile that came to her face as she said it though said for more than those words did however.
Bon-bon seeing her opportunity pressed the attack. “So c’mon. Where’s the Lyra I know? Lyra who helped me so much? Who has too many ‘steam sale games’ whatever that means. Who always has a silly reference to reference that I don’t understand. Who-” Bon-bon was cut off however. She’d both succeeded and failed at the same time.
“She killed Kenny.” Lyra coldly replied.
“Uh… you did?” Bon-bon asked. not entirely sure what Lyra meant. She understood the reference though for once. Simpsons did it. Right?
“I shot him. I had too.” Lyra said as she finally fully turned her to friend beside her. “I shot him in the back. And I killed his girlfriend. I just wanted everyone to live so I cut her arm off!”
“You… wha..?” Bon-bon questioned in confusing, thinking Lyra had gone completely delirious.
“I thought if I cut off her arm I could save her from zombie bite! But they just ate her! All I did was make her suffer before she died. I did it to her and I can’t take it back. Even if I reloaded a save I still did it!”
“Oh!...” Bon-bon said in realisation. Also realising she’d probably said that too loud. “Was that a game you played?”
“The Trotting Dead.”
“Don’t worry… it’s just a game.”
“No it wasn’t!” Lyra shouted! “It was more than just a game. It was a story. And I chose to do it. I wasn’t railroaded into it, I CHOSE to cut her arm off! I made her suffer. Tried to keep her living in a world she couldn’t handle. It was crueler than letting her become a zombie. Just because I wanted her too. Just like you…”
“I-”
“Shut up.” Lyra interrupted before Bon-bon could even say a word. “I’ve had my hand on yours this whole time.” she said as she looked her to right where Bon-bon’s hands were clasped over her shoulder. There was nothing on top of them though. “It’s been four years. And I can still feel it. I should’ve gotten over it by now but it’s still there!”
There was really nothing Bon-bon could say to that. Honestly, from what she could tell, she’d only worsened the situation so far. The only thing she could do right now was stay still and hold onto her friend. She even feared letting go, worrying where Lyra felt her hand at that moment and that it was still holding onto hers.
Looking down from her shoulder, Lyra turned to face the stub of her arm in front of her. “You know… they say that phantom limb syndrome is caused because even if your body is missing a limb, your soul still has it. So maybe, one day in heaven I’ll get my arm back.” she said.
She’d finally gotten some positivity from her friend after all this. “That’s a nice thought.”
“No… no it’s not.” Lyra said as she finally began to cry. Whether it was an improvement in her emotional state was up for debate, but at the very least it meant that something had changed.
For Bon-bon’s part she simply couldn’t understand why such an idea was a bad thing. Surely getting your arm back when you di- “Oh my god!” Bon-bon gasped as she let her hands slip off of her friend before quickly putting them back around her and pulling her into an even stronger hug than the first. “Don’t you dare even think about that!”
“Why not?” she asked, though it was more of a statement. “It, it’s cruel. Why should i have to go on like this? That damn game showed me! It’s kinder to let people who don’t want to live die instead of dragging them through a world that hurts every single day! I’ll never have my arm back, I’ll never have my hand and I’ll never play the piano!” she practically screamed as tears continued to cascade down her face.
And it was at that moment Bon-bon knew what she had to do. up until now it had all been guess work and hope and it had all failed. But now, now she knew exactly what she had to do. Lyra was what had saved her, when she had helped her do what she couldn’t do on her own, and though Bon-bon wished she had the few more weeks until Lyra’s birthday it was now or never.
“Lyra. Come downstairs with me.” she said as she released the hug and took a small step back.
“Why?”
“Trust me.” Bon-bon said with a smile.
Despite her lack of interest and the fact that no matter what the answer was she wouldn’t get up anyway, Lyra still asked “Why?...”
“Just come down stairs with me, I’ll show you!” she said with even more enthusiasm than before.
“No.”
“Don’t make me carry you.”
“You couldn’-daargghh!” Lyra started but startled as Bon-bon swung her arms back around her, only this time one was behind her back low and the other under her legs and forcibly lifted in her in a cradling position. “Stop, put me down!” Lyra yelled. “You’ll drop me. You can’t carry me!” and with that Lyra was fully out of her chair and in Bon-bon’s arms.
She quickly threw her arms around her friend’s neck and nearly sent the both of them tumbling as she tried to clasp her hands only for one to not be there. At the last second she managed to swing her arms with the help of a tilt from Bon-bon to grab a told of her elbow around her friend’s neck. “We’re going!” Bon-bon declared as she turned around and walked past Guyra who’d been standing in the doorway since he’d first heard screaming.
“No… don’t drop me!” Lyra yelled as they approached the stairs. She suddenly fell! Then maybe a fraction of a second later she stopped. Realising Bon-bon had intionally let her slip just a tiny bit just to give her a scare Lyra yelled “That’s not funny.”
“It’s kinda funny.” Bon-bon said with a small chuckle. While Lyra was mad at her friend, she was well aware it was the type of small prank she would play on Bon-bon if she had been the one carrying her instead. And while she didn’t fear being dropped she did indeed trust Bon-bon, even if she had answered that with ‘Why?’ just moments ago. Her condition only affected small intricate movements, carrying someone in your arms didn’t fall into that category.
They reached the bottom of the stairs without incident. Unless you count Bon-bon’s spine yelling at her to stop. Lyra hadn’t noticed it herself but she was excited. She’d been ‘bored’ moments before but this was all so exhilarating. In fact, she was happy. That is until Bon-bon finally came to a stop. In front of her piano.
Author's Note
The Walking Dead reference may have come out of seemingly no where but the hints were there.
Now I'm Lyring on the Cold Hard Ground
“I don’t know if you’ll like it or not. But I still have to give it to you. I wanted to wait a few more weeks until your birthday but I think you need it now more.” Bon-bon said as she came and sat down beside Lyra on the rectangular seat that may or may not have actually been a small coffee table at one point.
“Why?” she asked once more. All excitement and joy instantly stripped from her face. This started with the piano, what in the world would make Bon-bon think bringing her here would end well? Her question hadn’t been directed at Bon-bon. Not art herself or even the piano. It was just a question. Meaningless just like herself sitting here in front of it.
“Because I know how much this piano means to you.” Bon-bon answered back. While she’d meant pianos in general, she’d accidently said even more than she’d hoped. This piano in particular did mean a lot to Lyra. Three years ago at least. Maybe now too but… even if she’d gotten back into maintaining it and enjoying the time she spent doing so, she no longer had the true joy of it that it given her for her entire life before hand. Further back than she could even remember. “I want you to play it. That first song you taught me.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes you can. I know you can and so do you.”
“No… I mean I can’t because I don’t know what song that is.” Lyra corrected. Although she had a suspicion it was likely her default song of choice: Discord. “And even if I did… I can’t play it. Not like I used to.”
“But what if you could?”
“I ca-”
“But what if you could!?” Bon-bon interrupted. “Think about how many people you could entertain. How many you already have and how many more would get to listen to what you can do!”
“Not even a thousand.”
“Ten of thousands!” Bon-bon corrected her.
“Not even close… the biggest crowd I’ve ever performed for was like eight hundred and something-sort-of-nine-hundred. So yeah. Not even a thousand.”
“I know about twenty videos that beg to differ. Fifteen thousand views on Nightmare Night, five thousand views on Breaking Bonds, eleven thousand on 20% Cooler and eighty-nine thousand on Discord. And that’s the one I want you to play.”
“Viewtube? That doesn’t count… how many of those are just playlists that people have in the background? They don’t care about it. It’s like one song in tons of others. And where the hell did you get those numbers from. Discord has like 20k max.”
“Nope. Eighty-nine thousand. I might be a few hundred of those but I’ve been pushing so hard to get them viral. I post them everywhere. Tons of forums, all my tags and profile links.”
“What... why?” Lyra asked once more. How was any of this meant to be a good thing. If she’d gotten famous from it, even only interweb famous, how was people wanting her to do more of what she couldn’t any more a good thing? Didn’t matter though. 89k? That’s nothing ultimately. “I bet that stupid ‘man gets slapped with fish’ vid is still a related video.”
“I don’t think so. Why would it? And does it matter if it is? People love wha-”
“Yes it does and no they don’t! If they loved what I did then why would a dumb stupid video like that have half billion views when it was just some moron getting hit with a fish. I worked my heart out learning how to play like that and no one cares! Some idiot points a phone at someone and suddenly the internet explodes with loves. I actually tried to do something! I tried so hard and got so far! But In the end… it doesn’t even matter.”
“That’s no-”
“You know what the worst part is?” she paused but not long enough to get an actual answer from Bon-bon. “I didn’t even make that reference intentionally. Not that you got it anyway…”
“That’s not true. Eight-nine thousand on that song alone. Over your videos you have nearly half a million. And your smallest still has more than a thousand.”
Lyra groaned once more and let out a sigh. It was starting to get annoying at how much Bon-bon was completely ignoring her point. “Last time I checked, half a million was less than half a billion. About a thousand times less.”
“Maybe… but you said it yourself. One thousand people. You were so happy when you performed for that crowd. This… I don’t know how you can’t see it but so what if someone else made something people like. You did too. You may not have thousands times more views… but you’ve entertained a thousand times more people than you ever dreamed. One thousand people. I’ve never even seen that many people at once. Ten thousand? Not a chance and neither have you. One hundred thousand! That’s more people than you’ll ever see! Five hundred thousand! If you started now you couldn’t count to that number before that number doubled! That’s how many people you’ve touched… and even… even if just one of them you inspire the way you inspired me then that’s more important than a billion views of people laughing at some moron!”
Lyra refrained from speaking. Bon-bon’s words were drenched in both love and pain for her friend. There just wasn’t really anything Lyra could say to it. At least at first. While most of it was right, there was one part that Lyra had to disagree with Bon-bon over. “That’s different. You know me. If I ‘inspired’ you to… I don’t know, be a better person or something about your physical stuff, that’s not going to happen to some random watching me play a piano.”
“You’re wrong. Maybe knowing you helped push me to it but… please. Play the song.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes. You can.”
“I Can’t!”
“You ca-”
“You say ‘you can’ one more ti-”
“If you say ‘I can’t’ one more time!..." she mocked. But even mockingly, Lyra could feel the meaning behind it. Hell... she knew it wa the kidna thing she'd say. "Lyra… I know you can. Please. Trust me.”
“I… ca….” Lyra began but didn’t even finished as Bon-bon’s hand came over her own. She gently picked it up, which from Bon-bon was a feat in itself, before placing it on the keyboard almost exactly where the first notes of the song lay. “...n try. I guess.” she said reluctantly. She’d regretted touching the piano last time when she had been completely happy and positive about it. Now… who knows…
Lyra began. She pressed the first key but held it for far longer than needed, no wanting to move onto the next. She didn’t move on though. Instead she removed her finger and started over but repeated the same process, only to start over once more. “Close your eyes Lyra. Picture yourself back on that stage… five hundred thousand people all watching. It’s what you live for. Show them what you know… what you love. Show me…”
Lyra turned to Bon-bon not liking the idea and wondering how picturing herself in front of half a million people was meant to be calming. But as she said that simple last two words it all made sense. It wasn’t five hundred thousand people. It was five hundred thousand and one. She turned back to the piano and closed her eyes. Her hand hadn’t moved. Nor had it forgotten. Her index finger pressed gently on the first key. Then her middle on the second and pinky and index on the thirds.
She played… though only for a few seconds before she stopped. It was there that her second hand would’ve come into play for the song. So as much as she wanted to go on, this was as far as she could get now. “Go on.” Bon-bon said.
“I can’t…” she said one last time, eyes still closed but now only to hold in her tears.
“You can. The only thing holding you back is you. Nothing else...” it was all she encouragement she needed. She believed in Bon-bon. She trusted Bon-bon. She pressed the first key with her index finger. Then the second with her middle finger. Then the thirds with her pinky and index… for just a few seconds she played until she reached that point once more and in a fraction of a second everything repeated itself in her head.
The fear, the doubt, the hope, the trust, the pain, the love, the passion, the boredom, the belief and the friend she had made because of all of them. She pressed the first key of the second verse and on instinct went to press the first key of her left hand knowing full well nothing would happen. Her fingers fell and the key was hit with her phantom digit… and the music played. She didn't stop but she opened her eyes.
She continued to play her half of the song as Bon-bon beside her, using two hands to play what Lyra used to do with just one. It was what Lyra had taught her. But… not this part. She’d only taught Bon-bon the opening to the song and yet they’d gotten past that and were well into the chorus of the song.
if just one of them you inspired the way you inspired me
“You… learnt to play piano?”
“I learnt it from watching you.” she answered as they two made eye contact yet neither missed the slightest second of their song. They played perfectly. Not missing a single note. All her practice. All her hours spent watching Lyra’s videos, watching the symph videos Lyra had shown her while she played the the keyboard she had ‘borrowed’ from Lyra a few months ago all culminated in this moment for her. And for Lyra.
Bon-bon had never played the song through perfectly before. Always making one or more small mistakes due to her clumsy fingers. Even if using two hands to play one hand’s worth of notes compared to what Lyra could do. She had wanted a few more weeks, hoping that by Lyra’s birthday she would have had it down pat. But there simply wasn’t any more time now. It had to be now. And it had to be perfect if she was to show Lyra that she could still play the piano like she had before she’d lost her arm.
As the song came to a close, not a single note missed or mistimed, Lyra closed her eyes and let her tears run freely.
She couldn’t play the piano anymore… but together they could.
The End.
Author's Note
As tradition.Anime closing theme song Piano cover
It was a fast ending that leaves a lot open but if it went on any further it would ruin the moment.Press the Red button .Press the Blue button .Press the Green button .
“Are you ready?” Bon-bon asked.
“What do you think?” Lyra replied as she swatted Bon-bon’s butt and walked past her out onto the stage. The crowd was huge. Nearly one hundred people were attending tonight’s show. Sure they where a novelty act at a carnival but it was constant work and had kept them well fed for over ten years now.
The attraction of the one armed girl and the girl with parkinson's playing piano was by no means the biggest draw but worked as a good intermission from the main freak acts. Hard to believe they’d been doing this for so long now. The early dreams of performing in royal symphony orchestra was all fun and good but though eventually accepted into a rather prestigious pianist role at a rather reputable but still nowhere near royal symphony orchestra, they’d left soon after as the amount of restrictions were simply too harsh.
Through college the two worked as entertainers at nearly every live entertainment bar and pub in their town. And of course being college they experimented a little. They’d always loved each other… so why not make it a physical love as well? the answer: both of them were straight. They gave it a go and both hated it. Still happened a few times over the years but nothing really came from it and eventually both of them got married. Bon-bon later divorced and is currently engaged to her third husband to be.
Lyra named her first born, her daughter, after Bon-bon’s sister Twist and her son after Twist’s son just to try and mess with people's heads at family reunions. She never really changed. Neither did Bon-bon really. Well, aside from how much she changed after first meeting Lyra that is. But aside form that she too remained the sweet girl she once was and though divorced from her husbands still cares for both of them. They made Lyra promise to never tell Bon-bon but both of them think the reason they didn’t work out is because Bon-bon loved Lyra more than anyone else. It was a secret Lyra was happy to keep… well, she may tell Bon-bon’s fiance after the honeymoon.
The show over, just playing a single song together on stage the usual stupid hecklers did their thing “Hey, you two should kiss!” came a ridiculously loud female voice that had a oddly posh tone to it for the comment she’d yelled. But today they obliged and gently kissed up on stage. After all, today was exactly twenty years to the day that they’d first met.
The end.
Author's Note
This is the canon ending to the story.
She opened her eyes and wiped away the tears. Without asking is Bon-bon knew the next song, Lyra began to play and within a moment of doing so her right hand’s keystrokes were joined. They played the song. And the next. And the next...
They played all of her songs. Even those she’d never performed on stage and one she’d written herself. They played song after song until she Lyra finally got tired. Hours had passed by now and Lyra looked down at her arm and stretched her hand. She wiggled her fingers before stretching them to full extension then wiggling them once more before putting her hands together and cracking her knuckles.
That’s when she realised… she turned to Bon-bon beside her in shock only to not find her. She’d always felt her arm before but she’d never actually seen it. Was she going mad? “Bon-bon?!” she shouted both wanting to get her attention and wondering where she’d gone. When she turned to her right she saw her brother and parents both standing off to the side. Smiling. “Where’d Bon-bon go. Did you see her?” she asked them.
“Isn’t she right beside you?” her mother asked. Lyra looked back to her left but no one was there.
“Um… no? She was just here though where’d she… go…” Lyra trailed off as she looked down at her arm. They’d just played the piano together after so much internal fighting with herself over whether she could or not. Her arm had returned and the person who had helped her regain her lost dream had disappeared. There was one thing in particular that she remembered Bon-bon had told her...
You can. The only thing holding you back is you. Nothing else.
The End?
Author's Note
I wish I had thought of this sooner rather than as I was rewriting [after it somehow got deleted] the final chapter. I could've put so many hints and total M. Knight Shamalamadingdong'd you all!
Her door opened “Uhhh… you’re letting the cold air out…” she groaned as she rolled over, facing away from the light now coming into her room and pulling a handful of sheet into her chest. Her brother wouldn’t be home by now so it had to be one of her parents. They’d have to have noticed by now. On the other hand, it was Friday though which meant “What’s up Bon-bon?” she asked without facing her friend.
“Lyra quick!” Bon-bon yelled as she slammed the door closed and pressed her back up against it. “Get out of bed. They’re coming!” she said with fear evident in her voice.
“What?... who's coming?”
“Zombies!
Lyra stayed silent for a moment before blurting out the first thing she could think of. “Wut?...” Sitting up in her bed and turning towards her friend, she noticed bon-bon was covered in blood. For a practical joke… it was pretty convincing looking blood. Not the hollywood stuff that doesn’t smear at all but it looked like she’d tried to rub it off and just ended up spreading it. And it had a similar look soaked into her cloths in places too.
The aircon had mostly drowned it out but now that she thought about it, she could hear some weird stuff coming from outside. So she actually looked out the window. Three people crouching over the half-body of someone else. Yep. Clear sign of zombies. “Are these undead zombies, infected zombies or fungal zombies?” Lyra asked with exact determination.
“I don’t know but they’re eating people.”
“Well that doesn’t narrow it down a lot but does lessen the odds of cortercepts. If they’re undead then we’ll head north to somewhere it snows. Undead don’t generate heat so they'll freeze solid in snow. If they’re infected than the best bet is to hole ourselves up and let them starve themselves out. If they’re fungal then they’ll still be susceptible to fire. Either way, we need weapons, canned food, bottles of water and some bad arse theme music.”
Next time on The Trotting Dead!
“I can’t leave her!”
Author's Note
Alternate anime closing theme song/bad arse theme music .
