The Music of Souls, page 7
I should also get a new phone. It was a bit crazy to walk around places like that without any form of communication. Or should I say reckless? Maybe I am both.
The timer went off and I hurried to the oven to get the pizza.
The taste was just average, nothing compared to the pizza from the restaurant down the street. But I shouldn’t complain, that’s what I get for not going to the supermarket!
After the pizza I went straight to bed. I lay awake for a while wondering if I should drop by the company tomorrow. At least to make sure that Rose wouldn’t worry too much. And besides, I still had to fulfil my part of the contract to produce at least two hit songs every month.
Now that I thought about it, I kind of signed a pretty drastic contract, didn’t I? I might not be crazy or reckless, I might just be plain stupid!
“Good Morning, Ava,” Rose greeted me when I walked into our office the next morning. She looked better; a lot more relaxed.
“Good Morning,” I replied. I took off my jacket and sat down behind my desk.
“Were you able to do what you wanted to do yesterday?” she asked without looking in my direction.
“More or less, but I guess it’s more of a long-term process,” I answered, and she nodded. We were quiet for a while; the air was tense. It made me really uncomfortable.
I turned on my computer and checked my mails. The boss was happy about the feedback for my new song and hoped the next one would be a good one too. I sighed.
“Also, this,” Rose said next to me, startling me. I hadn’t realised she was standing right next to me. She was holding a phone out to me.
“For me?” I asked, confused.
“Yes, of course. I can’t let you run around without a phone for too long, Ava. I have to be able to reach you. I am your personal assistant. Besides, considering what has happened it seemed wise to get a new phone quickly.” I took the phone and nodded.
“I planned to buy one soon,” I said.
“There is no need for that. The company will give you all you need, Ava, please don’t forget that,” she said, staring into my eyes.
“Rose, what’s wrong?” I finally asked. She gave off a really weird vibe today. Her face turned stern.
“I won’t lie, Ava. The boss is worried. The last song was really good, but it wasn’t as good as the previous one. He was expecting more really brilliant songs from you.”
I clenched my fingers around the phone.
“I just read his mail; he didn’t seem dissatisfied,” I said as a mild rebuke.
“Because he only told me in private. He doesn’t want to demotivate you. But I don’t agree with keeping it a secret from you,” Rose said. She looked somewhat uncertain now. She was actually telling me something our boss didn’t want me to know.
“If it was that bad, don’t you think he would have mentioned it to me himself?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“He is the type of person to wait until it’s almost too late. I have seen it a lot, I have been a personal assistant for many songwriters and producers. But none of them were as popular as you. That also means that the expectations are lots higher too. And I know the signs, so if you don’t want to get kicked out, please try to work harder,” she crossed her arms in front of her chest as well, mirroring my defensive posture, throwing me off even more.
“I think the timing for this conversation is quite bad. Only a few days ago shit happened that will probably follow me around for a while and now you say I have to work even harder?” I asked.
“You will have to decide, Avalynn, whether you are fine or not. You said you were fine, so I am treating you as if you were okay. And that means that I am expecting some work from you,” she said. My mouth dropped open.
“Just what is wrong with you, Rose. Are you that scared to lose this job?” I asked snappily.
“Yes, exactly. I don’t want to be assigned to the newbies again. I need the money I get now,” she snapped back, her gaze hard and angry.
I just shook my head and turned my computer off. Taking my bag and jacket I looked at her again.
“Rose, you should decide: are we friends or are we colleagues? Because if this is how you treat your friends, I really don’t want to be your friend,” I said. Her face dropped for a moment before the stone mask was back in place.
“We are at work right now, so we have to be professional. I am simply telling you to step it up a notch,” she explained.
“I just released a song last weekend,” I almost screamed at her. I was so frustrated about this conversation. I usually had a week before planning out a new song before she was on my case.
“You won’t be able to reach the target for this month if you don’t start soon,” she said with a calm voice.
“What are you talking about? I am halfway there already and it’s not even the middle of the month,” I answered, confused.
“Your target got changed,” she stated, and I dropped my bag in surprise.
“Excuse me? What?” I said, trying to stay as calm as possible.
“From 24 songs a year to 35,” she answered. She still seemed so freaking calm about all of this. As if she didn’t care that they had just changed my contract without even telling me.
“You can’t be serious. Is that even allowed?” I yelled. Rose sighed, acting like she was explaining something to a little child and getting annoyed by it.
“Yes, it’s in the small print on the back of the contract,” she explained.
“At the back!” I shouted. “Who writes important stuff like that on the freaking back of a contract?” This was the first time I’d ever heard about something like that, but it was also the first time I’d ever signed a contract like that.
“The general terms and conditions are on the back, the personal content is on the front,” she stated this as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
“No one told me about that,” I said defeatedly.
“Well, Ava, you should always thoroughly check what you are signing,” she replied. “Besides, I did mention that the boss wants you to produce even more songs the other day.” I glared at her.
“Well fuck you then, Rose,” I said, picking up my bag and storming out of the office without waiting for a response. I think that might have been the least mature exit I’d ever made in my life.
But what in the world was wrong with her? Was she really that desperate for money? And was that really something you’d just casually throw out there on a phone call?
I wasn’t far away from the building when my new phone started ringing. I looked at it and saw Rose’s name on the display.
“Yes, like I would pick that up!” I said to myself before rejecting the call and switching the damn phone to silent.
I started walking down the street and hadn’t even realised where I was heading when I found myself in front of the bookstore again.
I opened the door and the smell of books and tea greeted me.
“Welcome back, young lady,” the old man said with a warm smile. The anger that was burning inside of me had already started to ease.
“Good Morning,” I answered and walked towards the counter.
“How about a cup of tea, you seem a bit shaken up again,” he said, but before I could reply he was already going into the back of the store.
I waited for him to come back and place a pretty pink cup in front of me. I smiled.
“You have some rather feminine-looking cups,” I said.
“My late wife bought them, and I can’t bring myself to throw them out. Besides, sometimes people rather suit that cup,” he replied.
“I am so sorry,” I said, feeling bad about reminding him of his dead wife.
To my surprise he laughed though. “Oh please. Death is just another stage in our life. I am certain I will be together with her again as soon as I’ve reached that stage as well.”
I looked at him and frowned. Did he believe in a life after death? Or that they would meet in heaven or something?
“So, what’s wrong so early in the morning?” he asked before I could get into more detail about his death theory. I sighed.
“People are just so weird sometimes,” I answered. He looked at me like he was waiting for me to get into more detail.
“Someone I considered a friend kind of turned into another person overnight,” I explained.
“And are you sure that person changed?” he asked.
“Of course I am. One day she is worried and caring and treats me like a sister and the next day she treats me like I am some inferior colleague she has to put in her place,” I said angrily.
He slightly tilted his head to the side, unsatisfied with my answer.
“Young lady, are you sure she changed? Maybe she was always like that, maybe that’s part of her. But you should know if she really changed, right?” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You know what I mean, think about it.” He smiled. “I am not just giving you all the answers here.”
I didn’t have to think about it much longer once he’d said that.
“You mean my gift,” I said, and he nodded.
“Of course, dear. You have to use it in times like these. You really have to learn to push it away and use it at the same time. Let me guess. You haven’t even listened to her melody because you were so angry,” he said.
I looked down. He was right, I hadn’t tuned into her even once.
“But why haven’t I tuned into her? I usually just hear the melodies, whether I want to or not.” I was confused.
“No, that is never beyond your control. You just sometimes choose to not listen to the melodies. You might not have realised it before, but I bet you have done it before,” he said. I couldn’t remember, because all I ever remembered was the times when I couldn’t get them out of my head.
“You seemed better able to understand your talent after our talk yesterday. I thought you’d already started to accept what you are and what you can do. But I think this is perhaps a matter that will take a long time for you to manage,” he said, his face a bit worried. My heart rate speeded up when I saw him like that.
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked carefully.
“Not necessarily. But the longer you keep this habit the harder it will be for you to get rid of it. And you’ve already had this habit for a long time,” he said.
“I don’t know how to do that,” I admitted.
“I know you can do it. But I can’t help you, it’s something you have to figure out for yourself,” he replied, and his soft smile returned to his face. I didn’t really feel too confident about that though.
“And about your friend. Sometimes people seem to act differently because they experience hardship in their lives. Maybe your friend just doesn’t know how to cope with it and that’s why she seemed so different? Try to give her a chance, maybe it was all a misunderstanding.”
I stayed silent and started to drink the tea that was barely lukewarm by now. It had a hint of strawberry in it this time.
“To brighten your day a bit,” he said, and I laughed. It was almost like he knew what I was thinking about.
“Thank you,” I said before getting up and grabbing my things. “My name is Avalynn,” I said before I opened the door.
“I am John, nice to meet you, Avalynn,” he said and waved me goodbye.
Standing on the busy street again I felt as if I’d just moved into a different dimension. That bookstore made me feel like time stopped for a while, letting me escape.
The anger about Rose vanished, but I still wasn’t ready to talk to her again. I was way too stubborn to just get back in touch with her anyway.
Instead I decided to check out a few more of the places on my map.
Three hours later I still wasn’t one bit the wiser. These places weren’t as dilapidated and deserted as the ones I’d seen yesterday, but I couldn’t make out any of the people I’d met that night, or any other suspicious persons at all.
I got back to the city and went to the nearest supermarket to get some groceries. I hate buying groceries, maybe I should start ordering them online so they would be delivered to my apartment. But I guess then I would have reached another level of laziness altogether.
I threw some random groceries into my shopping cart and hurried through the store. It was pretty busy here, so the melodies of all the people around me just keep slamming into my head. I was frustrated. When I didn’t want to listen to them, I just wasn’t able to push them away and even if John said that I was able to do so, I couldn’t figure out how.
After waiting in line for what felt like hours, I finally left the store with two bags of food. I huffed. For how many people did I buy groceries again? Thankfully my apartment wasn’t far away from the store.
Pushing through my front door I dropped the bags on my kitchen counter and started sorting them out. When I had finally stored away the last of the items I sat down on the couch and sighed in relief. My hands were hurting from carrying the heavy bags.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. 15 missed calls, no new messages. Rose had tried to call me for 30 minutes. She hadn’t left a message though. I considered calling her back, but I didn’t feel like it. I wasn’t up to dealing with her right now. Maybe John was right, maybe she really just had something personal that worried her. Maybe the whole murderer thing bothered her a lot more after all or maybe the boss was putting a lot of pressure on her. I wouldn’t know, but that didn’t mean that she could act like that towards me, right? She should have told me about the change in my contract, properly. That was a big deal and I didn’t think just randomly mentioning it like that cut it. That meant a lot more work for me after all.
I brushed through my hair absentmindedly, which was when my stomach growled. Right, I hadn’t eaten anything all day.
I walked back into the kitchen and started to sort out ingredients. I was busy chopping the onions when someone knocked on my front door. That surprised me, I don’t usually get visitors. Not many people know where I live in the first place. I wiped my hands and slowly approached the door. Could it be that these people had found me? Maybe they were going to kill me in the comfort of my own home. I stopped midway and stared at the door.
Another knock. My heart started to race, and my thoughts were spinning. Still, I continued towards the door, peeking through the peephole. I sighed in relief and opened the door only until I could be seen.
“Special Agent Miller,” I said and crossed my arms in front of my chest. He had a smirk on his lips and looked me up and down.
“Good Evening, Ms Cole,” he said and nodded at me.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, is this a bad time?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“I’m just in the middle of cooking,” I said and looked behind me to make sure the kitchen wasn’t on fire yet. “Won’t you come in?”
I opened the door wide now and let him enter. He stepped through and I quickly closed it behind him. It was still rather cold out there and I really didn’t want to let even more warm air escape. He stood in the middle of my apartment and looked a bit out of place. I don’t think anyone other than Rose has ever been in here. His melody flooded the room in a nice way though, and all of a sudden this place felt a bit more lively.
I rushed to the stove and stirred the soup. I added the final ingredients and realised that Mr Bartender still hadn’t said a word since he’d entered the apartment. I turned around and saw him wandering around the place. Maybe he was trying to find some personal information about me. Well, he could search for a long time! There wasn’t any.
“So again, Special Agent Miller, how can I help you?” I asked and he slowly turned towards me. I eyed him with curiosity.
“Andrew,” he said and smiled.
“Excuse me?” I asked, confused.
“Call me Andrew, please. Special Agent Miller sounds like I am some really old man.” He laughed.
I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit myself.
“Okay then, Andrew, how can I help you? I mean do I have to ask more than three times or are you ready to tell me now?” I said and shook my head. He shrugged and I turned around to check on my food again. Man, he was acting really oddly.
“Would you like to have some dinner?” I asked.
“Sure, that would be nice,” he answered immediately.
“Get the plates from that cupboard then,” I said, pointing to my left. Andrew strode towards it without hesitation and grabbed two plates, placing them on the table.
A few minutes later I brought in the food and two spoons.
“Here,” I said and handed him the soup ladle.
He nodded and filled his plate to the rim. Maybe he wasn’t weird but just hungry as hell.
We sat together and ate in silence. Not knowing why he was here was bothering me a bit, but I stayed silent until we both finished eating and I carried the empty plates into the kitchen. He followed me with the pot and placed it back on the stove.
Without exchanging a word, we sat down on the couch and he leaned back, patting his stomach.
“That was surprisingly delicious,” he said.
“What, you expected it to be horrible?” I asked and he chuckled again.
“You didn’t strike me as someone who knows how to cook, to be honest,” he said, and I acted like it hurt me.
“Ouch!” I said but I wasn’t really surprised. Many people my age don’t really know how to cook and prefer to order something in or eat out.
He leaned forward and stared into my eyes for a moment, so intensely it made me feel uncomfortable.
“Now, let me tell you why I am here today,” he said, and his face grew serious.
Chapter 7
The sudden change in his attitude made me slightly anxious, but I tried to relax and nodded.
“Well, go ahead then,” I said. He looked at me in silence for a moment, then he sighed.
“Avalynn, you should stop your snooping around.” That caught me by surprise. Did they actually know what I had been up to lately? Had they been following me?
