Page 160 of Sweet Nightmare

Something alive.

Something I refuse to name.

Then the piano plays another note and I keep walking.

How do I tell Mika she was right?

How do I explain that I’ve done something incredibly stupid? Something I swore I’d never do.

Something I didn’t even realize I’d done until now.

Something as simple, as terrifying, as utterly inconvenient as…caring for him.

twenty

. . .

A tortured man’s song

“Some songs arrive quietly. Others break into your brain and refuse to fucking leave.” — K

The sad melody draws me through unfamiliar hallways, each step bringing the music a little closer.

When I reach the end of the corridor, I find two enormous double doors.

This has to be Stephen’s music room.

I approach, my fingers hovering near the handle before I pull back.

No.

Whatever is happening there isn’t mine to interrupt.

So I stay outside, letting the music find me instead.

The piano fills the quiet hallway, each note slow and tender, as though someone is pouring their heart and soul into the keys.

Then another sound joins the melody.

A voice.

I stop breathing.

Stephen is singing.

Not rapping.

Singing.

I stare at the doors.

Hearing him like this feels like stumbling upon a part of him he never meant for anyone else to find.

I’ve heard Stephen perform more times than I care to admit, although I have never admitted that to anyone.

He was the main rapper and visual in HADEX. The one whose verses cut through the songs while everyone else handled the polished sound around him. Now he’s a solo artist, and his music is darker, rougher, stripped of the parts that once made him easier for the public to consume.

But singing?