Everleigh

I looked and he was no longer there.

I called for him and was met with silence.

My heart in monochrome.

But suddenly the world was crowned with colour.

The trees no longer dead like me. The willowy stalks bristled in the breeze.

Jugglers, flame-eaters, high-wire dancers in full form.

"Well, aren't you just precious." I jumped and turned.

I faced a woman with paint on her cheek.

She smiled. I didn't.

"Hi," I said.

"Are you here to audition?"

My Anima struck a chord, and I sang along.

"I guess," I said.

"You're going to fit right in," the cheerful one cheered.

She was pretty. I stared.

"Come with me," she said.

My Anima struck a chord, and I danced along.

In reality, we walked.

But in whose reality did we walk.

The cobblestones were clean and smooth against my shoes.

"I'm Avis," the woman said.

We moved past a cluster of caravans.

THE VONSINFONIE BROTHERS painted across.

The way he'd described it when he'd soothe me to sleep.

"Sebastian," I said.

A breath. A blunder.

"Do you know Sebastian?" Avis wondered. "I can take you to him."

The confusion of it all.

"Aye," I said. "Take me to Sebastian."

"This way." She waved me along. "What's your name?"

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"It's Everleigh."

"Your eyes," she replied. "They're beautiful—just like his."

"I guess."

She laughed.

A trill. A thrill.

It could scarcely be helped.

"Not a big talker, huh?"

"No."

We moved through the moment.

They all stared but they weren't afraid.

Some smiled. I didn't.

Sebastian's wagon was blue.

Knock, knock, knock. "Sebastian!"

This wasn't happening but it was.

I fixed my hair. I fixed my bow. I fixed my gaze to the door when it opened. My heart in a kaleidoscope. He wore his mask. My stomach churned like butter.

The miracle of it all.

"Everleigh says she's here to audition—and with you?" Avis said.

"With me?" Sebastian asked. His smile soared through the sky. "Someone so brave and so beautiful delivered straight to my doorstep—how lucky I am."

I touched my hand to my scars.

He touched his hand to my shoulder.

"Come in," he said.

And I did.

The pretty one waved goodbye.

He removed his mask when we were inside.

"Like you," he said.

"Like you," I repeated.

His caravan smelled like vanilla, sandalwood, and musk. It smelled the way he did when he held me all those days and nights while I died.

"Play me a song, night-blossom."

My Anima stirred. I lifted its instrument to my chin and played the Verse of Victory. It was the first song we wrote together all those years ago, or all those years ahead.

I swayed, he stared.

I stared, he swayed.

"Well, I'll have to run it by my brother of course, but from where I'm sitting, you're hired, my darling. Who was your instructor?"

A choice, a chance.

"You," I said.

"No," he answered, "I would remember you."

"I—"

Knock, knock at the door.

"Sebastian!"

A sigh and a finger held to hold. He moved to the door.

"I'm busy, Zacharias."

"You're not hiring someone without me again, are you?"

"That's precisely what I'm doing."

I'd never met the other brother. A mere witness from a distance.

He opened the door without warning and led with his cane.

"Sebastian, why aren't you—"

And in that moment he saw me, and in that moment he knew.

"Your eyes," he said. "Sebastian, she's just like you."

"Yes, and if it's all the same to you, she's hired. You should hear her play."

"I did."

The other brother stood before me. He put his hand to the back of my head and told me I was extraordinary.

The kaleidescope blinked into black and white.

The anger of it all.

TSB. I wanted him then.

To make a bad joke.

To speak when I couldn't.

When I wouldn't.

When I didn't want to.

TSB…

"Ever?" the brothers asked, but they didn't. It was his voice in my head. His fear in my heart. His ache in my soul.

The two famous figures flickered before me.

But still they remained.

And still I remained.

And still I was hired.

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