Hustling through the crowded streets, she hiked her school bag back into place on her shoulder, keeping the tools of her trade close by her side. The streets seemed noisier than usual today, something was stirring up in the collective. She could feel it, like a dark whale in her unconscious mind calling for attention.
“There’s no time for that right now..” Julia thought to herself, pulling her focus back to the pavement. “I have to get to class on time or I’m going to fail this exam!”
Hopping over the school wall, a moment of appreciation for today’s exam briefly flashed through her brilliant mind. As much love as Julia has for it, the exam gave a days relief from carrying that giant cello around all day.
With the momentum of the outside world driving her along and her own anxiety feeding her movements, Julia pushed the swinging door to the Julliard Music School Auditorium open, spilling herself rather ungracefully into the exam room.
Her fellow students looked up with a mixture of surprise and annoyance at her interruption. Their look soon turned to amusement as they quickly glanced over to the exam coordinator, today it was Ms. Ratchet, who to their disappointment was in fact more loving then her name sounds.
Ms. Ratchet gave Julia a brief nod, acknowledging her favorite student of the classical arts and ushered for her to hurry quietly to the seat and get her pen moving. The tranquility of the auditorium amplifying the squawk of her chair legs as Julia found her seat.
It felt like many hours had past, staring at these papers of musical scores and answering the questions one after another. Normally this would be a walk in the park for young Julia who has strived her whole life to appease her parents, but today… something was different. She could feel an old familiar sensation, but not one she had ever hoped to meet again.
“Come on! Pull yourself together Julia!” she snapped at herself quietly, “Whatever it is will wait.”
“No it won’t.” she heard echo around the Auditorium. In shock, Julia shot upright knocking her pencil to the ground. The look of shock turned to unease when she realized that no one else was looking up at all. Was she the only one that heard that?
Julia dug her nails into her palm in an attempt to bring herself back to the here and now, this exam was all that matted right now.
Focusing intensely on the musical score in front of her, she began to read the notes and allowed the music to begin to play in her minds orchestra… a talent she had since birth that enamored her to the classical arts to begin with.
Music began to reverberate through her. She could feel it in her bones now, the bass rhythm leading her deeper into the flow state. The Piano striking its hammers with the grace of a fierce angel to the dance of the composers deepest desires.
The paper before her began to blur, the symbols and lines began to whirl together into a vortex…
“Oh shit… it’s happening again.” Julia briefly realized before she lost the final control of her inner world.
A loud thundering explosion echoed through her soul. She could hear the sounds of panic filled cries and the crazed rampant demands being screamed from what sounded like some very disgruntled men.
“Give me sight! Give me sight dammit!” she screamed in her head to the unknown forces she had come to love and hate.
The darkness enshrouding Julia’s mind started to lift. Her awareness began to pierce through it like the midnight fog before the headlights of a car, but what she saw soon made her wish she had never woken this gift in the first place so many years ago.
There had been a great explosion. A car bomb driven into this place wherever it is. Survivors were scrambling around terrified, some holding their loved ones as they bled, others lying bundled together crying hopelessly. The perpetrators, one by one were turning over the dead, looking for something… for someone.
It was then that Julia saw something that struck her heart cold. Lying underneath a pile of rubble, she recognized poking out a pair of very familiar legs and at the end of these legs, was her shoes.
“Ms. Julia! Late to class does not mean you get to be late out. Please finish the page you are on, sign your name and hand it in on the way out with the rest of the class.” Ms. Ratchet instructed very matter-of-factly.
Julia looked back to where she had seen herself beneath the rubble and had to pinch herself when she saw naught but more school desks and the students leaving through the auditorium door. The same one it seemed like only moments ago she had just arrived through.
“Ms. Ratchet, They're after me again…”
This short piece of creative writing was written in response to a great challenge set by the wonderful @rensoul17! Check out the Steemit Winter’s Collective Play and join in the fun!