Six Strings at Midnight

[RoxxyRobofox]

Her name is Jammer. At first glance she looked like a human Short, lithe, skinny hips and almost flat-chested. She sported ragged jeans and a brown coat, and her head was topped with a shock of black hair. A purple streak fired down the side of her head like a messy highlight. That's when the average person notices her all-black eyes with brightly-burning purple dots in the center. Her right arm was a rusted, bare-bones construction that looks almost skeletal. Each movement she makes echoes with a squeak, whir or buzz.

Tonight, she's got a song to play.

She pushed open the dusty doors to Abandon Manor. Cobwebs and the misty remains of ancient history wafted through the air as the massive doors creaked open loudly. Her optical lights glowed brightly in the contrast of the darkness filling the entrance, the little dots leaving trails in the inky black as her gaze zipped side to side. Clutched at her side was an old electric axe, six strings tuned to perfection on an old instrument as beaten and worn as the gynoid holding it. A few charms hung off a chain wrapped around the exposed parts in her metal arm and rattled quietly as she made her way into the depths.

The doors slammed shut behind her, leaving her in unbearable umbra. She grit her jaws in frustration as emotional programming started to boot that told her she was terrified. When you're an android there's no such thing as conditioning yourself to dull your emotions. If you have emotion programming, it comes up -every time-. Fortunately for Jammer, she knew her own programming inside and out. She simulated a few deep breaths and clutched the charms around her wrist. After a few moments the programmed response left her just as she knew it would. Still shaking lightly, she continued through the darkness.

Jammer hadn't gotten a good look at the foyer before it went pitch black but she knew after ten minutes of uninterrupted walking that she'd gone much farther than should have been possible. At times a stabbing, chill wind blew past her, and if her sensors weren't glitching it seemed to blow straight through her as if she didn't exist. Again, fear protocols loaded, and again she had to take a moment to calm herself. There was no going back, nowhere to flee, and she was keenly aware of this. There was no escape. If she wasn't good enough this was her end.

Suddenly she became aware of something other than dark and coldness. A hazy green fog had started to fill the world of blackness around her. The mist rolled around her in a lazy whirlpool, swirling around her feet and rising slowly. She could almost see faces in the miasma taunting her, teeth gnashing and aching gazes filled with hunger. It was to Jammer's benefit that her protocols has no programmed fear response to specters but pushing past the fog seemed to be impossible. As she quickened her step, so too did the mist keep up to swirl and play around her body. Jammer almost thought that this was it. She'd be trapped in here with the horrible faces forever...

A horrific, striking chord exploded through the all-consuming shadow. The sound rattled Jammer's frame so loudly that her chassis shuddered audibly. The fog blasted away from her body in a massive, cackling cloud of twisted visages. The fog seemed to roll over once-unseen furniture, the green mist giving form to walls of what was apparently a grand theater. She was standing in the center aisle, flanked by flickering green seats and watching as a flaming carpet of fog rolled towards the ethereal stage. The wispy curtains on the stage rushed apart with another reverberating tone.

Atop the stage, illuminated by a bright, sickly-green column of light, sat a grand piano. The instrument's lid pulsed with rigid green lines intersecting and twisting into one another, meeting in the center to create the image of a skull struck through the back with a music note. The keys started to play of their own accord; a hauntingly slow melody with deep, vibrating tones held for several long moments. Each time a note played the skull on the piano's lid throbbed with green light. With a sudden, room-shaking chord, the fog collected off the seats, walls, carpeting and even the stage itself, causing everything to return to darkness. The rolling clouds formed up in front of the piano, rolling over themselves and piling up to make a vaguely humanoid shape. An arm thrust out of the fog with another striking chord, then again. The skeletal hands belonging to the suit-sleeve clad arms crooked their fingers with intent, then slammed down on the keys of the piano. With the cacophony of ancient piano notes blaring through the air, the fog was blown away once again and filled then room with definition.

Standing in its place was what looked like a spirit of someone long passed. A black suit, untouched by time, hugged its body. A skeletal head sported flowing black hair and a top hat with a green band around the base. A great, green, flaming mustache flared under where the skulls' nose would have been. Around its neck hung a thin gold necklace. Adorning the necklace was a simple circular mirror with a gold frame. It turned its burning gaze towards Jammer and pointed a bony finger at her.

“Machine, you defile the sanctuary of Death with your presence. Whatever business you have here will go unfulfilled and your remains will join the darkness for eternity.”

Jammer experienced something just then, while looking into the eyes of Death and having her end proclaimed. It was quite obviously fear, but it came unbidden by protocol. No program behind this consuming experience. She just rooted in the spot, lips parted and purple eyes trapped by the gaze of Death. But she knew she couldn't let something like this stop her. A moment of hesitation and she'd lose everything she came for. She'd lose him forever.

“No,” came her crackling, static-laced voice. “You took him from me. I am here to take him back.”

Death's mustache curled and smoked as the flames grew outwards and curled into themselves. “I take everyone from everyone. Since the dawn of mortal fear I have not relinquished a single soul. You have come here only to meet your end, machine. Now... I will play your empty shell into the arms of oblivion!” His hands struck the piano's keys light lightning and with a swipe of his withered fingers a green bolt of electricity fired from under the lid of the piano. It arched through the air and pierced Jammer through the chest. She was knocked off her feet as the bolt went straight through her, leaving a quarter-sized hole in her body. The hole sizzled and the lights in her eyes dimmed into nothingness as she hit the ground.

Outclassed. That was the word branded into her logic processes at the moment. She had come here because to not even try was worse than to exist and never know but it was at this moment, her back against the shadowy floor and her damage systems displaying errors and warnings, that she realized that compared to death she was less than a mote. His eternity of power against her speck of time participating in reality. She almost felt tempted to simply lay there and succumb to Death's second note just to get this farce over with. But that was when she remembered his face. The day he died. The promise she made.

And it was then that she got back to her feet.

Jammer slung the six-sting axe off her shoulder. Purple sparks danced in the hole within her body and she glared at her foe, a few rugged bangs falling into her eyes. “You promised me a song of oblivion... but here I stand.” She snapped her fingers and with a flicker of light a guitar chip was in her hand. “Now I make you a promise. I will play a song of hope. I will get what I came for. Tonight, for one night... Death will be humble.” She graced her six strings with the touch of her pick and the axe exploded with light. Purple streaks snaked a trail through the air and struck with the sudden ferocity of a viper, scorching towards the eternal pianist with intent. However, the purple energy glanced off some unseen force shrouding Death's figure. He remained unfazed.

“I promised you a song of oblivion... and what you heard was one note. Prepare yourself, machine! The Dirge begins!” He breathed out a green haze from the hole where nose would have been. His mustache intensified and continued to grow and coil. Death cracked his knuckles... and once again struck the keys. He played like a natural disaster. It was terrifying, destructive, but somehow perfect in function. His unstoppable onslaught of pitch and notes was accompanied by a magic onslaught of lightning. The glowing bolts erupted from his piano in an unfathomably endless storm of power and rage. All the power of a hurricane, directed at one single being.

Jammer saw the maelstrom and experienced that unknowable terror once more as it collected and swirled around her. A thousand times a thousand times more intense than the fog that traveled with her when she first came, she saw the collective souls of the dead screaming for her end. Her joints locked up, the hole in her chest stopped sparking, the lights in her eyes began to dim. She'd simply be willed out of existence at this point, her body subtly fading into the abyss of black under her feet. The pick she held in her hand fell against the six strings again, producing a sound drowned out by the horror around her.

“Do it again. I have... to do it again. I cannot stop.”

Then she struck another note. It too was swallowed by the cacophony of the storm. She clutched the pick in her fingers as if grasping a weapon. Her brows furrowed... then with a mighty whir from her joints she struck once more. This time the faintest note overcame the avalanche of fear and hate enveloping her. Again and again she made those strings sing her song, and the tone started to grow, and build... the storm's rage was joined by a new sound. Clutching the neck of her axe, her pick fluttered along the six strings. Soon even Death at his piano of souls could hear the music coming from the swirling mass he'd enveloped the android in.

“I. Cannot. Stop.”

It was not a roar of defiance but a statement of fact, of infallible truth that would not yield to what threatened to swallow her. Even as she experienced every fear she was capable of, her axe sung and her pick danced across the six stings. The maelstrom of souls began to retreat away from her. Her faded existence in this reality found new strength as oblivion was warded away by the song of hope echoing through these umbral halls. With a reverberating slash, her six stings sung out in unison and the maelstrom was blown away into nothingness.

Death stood from his seat as the android was revealed. Her body was ravaged by the negative powers that thretaened to tear her asunder. Her knees sparked and shivered. Her jacked was shredded and left her in body-wrapping that she'd sued to loosely cover open panels and rusted parts. Above her breasts was the smoking hole blown through her body. But despite all this she stood. She stood and she played her axe.

“You can't withstand oblivion! Not a soulless thing like you!”

At that, she simply smiled. “I have no soul, but you have no heart. I told you I will play the song of hope, and tonight you will be a humble fucker.”

She took a step forward, axe resting against her hip while her metal fingers played. Hot purple energy ran off of her six strings like smoke and rising heat. The fire of her music steamrolled towards death. His empty eyes were overcome with the green smoke running from his body and with the speed of an eternity of practice he countered. From his piano he summoned every fear, every destruction and death at his disposal. Their music filled the dark reality they were in with pounding, overwhelming force. Hope and despair clashed as physical forces in this land, purple energy and green lightning crashing into one another, both unstoppable forces in a duel that would spill out for what seemed like miles of void around them.

Death howled as he played like a thousand demons. Jammer was as quiet as a saint, her eyes on her six strings. System errors appeared in her HUD, advising her that her joints were overheating. White steam rolled off her arms and up from the tears in her exposed body. She knew that soon her music would cease, that her old, worn parts couldn't keep this up forever... there was a sudden crack of glass as her right eye blew out in a flare of purple light. “S-systems unstable. Unit function will be compromised. Overload... i-imminent.”

Death bellowed when he heard this, his snaking tongue lapping his teeth with glee. “Your song and your heart are strong, but your body is weak! My only regret is that In cannot drink your soul when I end you.”

She fell to a knee as the sides of her leg blew out and sent parts scattering off into nothingness. Her music faltered for a single note and Death's dirge tore holes through her body. Both arms were stripped to the metal now, the right side of her face exposed to show the rusted metal and badly-kept wiring underneath. She picked up her notes again but they came slower, rang sloppily. She couldn't keep his music from tearing her to scrap for much longer...

She bowed her head and looked towards the hand she used to play. Resting the neck on her knee, she reached into the exposed parts of her arm. “I told you, you piece of junk. Don't stop playing.” Tearing wiring loose from her side, she started to jury rig her arm as it continued to play. With each connected wire she could feel cooling systems and circuitry in her body cease function. But as she replaced wires in her arms, her fingers became stronger. They played faster. The encroaching wall that threatened to consume her was being beaten back once more. With a final wire plugged in, her fingers played with strength again. She had to gut herself but she was back in the concert.

Death's frustration showed in his song. The tones of his dirge stopped sounding like royally-rolling echoes and more like feral, grating twangs. He was desperate to end her and finish his music, but soon Death would be forced into his own hardware dilemma. Those dark keys were starting to crack. The piano groaned, the strings within squeaked. The intertwining light on the lid started to pulse like a dying heart. Overcome by rage, Death backhanded his keys and with that the piano's music guttered. It was only a moment of weakness, the most brief reprieve from Death's overwhelming strength but that was all it took.

The song of hope broke through Death's encroaching oblivion like a sunrise dissolving a thunderstorm. Death had only a brief moment to cry out in fear and agony as hope washed over his spectral form. He dissolved rapidly and his piano collapsed in on itself. Strings broke, keys went flying and the lid slammed shut hard enough that it cracked in two. The darkness shriveled away, peeling back from the foyer of Abandon Manor like old wallpaper. All that remained was the mirror Death wore around his neck.

Jammer stood to her good foot and hobbled over to the mirror. She dropped her six string axe to the ground and purple smoke rose off the metal strings. Falling to her hands and knees, she plunged her metallic hand through the mirror and it sunk in as easily as if she'd reached into a hole.

“C... come back... please...”

She could feel a warm hand grasp her palm. She pulled with what might remained in her limbs and fell backwards as she watched a figure rise from the mirror. Even though she could only barely see the outline of his body, a smile still spread across her lips.

“Your stupid song worked. It worked... It... sy-system failure imminent. Unit shut-shutting down.” With that, she fell forward as sparks raced along he3r figure and her eyes went dark. She was unaware of being caught before she hit the ground and hugged tightly. Later she would be repaired... but for now, she rested.

[RoxxyRobofox]

A friend of mine is very curious (and actually I am too). When you read this story, if you liked it, could you share what you thought the music sounded like in your head?

[smalk]

Well, I really liked that.

For Death's music I imagined "He Who Brings The Night" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQKWoZFe0E0). For Jammer "Heart of Courage" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRLdhFVzqt4).

[RoxxyRobofox]

Well, I really liked that.

For Death's music I imagined "He Who Brings The Night" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQKWoZFe0E0). For Jammer "Heart of Courage" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRLdhFVzqt4).

Awesome! And glad you liked the story

[--NightBattery--]

that was great rexxx, had you lived in the 30's you would have been quite popular in the fantasy-science fiction magazines of the past when there were fewer relieves for awe .
not like lovecraft.
but maybe you had got greater incentive to grow your inner cosmogony than our hurried broken english replies...

for the girl* something bright like this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bxoHyYjRis or similar, you know, "hope".
for death something like classic music like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Yxea6-CNU but with a hellish piano that made every note sound like an erupting volcano in a thunderstorm during a hurricane.

[Epitaph]

This was really quite enjoyable to read, and it came across as very pleasantly surreal at times. Almost works as a sort of cyberpunk fable, if that makes sense? A pleasure to read your work as always, Rexx.

[Patashu]

Since I'm the one who posed the question to begin with, I better post what I came up with. I kind of freeformed it in my head as the story progressed, no specific songs, so I describe it as best as I can:

(6:51:13 PM) Patashu: Piano Death: Lots of atonal stuff, lots of creeping up and down, really thick heavy chords on the left hand, sometimes both hands were creeping around and playing different rhythms (like 16ths on right vs 12ths on left), lots of repetitive 12th chord hits on the right hand, sometimes there'd be violins/orchestral hits coming in for REALLY big chordal hits
Jammer Guitar: I imagined it like one of those guitar-heavy rhythm game songs I really like - lots of shredding up and down, power chords in epic uplifting melodies, power chord filled scales leading into the next chorus, a really crazy up and down shred to finish, etc
(6:51:19 PM) Patashu: Lemme try and find a song that's similar to how I imagined them both
(6:52:01 PM) Patashu: For Death I offer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxGOfPbPBPw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnGZ4PmZnZA
(6:57:28 PM) Patashu: For Jammer I offer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVwpBORBDTA (except there wasn't anything like the bassy/menancing part starting at 0:25) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xidu5lQrms

[Section_Eight]

Gotta admit, kinda imagined Death being more of an organ guy myself, but otherwise nice play on the old myth of Orpheus thingy there.

[DollSpace]

"The Devil Went Down To Cyber-Georgia"? Very interesting take on that kind of thing. I'll go through my music archive and see what I can find that matches up to my imagination, or I'll compose one myself. I liked this story a lot, especially the tenacity of Jammer.