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Kevin walked along the deserted hallways of St Churnley’s School. Shadows loomed around, beaten back by the flaming braziers that lined the walls. A cool autumnal breeze swept past, sending a shiver through the young boy. This school was seriously creepy and not at all very hakuna matata.
Walking alone, it felt weird to be away from Roland, Edgar and Monty. Since arriving at the school, the four of them had been practically inseparable; always at least two of them together. The quiet felt odd, oppressive perhaps.
He missed the other boys, but they were off doing their own hobbies. He himself had just finished his first violin lesson here and was heading back to put his instrument in his dorm room. It had gone well, considering. Sure, it felt good to be playing again. He’d missed the calming nature of it, how he could disappear into a world of music and forget life for a short time.
But.
There was always a but, it seemed. The school’s music department was seriously underfunded, and the music teacher looked as though he probably met half of the greatest composers from the past. And for an old man, he was strict. He demanded perfection. If Kevin got a note wrong, restart the piece. If he kept messing up, repeat that section until it could be done without the sheet music.
Oh, the sheet music. There was nothing suitable. It was a pitiful library of basic piano pieces, choral pieces, and some of the most complicated sheet music Kevin had ever seen. In the end, he was forced to use his Disney songbook, just so the music would be at his level. It was a nice surprise that the songbook was for grade 4 level; he wasn’t entirely sure whether his father had even known what grade he was or not.
But after playing the same phrase from Reflection on repeat until Kevin was sure he would go mad, he wasn’t sure if these lessons would help him or just kill off any passion he had for the instrument. He wished he could have a book with proper violin music in, with real composers. Back home, the only time his parents had let him practice anything that wasn’t Disney was when he was taking his grades, and so had to do set pieces from a repertoire.
As he walked, the faint sound of a violin being played drifted his way, getting louder with every step he took. Kevin’s steps faltered. This couldn’t be some creature or malevolent spirit mimicking him, could it? Not another. He couldn’t deal with that again. Not with what might have happened - what did happen - not even a week ago.
Kevin’s heart sped up, breath quickening, as he drew his dagger and slowly crept forward, praying he wouldn’t see anything. Rounding the corner, the music swelled in volume, and its origin made clear.
Nurse Lenny’s office, door ajar, music that could only be described as hauntingly beautiful flowing from the room. Entranced, Kevin put the dagger away and crept closer to the door.
Peering in through the gap, Kevin watched in awe at this musician, the fluidity of his arms as he drew the bow back and forth across the strings, the dexterity of his fingers hitting every note perfectly on the fingerboard. His form was perfect as he swayed, lost in the music he was making.
Kevin looked down at his own violin safely tucked away in its case, at his own hands, and wondered if he would ever be that good. Perhaps. Maybe one day.
If he lives long enough, a dark corner of his mind supplied, inky tendrils of doubt and not unearned fear creeping forward and wrapping themselves around his thoughts.
No! No. He had friends. They would keep each other safe. They have so far. They would make it to graduation. They had to.
Kevin was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of a discordant screech from inside the room. A slip of the bow, a misplaced finger, and an end to the beautiful melody. Nurse Lenny’s eyes opened, falling directly on Kevin as he peered through the door.
“Kevin? Is that you?” Lenny called out, starting to walk towards the door.
Kevin jerked, eyes wide at being caught, and, before Lenny had even taken two steps towards the door, Kevin had fled, running as fast as his little legs could take him, violin case clutched tightly in his arms.
The rest of the day disappeared in a flurry of food, homework and games, and before he knew it, they were heading up to bed. Goodnights were said, and promises to wake each other up if needed made. None of them had been sleeping well since the battle in the tower. Sure, they had all started seeing Professor Kelly for therapy, but this wasn’t something that could be fixed in less than a week.
As Kevin lay in bed, the sounds of Roland’s snores, along with the occasional whimper, coming from the other side of the room, he finally found time to think back on what had happened that afternoon.
Why had he run away? He wasn’t scared of Nurse Lenny. He was one of the few adults here that truly seemed to care for their wellbeing. He understood that anything the man had done while inside the mimic monster wasn’t his fault.
So then, why had he run?
Nurse Lenny would be the perfect person to talk to about playing and where to get proper music from. Perhaps he could ask him if he could tutor him, or at least give him pointers occasionally. But, no. That would be stupid. Why would the school nurse want to tutor some bratty little first year who can’t seem to keep out of trouble.
Besides, Kevin thought, he’s not good enough. When someone plays at that level of professional for fun, they wouldn’t be bothered with someone with as little talent as he had. It would just be embarrassing.
In the early hours of the morning, sleep finally called for Kevin, and he drifted off into a restless sleep, plagued with dreams of violin monsters and discordant music.
The week that followed seemed normal in comparison to their first week. Actual lessons were attended, with both normal school and curse specific content. It could almost be mistaken for a normal school year.
Almost. If one ignored the wary look in students’ eyes, the darting motions they made when a noise startled them, or how fingers twitched towards weapons at their side at the slightest sign of anything more unnatural than normal for them.
Or if one ignored the hordes of students and professors going in and out of Prof. Kelly’s office, which had been moved to the main building while the tower was being refurbished. Not that four specific boys would have wanted to go anywhere near the tower. Reliving what happened in therapy was enough without the therapy taking place where the battle happened.
Kevin spent the week getting to be just a student. He and the other three boys fell into an uneasy rhythm of lessons, playtime, and general school life. Evenings were spent, the four of them in one of their rooms, chatting, learning about each other now they had the time and all conversations didn’t need to be centred around mysteries and planning.
The week wasn’t entirely normal, however. Niggling at the back of Kevin’s mind was his interaction with Nurse Lenny the other afternoon, and he made a conscious effort to stay away from the nurse for fear of being questioned about his behaviour. It helped that they weren’t being grievously injured every other hour and therefore didn’t require visits to the nurse’s office.
Before he knew it, another week had gone past and he found himself walking the same route back to the dorm room with his violin. Yet again, the music lesson had been a trial. He had tried to show his progress with Reflection, but the professor had nitpicked ever harder, citing that he’d had a week to practice and therefore it should be better than it was.
Kevin had been close to blowing up at him and walking out. As it was, he was still seething as he walked the now familiar corridors. Mind completely on the music lesson from hell, he didn’t realise he would walk past the nurse’s office until he rounded the corner and yet again heard the enchanting melody coming through the open door.
He stopped. He’d been thinking about this all week, putting it off. He had options here. He could continue walking; ignore the draw of the music. He could knock on the door; start the conversation himself and open himself to the possibility of serious embarrassment. Or, he could just listen again; enjoy the music and disappear before the nurse even noticed he was there.
Eavesdropping plan decided upon, Kevin crept up to the door and stood outside, making sure this time to stay out of eyeline through the door. Minutes flowed by as the melody continued to drift out of the room. Kevin felt his eyes fall closed as he lost himself in the music.
When he opened his eyes upon realising the music had stopped, he looked up to find Nurse Lenny standing in the doorway, violin in hand, and a bemused but concerned smile on his face.
“You alright there, Kevin? You’re not hurt are you?”
“Oh um, yeah, I’m fine, just on my way back to the dorms. Sorry to have disturbed you.” He stumbled over his words, embarrassed at being caught lurking. Turning to leave, he heard the nurse call to him.
“You want to come in? Not seen much of you since that whole thing went down.” Kevin paused, mind stuck between wanting a conversation and desperation to avoid any more embarrassment. Steeling himself, he took a deep breath, then turned back around and followed Lenny into his office.
It looked just the same as it did before. A desk, filing cabinets, shelves filled with books and oddities, a couple of chairs, and the patient's bed. It was there that Kevin hopped up onto, legs swinging back and forth, looking anywhere but at the nurse.
“Didn’t have a proper chance to say thank you.” Nurse Lenny started the conversation from across the room, leaning against his desk where his violin now lay. “Hexmaster Singh tells me it was you who pulled me out of that monster. You did a good job.”
“Er yeah, I mean, Roland helped a lot too. Wasn’t just me.” Kevin rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, unused to the praise.
“How you holding up? That was quite something to experience at your age.”
“I’m getting there. We all are.” He paused, fiddling with the edge of his blazer, legs still swinging. “Edgar’s finding it hardest I think. I mean, he nearly died and he’s lost Poe. We weren’t sure if he was going to stay or not.”
“Ah yes, I heard about Edgar and Poe. Gonna miss that bird, he was quite the character. I’m glad Edgar’s got the three of you. That isn’t something you should go through without friends by your side.”
“Are you alright, sir? Like, you were inside that thing. And it came from your coals. If I haven’t got over fighting in a week, you can’t have got over that.”
“Well, you’d be right there.” He looked weary, like the weight of the world had been thrust upon him. “I’m seeing Prof Kelly a lot, as I imagine you lot are. It’s not going to be easy moving past this, but it’ll get there. And I’m getting there with healing people again. The Hexmaster has put contingencies in place to stop what happened from happening again. There’s also music. I’m finding that getting lost in playing can make certain thoughts quiet for a time.” He looked over at the case Kevin was holding, as if noticing it for the first time. “You play violin?”
“Oh, er yeah. I’m not as good as you though.” Kevin replied sheepishly, staring down at the case holding his instrument, morosely.
“You’ll learn, if you keep at it. I wasn’t great when I was your age. Think I took my grade 2 just before I joined here. But I practiced and got better. I assume you’re taking lessons?”
“Yeah, they’re not - not what I’m used to.” His reply was hesitant, seemingly unwilling to speak bad of the music teacher in front of another member of staff.
“Oh yeah? What are your thoughts on the lessons? I always found the music professor to be a task master. Never happy with what you play. A real confidence knocker until you realise he’s just trying to get you to be the best you can be.”
“Huh, I hadn’t really thought of it like that before. Um, well, I mean, the lessons are alright, I suppose. Like, I’m glad I can play and there is someone to teach me, but they don’t exactly have decent sheet music for violins and nothing really suitable for my grade, so I’ve been playing from my disney scorebook, but I hate it and I just want to play real music.”
Lenny stood there, looking contemplative at what Kevin had just blurted to him, then turned and started rummaging through one of the drawers of a filing cabinet.
“If you want -” his voice came muffled and tinny from inside the drawer, “- I’ve still got all my books. What grade are you?”
“Four.”
“Four, four, hmm, ah yes, this will be perfect.” He emerged from the drawer holding a thick book aloft in triumph. “Here we are, ‘The Greatest Composers: The Collection, for Grade 4 with accompaniment’. You got a favourite composer?”
“Um,” Kevin wracked his brain, trying to remember anything non Disney he had particularly enjoyed. “I quite enjoyed Handel when I got to do one of his for my exam last year.”
“Ah, ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’?” Kevin nodded in response. “Good choice.”
“Do you want to play something? I could accompany you if you would like.”
Kevin looked panicked at this idea and started grabbing his stuff together to leave, stumbling over his words as he replied. “Oh um, I don’t want to trouble you. I’m not as good as you are and I’m sure there are much better things you should be doing.”
“Hey, it doesn’t matter that you’re not as good as me right now.” Nurse Lenny walked across the office and crouched down in front of the young boy, looking at him with assured conviction.
“You’re young. You don’t have to have everything perfect yet. You have time to just enjoy playing. Besides, don’t put yourself down like that. You are grade 4, that means you are talented. Music sings in your blood, and I don't mean your curse. Your curse may have manifested through music, but you were obviously musical before. Never say you’re not good enough. You are yourself, and that is enough.”
“You really think I’ll ever be good enough?” If Lenny wasn’t crouched right in front of the boy, he might have missed the timid question, half murmured.
Lenny’s heart clenched to hear so much self-doubt and insecurity from the first year. Kevin was such a vivacious boy, to see him so closed off and yet vulnerable made him wonder what had happened in the past to cause the boy to have such a lack of confidence regarding his talents.
“Kevin. Look at me,” Lenny said softly, his voice calm and kind. Kevin finally raised his head and met Lenny’s eyes. “You are good enough now. You try your best and you persevere. Sure, more skill will come with practice, but that does not diminish the skills you currently have. You. Are. Enough. And I would very much like to try playing something with you. Because music should be shared, and I wish I had had someone to play with when I was your age. And because you are good enough. What do you say?”
Kevin blinked back tears that were threatening to fall, unused to such validation.”Um, yeah, okay, yeah, that would be cool. I um, don’t know much that isn’t Disney.”
“That’s alright. How about we try that Handel piece you liked? Come on, get your violin out. We’ve still got time before dinner.” Lenny wandered back over to the desk and started flicking through the music book, looking for the piece, while Kevin jumped down from the patient’s bed and opened up his case, the start of a smile creeping onto his face.
Violins in hand and music set upon the stand, the two musicians stood side by side. The younger shooting a trepidacious smile up at the older, who smiled back supportively.
A beat, and then music filled the room. Any uncertainty soon disappeared as both players got lost in the music, the two lines of music flowing together and wrapping around each other in harmony. The joy derived from this chance, this experience was palpable to any who heard as the music drifted from the room and filled the creepy flamelit corridors of St Churnley’s School for Cursed Boys.