“Shattered” O.A.R.
Adam watched the ballerina performing on stage. She seemed so graceful, so beautiful. The way she danced was extraordinary. The piano music sped up, and with it, her movements. She threw her head back, revealing the milky white skin that contrasted against the pale pink of her dress.
The movements accelerated even more so. The background displayed her shadow. It was giant compared to the dancer’s petite frame.
The piano music was reaching a crazy fast speed. Her movements seemed so perfect. As if she had slowed down time to make them perfect. She saw her shadow and the music went crazy, as if being played by a three year old that only knew how to pound on the keys. Except the music was filled with melody and harmony. Obviously, a skilled professional that practiced hours on ends was playing it.
The girl’s dancing matched the music.
The audience was breathless. They wanted to know who was behind the mask. They wanted to know who was the ballerina. They wanted to know who could dance like that.
The shadow of the dancer seemed to reach for the audience, seemed to reach for eternity. Seemed to reach for Adam.
The ballerina’s scream seemed to bounce off the walls. It seemed to swallow everyone else. Then the music slowed so much that it was only one key at a time. It was strange to go from so far to so slow. It was like a single tear and then another just as slowly. Like the drip-drip-drip of a faucet.
The ballerina on stage was dancing in the saddest way possible. The dance which had previously been hurried was now slow and melancholy.
The shadows in the background seemed to be in slow motion.
So slowly that the anticipation made the audience bounce on the corner of the seats. Her mask fell on the floor. It shone under the stage lights. The jewels seemed to hold rainbows and released them so that everyone may see them. It put the audience in a trance. The ivory of the mask and gold threading seemed to break and shatter the stillness, before returning to the calmest state yet. The music stopped for a second before picking up such speed that if you missed seeing the ballerina’s face it was now too late. She was dancing in such a fast motion that everything seemed to blur.
Then it stopped, and the ballerina bowed. The audience cached her face.
The pale skin, the bright blue eyes that had seen years of pain and damage, the pink mouth. The thick, black lashes. Everything.
Adam stood with the rest of the audience.
Even after fifteen years, he still loved her…
But she didn’t love him.
They would never be together.
That’s why they had divorced.
