Satanic Sheet Music

Avatar Author: Mostly Harmless Good day! The name's Ed - theatre buff, pianist and proud Ficleteer... Of course, all comments and ratings are appreciated, and I do try to do my bit as well - if you want to note me, that's always pleasant too! ... Read Bio

As the young lovers ran, arms outstretched to each other from opposite ends of the stage, the audience were most decidedly not supposed to be under the impression that the hounds of hell were about to burst on to the scene.

Fear was etched on to the faces of the public, and in the orchestra pit the principal violinist fought the desperate urge to scream in pain as he urgently encouraged his colleagues to try and drown out the sadistic sound ricocheting through the theatre.

Maurice Golding at the piano couldn’t understand what all the audience’s fuss seemed to be about – he guessed the actors were having a bad night. Carefully focusing on the sheet music in front of him, something looked different, but the conductor was grinning so he played on to the finale’s towering crescendo.

The performance ending, the lovers embraced.

With a flourish, Maurice triumphantly finished on the wrong chord.

Somewhere, an entire party of pensioners fainted.

Baton raised high, Lucifer turned to the audience and took a bow.

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Comments (8 so far!)

Average Reader Rating

  1. Avatar Tsu D'nehm

    Ooh that was fun!
    Loved the sense of inevitability that you set up right from the start, a very literal crescendo in both the piece and the writing. Poor Maurice! The snowballing effect of a little but terrible deed excellently shown.
    Thoroughly enjoyable.

  2. Avatar Paige Elizabeth

    Loved it! The painists focus on the sheet music was great. That narrow focus so common in musicians. Nice build in tension. Great ending .

    bravo!

  3. Avatar ElshaHawk (LoA)

    Was he a deaf pianist? lol. Just very focused. The audience knew. The actors were great, continued to act. What a show!

  4. Avatar Horrorfan13

    Interesting take on the challenge. It seemed a little fake to me, but that may have been the intent. Like one of those over-the-top plays were everything is obviously overdone. But maybe that’s the point? Sorry, I’m not sure it struck the right chord with me.

  5. Avatar PJ (Jae) [[LoA]]

    Brilliant. I love anyhting Satanic, me.
    And the theatre!
    It was all planned from the start then? Like Satan went into the music and created that extra note?

  6. Avatar someday_93

    Well, I wasn’t sure if the conductor was actually supposed to be the devil himself, or if him being called Lucifer was just sort of a clever thing…

    I liked that they were in a pit orchestra for a show, especially during a love scene. I felt bad for the poor audience.

  7. Ahfl_icon THX 0477

    Very intense throughout with some tantalizing visuals. I’m not sure I got the ending, or maybe I was expecting a different punchline to the whole thing.

  8. Avatar Jim Stitzel

    Being a writer with a bent toward the dark and also a musician, I love this macabre twist on a familiar theme. Nicely written!