Chapter 14. The Piano Room

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.

~By Mary Shelley from 'Frankenstien'.

Ariana's POV

Blinding bright light hit my face making me almost groan at the intensity. I don't want to wake up yet and the stupid light is doing a good job in irritating me. I pulled the duvet over my head but there was still faint light.

Ugh...why am I so sensitive to light? Every time, even if there is the slightest light, I just so happened to wake up from my slumber even if I'm deeply asleep.

I should just pull the curtains on.

With that planned, I pushed the duvet of my face only to find the light to suddenly dim down.

I took a glance towards the window and saw a figure looming over the window pulling the curtains close. The more I looked carefully, the more the silhouette of the figure became familiar. A smile automatically grew on my lips as I reconized who it is.

Daniel's back was facing me as he pulled the curtains on obscuring the light from entering the room. Once he was done, he backed away from the window and turned his head in my direction.

Oh my...

I quickly shut my eyes pretending to be fast asleep. I just hope he didn't notice me awake. I heard footsteps approaching me indicating he was walking towards me.

Does he know I'm awake?

I felt the bed dip a bit beside me and soon after someone's hand held my face. I felt frozen not really knowing what to do.

My heart started beating it's rhythm again. It's a fortune that werewolves can't hear each other's heartbeat if we didn't want others to hear or else I would be long caught acting.

"Thank you for yesterday," Daniel's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

I contained myself from smiling like an idiot. Come on, Daniel thanked me for something for the first time so it's completely sane to feel happy about it, right?

"But I don't want you to do that again. You would have died. And there's no reason you deserve to die. I'm the one whose the monster so I might as well take that privilege. Not you," Daniel's hand left my face and before I knew it, he was already out of the room with the door slamming shut behind him ever so slowly.

I gently opened my eyes as his words echoed in my ears.

Why does he think he's a monster and that he deserves to die?

No one deserves to die. Not even the cruellest person on the planet and as for you Daniel, you aren't as bad as you display yourself to be. You do have a soft side. Even though it's a bit rare for anyone to experience that side but still....he doesn't have to think so wrongly of himself. It's not good.

Does he think he's a monster because he's a hybrid? Is he not happy with who he is?

If that's the case, I won't bring up yesterday's events in front him. However curious I might be, I'll just let this slip so he don't feel uncomfortable around me.

I don't know why but I felt really bad when he called himself a monster. He's not a monster!

Why am I getting so stressed about what he thinks about himself?

What's wrong with me these days?

Anyways, I can sleep for a bit more since Daniel pulled the curtains on.

I shut my eyes with that moto, trying my best to avoid any thoughts of a particular person with the most captivating blue eyes as sleep took over me soon after.

◇◇◇

"There's a piano room?"

I stared at Daniel for a minute before bringing my gazes back at the room in front of me.

The piano room was like any other music room from the 80s with a grand black piano in the middle of the room with wooden floors. The huge window in front of the piano emitted a faint bright light making the room look even more beautiful. There was a candle holder placed next to the stand that held music notes. The entire lighting of the room was a bit dim but it brought a strange sense of peace and comfort.

After I had woken up and had my bathe, I had eaten quickly and dashed out of my room to acquire my mind with anything else rather than staring at the empty room and doing nothing. On my way, I saw Daniel instructing a maid to clean the piano room later and that's when I asked him whether there was a piano room. I was surprised when he actually dismised the maid and showed me here.

I skimmed my finger over the piano keyboard as I took a seat on the chair in front of the piano. Daniel was standing with his back leant against the wall across me. He was staring at me without a word while I scanned the piano.

I have always wanted to play a piano but I never got a chance to. Back at my father's house, we did have a piano in the music room but no one ever used it since my mother passed away. Or should I say, father would hit me if I ever entered that room. Father thought that the room itself reminded him of the 'ungrateful woman', his wife, who left the world leaving a burden -which was me- on his hands.

Father never was thankful of what mother did for him. No matter how many things she sacrificed for him. No matter how many ties she broke with her family just to please him, he was never grateful and he still called mother ungrateful.

I still remember those days when mother would weep and sob her hearts content in the music room as she played the piano and sang with her blessed voice which did a decent job in concealing her grievances.

Mother was an amazing pianist and she had a very lovely voice. When she sang, one would drown in the lyrics and forget everything they had on their mind. Whenever mother would play the piano, I had thought of asking her teach me to play as well but one look at her grieve-stricken face, and I would hold back my request.

Mother never did anything wrong yet she was the one to pay for everything until she finally lost hope. Only if things were different and father wouldn't have been so harsh. Would she be alive now?

I felt tears gather at the brim of my eyes. I gently wiped them away before looking at Daniel, "Isn't it funny that you have a lots of expectations from your life even though you know none of them will ever come true," I said him with sad smile while he just stared at me.

"Life's unpredictable, Ariana. You can't expect anything from it. Sometimes you might get imense happiness which you didn't even wish for and sometimes you'd be thrown into a path of utter sorrow. You can never really predict anything," Daniel spoke the words with his eyes clouded as if he was thinking about something.

"You're right. Life is unpredictable," I took a glance at the piano keyboards with a sad look as silence surrounded us.

Bringing up a smile on my face, I looked up at him, "You know Daniel, I had always wanted to play the piano but I never got a chance to learn," I tried to change the topic since it was getting really awkward with us talking about serious matters and I felt as if I was talking like a monk.

I saw him stare at me for a minute before he spoke, "It's never too late. I can teach you how to play the piano if you want."

I was taken a back by his sudden proposal. From when did the cold-hearted Daniel Rodriguez turn so generous?

But since he looks quite genuine, I might as well take this opportunity to learn something new and who knows I might get to know Daniel a little bit more after this...

"Really? That would be great!" My voice must have displayed the excitement in them as he walked upto me coming to stand beside where I sat.

"Let's begin from today itself," Daniel stated picking the music notes sheet from above the piano and skimming through it's pages before settling on a page, "Since you're a beginner, let's try an easy piece. Here, try imitating these music notes."

Daniel placed the displayed notes on the stand while I gazed at it carefully and tried pressing the keys one by one as mentioned on the sheet. Somehow, the music that was created sounded like a screechy violin instead of creating a sweet melancholy. Maybe because I was pressing the keys after long pauses. I have to press the next keys faster. As I tried pressing them quicker than before, the sound made became more ear piercing.

"That doesn't sound right. Let me show you," Daniel's voice came next to my ear, his breath fanning against my earlobe. I almost jumped out of my seat due to his sudden voice but I stayed put.

Daniel was standing behind me. The center of the room where the piano was situated had a raised platform so he didn't have to lean much only that he was leaning in such a way that his face was next to mine and his hands were on either sides of me, caging me in between as he played the music notes with such fluency creating a sweet resounding music as if it were a walk in the meadow for him.

I was so occupied by watching the way his long fingers moved efficiently against the keyboards and the lovely music it created that I didn't realise how close he was standing to me. Daniel's chest was barely touching my upper back while his face was deathly close to mine, his breath fanning against my ear once in while as he breathed.

Oh my...

Turning my head a bit to the side, I took a peak of his face but regretted the moment I did that. Daniel was staring back at me with his enticing blue eyes that seemed to peer through my very soul. I didn't even notice that the music had stopped long ago and there was only silence that followed along with us staring at each other. My heart was pulminating loudly in my chest.

I wanted to look away but I simply couldn't. It was as if I was in a trance and my mind refused to snap out of it. My eyes took into his features not missing even a single detail. Daniel's eyes seemed softer and gentle. Unknowingly, my gazes settled on his plush pink lips and I felt my cheeks feel hot. For the first time since I met him, I felt like we shared a connection....a true connection. Am I deluding myself?

Suddenly, he looked away backing away in the process, "If you aren't going to pay attention, then how will you be able to play?"

Daniel was avoiding eye contact and I was doing the same. I was staring at the wooden floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Ah, sorry. Maybe today is not the right day to learn. I...I should go. I'll... try to play the piano again later. Okay, bye," with that I got up from my seat and dashed out of the piano room, shutting the door behind me, leaving a confused Daniel inside.

Once I was out of the room, I rested my back against the closed door. I brought my hand to my chest where my heart beated like crazy.

Oh my God....what just happened?

____

A very big SORRY for the super late update. I'm not going to lie. For the first week, I was occupied with the admission process for the college. After that, I planned on writing, but I just didn't have the mood and completely lost interest.

But thankfully, now I have my motivation back and there's still half a month left of my vacations. So, I'll try my best to update more frequently.

Bubye for now. Have a nice day:)

I hope you liked the chapter:)