1 |One|

I walked calmly yet with some form of brashness into the Piano room, smoothing the front of my suit jacket. It had the best view in the mansion: a seat in which you could swivel it round to watch either the pianist construct his beautiful concoctions of constructive symphonies, or turn it the other way to look down upon the city in all of its glory. Whether it was in the day, with the suns rays creeping through the little slits in the city's asymmetrical skyline, or the blaring lights and shadows that cast over the place at night. Both were equally as calming, yet equally as compelling, almost compelling enough to make one think of what the average Joe would do on his normal day. It seems decades ago that I was one of them. Then again, that could indeed be true, as I was beginning to feel the effects of age take over me. I took a seat in the spinning row, fixating the chair to face the city. The current time was close to midnight, with the first few specks of light beginning to show their newborn faces to the world. Street lamps began to slowly flicker and fizz, as if only realising how late they are to their fixated work. A few lights and very, very faint horns could be heard as the traffic ran like veins around the city.

It's as if they never rest.

A gentle closing of a well oiled door notified me that Albert, the best Pianist I'd ever had the beautiful fortune of hearing, had entered the room. A good thing too, as I'd called for him urgently and with grace. I rarely asked for such, so most of the servants knew it was an emergency, making them approach and move with a kinetically advanced haste. A bead of sweat had somehow formed upon my brow and rolled its way down my face, landing with a very slightly dark thud onto my collar.

The finest suit I've ever owned.

Albert had taken a seat by now, I knew this because I could hear him adjusting his personal seat. The slightly quickened breath and constantly changing pitch of squeaking told me so. Another sudden sound of quick movement told me his seat was in position and his hands were lifting the cover.

Now all we had to do was wait.

As I had slightly relaxed into my row, the side door opened rather dramatically as Roderick, the head butler, bustled in, carrying a single bottle of Taste Of Diamonds and one champagne glass. The bottle seemed to shimmer almost as brightly as the city as it was paraded in, held with such a precautious nature one might think it was a live bomb being delivered to a team for defusing. Roderick's face was as blank and purposefully emotionless as ever as he sat the two items from the dish upon the table, a bottle opener only a few millimetres away. A few seconds of silence passed, with only the breathing of my own and a slight shift from Albert's chair being heard. Finally, Roderick had built up the courage to break through the circling silence.

"Sir, if I may?" He asked curtly.

"You may." I replied as such.

"What is the special occasion?" He questioned, eyeing the bottle as if it were pure diamond.

"I'll happily answer that in one moment." I shied away, speaking in a slightly raised voice to emulate itself to Albert:

"Albert, are you prepared?"

"Of course Sir. What would you like me to play you?" Albert's gruff voice had always made him seem as if he couldn't coax a good melody even if his life depended on it. Alas, he was a fantastic pianist, and one who knew as well as I did about how rough it used to be for all.

"Clair De Lune, in any key, if you will." I answered. A grunt was key enough for me to turn my attention to the city once more as the beginning notes of the famous romantic song began to form. I suppose it was time to face the truth at this point. It was time to reveal what all the planning and the rushing and the business was about. I turned my head slightly, entire face still staring down intently at the city I'd grew up in, as I spoke to Roderick:

"What do you see here, Roderick?"

A moment of confusion, almost like a wave in the ocean, crossed his face before quickly dispersing again, washing away as if it was never there. "Nothing of note Sir, just the city and the common people doing what the common people do."

I allowed a few seconds more of silence, partly to allow for Roderick's brain to process the situation more, partly to allow myself to enjoy the bittersweet melody that had began to fill the room. It brought me a joyful sadness when listening to it, as so often piano does to most. The biggest events had often been hosted in here, and now all that remained were those memories, and even then they simply weren't going to exist for much longer.

"Look deeper Roderick. Do you see anything else?" I had then lent my hand into an inner pocket, pulling out both a hand-crafted leather lighter, and four Gurkha Royal Courtesan Cigars. Placing three onto the dish, I flicked the lighter, expecting a rush of fluid to be lit by the crackling spark, but instead being met by the bitter disappointment of a brief flash. A second attempt proved to be the same. Only on the third attempt did it finally ignite, allowing me to gently smoulder the end of the cigar long enough to light it. I took in the flame for a few moments, admiring the beauty of it before cutting it off and watching it instantly die.

"I'm afraid to say I don't Sir, or not anything to note. I can make out a few buildings, and maybe a few vehicles, but nothing of the magnitude you seem to speak of."

Albert was truly in rhythm now. I could feel his passion being reflected in the power of his keystrokes as he perfectly encapsulated the true orchestral beauty of the track, each new note tugging upon my chest and tightening it just a little bit more. I took a puff of the cigar, partly to hide the gasp that would've come from the depths of my stomach, partly to take in the feeling of the smoke filling my lungs.

The best cigars, the best champagne, and the best Pianist. Anyone could see this moment was created for a reason.

The corner of my eye could foggily make out the entire team of servants crowding around the door, each one of their faces intent and their ears craned to hear us. My head lent back slightly before I began to explain, a steel-like tone being underlined by my usual jolly speech:

"I see a heart, Roderick. Not a heart like you or I have, but a heart that beats as a whole. A heart that includes people like you or I, yet also people who rest below us, or even those who are below them. A whole heart, if you will. If you look as intently as I have, you'll begin to see something that's quite worrying: The heart is beginning to slow down. It's been slowly stopping, so slowly in fact that we haven't noticed it. All this time we thought it was still beating as good and as true as the day we created it, but we were wrong. And now, it's slowed down to such an extent that it's barely still beating. But the truly terrifying thing is..." I stopped for a moment to take in another drag of the cigar, calming me and focusing my mind once again. "Even those down there have noticed it. Those, who we have clouded with work, and money, and clothes, and ideals, and distractions. Even they have noticed the heart's early stages of death. And I can almost guarantee you, Roderick, that they will not take kindly to it."

I could see the pure fear that had suddenly clouded its way behind Roderick's eyes as he processed this new information, clearly confused by it.

"May I speak freely?" He measured himself as he spoke, trying to keep his flat tone we were all so used to.

"Roderick, you may speak freely for the rest of this day." I responded with a little humour in my voice, yet my vocal notes were still as precise as ever. My tone would not be lost.

"What caused it?" Roderick had jumped straight into the deep end, struggling to kick his legs and stay afloat. I dragged him back to earth with my response:

"What caused what?"

"The heart to slow down, Sir." He responded, exasperation finally cracking through his guard. I laughed quite quietly, so to make sure it didn't feel like I was laughing at Albert, before taking another hit of the cigar.

"When someone's heart is hurt, it is operated or dissected upon, correct? Well, a dissection is only occurring upon death, so as for the true motivation? I have no idea. We can only speculate until then. The operations we have done haven't focused on the heart, Roderick. We focused on everything but the one thing that keeps our world the way it has always been. And if you'll watch with me now Roderick, you'll see the world coming to an end..."  My eyes were truly focused and locked in now. My brain highlighted the skyscraper that seemed to tower above it all, a monster looking down upon the world that flew past it in its blinding flashes and traces of neon. A building that looked as if it would stand the test of time and the weight of the world upon it. A building representing humanity itself. My cigar was almost dry, and Albert was almost halfway through Clair De Lune.

"In five..." I began to count as Roderick's face began to dissolve from his usual calmness to one of fear, one who expected the worst.

"Four..."

the few clouds that floated through the almost starless sky began to rewind and stagnate as time felt like an abstract constant, with all gazes but Albert's being focused into the city, as if it were about to do a trick or a spell we simply couldn't miss.

"Three..."

my cigar's red embers had almost reached my hand. The gentle wisps of ash swirling as it mixed with the second hand smoke my mouth was extruding, conjuring into one streamlined river of grey.

"Two..."

The few murmurs from the servants I could hear were of nothing positive, yet also nothing worth of recounting. If anything, everyone just outside and inside of the Piano room were calm and collected, all together in one way or another to bask in the end of it all

"One..."

the light from one of the street lamps faded, it's futile attempts at trying to keep itself alive realised and taken care of. A car pulled over just in front of it, lights cut out and invisible as it remained crouched and hidden in the darkness.

"Zero."

My voice cut off with the beginning of Albert's crescendo as my hand quickly flashed towards the skyscraper and back again, showing that it had now truly begun:

The world was at its end. The final hours had been placed upon us.

A minute passed. Nothing changed, nothing moved, nothing even looked out of the ordinary. Roderick turned to me, lines of sweat drooling down his face, with embarrassment coursing through him.

"Sir, what an earth were you counting down?! The world hasn't ended!"

"No. But the heart has just stopped beating. The people have just realised it. Now all we can do is watch and wait."

My patience was finally bested by my conscious awareness of time slipping away as I reached for the corkscrew attached to the bottom of the bottle opener, effortlessly twisting the top away as I poured myself a glass.

"Can someone bring a second glass, please?" I uttered into the crowd of servants. One appeared seemingly instantly, placing it on the dish so quickly I couldn't even recognise them, let alone say "Thank you." I poured an extra one for Roderick to enjoy later with mine.

"What caused it to stop beating? The heart, I mean, as you say it has finally died."

I pondered this question as I looked out upon the kingdom, already watching it beginning it's ruin.

"I mean, it could be anything really. It could've been the housing crisis, it could've been the wars, it could've been the murders, it could've been the drugs, it could've been the killings, the violence, the politicians, the police, the outlaws, the red button, the laws, the recession, the pandemic, lack of understanding, lack of acknowledgment, or it could've simply been there were too many people like us. Until death, we cannot do a dissection, but unfortunately we won't be alive for that part."

Roderick jumped out of his seat as I took my glass and sipped it, enjoying the scent and the taste of finer riches in life. Placing it down once again, I tore my eyes away to indulge in his expression of complete and utter horror before averting my gaze to importance and my ears to the hypnotic rhythm.

"Well what are we doing just sitting here? We must go-"

"Go where?" I cut in, with a slight laugh "everywhere else will be the same. And the few places that simply do not exist like the rest will not care enough to tolerate nor re-educate us. This is it, Roderick, the end of it all. You can stand there and panic, or you may sit and enjoy the peace. Those are the only two options we have."

"What- what if we join them, Sir? Surely they must let us in."

I could tell he was trying to find any excuse to give in, but he clearly wasn't looking at the bigger picture the same way I was.

"As we are? With our mannerisms and our ways? We are the enemy now. We drove parts of our swords through the heart just as harshly as some of them did. The problem is, they took theirs out. We left our names in the heart, so we will be the first to go. I have accepted the inevitable, and now it is time for you to do so too. I'm sorry if you had anything planned, or a future you wanted, but it's gone now. All of it. If you were to step outside now, you'd only be killed sooner. I'm offering you a change to make peace, you may take it or leave it." Upon those final words, I ordered him the second glass, with a half smile painted upon my face. I watched him physically struggle between facing the door and the row I sat in. He closed his eyes for a few moments, clearly taking his mind through both routes and weighing them individually. After a moment of this, his face relaxed with a sigh, his shoulders sagged, and he dropped his straight posture ever so slightly. His eyes dulled. He didn't say a word as he took a seat next to me, taking the glass with one hand and putting his other to his forehead with a streak of worrying.

"If I may have one more glass..." I had managed half of the sentence before another one was brought to me. However, instead of rushing off, the young lady stood patiently and silently as I took it from her.

"Thank you ma'am." I curtly replied with respect.

"May I ask: what are our orders?" She looked into my eyes, clearly looking for some hope or some form of comfort. I couldn't offer any, as hard as I tried to muster up the courage to formulate some. Milliseconds later, I gave in, and responded the way I should have years ago:

"You are all free to go. Do what you like with this time, as I know not how they may treat you. The mansion is yours as much as mine. Enjoy it as well as I have. My only objection is to never enter here again, as I would like my last moments to be in silence and peace." The lady merely nodded and walked towards the door as if in a trance. I could hear her recounting the news, and a sudden scuffle of feet told me all I needed to know about the servants I used to own. The only sound I heard after that from outside of the Piano room was the sound of both doors being locked, with a key being slid under each one.

Not so much for us to get out, but more for those who wished to get in.

"Cigar?" I offered one to Roderick, which he took with no objection. His face was still frozen in time, even as I lit the thing and he brought it to his mouth. He had just finished the first drag upon it when an explosion the size of a three-bedroom house suddenly plumed out of the top of the skyscraper, raining down flames and scraps of metal as sharp and as lethal as shrapnel upon the masses. Even from here I could see the world take in this spectacularly horrific moment. I stole a glance at Roderick and still saw no change in his face, nor a change behind his eyes. The man was seeing what I saw now: A city that had finally reached its brink, and was now breaking down until death. Even then, it would continue to bury itself, trying to hide its awful deeds and people with the passage of time and erosion, but nothing would change. Time cannot heal all wounds, nor can it clean and bandage them. The beginning of the final phase of Clair De Lune was playing, the altruistically somber and flattening tune seemingly levitating in mid air as it was played.

"So we wait?" Roderick's mouth moved

"So we wait." Mine did the same.

I could see the skin of the heart being breached: Fires were beginning to spit and sparkle their way through buildings, smaller explosions via cars had began to appear like fireworks, and I could even make out small and short bursts of flame, which could only be gunshots.

Our city is burning, and we can do nothing, say nothing, or act in any way to stop it. We are just as powerless as we always were.

I could feel the song nearing its end. A pang of sadness seemed to ricochet around my body as I realised this would be it. This would be the last thing I ever tasted, the last thing I ever smoked, the final notes I'd hear besides (hopefully not) my screaming. A tear broke the crevice of my perfect mask, tracing its way down my face. Roderick clocked this.

"You're just as afraid as I am." He said, almost pleased with it.

"Yes, I truly am." Was my response.

Everything we built, all the empires, all the houses, the roads, the wires, the pipes, the towers, the monuments, everything, was being destroyed by the very creatures that built it. I could see an extremely large crowd, being lead by someone holding what looked like a flag painted in still dripping blood, beginning the long march up to our area. I could also make out a few people who were like us heading down, their hands held up in surrender. They were quickly killed, those who had to walk past simply stepping on or over the bodies.

"Why didn't they let them live?" Roderick's voice was truly quivering as he drank half of his glass, leaving only a little left as he looked back at me. I couldn't face him, it would break me, so instead I focused on the bloody flag as I spoke:

"We had a chance to surrender. Our chance to surrender died when we thought we were too good for them. When we decided to live in our own world. When we decided we were better than them. We lost our change to surrender when we left them. We left them to rot Roderick. You'd hate us if we did that, but we ignored it. We didn't realise it'd relapse on us until it was too late."

I could see people being split up to be sent into different houses, small groups twisting their way round intricate fencing and perfectly cut bushes to get into killing range.

God, it all seems so stupid now. The riches. The clothes. The pampering. The... the everything.

There was still a large crowd, and they were close enough to allow me to make out their bodies. The person in front circled the group with their finger before pointing towards my mansion, and from here I could see the fire in their eyes. I don't blame them. I'd do the same.

The final notes had just been played as Albert held onto the keys for as long as he could, revelling in his ability to contain his power to such a level of expertise. His hands lifted themselves from their usual position to loosen and become slack in his sitting position.

"Will that be all Sir?" He said. I was too lost in thought to answer.

"Sir..?" He said, a little louder, and after Roderick nudged me hard enough, I jumped ever so slightly, knocking me out of my state of mind.

"No, no, that'll be all Albert. Come, take a seat."

"Oh no, I cannot. Not with such prestige as you. If I may Sir- You seemed rather deep in thought, could it be that I have missed something?" He asked rather innocently.

"Oh, nothing too big Albert, only the end of the world. Come up, have a glass of champagne, and we'll happily fill you in."

Albert, clearly knocked by the news, took a seat next to Roderick. He was passed a glass before he was exposed to the outside, but upon seeing it he reacted differently than expected. He simply sighed, took off his own suit jacket, and looked down, clearly thinking about what to say.

"I knew this would happen." Was all he said.

"Cigar?" I offered. I'd just thrown mine in my ashtray, so I had two left. A curt nod told me all I knew as I handed it over and lit it.

"Where am I to put the ash?" Roderick asked. The people were marching closer and closer. I was able to see some of their faces as they approached, each one bitter and hardened by the world that had just been thrusted upon them. Some were burnt, others were cut, and some were seemingly unscathed, but for now they had a common enemy in which to target, and they intended to get us all.

"I don't think it really matters." I replied as I sat back, taking in the flaming skyscraper that seemed to lick the edges of the night sky. The smoke was almost invisible when focused on it, hidden by the true beauty of the night.

"The last of the high class" I joked as I leaned back and emptied my glass. The taste of defeat stung my tongue. I poured another one, and topped up everyone else's. The flames and explosions had finally reached the core of the city, and as I watched, the buildings which stood strong and tall only a few minutes ago finally tumbled to the ground in a mountain of rubble and broken dreams. The crowd had reached the gate by now. I knew there was no possibility of them going round it, so all they could do was break the gate. The gate is sextuple locked and draped in chains, but I knew that wouldn't hold them.

"Any last words, gentlemen?" I turned to the final two men, in a silent Piano room, with no one else left like us for miles.

"It was good fun while it lasted, wasn't it?" Albert responded, half jokingly. I chuckled a little, agreeing, whilst Roderick nodded his head politely. He turned to me as he spoke, directing it clearly:

"No regrets at all, thank you Sir." He held out his hand as he spoke. With a tear in my eye, I shook it gently, allowing peace to finally meet my soul.

"Well, gentlemen.." I said as I watched them break the chains, ripping through them like butter. "I suppose we will meet again in the next life."

Roderick nodded.

Albert raised his glass

And the gates finally crashed open.

-TheGuide, finished at exactly 21:18 on Friday 28th August, 2020