Chapter 5:Practice Room No. 17
976 Words
The photograph felt heavier than it should.
Kai turned it over again beneath the dim light of the dormitory desk lamp.
Five students.
All smiling.
All wearing the St. Aurora Academy uniform.
Their arms were wrapped around one another like nothing in the world could separate them.
Except…
One face had been scratched away so violently that only torn paper remained.
Below the picture, the faded handwriting still chilled him.
Some songs should stay buried forever.
Kai looked at the names written beneath the remaining students.
Three were still visible.
Adrian Hale.
Eleanor Whitmore.
The third name had faded beyond recognition.
The scratched-out student’s name…
Had been completely erased.
⸻
A sudden knock echoed through the room.
“Kai?”
Noah poked his head inside.
“You’ve been hiding in here since last night.”
Kai quietly slid the photograph into his notebook.
“I’m coming.”
“You better.”
Noah grinned.
“Today’s our first practical class.”
⸻
The Melody Building buzzed with excitement.
Students carried instruments through the halls while professors assigned rehearsal rooms.
Professor Hale stood before Class 3-A.
His sharp eyes swept across the room.
“Music cannot be taught.”
Silence.
“It can only be discovered.”
He placed a small wooden box on the teacher’s desk.
Inside were folded slips of paper.
“You’ll draw room assignments.”
“The person you rehearse with today…”
“…may become the musician who changes your life.”
Students laughed.
Some whispered excitedly.
Kai reached into the box.
He unfolded his paper.
Practice Room 17.
Across the classroom…
Aria unfolded hers.
Her smile disappeared.
She slowly looked up.
Their eyes met.
She raised her paper.
17.
Noah leaned over dramatically.
“No way…”
“Eighty practice rooms in this building…”
“And you two get paired?”
Someone in the back whistled.
Sophia folded her arms.
Damien looked away without a word.
Professor Hale simply nodded.
“As expected.”
Kai frowned.
Expected?
⸻
Practice Room 17 sat at the end of the oldest corridor in the Melody Building.
Unlike the others…
Its door was made of dark oak instead of polished white wood.
A small brass plaque read:
Room 17
Beneath it…
Someone had carved tiny musical notes into the frame decades ago.
Aria stopped walking.
“You’ve never been here before?”
Kai shook his head.
She hesitated.
“My mother used to study in this room.”
Kai looked at her.
“Really?”
She nodded.
“She always said Room Seventeen remembers every song ever played inside.”
Kai smiled slightly.
“You actually believe that?”
Aria smiled back.
“I don’t know.”
“But…”
She gently pushed open the door.
“…listen.”
The room creaked softly.
Dust floated through beams of morning sunlight.
An old grand piano rested in one corner.
Several guitars hung neatly on the wall.
A violin sat inside a glass cabinet.
Everything looked untouched.
Almost sacred.
Kai stepped inside.
For some reason…
The air felt colder.
⸻
Professor Hale entered a moment later.
He carried an old acoustic guitar.
Without speaking…
He placed it into Kai’s hands.
Kai froze.
“I don’t…”
Hale interrupted.
“I know.”
The professor’s voice was softer than usual.
“You haven’t played in two years.”
Kai stared.
“…How do you know that?”
Professor Hale didn’t answer.
Instead, he looked toward the classroom window.
“As musicians…”
“We all carry silence differently.”
Kai looked down at the guitar.
His fingers trembled.
He hadn’t held one since…
No.
He couldn’t.
“I can’t.”
“You won’t.”
Professor Hale corrected quietly.
“There is a difference.”
The room fell silent.
Even Aria said nothing.
Hale turned toward the door.
“You have one hour.”
He paused.
“Don’t waste it.”
Then he left.
⸻
Kai placed the guitar back on its stand almost immediately.
“I told him.”
“I don’t play anymore.”
Aria walked toward the piano.
She didn’t argue.
Didn’t persuade.
Instead…
She played.
One note.
Then another.
A gentle melody filled the room.
Not to convince him.
Not to impress him.
Simply…
To keep him company.
Kai closed his eyes.
The melody felt strangely familiar.
Like a forgotten memory trying to return.
Without thinking…
His fingers reached toward the guitar again.
Just one chord.
That’s all.
The moment his fingertips brushed the strings—
A loud metallic crash exploded from somewhere inside the walls.
The lights flickered.
The piano stopped.
Aria looked toward the ceiling.
“Did you hear that?”
Another sound.
This time…
Footsteps.
Running.
Directly above them.
“But…”
Aria whispered.
“There isn’t another floor.”
The footsteps continued.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Kai grabbed the guitar stand.
The footsteps suddenly stopped.
Complete silence.
Then—
Three knocks.
From inside the wall behind the piano.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Aria’s face turned pale.
“Kai…”
Her voice shook.
“There’s no room behind that wall.”
The final knock came.
Louder than the others.
Something small slid from beneath the old piano as if pushed by an unseen hand.
Kai slowly walked over.
His heartbeat echoed in his ears.
He knelt.
Reached underneath.
And pulled out…
A yellowed music manuscript wrapped in faded blue ribbon.
Across the front, written in elegant ink that had survived the years, were six haunting words.
Echo Horizon — Original Composition No. 1
Kai and Aria looked at each other.
Echo Horizon.
That wasn’t just a title.
It was the exact name they had jokingly discussed for their future band only yesterday.
Neither of them had told anyone.
Neither of them had written it down.
So how…
…could a decades-old manuscript already bear that name?
End of Chapter 5
- Writer
