Rating: PG

Vaughn stepped onto the stage before six hundred empty seats. One light shone on him as if he were the most important man alive. A violin hung in his grasp, the bow trailed the wooden floor in his other hand.

Voss could see a long fresh scare running the length of his left forearm from his vantage point at the back of the music hall. He watched as Vaughn looked out over the empty seats. The man’s grip on the violin tightened and his chest heaved.

With a roar, Vaughn lifted the violin and smashed it against the wooden surface of the stage. The instrument splintered sending thousands of pieces in every which direction. Vaughn continued to smash until there was nothing left but wood chips and string. “Why?!” He screamed so loud Voss had to look away in respect for Vaughn’s anguish.

He collapsed to his knees with a sob that tore Voss’ heart out. Voss wanted to go to Vaughn but he knew Vaughn didn’t want him right now. Vaughn didn’t want anything except to play the violin again but that would never happen. His life’s work, his life’s love, was taken away from him eight weeks ago in a car accident. Some drunk driver ran a red light and took the most important thing in Vaughn’s life away.

Vaughn rocked back and forth while holding himself. The remnants of the violin crunched under his shifting weight adding a disturbing backdrop to his sobbing wails.

Voss swallowed his own emotion and got up to make his way down to the stage. He walked up the steps at either end of the stage, his shoes ground bits of wood as he went. He knelt before Vaughn and reached out. “No!” Vaughn explained while trying to push him away. “No! I don’t want…” He collapsed into Voss with a shuddering wail that Voss felt to his bones.

He held Vaughn as tightly as he could. “I’m so sorry.” He said into Vaughn’s hair. His words meant nothing but he had to say them anyway. “I’m so sorry…”