I spent the rest of my day thinking about how I was going to get those souls and destroy the piano with the occasional annoying comment or chore I needed to do from my mom. I planned and planned how to save the souls up in my bedroom on my bare queen-size bed frame. I had given my parents my new pillows, mattress, and blanket from my bedroom. I didn’t trust to sleep on those things anymore, especially after that dream where my blanket was eating me! The open springs of the bed frame were digging into my legs, but that’s all I had. My ideas to get the souls out of the piano became dumber and dumber. None of them were any better than the last two I had tried out and look where they put me. They made me end up with a “your fate will come soon.” I was so dumb to think I could destroy the piano! Didn’t I consider that somebody like Grandpa probably would’ve already tried that? Why did Grandpa think I could do it? Why me? He gave me the piano so I could save everyone's souls. But how? Everyone else before me had failed, so why did he think I was the one to do it? I didn’t have time for another mess up! I didn’t have time for another do-over. Unless I wanted my soul to be sucked out by an evil piano I had to have a good idea. It would have to be the best idea I had ever had, and then I had it. I couldn’t mess up though. I would have to do it correctly. I would have to do it right. If I couldn’t do this, I would meet the same fate as my grandpa. I had to take away the piano’s power.

I carefully walked up the stairs to the attic as I had for what felt like a hundred times before. I strolled for I knew this might be the last few steps I would ever take. When I reached the same door frame my mom had been on that day she gave me breakfast, I stopped to observe the piano. I stared at it. Nine people, not including me, had rested their hands on those same keys and died. In front of the sunlight coming through the window, the piano stood. Triumphantly I took what might be my last steps and sat down on the piano’s stool, the one I might die on. Another gold message slipped across the keys, “last time.”

My heart raced like a racehorse in my chest. I stared up at the music piece “Castle In My Dreams” and cried. I wasn’t going to do it. I was not going to be able to save everyone, but the idea I had was the best I’ve thought of. I wanted to try at least. “Oh Grandpa,” I murmured, “if only you were here.” With that, I started to play the piece backward. I figured that if I played the piece backward and wished my wish backward, the piano would reverse my wish. So, I slowly played each note from the bottom of the page to the top.

“Please work,” I whispered and prayed. The song sounded odd played backward, but I continued till the last note. “Bing!” the last note rung in my ears. I took a deep breath and started to chant “don’t release the souls” over and over again. The piano started to rumble. Was this where my life ended, dying on the same stool my grandpa had?

“Don’t release the souls!” I was getting louder each time I chanted, but the piano’s rumbling was getting louder too.“DON’T RELEASE THE SOULS!” I screamed trying to stay confident in myself. Then, the piano stopped rumbling. Silence filled the attic. “Grandpa?”

The piano started to crack and shrivel up. I watched as the keys fell to the floor, magically disappearing the second they touched the ground. I watched as the piano destroyed itself, mashing its legs into pieces, all disappearing once they touched the ground. The glossy black piano that had stolen the souls of many was disappearing before my eyes. The piano was obliterating. Success poured into me, but there was still a hole that needed to be filled...

“Grandpa?” I asked again, and a sight like never before appeared before me. I watched as nine silvery ghosts came out of the piano’s top as it hit the floor, the piano liberating them all. There was Grandpa, with his contagious laugh and positive personality. My eyes sparkled as he appeared. Dancing to the beat of happiness.

“Rose!” Grandpa screamed.

“Grandpa!” I yelled. I was jumping with joy. Grandpa was really here, even though he was a ghost.

“Thank you!” each ghost cheered as they left the attic.

Slipping right through the roof and into the sky, I watched as what I guessed was Patricia from the list of souls in the piano leaving the attic last.

“I always knew it would be you,” Grandpa said. We took a moment then, to bathe in the euphoria of that moment. “I missed you,” Grandpa said, “and I love you so much!” He talked as he embraced me in a tight hug of his warm, soft words. As if he was holding onto me while I was hanging over a bridge; he would never let go of that memory. That moment had to end, as all things do, and soon after a long while of gazing at each other in disbelief we were in the presence of each other Grandpa, and I started to catch up on each other's lives.

“You know the piano grants wishes and sucks souls, right?” Grandpa asked. I nodded. “Of course!” he roared. “How else would you destroy the piano? Ok, you know once you find out that the piano can grant wishes the piano starts taking your soul little by little? ” he asked.

I nodded.

“Well,” he said, “I had only a couple more wishes till my soul would be sucked out the day I wondered how the piano worked. Little did I know that soon enough I would die.” He chuckled darkly.

My grandpa continued, “I found out how the piano worked all right, the piano getting all of its power from those souls. Dark but genius, and after I found out, one of the few wishes I had left was gone. Eventually, I got sucked into the piano about seven years later. I wanted to save the day, so I stressed about helping those poor soulless people all day every day after I knew the scary truth. I knew I was starting to go crazy. I even considered telling the police, but I knew they would think I was crazy too. It was too illogical. A soul-sucking piano? Who in their right mind would believe me? The stress of the whole thing was taking over me. I don’t know if you remember, but only a few days after I found out that the piano got its power from the souls, you and your family came for a visit. That was when I was at the point of killing myself because the whole situation was so stressful. I had started to get dark circles under my eyes, and I couldn’t get any sleep right after I found out. You were only six then, but you noticed how I was different, that I looked sad and scared. I remember your sweet, soothing voice asking me if I was ok. You wouldn’t be able to handle that stuff back then. No one can handle truth as ugly as that, so I remember replying that I was okay.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I nodded. He was describing the flashback I had when I first sat down at the piano. I recalled the memory so clearly.

“I spent most of my time in my house for those last seven years of my life, trying to plan the best way to get everyone's souls and adding to my will. I thought if I couldn't do it, you would, and that’s why I wanted you to have my piano. The reason I didn’t use my last few wishes after that for seven years was that I was stalling. I was such a coward, but I was scared. Who knew something as harmless as a piano could haunt you as it did me? I eventually started to plan how to get those souls back though, after getting over the fact that I owned a soul-sucking piano. Around three years after I found out how the piano worked, I tried my best plan yet, but it didn’t work. I remember the message I received after I tried my plan so clearly now. ‘You can’t run away from your fate’ it said in gold, slipping across the piano keys. Did you get messages like that too?”

“Yep!” I answered. “In fact, I got the same message you did when I tried my first plan to save the souls.”

“I see,” Grandpa said wisely. “ That message scared me to death, but I guess that is one reason why they call them death threats...I ignored the piano for another year out of fear from the message but then thought of how conservative and cowardly I was being and started to plan how to get the souls again. Then, I tried to release the souls once more. ‘Your fate will come soon’ the message said this time. I couldn’t handle it. I stalled three more years, trying to get away from the piano haunting me, but by then I figured there was no way to get away from the piano. Even when I was stalling, all I thought of was the terrifying instrument.”

Grandpa was right, even when I tried not to think about the piano, I did.

He kept on talking, “I finally went upstairs to the piano and tried to release the souls with no plan at all. ‘Last time’ a message on the piano said as it glided across the piano's keys, but I kept going, telling myself not to be such a coward. That day I died, as I assumed I would. I couldn’t handle it anymore, and ever since then, I have been frozen in the piano with nothing but the same feeling of hopelessness I had when I went up to the attic that last time,” Grandpa sighed.

I looked at him sadly. It must have been terrible to be killed by the piano.

I kept listening to Grandpa, “I was so selfish with the wishes. I found out that the piano granted wishes the day I wished I didn’t lack money. I was at the supermarket downtown to buy dinner earlier that morning when this wealthy man cut me in line. I tried to say something, but he told me to ‘shut it or go back to your poor house.’ I was enraged. Nobody had ever talked to me like that. I mean I knew I was poor, but nobody had ever told it to me straight to my face. So, I walked up to the attic and played the piano to try and calm myself down. I used to love to play the piano and write my own songs. Remember me telling you all about my newest songs I would write?”

I smiled, of course, I knew! Who could forget Grandpa’s songs he would always humm.

“Anyway, I had no idea. I was so clueless about the piano’s abilities. So, I was wishing I had more money while playing one of the songs I had written, and at the end of the song loads of cash piled up into my arms. I was so happy, and that’s when I figured it out, the piano granted wishes. I started to buy the most expensive things in stores just for the fun of it, wishing for more money from the piano at least five times a day after I figured out the piano granted wishes. Then, I figured out how the piano worked, souls and all. I realized how greedy I was. After all that, all the cool stuff I bought with the piano’s money just disappeared when I died from the piano sucking my soul out.”

“Oh,” I answered sorrowfully as I began to narrate what happened to me, “I’m sorry. I had a similar experience, but I found out the piano granted wishes the day I was hungrier than usual when I was playing one of your songs. The next thing I knew my mom bought me a batch of the most delicious breakfast imaginable. I should have known when she didn’t even remember that she had given me the breakfast thirty minutes later.”

“That’s that evil piano all right,” Grandpa cut in. “It will do anything to make you get your wish, even possess other people so it can have another piece of your soul.”

“I came to the same conclusion as you,” I continued. “The piano granted wishes. So, I tested it out the next day and got myself new bedding. My parents noticed my new stuff and wanted some too. I tricked them into thinking I was a wish granter. I liked the rare attention too.”

Grandpa nodded, he knew what I meant. My parents lacked in the loving/encouraging department. “So, whatever they wanted I gave it to them,” I kept going, “until the next day I wondered the same thing that you did. How did the piano work? I had more wishes just like you. I wondered how it worked and found out. I was alarmed, so in doubt, I went to your grave wondering if someone could live without a soul. That feeling when I found out how the piano worked was the worst feeling I had ever had in my whole life, but I knew I had to save everyone's souls, especially yours.”

Grandpa smiled.

“I started to plan how I would save everybody, but all of the plans I tried didn’t work. I had become frustrated and scared of what it felt like to have your soul sucked out. I got to a point where I tried to stab the piano with a knife and destroy it with pots and pans, but it was indestructible because of its power from the souls. I eventually came up with one last idea, the idea of playing a song backward and wishing backward making my wish reversed, and that is what destroyed the piano.”

“That’s amazing Rose!” Grandpa cheered. “You’re so smart! I wish I had thought of that. Oh, sweetie. I am so happy you saved me. It was awful just sitting there in that piano.”

I ran in for a hug but fell right through Grandpa, forgetting he was now a ghost.

“But Grandpa! You're now a ghost!”

“I’m sorry Rose. I can’t fix that, but what I can fix are you and me,” he said apologetically. “You will miss me no more sweetheart, for I will stay here at this house with you as long as you want, devoid of the evil soul-sucking piano to worry about,” he said while pointing to the empty space where the piano used to sit. “It’s gone.”

The piano had destroyed itself entirely, releasing the souls. I smiled. “Oh, Grandpa!” I wailed. “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too Rose,” he said softly. “I love you so much.”

And there were those three words again, “I love you,” the same kind of “I love you” I heard when I first sat down on the piano.

“I love you too Grandpa,” I answered. Grandpa’s back, the piano’s gone...life is pretty good right about now.

“Ahhh!” I heard my parents scream. I jumped, running down the stairs.

“Rose!” mom roared, “the things you gave us, there all...gone.”

I laughed.

“My computer case,” my dad whined.

“My blueberry pie,” my mom followed.

“Our new bedding,” my dad said.

“My iPhone X!” my mom screamed.

“What are we supposed to tell our buyers now, Rose, that our products disappeared?!”

I merely shrugged my shoulders and returned back to the attic.

“Parents still the same?” grandpa asked.

“Yep! Mom decided that she and dad would buy computers and become facebook sellers...so that’s good.”

Grandpa chuckled, “Same old Virginia,....”