Free form.
Chorus.
Michael pulled the trigger, the recoil of his stock slamming against his shoulder. Splashes of incongruent chords, the jumbled melody and the chimes of a piano screaming in an inconceivable pain. Boiling lava, roaring magma, popping internal organs and sickening blood. It had to be done, otherwise, the world would end. The contractor of Harmony had to die. The lifeless woman profusely bled on the floor.
Dissonance.
“MICHEAL, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?”
Micheal blinked. He ejected his mag. His throat tightened at the sudden death of his teammate. What? Impossible. His fault. He murdered him. You shouldn’t have done that. Now, death came for him. The juries swiftly tallied their votes, and the judge slammed his hammer. Death sentence, rapidly tolled the bell of the ride cymbal. Ding, ding, ding, ding... He glanced at the breathing, horror struck woman, the flames of justice boiling within her eyes.
Shit.
Dissonance.
Bullets smashed through his skull.
***
Drum solo.
Finger slamming on the trigger, John aimed at the traitor bastard and fired. Bullet for bullet. Note for note. Dissonance. Something sharp pierced through his body armour and John gasped. He tried to roar, but he couldn’t. His voice was missing. John’s eyes widened. He had lost his gun within the turbulent waves of triplets and uncoordinated band members, and Dissonant was the conductor. An unrealised, syncopated massacre. The friendly enemy who had gunned him. Dissonance. Windows shattered. The deafening crash of the crash cymbal. The gust of fresh air from the broken window slipped past the crude archway of his exposed windpipe, all the memories of his five year old daughter he would now never see again.
John crashed to the floor.
***
Dissonance.
Henry backed away-
***
Harmony.
Sergeant William blankly stared at the bullet riddled wall, his gun raised, brows knitted and eyes sharp with adrenaline. His vision unblurred at the sight of all his dead comrades, bodies strewn around the bloodied island, the scent of death heavy within the kitchen. He heaved out all tension; the nasal, piercing saxophone fading away to nothingness. Slow swing. Relaxing, instrumental music played in the background.
Fuck.
The woman stood stiff next to Harmony, oblivious and unscathed from all the bloody mess.
Dissonant emotionlessly stared down at him.
The radio of his communication device cackled.
“...Do you copy? I repeat, do you copy the status of your team?”
William’s hands trembled, then he let his gun drop to the floor. He put his hand on the mic of his headgear, activating it, blood squelching from his lips as his eyes fixated on the woman. It was obvious the woman was the contractor for Harmony. He was sure they had killed the contractor for Dissonant, yet she hadn't disappeared. Then, who was it?
William scanned the corpses on the floor.
The second Mexican cartel member that slouched dead next to the woman had disappeared.
William grinned.
“Yeah.”
Reality was distorted. The loudening strums from the double bass re-entered from the returning symphony. Harmony, dissonance, dissonance…
“All fucking KIA.”
He whipped out his pistol from his holster and fired at Dissonant.
His brains scattered across the wall.
***
Verse 2
“Oops,” Dissonant-chan said. She drily cackled, though the eyebags beneath her eyes rapidly darkened.
Alice didn’t laugh.
She swore she would have fainted. She would’ve vomited out her intestines, the jarring gore of symphony distorting her five senses, tricking her brain. The melody wouldn’t let her. The melody could, though. They made her swallow her vomit. They forced her to stand, forced her eyes to watch the soldiers kill each other, and forced her to piss in reverse. They held her at gunpoint. Harmony and Dissonance held her at gunpoint.
Reality was on the verge of splitting.
For now, Alice concentrated on blocking out the music.
Harmony-chan growled and stamped her feet in frustration.
“You didn’t have to do that! Idiot, idiot, idiot!”
She pointed at Dissonant-chan. Dissonant-chan’s eyes confusingly widened as she lazily pointed at herself.
“Me?” she blurted.
Harmony-chan firmly shouted, “Yes, you! You and your dumb, idiotic, stupid, outdated music that no one cares about! You’ve killed everyone! You’ve killed Jazz!”
Dissonant-chan scoffed. “You know nothing about Jazz. What you’re playing isn’t music.”
“Well, I hate you! I hate everything about you! I hate dissonance, crappy ear bleeding!”
“I’ll diss you off, Sis.”
Bridge
Harmony-chan’s growl squirmed through her gritted teeth. Dissonant-chan beckoned at Alice and sweetly smiled.
“You. I like you. Join my side. We can start a new era.”
Alice didn’t respond.
Dissonant-chan’s eyes narrowed. Time was ticking, and her patience was running thin. She raised her hands and prepared to smoothly move them like a conductor.
“Don’t you dare.” Harmony-chan moved aside to shield Alice. Her eyes contained a cold, calculating front.
Alice began to mumble something. Dissonant-chan paused and Harmony-chan raised a brow
“...How?” Alice asked. Her voice was mechanical, dilated pupils reminiscent of a thousand yards.
Dissonant-chan wryly smiled.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Dissonance.
“It’s simple. All you have to do is say to my Sister, ‘No, I hate your fucking music, and I wish to enter the dark side.’ Then, stand with me on this throne, and give me approximately five headpats in a 16:9 polyrhythm.”
Section C.
Throne… you mean this fat, kitchen table?
“Five headpats...” Alice’s eyelids twitched. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Harmony.
“F-word…” Harmony-chan whispered. She turned to Alice with puppy eyes. “You won’t leave me, right? Please? Pretty please?”
Alice looked down at Harmony-chan and coldly appraised her. Harmony-chan’s smile slowly flattened with anxiety.
Dissonance.
Alice took a good look at Dissonant-chan, who was sure of her victory and was now smug with schadenfreude.
Harmony.
She looked back at Harmony-chan. Gave her 4 headpats. Turned around and flipped the middle finger to Dissonant-chan.
“Fuck your music, I wish to join the bright side.” She quickly bent over to Harmony-chan and whispered in her ears, “I'd rather listen to K-pop all day than that shit.”
Harmony-chan cheerfully smiled. “Yay!”
Dissonance.
“Yay?” Dissonant-chan said in an offended, perplexed tone.
Harmony.
Alice snapped back, “For all I care, go back to the 20th century, bitch.”
“Yeah!” Harmony-chan aggressively nodded.
Harmony, dissonance, harmony, dissonance…
“You don’t understand…” Dissonant-chan said with gritted teeth. She ruffled at her hair, strands and dandruff fluttering out, tousling it even more. “So be it.”
Harmony-chan tugged at Alice’s finger. Alice gave her a surprised glance. Harmony-chan cartoonishly brought her hands together and pretended to choke someone, her thumbs pressing down on their imaginary Adam Apple.
I get it now.
She briefly swept her gaze across the bloodbath. The second cartel member, who sexually assaulted her with his whistle and was supposed to be burning in hell right now, was nowhere to be found.
Alice lunatically smiled. She picked up one of the dead soldiers’ guns and cocked it.
I’ll kill you.
Dissonant-chan snapped her fingers.
Everything became blurry.
Chorus.
“Let’s play.”
Harmony and Dissonance.
Alice blinked. She found herself back in the forest-
The second cartel member shot a double leg at her. They crashed to the ground, and Alice’s gun was knocked out of her grip. Tinnitus. Ostinato. She roared in rage, she kicked her legs and rained down punches on her perpetrator.
“Listen-” the cartel member said. “Listen to me, Alice-”
She kicked his groin. The cartel member’s cheeks flushed red as he pressed his lips together and jutted his chin. Wait. Alice’s relentless attacks slowed down. How do you know my name? That sentimental, familiar voice of his…
“Pa?”
“A-Alice… H-hija.” The cartel member sat back and raised his head. No mistaking it. His face. Alice’s eyes watered. Lukewarm tears trickled down her cheeks. Love and hatred for him. That narcissistic, sonofabitch, you abused me. I knew you were in the cartel. Never thought it was…
“L-Listen,” Diego croaked. “I was trying to save you-”
Alice’s hand felt for the grass and she grabbed a rock.
You can’t be him.
That must be Dissonant-chan’s trick.
“I’ll kill you!”
It was you?
She lunged at him and smashed the rock at his forehead, splitting it open. Blood spattered on her arms and cheeks as she rushed to mount him and repeatedly smash the rock against his open wound. “Diego” didn’t resist. Some blood got to Alice’s eyes, splitting her vision red. Blood mixed with her conscience. There was harmony. No, no, no. It was him. Pa! A thick curtain of blood had coated Diego from forehead to eye, permeating with each pulse. He emptily stared past Alice and at the penetrating glare of the sun peeking from the cerulean sky, casting a devilish shadow on her figure.
Alice tossed the bloodied rock away. She got off him, dragged his body and sat him up on a tree. He was still breathing, barely conscious she could see. She squatted and wrapped her hands around his neck. She closed in on his Adam Apple with her thumbs but stopped halfway, hesitating whether to crush it and snuff the last flames of his life or not.
“S-speak…” she whispered, the dissonant lilt of her voice growing in volume. “Speak!”
Diego hoarsely breathed.
“I-I was going to…” his eyelids threatened to shut on him. “I was c-contracted with Dissonant from the start.”
“What!?”
“I-I was trying to bring Harmony and Dissonant together. We didn’t have to…” Diego’s face paled.
“Do what?!” Alice's shouts became more panicked. Kill each other? That can't be. Everything started to become more blurry. Diego’s lips barely moved, but she couldn’t hear a sound. Darkness closed in on her. Everything around her…
Reality became distorted.
Outro.
Alice’s eyelids groggily opened. Shit. Blurry. She was in a hospital bed, lying there. Couldn’t move a finger. People. There were people. I see Ma…
“Do you remember anything?” The doctor asked, his voice an echoing tunnel. He was right beside her bed, pen and clipboard in his hand, face blurred.
What… Alice tried to speak but she couldn’t. Light and darkness gently oscillated in her vision as if telling her to take her time. What happened to Pa? Did he die? That bastard? Did I win? Harmony-chan…
The ████████ had struck her with one of those amnesiac rods, didn't they?
Alice focused her gaze at her Ma. Although her face was also blurred, she could make out a cross necklace that hung around her neck and dropped at her chest. It was clear as daylight. Ma seemed to move her lips, her inaudible voice whispering sweet memories to her. Sweet truths. Sweet times. When Alice was a baby, Christ had watched over his Ma and his disciples as she dearly cradled her sole daughter in her arms.
Ah. My life is flashing before my eyes.
“Are you going?” The concerned voice of Harmony-chan tickled at her ears.
Y-Yes... Yes I am.
Alice began tearing up.
“Don’t worry.” Harmony-chan smiled. The warmest smile Alice had felt in her life.
“I’ll go with you.”
The cross flipped upside down.
Dissonance.
“...still don’t listen to us. That is why we beat you,” Diego mumbled. “But now… I’m…”
“Sorry?” Alice smiled at him as her hands went slack on his throat.
The corners of Diego’s lips slightly arched with fatherly warmth. Say no more. Alice went to hug him, and her lips moved.
I love you, Pa.
Diego’s bloodstained eyes abruptly widened. His eardrums was bleeding.
Coda.
“Hija!”
He whipped his pistol from his waistband and loosely fired at the soldier aiming his pistol behind Alice.
Shots fired.
Diego missed.
The back of Alice’s head was blasted open, and she lifelessly slumped dead on Diego's arms. Pandora’s box was torn open. Diego miserably roared. Then, the soldier fired more rounds at Diego, accurately putting three bullets to his head. Diego's head slammed back on the tree. He gasped and his fingers let go of his pistol. The soldier tactically reloaded, walked over and fired three more bullets at Diego’s head. He kicked Alice’s body over so that she lay on her stomach. He shot the back of her head two times, blood and brain matter decorating the grass and feeding the trees. It was beautiful.
“Bullseyes, motherfucker,” The soldier said as holstered his pistol. After finishing the job, he casually walked back to his helicopter. Dissonant-chan was sitting in the passenger seats' section, her legs playfully dangling outside its edge to bask within the sunlight. The soldier walked up to her and patted her head five times in a 16:9 polyrhythmic manner. Dissonant-chan happily squirmed.
They exchanged tactful glances.
After all, he had broken the contract by breaking the rules. Now Harmony was no longer there to stop them. No more silly co-existing. Harmony wouldn’t return for quite a while, and Dissonant would guide humanity towards the real peak of musicality.
It was time.
The eyebags beneath Dissonant’s eyes grew darker.
The soldier got inside the helicopter’s cockpit and started that baby up.
████████ must be panicking like crazy right now.
But they'll soon all forget.
Every single one of them.
Together, they flew through the sky.
As Dissonant immersed herself at the distancing horizon, she started to regret breaking ties with Diego. Maybe she and her Sister could've held hands for the following centuries. While they were doing a play off in the Auditorium and roasting each other as their contractors fought to the death... Their hostility after all, was pointless and foolish.
She still remembered what Christ said to her.
His crucifixion still remained the most beautiful dissonance in the world.
Tch. What am I saying?
Only her Sister was capable of ending the world. If anything, the threat to humanity was gone.
They couldn't join hands.
With a lopsided smile, Dissonant-chan wiped her crocodile tears away.
***
"..."
Harmony coldly stared at the mutilated corpse of her now former master.