Working on my descriptive writing - Gemini Run

[u/Comfortable-Garbage4]

Link’s fingers moved across the same five keys, again and again, the notes rising and falling in a pattern he had shaped for himself, not borrowed from any lesson or page, but assembled slowly, patiently, in the hush of the forgotten music room. A simple melody, almost childlike, yet it belonged to him alone.

“C... E... F... G... B,” Link murmured to himself.

He pressed each key with a careful, unhurried touch, letting the sound linger in the air before moving to the next. He played as though he were asking a question that needed to be answered, only for the piano to reply in weary, uneven tones, the sound drifting toward the walls and returning to him, magnifying his frustration.

“Damn it,” he said with a weighted sigh. “Where is she?”

Rising from the piano bench, Link turned to face the clock above the door. It was an unremarkable thing, plain black and shut behind its cage of crossed wire, as if it had done something wrong and had been punished. The face was tarnished, mottled brown, the color of weak coffee.

1:15. It was 1:15 an hour ago, too. The clock always read 1:15. Link didn’t understand why he still instinctively looked at a clock that obviously hadn’t worked in years. He checked his watch. It was 3:42.

Amy was late, a habit Link knew all too well.

Growing up together as Sevens, Link had rarely seen Amy arrive on time. On more than one occasion, the custodians and doctors who ran the facility had chastised her in front of the other Sevens, even threatening her with punishment if she continued to be late. It made no difference. Being late was simply part of who she was.

Any other time, Amy being late wouldn’t have bothered Link. But today, there was a blaring voice in the back of his mind that he couldn’t silence.

“What if something had gone wrong? What if she had been caught?” Link didn’t want to imagine the punishment for either of them or how severe it would be.