Episode 5: In the Dark

Development: Winter

"What do you mean you can't go anywhere?" Ji Long pouted.

"My mom got really angry at me last time for running off and being gone for such a long time!" Fenghuang wasn't happy that she wasn't allowed to leave the concert hall this time either.

"We won't go far this time! It's just around the corner!" Ji Long pulled her arm, dragging her towards the back door. Fenghuang kept protesting saying she couldn't go, but eventually, like always, her curiosity got the better of her and she caved in.

"Fine, but just for a few minutes!" She warned. Ji Long's face lit up,

"Yeah, sure! Just a few minutes! Let's go!" They left through the back door, and walked around to the front. Standing on a crowded street in Britain seemed more frightening to Fenghuang than it did in Japan, Germany, or any other city they had gone to. They walked through the crowd, Ji Long holding onto Fenghuang's arm. They turned down this quiet alley, and on the side of the tall, old building, a turned off sign indicated a theater in the basement.

"This doesn't look safe..." Fenghuang whispered.

"Don't worry, I came here earlier with Dasun and Lin. It's fine, no one's here." He pulled her into the building, and led her down the dark stairs into the basement. At the bottom of the staircase, Ji Long found the light switch, and flipped it on. The light filled a little room full of chairs. The chairs all faced a tiny stage that was nothing more than a small platform raised slightly above the ground. On the stage stood an upright piano, a microphone, and a layer of dust.

"It hasn't been used in a while." Ji Long let go of Fenghuang's arm, walking towards the stage. "I was surprised that there was still electricity down here." He hopped up onto the stage and grabbed the microphone that didn't work, and shouted into it,

"Welcome ladies and gentleman, put your hands together for the most popular, badass, coolest band you have ever seen, the...uh...the..." Fenghuang laughed at this. "Hey!" He shouted, "I haven't exactly thought of a name for our group yet! It's harder than it seems!" Fenghuang hopped onto the stage too and sat down at the piano. Ji Long sat down next to her. Fenghuang put her hands on the keys, preparing herself to play a piece she had been practicing. She took a deep breath, and her fingers came down to play the starting chord. A terrible, frightening sound came out of the piano that made her jump and gasp. Ji Long rolled over laughing. He fell off the bench in hysteria. Fenghuang tested the other keys and found that the entire piano was out of tune. Ji Long was gasping for air, but was able to make out,

"I...told you....this place....hasn't...been used...for a while..." He couldn't stop laughing. "You... you looked so...serious!!" Fenghuang didn't think it was funny at all.

"I was actually going to play something nice for you!!" She stood up angrily, a puff of dust rising into the air with her. Ji Long stood up off the floor, covered in dust all over, still chuckling.

"I know I know, I'm sorry. You just looked so serious, it was too funny." He smiled that off center smile at her. That smile made Fenghuang's embarrassment and anger melt away. He walked closer and threw an arm around her shoulders, "You can play for me another time, don't you have to get home soon?" Suddenly, she remembered again, that she wasn't supposed to be out. She ran out from under his arm and off the stage. She heard Ji Long laughing light-heartedly behind her.

When she arrived back at the concert hall, the doorman stopped her outside.

"Miss Fenghuang, where have you been? Your mother was worried sick about you." He looked concerned.

"Oh, sorry, where is she?" Fenghuang asked, out of breath from running.

"She wasn't feeling well and went back to her hotel early. She was panicking when she couldn't find you."  

What?! What was going on? Fenghuang began to panic herself. She felt like something wasn't right. Just then, a car horn honked. Fenghuang looked behind her and saw the black car that had driven them there. The window rolled down, and she saw her chauffer waving her to get in the car.

"Miss Fenghuang! Come on, your mother is furious!" Without saying goodbye to Ji Long who had been standing there next to her, she dashed into the car, and they drove off.

As Fenghuang jogged through the hallway of the hotel toward their room, she could hear multiple voices coming from her room.

"Don't worry, she'll be here soon." "She's not lost, please, calm down."

Fenghuang burst through the door, panting, searching for her mom. She saw her pacing back and forth by the balcony window.  As soon as Chun Hwa saw her standing there, she stormed over and put her hands on Fenghuang's shoulders, looking down at her,

"Where have you been!" She shouted. Fenghuang had never heard her mom shout like that before. Her mom had always been so calm, even when she was angry, she kept her calm. But now, that was not the case. "You have never been so disobedient! What were you thinking? How many times do I have to tell you to not go running off into the streets in some foreign country you can't speak the language of? Do you how dangerous that is? I didn't know that you were doing this every time until last spring." Her mother stood up again, holding her head in her hand, continuing to rant about what I had done. The maids and nanny were all trying to coax her to calm down, they all looked terrified and worried.

Fenghuang didn't like being yelled at like this, she didn't understand why she couldn't play and have fun. She shouted right back,

"You just don't want me to have any fun! We never stay in one place for more than a week. You're always busy practicing piano, and I have no friends! Why do you hate me for trying to have fun so much?!" Fenghuang's anger skyrocketed. Chun Hwa, whipped back around and marched towards Fenghuang,

"You're blaming me? You think I'm purposely trying to make you miserable?!"

Chun Hwa was breathing deeply, trying to calm herself down. She held her head in her hands, the pounding, the pain, she couldn't take it. Fenghuang began shouting at her, and Chun Hwa couldn't help but respond just as violently. Then, it happened. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Chun Hwa looked at her daughter's angry eyes, and shouting lips, but she heard no more sound. What's happening? She thought, why can't I hear her anymore? Then she felt the pain in her head again, she felt as though someone had hammered a nail into her brain. I can't move my hand again, she thought. No, wait, she tried moving her body, I can't move my body either. Suddenly she was looking at the ceiling, the white pattern getting farther and farther away until she felt a dull thump. I'm laying on the floor aren't I? Why am I on the floor? She saw the maids terrified faces, and then she saw Fenghuang. She saw her leaning over her, tears in her eyes, shouting something. The sound all of a sudden faded back in, and Chun Hwa heard the screams and sound of running, "Mom!" One voice stood out, "What's wrong?!" She looked at Fenghuang, trying to say her name. But just as quickly as the sound turned on, it turned off again. And this time, Chun Hwa couldn't see anymore either, only red, everything was red. Then it was dark.

Fenghuang was letting all her anger and feelings out at her mom, but then she stopped, she noticed her mom was staring at her, expressionless.

"Mom?" She asked. Her mom reached out a hand, but before Fenghuang could grab it, her knees buckled and she hit the floor on her back.

"Mom!!!" Fenghuang cried. The maids and nanny all screamed and ran around not knowing what to do. Fenghuang got on her knees, looking into her mom's eyes, trying to coax her to stand up. But her eyes only moved towards her face for a split second, and then little streams of red blood began spilling out at the corners.

Everything that happened after that was a blur. Before Fenghuang knew it, she was at the hospital. How she got there, she didn't know, all she could hear was the doctors voices outside her mom's hospital room.

"She had suffered with this aneurism for years now."

"She refused surgery because of the difficult location it was in. Any surgery to attempt to remove it would have most definitely paralyzed her left arm, if not her left leg as well."

"She was a professional pianist, she would not take that risk."

"She was in an argument with her daughter. Her blood pressure had risen too high for the aneurism to handle. It ruptured, killing her almost instantly."

Fenghuang listened to this, not understanding anything, except that it was her arguing with her mother that had caused this. Someone took her arm and pulled her up off the bench she was sitting on. Letting herself be led, she walked out of the hospital. At the door was the most paparazzi she had ever seen, but she couldn't care less. She didn't listen to the crowd screaming, the cameras flashing. She felt a hand on her shoulder pull her back and turn her around. She looked into Ji Long's eyes, his face worried and scared. She looked to his side to see the same expressions on Dasun, and Lin's faces. She couldn't muster any words to come out, she couldn't look at them anymore, she could only let the hand pulling on her arm lead her away. She turned back around, leaving her friends behind, and got into a car that was in the street waiting.

The next few days, Fenghuang remembered many people coming to talk to her, trying to explain what would happen. All that she could understand was that she would never get to see or speak to her mother again. She flew back to China where the funeral was held. Hundreds showed up, but the service itself was prompt and over with.

Throughout all of this, Fenghuang wasn't able to speak with anyone. She wasn't able to cry and mourn for what had happened. She wouldn't believe what was happening. It was when she saw a foreign elderly couple come into her house claiming to be her grandparents did she realize it was actually real. Fenghuang's nanny spoke slowly and quietly to Fenghuang,

"Miss Fenghuang, you know that your grandparents on your mother's side have died a long time ago?" Fenghuang didn't answer. The nanny continued,

"Well, I know you haven't met your father before, but these are his parents. They're from America. You know about this right?" Still no answer.

"Well, they said that you could go and live with them in America. Isn't that nice?" The nanny signaled towards them, and the old woman stood up and came over to Fenghuang.

"How are you? I'm Debra." Fenghuang heard the foreign words. She was somewhat familiar with English, she had studied some of it herself, but she couldn't bring herself to respond.

Before she knew it, she was on a plane, sitting between her two foreign grandparents. As they landed, and got in a taxi, Fenghuang looked out the window and saw road signs welcoming them to the city. Debra leaned over and read them to her, "Welcome to Los Angeles." As they pulled up to the large house situated on the beach, her grandparents showed her her room. It was large and spacious, and had a view of the ocean. Once her grandparents left her alone, she sat on the bench underneath her window. The setting sun casting shadows on her face. Hearing the unfamiliar roar of the waves, smelling the unfamiliar scents of LA, living with strangers she just met, she finally cried. The sun set. But even though it was dark outside now, the lamps on the beach turned on, their faint yellow glow illuminating the dark.

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Next Episode: 1-7-14