Chapter 6 - music to my ears

It's dark, a soft song is playing in the background that slowly drags a little boy out of sleep. He opens his eyes slowly, his vision slowly focuses on the piano in the middle of the living room.

His mother often plays the piano in the morning, that's part of her routine. She is a famous piano player, she has already toured several countries in the world with her orchestra. Like almost every morning when she is at home, the sound of her piano is filling the room.

The little boy drags himself into a sitting position on the sofa where he fell asleep last night and silently listens to his mother playing. He spends more time in the living room than in his bedroom. The living room is equipped with a giant holographic screen and a gaming station is hooked to it.

His mother notices that he is awake and listening to her.

"Hi, Pablo, did I wake you?" she asks him.

"Yeah, but that's fine." Pablo replies.

"Come practice with me." She orders him.

Pablo stands up and goes to sit next to his mother at the piano. His mother stops playing to kiss his head.

"Now show me what you have been practicing." she says.

He nods and starts playing on the piano. He is pretty talented for his age, he can already follow entire symphonies. His mother looks at him with pride in her eyes.

He suddenly stops playing and turns to his mother.

"Mother, I worked on my song, do you want to hear it?" Pablo asks her.

"Of course, what have you been working on?" She asks.

"You will see!" he answers.

The piano looks classic but is equipped with a screen. Pablo is shuffling the screen and browses some options his mother doesn't even know we're there.

"Are you ready?" He asks.

"Sure..." His mother answers hesitantly with a confused look on her face.

Pablo presses the screen and a rhythmic beat starts, followed by a pretty aggressive guitar lead. Pablo then follows the speed as he plays the piano, but now it sounds like an electronic synthesizer. He shakes his head in rhythm with the music.

His mother looks at him smiling but that style of music is not something she is comfortable with. She doesn't dare to stop the boy as he seems to be in a trance.

When the music finally stops, he turns to his mother with a big smile on his face.

"It's so good, isn't it?" He asks his mother.

"Honey, I didn't even know the piano could do that!" She answers.

"Well, I had to download few things from the net and I had to connect it to the sound system of my gaming rig, but it was totally worth it!" He says excitingly.

He will always remember the look on his mother's face like he dropped a glitter bomb in the living room.

Pablo's mother is a refined lady, she has almost no knowledge of the nightlife in New Paris. He always loved to challenge her ways, lovingly. He had a real affection for his mother even if she kept their relationship in a very formal tone.

On the opposite, he didn't care much about his father who was a member of the board of the Psysoft corporation. All he knew about his father's work was that they were dealing with software and that he would rarely see his father because of it.

His mother always supported Pablo's creative flow even if she couldn't understand it. She even fueled it financially, any tech that he wanted, she would give him the money for it.

It allowed him to grow musically with a very open mind, he would mix any kind of styles. At age 15, he was already releasing his creations through the net, creating a fan base along the way.

By age 18 he was legally allowed to play his music in nightclubs. He quickly became a phenomenon, the rebellious son of the famous classical piano player, Christina Delacosta. He hated the media who were feeding on it, but they were adding to his notoriety.

At 26 years old, he was one of the best DJs in New Paris, employing a full crew of techies, promoters, and artists. His name became his brand.

The year 2054, May 20th, the biggest night of his career, in the biggest nightclub of New Paris, Pandemonium. The club's double doors are open and a big crowd has already invaded the club. Guards are keeping the security tight, controlling the flow of people to come in.

Pablo is already inside preparing his set while sipping on a whiskey bottle, he feels stressed and excited at the same time. Neural is connected to the sound system, her eyes are blinking with a blue light that indicates she is executing some commands. she has been part of his crew for 2 years, taking care of anything net related. She also finds sounds samples for Pablo's sets.

"This set you prepared is killer!" She says.

"Thanks, it wouldn't be without your help, you did an amazing job with these samples," Pablo says.

A knock on the door interrupts their conversation. One of Pablo's crew opens the door and a guard steps in.

"Pablo! It's going to be your time, you guys are ready?" The guard says.

Pablo takes the last sip of his bottle and stands up feeling the buzz from the alcohol. Neural disconnects herself from the sound system, her eyes stop blinking and her pupils take a more human shape. They both exit the room and separate. Pablo is heading to his DJ booth, the crowd in the club starts to cheer at his sight.

"Pablo! Pablo! Pablo !" the crowd chants as he takes place in his booth. He starts with slow beats and moves his arms up and down as to command the crowd to jump. Everybody follows his movements and the rhythm of the music.

The music intensifies and the crowd responds immediately with cheerings and a more electric atmosphere follows. Pablo seems to enter in a trance that quickly becomes contagious and spreads to the entire club.

An explosion on the booth throws out Pablo to the ground. The crowd starting to scream and panic.

Everything becomes a red mist, the sounds become distorted, Pablo loses consciousness.