((Please feel free to play the video while reading Aria's part in the Talent Show, I've chosen just the violin cover because she thinks about each set of lyrics and if the words were in part it might throw you off, this es in case you don't regonize the song. And cause I just love it and will probably be streaming it later XD))

((  TMZoe11 -cookiesncream- Sapphieplays ))

((Oh, and Ky is her brother

I'm done now))

Why was she even bothering with this? Wasn't the goal to leave? What did she care what they thought of her? But...there was him. Ky would want her to have done her best. She could escape from this place later- hopefully before it was too late.

"Aria Summers!" An overly cheerful voice called out her name. It was time.

Carefully she lifted her violin with her small scarred hands, she fixed her scowl in place as she always did, taking careful with her stride, trying to make its short distance look purposeful even though the only people who could see her were the stage crew.

Maybe she should've done acting as her talent. She'd been fooling everyone for years.

Step by step. Breath by breath. Her bare feet carried her onto the stage, it's smoothed wood felt soft under her feet. The gentle fabric of her simple white dress swished gently in its full skirt that fell just above her knees.

She walked to the middle of the stage, trying to raise her small form up as tall as she could.

She found the place she was to stand. A circle made of some strange tape that glowed in the dim light.

And then the curtains opened.

The light jarred her and her scowl slipped for a second as she blinked in shock, looking out over the sea of faces, not for anyone in particular. Just a habit she supposed.

Don't slip up. Know where everyone is. Don't be surprised.

And she'd already broken role number three, she quickly put a sneer in place.

She reached up for the microphone, pulling it down to her height with a loud back feed echoing the room, causing that sea of faces to turn towards her. She nodded at them in acknowledgement.

She wasn't going to announce herself or her song. They would either know it or they didn't. They could forget her.

Then she raised the violin up, tucking it under her chin. The lights immediately changed, going from their bright startling light to a swirl of dull colors. Gray. Silver. A pale white. They danced around her, making her dress seem to shimmer, as if it was a star in the darkness.

She drew out the first note carefully before falling into the next. Her eyes slipped closed.

"Heart beats fast." She moved slightly, her feet shifting to wider stance.

"Colors and promises." A broken smile played on her lips. That's all the selection seemed to be. Loud colors of gossip and empty promises of the chains here being luxury.

"How to be brave
How can I love when I'm afraid. To. Fall." The song's lyrics shook her slightly, her violin cried out a mournful note as she took the song. She couldn't let anyone touch her. It hurt. She'd learned her lesson.

Nothing comes from love, no matter the form, but pain. She didn't want that again. 

And she didn't want to cause it for others.

"But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt, suddenly goes away somehow."

And there it was. What she was perhaps the most petrified of. Something was changing.

"One step closer." She could almost feel it. She was so close to something and that scared her. Despite all her walls- her carefully placed layers, something here was looking at her. Could see her.

Things might change.

And that terrified her.

"I have died everyday, waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more."

She shifted, leaning into her violin. It was just her and the bow that danced across the strings. Lengthening and pulling. She swayed with her words. It hurt. Everyday she pulled pain over her but it was for the best.

"Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave."

But could she? Could she be brave? She'd told Ky she would...but all she'd done so far was build her walls thicker. Hide deeper.

"I will not let anything, take away
What's standing in front of me." A broken note escaped her, the song panged bitterly in discord.

But she was, letting everything slip away.

She'd always let that job to herself.

"Every breath, every hour has come to this One step closer." She could feel it. Change was near. But she could push it away...she always had been able to.

"I have died everyday, waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more." The chorus made her rock slightly, the violin cried bitterly its part rather than the normal sweetness of the song. She was the one afraid.

"And all along I believed, I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more."

But would someone catch her? After so many years of pushing everyone away?

Wasn't she like the sun, the sun that treked purposefully across the sky, pushing past the clouds. Then reaching the horizon, it threatened to slip over the edge from all the pain it crated for itself on it's path. It reached out desperately with it's long colorful fingers, catching at the clouds, crying out.

But they always turned their backs in the end. Each. And. Every. Time.

But wasn't that what she wanted?

"One step closer.
One step closer."

Closer to what? What was happening? Everything was different.

Everything had changed.

"I have died every day, waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more."

Was she dying? Maybe. Maybe slowly killing herself as she deserved. But she couldn't love- not when it might happen again.

"And all along I believed, I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me, I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more"

Her violin drew out the last notes slowly. Reluctantly.

Her eyes flickered open. Rule number two shattering as she forgot for a moment where exactly she was.

Her heart beat fast. The colors awakened her, the empty promise echoed around the room which had fallen into a silence.

She bowed slightly, turned on her heel, not waiting for to see the audience's reaction. She strode off the stage, back into the dark recess.

Back into the dark.

She leaned against the wall, far from where she could hear the crowd or the next performer.

She sunk down letting her face fall into her hands as her shoulders shook.

She could feel the sticky traces of tears that had escaped during the song.

Rule number one. Gone.

She crumpled into herself as a broken sob escaped her, hugging her knees to her chest as she buried her face between them.