Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

11:59 am

“Are you ready for this, Iris?” Draycos asked, standing backstage where contestants waiting for their turn in the second Annual Atlantis City Talent Show were. Both had a mic attached to their shirt collars. They were up next after the current performers, who were somehow doing a juggling trick with flaming bowling pins while riding on unicycles. The performance seemed to be received well.

Iris sighed as she curled her hands into fists. “I think I am,” she replied, not looking Draycos in the eye.

Draycos noticed that her hands were trembling slightly. “Are you getting nervous now?” he inquired.

Iris shook her head. “No, not really. I think it’s the exact opposite.” She suddenly smiled. “I’m actually getting excited about this. I’m looking forward to having some fun on stage with you.”

Draycos returned the smile and placed a hand on Iris’s shoulder. “Good,” he said. “That’s the perfect mindset to have when you go on stage. Just go out there and have some fun. If you perform just the way you did when we first met each other, it’ll be just fine; I promise.”

Iris opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment, her watch beeped to signal the hour had struck noon. Almost simultaneously, the three judges on the judging panel had the jugglers end their performance. They bowed and walked offstage amid applause from the audience.

“Next up are contestants Iris Jewelson and Draycos! They will be singing--”

“That’s our que,” Draycos remarked. He stepped aside and motioned for Iris to go ahead. “Ladies first. Besides, you’re the main act.”

“Thank you,” Iris said, smiling as she walked past him and onto the stage, with Draycos close behind her.

As they walked out to the middle of the stage, Draycos could pick up the whispering coming from the audience. “Iris Jewelson​? ​That​ Jewelson?”

“What’s the mayor’s daughter doing in the talent show this year?”

“Who knows? But I bet she has no talent at all. She’s probably one of those stuck-up rich pricks who just wants some time in the spotlight.”

“Yeah, and since her dad’s the mayor, she’ll probably win this year if he pulls some strings for her.”

Draycos heard all of this; the acoustics in this room left no one to be unheard. He bit down his annoyance, though, and took a harmonica out of his pocket while Iris adjusted the mic. Iris was originally never going to participate in the talent show; it was his idea for her to sign up for it. After weeks of convincing her, she finally agreed only when Draycos promised to perform with her. The plan was for her to sing while he played along with his harmonica.

His harmonica once belonged to the woman who ran the orphanage he grew up in. After she passed away, the orphanage was shut down due to insufficient funds, and Draycos, the only orphan left there, was sent to several different foster families over several months until the government gave him a place to stay himself and money to provide for himself. It was then that a box came in the mail containing the harmonica and a letter explaining that the woman running the orphanage directed that it was to be given to him in her will.

He had many fond memories of listening to the woman play the harmonica for him. When he had nightmares, she would come in and start playing it until he calmed down and fell back asleep. It was made of polished mahogany, with ivory plating and a gold plaque on the top with a stylized double D engraved in it.

Draycos brought the harmonica to his mouth while Iris closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After a moment her eyes snapped open and she looked up at the sound booth operator behind the audience. The operator gave the signal that he was starting the music. Iris nodded, and as soon as the music started, Iris and Draycos began.

As soon as they started to perform, a lime green ring appeared on the screen above them, and a 100% was displayed on the inside of the ring.

Iris and Draycos were performing a song while doing an audio test. The audio test would take their performance and compare it to the official song. Pitch, volume, notes; everything was compared and graded. The closer you performed to the real song, the higher your score. You start with 100%, and as you make mistakes, the audio test would start tallying off points, reflecting in the grade shown on the screen. It really took a lot of guts to do this in performance live on television; now everyone, even those who don’t know the song, will know exactly how well they did. Also, they were singing a song that wasn’t in their native tongue; they chose to sing a Japanese song that played during the credits of an old anime about an orange-haired teen who fought spirits. It so happened to have a harmonica playing throughout its duration, as well as a solo, so it suited them both perfectly.

Two minutes into their performance, Draycos realized that his solo was coming up, and got prepared. The moment Iris stopped singing it would be his turn. It came, and he stepped forward to do his part.

He had played the harmonica growing up, but he admitted that this solo was extremely difficult. In the three months between deciding on the song to perform and the actual performance, he only started to make actual progress on it in the last two weeks.

Since I’m the reason why we’re even here in the first place, I’m going to give it my all and do my best.​ He was normally the type to avoid attention because of his eyes, but he wanted others out in the world to hear Iris, so he ended up getting involved in this to help her reach more people with her voice.

Draycos was nearing the end of his solo when he suddenly had an idea on how to improve the performance. He took the harmonica away from his mouth and stuffed it back into his pocket while he tried to catch his breath during the short time Iris had to sing one line before the last chorus. He then grabbed both her hands and pulled her out closer to the edge of the stage.

Iris was surprised for just a split second, but then she immediately understood Draycos’ intention and smiled. She continued to sing without missing a beat while she and Draycos did a simple dance. Draycos was also singing, matching Iris word to word, beat to beat. They were completely in sync, and they were all smiles the whole time.

They started to repeat the chorus one last time, and Draycos began to spin around on the spot, swinging Iris along with him. Putting the strength to carry around steel I-beams alone to good use, at the height of the chorus, he threw Iris high up in the air, both still singing. Iris did several full rotations during her flight. When she finally came back down at the end of the song, Draycos caught her (princess carry fashion), and Iris held her hands up to the crowd.

Both were looking out at the audience, panting hard after their performance. After a few moments of silence, one person began clapping, and it gradually grew into thunderous applause, almost deafening the pair onstage. Draycos put Iris down and they waved out at the audience a bit before walking off the stage.

As soon as they made it off the stage, Iris suddenly clutched Draycos’ shoulder and almost collapsed on him.

“Woah, Iris?! Are you okay?!” he exclaimed, attempting to hold her up. He instantly received a sharp slap across the face. Stunned, he let go of Iris and put his left hand on his now bright red cheek while Iris backed up a few steps before falling to her knees on the floor.

She finally looked Draycos in the eye, and Draycos saw that Iris’s eyes were watery.

“D-don’t ever do that to me again!” she cried.

“What?” Draycos asked, dumbfounded.

“Don’t throw me that high!” Iris exclaimed. “I could almost touch the curtains, with how high you threw me!”

“What?” Draycos said, disbelieving. “No way. You’re exaggerating.”

“I’m telling the truth!!” she yelled, getting back on her feet and hitting Draycos in the chest. He didn’t feel that. “If you don’t believe me, then you’ll see in the replay later this afternoon!”

“Alright, alright,” Draycos soothed. “I’ll treat you to some of that iced tea again to make up for it, deal?”

Iris looked away and made a pouty face. “It better have extra cream.”

Draycos laughed and agreed. Then a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Iris, are you. . . afraid of heights?”

“Yes, I am! I have vertigo! So what?!”

Draycos' face went slack and he just looked at Iris with a blank, almost bored, expression on his face.

This is coming from a girl who lives in the highest penthouse in the city...

“What?!” she snapped. "Why do I get the feeling you're mocking me right now?"

“Nothing, it’s nothing. Come on, let’s go find some seats to watch the rest of the performances.”

“Oh, wait, what did we score?” Iris suddenly asked. Draycos couldn’t give her an answer, and so they both looked back out on the stage just in time to see their score before the screen was cleared off for the next contestants.

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