Veiled Rose // Harry Hook

Chapter 6

Killian closed the door behind him as he and Harry walked into the captain's quarters. He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. "So when were ya gonna tell me?" He asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Tell ya what?"

Killian barked a laugh. "That you've gone an' fallen in love!" Killian laughed again when Harry blushed. "She's a darlin'. Perfect fit for you."

"Dad, I'm not in love." Harry said but, in truth, even he wasn't convinced. "Azalea an' I are friends."

Killian rolled his eyes. "You may have other people fooled but I'm yer father." He clicked his tongue, tapping his chin with his hook. "But I'm guessin' by the way you deny it, nothin's happened yet."

Harry blew out a breath, sitting down and burying his face in his hands. "Nothin's happened an' nothin's gonna happen." He finally responded. He looked up at his father. "She deserves the world an' I can't give her that."

"Except you already have." Killian shot back. "That girl looks at you like yer her world an' if that's the case, you bein' with her is givin' her what she deserves." Harry didn't respond and Killian sighed. "Yer not the first Hook to feel this way. When I realized I loved Emma... I was absolutely terrified." Harry looked at him in slight surprise. "I thought I'd already found an' lost love an' Emma... Emma was so good. She had so much love in her heart. I thought there was not a chance she could feel the same towards me. She was too sane for that." The two laughed at the joke of their insanity.

"It ain't that simple though." Harry argued. "Azalea... Azalea is so amazin' but she's also scared. Of what I don't know but for the first little while I knew her, she didn't even wanna believe I was comin' to see her of my own free will."

"She's guarded." Killian surmised. Harry nodded. Killian shrugged with a smirk. "An' when has somethin' bein' guarded ever stopped a Hook?"

Harry cracked a small smile. His father was right. They've tracked and stolen countless treasures that were said to be the most heavily guarded and Harry knew that Azalea was the most precious treasure he'd ever encountered.

*******

Azalea ran her hand along the rows of chairs. The music hall was empty. No one but her. The silence was stifling but she was used to it. She looked to the stage where the orchestra would sit during a performance. It seemed so much bigger when it was empty.

Suddenly, a piano sounded through the hall, seemingly coming from nowhere. Then drums added onto it. Then the string section sounded. In the blink of an eye, an entire orchestra sat on the stage, playing a song that only she could hear.

Tears formed in her eyes when another Azalea appeared in front of the orchestra. She was dressed in a gorgeous royal blue and gold gown, her brunette curls down, and her mouth... unmasked and in a blinding smile. 

The orchestra built up in a beautiful frenzy and the other her lifted a microphone to her lips, singing the words Azalea had poured her heart and soul into,

Try to lock me in this cage
I won't just lay me down and die
I will take these broken wings
And watch me burn across the sky
Hear the echo saying I...
Won't be silenced

Azalea sat helplessly, watching the girl she could never be belt out the song that had been haunting her dreams for years. She wanted to scream but knew she couldn't. Her lips and eyes burned as the hall filled with an audience, watching the other Azalea in wrapt attention.

And in the front row sat her family, her friends... and Harry. She let out a muffled sob at the sight and her double sang out the final lines,

All I know is I won't go speechless
Speechless

The orchestra crashed to a halt at the final note, the soft piano ending the song. Just as she'd always envisioned it. The audience lept to their feet in applause and the other Azalea bowed gratefully.

Azalea felt herself collapsing and...

Azalea's eyes shot open just as she was about to hit the floor. She glanced around, seeing only the darkness of her room around her. She let out a shaky breath, bordering on a sob. It had been a dream. She knew that.

She'd had it before. And it always ended the same way.

She would wake up and realize once again that she could never be the Azalea that was on stage. Her song would never be properly performed and, if she had anything to say about it, would never see the light of day if it couldn't. 

She swung her legs over the side of her bed, flipping on a single light as she padded across the room. She picked up her journal from the desk where it sat with the mask she had worn that day.

Maybe out of spite, she swiped the mask onto the floor. 

She opened her journal and saw the words her double had been singing in her dream along with the rest of the song. 

Gritting her teeth, she tore the pages out and grabbed a lighter from her drawer. Holding the paper over the trashcan, she sparked the lighter and touched it to the corner. As the paper burned, she dropped it into the trashcan, watching as it became nothing more than ash.

She sighed and took the glass of water next to her bed and poured a bit in, extinguishing the flames. This was the ritual she had become accustomed to ever since she first had the dream.

She knew this wasn't the end. The song would still taunt her and she would rewrite it on a new page either tomorrow or the next day. There were tons of songs in her head, many she had gotten down on paper. But this one...

This one would be the one that killed her.

It would torture her until she performed it properly which she always realized she never would. And yet she always wrote it down. There was barely a day where the words and music weren't in her journal. She swiped angrily at the tears that had trickled down her face.

There was still a part of her that had hope she could make that dream into reality.

She hated that part of her.