Lex Veritas [NOT FINISHED. DROPPET]

Chapter 17

I walked down the hall, or more like rushed away, until I escaped outside, hoping that Diego didn't follow.

The late evening wind greeted me as if I weren't there at all, as if I were a ghost and nothing more. And that's what I felt like. Like a ghost. Because nobody could see that I've had enough.

Time slowed down, as if my brain needed a pause, a keepsake to give me strength in the rough times to come.

Then, after time unmeasurable, I heard music, bringing me back into this moment. The musical sound was a balm to my mind, a seed of peace given so freely.

Looking around, I found myself in, what I would describe as an enormous formal terraced garden.

There were bonsai trees that lined the perfect lawn in their wooden boxes. If walking down the stairs, at the end, there was a pond as large as a small lake with flowering lily pads and a wooden bridge that crossed the middle so you could look down at the koi carp.

The flower beds were a riot of different colors and even on close inspection they were weed-free.

This place would be so calming, had it not been for another crowd of people enjoying the live music near the pond.

The music was so loud, it made my skin tingle and my lungs feel like mush. The bass thumped in time with my heart beat as though they were one, filling me from head to toe with music. I liked this song.

Over the roar of music, a distant, hazy chatter could be heard. I couldn't make out any words, but laughter rang in my ears and wouldn't seem to stop.

The melody that was playing got louder, pulling me in and wouldn't let go.

I stood there at the top of the terrace, my heart throbbing along with the music, losing my sense of reality.

Something clicked. It was in the brisk temperature of the night, the buttery lighting focused onto those people playing instruments, the swell of the music, especially in the music.

My mind sang - 'You know this! You've heard this before!'

It couldn't be. This was the first time I had heard this piece of music. But the ache of familiarity was so powerful, I began second-guessing those simple facts.

The world felt like my earliest memory, like a dream half-remembered. I had the queerest feeling that I'd lived through this moment before...

I was in a car with Brian, my brother, heading over to New York from Toronto.

He wasn't stopping for anything and he sure as hell wasn't taking his foot off the gas for a little rain in the night. He was a good driver so I didn't mind.

My eyes stayed glued to the GPS display tracking our position while the world passed in a blur. The hiss of the tyres over the smooth tarmac was lost under the pounding bass of our preferred get-away music.