Part 1 

Flashback Scene... 14 Years Ago... 

Hello, my name is Arthur, I am 6 years old. 

I don't have particularly loving parents, but, I'm coping. I still love them! My father hurts me a lot, but I hope he feels better! My mother gets a little strict with teaching me piano, but she just cares about me! 

I love my parents! 

I'm in Year 2, I have little friends but that's okay too. 

Right now I'm sitting on the piano stool playing some simple melodies, my mother was sitting beside me supervising me. 

"..." 

"Was that good, mother?"

After finishing one, I looked at mother with a smile. 

She'll be impressed this time, right? 

"I guess... Okay, try playing this." 

Mother bit her lip and simply gave me another piece of sheet music. 

"Was what I played good?" 

I repeated, assuming mother didn't hear me.

"I already fucking told you, now did you hear what I told you?" 

"Yes mother..." 

It's okay, mother is always like this... I think she thought I did well...

...

...

Right...?

Part 2 

After I practised with mother for a few hours, I finally laid in my bed. 

My room was quite spacious and I had some toys, mostly musically based toys that I played with sometimes in my toy chest. Sometimes, my younger brother Lukyus would come in to steal some of them, but I'm 7 years old now, I don't play with toys anymore so it doesn't bother me. 

Two years go, my mother bought me this large brown piano that sits right outside my room upstairs as a present also so I could play on it, it was the piano I was practising on just before. 

I was so happy. 

Before then, I had just been playing on my simple short keyboard in my room, which still sat in the corner of my room till now. 

I stood up, turned on the keyboard, and played on it. 

Great job, Arthur. 

When I finished, I closed my eyes and imagined mother telling me that.

You're so talented, Arthur. I love you. You're my favourite son. 

For some reason, when I imagined mother telling me things like this, I felt a little happy, even if she didn't tell me that. 

She didn't tell me these things, so, if I imagined it, then it's the same, right? 

As I played and imagined the encouraging words that I wanted mother to say, I felt tears roll down my face. 

"Huh? Why am I crying?" 

I rubbed my eyes, and saw that my hands were wet with tears. 

I didn't understand why I was crying, but I felt like my heart was ripping apart. Like someone had stabbed into my chest, put both their hands in and ripped my body into two. 

I wanted to fall to the ground, bang the floor until my fists started to bleed. 

My back slouched as I rested my lifeless body on the keyboard. Sobs began rising from my throat as my whimpers turned into cries. My thoughts, strangled in my throat.

I noticed the tears fall through the cracks between the keyboard as my keys hovered above them, my breath caressing the white keys as I ventilated through my mouth, along with the broken voice of pain. 

"Haah... Haah..."

My breath was audible as I placed my hands on my head, my body-shaking sobs racking my body, each coming in a wave strong enough to put a Tsunami into shame. 

The tears continued to flow down, without stopping. 

And before I knew it, I was on my bed, sobbing. 

I continued sobbing for a while, without any breaks. 

"Why are you making so much noise, shut the fuck up!" 

I heard a growling deep voice bang my door, it was my father. 

I sniffled before ramming my head into my pillow, crying silently. 

If I angered father anymore, he'd throw me into the freezer again. 

I don't like being in the freezer. 

So I held back my sobs, forcing my body to convulse with each wave of pain attacked me from the inside.

...

...

......

I walked downstairs after a few hours because I was hungry. 

"Mother?" 

I called out to my mother, trying to find her and ask her to make me food.  

"Mum?" 

I walked around the house, and heard no response. 

So I looked out the window, and noticed that her car was gone. 

"She went to the shops." 

My brother, Lukyus who held his violin tapped my shoulder and informed me before turning around and walking back into his room. 

"Okay... Father!" 

Switching to calling for father, I shouted his name as walked to his room. 

I opened the door, and saw father sitting on his his large wooden desk. 

His room was quite huge, not only did he have a desk beside a large window for work, beside it was a large bed and a huge closet. His room was decorated with books, almost like a study. It was clear father worked a very prestigious job, and that our family wasn't poor off. 

Even still, the house wasn't big, it was pretty average. 

Father was slightly overweight, with a noticeable belly and he looked at me with a scorn. 

"What do you want?" 

"Can you make me food, please? I'm hungry." 

"I'm busy right now. Go ask your mother." 

He looked back at his paperwork and continued writing.

"Mother is gone. Her car is gone." 

Father sighed before standing up leaving the room and me in it alone, off to make something for me to eat. 

With me alone in the room, I began to walk around his office, sitting on his chair and looking at his stuff. 

"Wooah." 

The paperwork looked very complicated, and I couldn't understand nearly every word. I looked around the desk a bit more, and saw the family photo, a golden statue of a businessman with a plaque "Employee of the Year" addressed to father. 

The table felt cold as I placed my small hands on it, and the smell over here was very distinct to how father smelt. 

But as I sat down and relaxed, I notice the door open. 

I straightened my back and looked up to where I assumed father's head would be, but when the door opened, I couldn't see anyone walk in. 

Not until, I looked further down the door 

"Huh?" 

It was, a little girl. 

"Yo." 

She looked to be around my age and as tall as me, she had just opened the door and walked in. She had beautiful brown hair with blue eyes, wearing a white buttoned up shirt and a skirt. 

I only had one sibling, and that was Lukyus, who was a boy. 

And I don't remember any girl walking into the house either. 

Who was she? 

"Hey, Hey Arthur." 

The girl moved back and covered her body with the door, only showing her head out, calling my name. 

How does she know my name? 

"Who are you?" 

I was sitting on father's large chair, but I lowered myself so my head was peeking out of his table, just barely putting this strange girl in my sights.

"Today's practise... You did good... ♥ Just work on how hard you hit my keys, mkay?" 

After saying that, the girl just vanished into thin air, disappearing. 

"What?!" 

I jumped from father's seat and ran to the door, opening it wide, looking out into the hallways turning my head right and left. 

There was no sign of the girl anymore. 

She heard what I was playing for mother today? 

And she called it good. 

I smiled, and giggled under my breath. 

"Hehehehehe... Someone called it good." 

I felt a little bit happier. 

Though, who was that?" 

Part 3

Present Day, In the Bus. 

So, it was Charlotte, huh? 

I stroked Charlotte's sleeping head as I thought back about the past for a bit. 

She was that girl that I saw peek into my dad's room when I was in there alone. She complimented my work when my mother couldn't even care less. It'd make sense she'd heard it, after all, she is the piano I was playing on.

14 Years ago, when I was 6 years old. I had my childhood optimism back then, I believed that both my parents really cared about me but showed it in different ways. 

I really was stupid. 

Although, they didn't treat me as harsh before my father's company got bankrupt, from there, hell broke loose. But with everything, Charlotte helped me. 

I couldn't express how significant Charlotte was to how I coped with everything. She was there for me, every step of the way, encouraging me in her own way somehow without me noticing. 

It's only because of her that I didn't kill myself all those years ago. 

If she didn't exist, I wouldn't exist. 

Even though I thought I was just imagining it, her encouraging voice and sometimes playful and mean came from the piano. And now that I finally understand it, sometimes when I would go outside to play, I'd very rarely play with this nice brown haired girl, who never told me who she was or her name. 

Her name was Charlotte, my piano. 

I looked at my watch, it was around 1pm.

"[Next Stop: Hurstwood]." 

It was an unrelated stop, but I looked out of the window and saw a few men with masks walk in. 

"Everybody, empty your fucking pockets!" 

One of the men pulled out a gun, and pointed it at everyone in the bus while the other men started collecting, they held guns too. One man was behind, making sure the driver didn't do anything sus. 

"...U~wah, what's happen-" 

"Stay quiet, Charlotte." 

I shut Charlotte's mouth, who woke up from the commotion. 

Her eyes widened as she noticed what was happening, and made muffled noises through my hand. 

The people at the lower seats emptied their wallets as the men pointed their guns straight to their heads, they didn't care if they were elderly or such, with no discrimination they all shouted at them for more and more stuff. 

"Is that all you have?! Check your bag, I know you have more in there!" 

The bus only had a few people, and no one wanted to put out a fight, so everyone complied and gave them whatever they demanded. 

The man who initially walked in approached me: 

"Empty your wallet, now." 

"You..." 

I said under my breath. 

"If you don't empty your wallet I will put this fucking bullet in your head." 

I looked at the gun: It was definitely real. 

Father had a handgun of the same model at home and often pointed it toward me to scare me, even shooting right beside my face just barely missing. 

So, I wasn't as frightened as someone would be. 

Seeing no options, I pulled out my wallet and handed it over to him. 

He handed it off to his partner, who began to look through the wallet, pulling out some cash I had. It wasn't a lot, but it was something. 

And then, he pulled out my old University ID card. 

"You... You went to, Cain University?" 

The man stealing from my wallet questioned. 

"..."

"Answer me!"

When he said that, the man with the gun physically rested the gun against my head.

"Don't touch him!" 

Charlotte sat up straight, glaring at the man angrily. 

But before the man could react to Charlotte, I answered the question.

"I did." 

"Grab him, his family must be rich, his bank account should be juicy. People from that University are the real deal, what a jackpot." 

Cain University was the university I attended, even got a scholarship to get in there without any fees and that. Also, it was known as one of the best Univeristies in the world, even Cambridge, Todai and Harvard University can even lift a finger to the absolute educational juggernaut Cain Univeristy was. 

Because of that, only the richest of the rich attended, and it was quite known for that, but my family wasn't rich, I got in through sheer talent and skill. 

These robbers had a severe misunderstanding. 

"Wait, what?!" 

Charlotte wasn't having it. 

The man grabbed me and pulled me off the seat, I was forced to comply with the gun pointed directly at my head. 

I was confident I'd be able to disarm him, but there were 4 other men with guns, so that wouldn't work out. 

"What's your problem, missy?" 

The man pointed the gun toward Charlotte. 

"What do you mean what's my problem, you're just gonna talk my boyfriend away from me?! Let him go!" 

"Charlotte, shut up, sit down." 

I ordered Charlotte to sit down. 

"Wha-" 

Although reluctant, she did. 

With that, the men grabbed my collar and forced me down the bus.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. 

Charlotte doesn't know where I live exactly, she doesn't even know where we are or where to stop. She's just been following me around. And even if I told her what buses to take, and what stops to stop at, it was a far long walk to my house. 

Shit! If I left her alone now, she'd get seriously lost! And I wouldn't be able to find her!

"W-Wait, let me talk to her." 

"Shut the fuck up!" 

The man punched my back. 

Despite the pain, I grit my teeth and turned my head around. 

"Charlotte! Stop at the Cointown stop, then go to the opposite side of the road. Catch the 78 Bus, and then stop at Bankstown. Okay?!" 

"I told you to shut the fuck up!" 

I gave her the bare minimum directions to the town I was living in before I was knocked out with a hit behind my head. 

"Arthur!" 

The last thing I heard was Charlotte's voice, simmering toward my ear as my vision began to fade and everything falling. 

This way, she won't get too lost. Hopefully she finds someone that I know who can help her...