Chapter 11 At Hospital

Maria breathed heavily and kept her fingers on her guitar. The rapid, high-pitched squeal rang back and forth as her fingers flew along the frets. The moment the intro's tempo grew more rapid. After another few seconds, subtle bass lines came in, slow at first, but racing along to match the other pace. As the sound got nice and heavy, she began to rock back and forth on stage. In front of her, hundreds of metal lovers began to jump and gyrate to her music. For a moment, she watched their movements, enjoying the connection that was being made, before stepping over to the keyboard that had been stepped up behind her. Before the crowd would react to the soft keyboard sound that she was playing, her fingers began to work on the keys, issuing a rhythm that was much softer and slower than what had been built up. At that moment, the audience's violence and fast thrash-dance calmed down, and they began to sway in response. "This was a surprise for Scarlett." She smiled while thinking ab