Colors swooped and swirled behind my closed eyelids as the music soared, taking me back to the happiest memory I had of her. Her grey eyes twinkling from the dim front porch light, matching the steady beat. My heart soared along with the music, straight out of his chest and into her hand. It was working, I was seeing her alive.
Her wavy hair danced in the slight wind as she laughed, making my head spin. I loved this girl, I loved Melody with all he was. The world was pink.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Aaron?” she said sweetly, her voice harmonizing to the lyrics of their love song, “A Thousand Years” by The Piano Guys.
“I just don’t want to lose you again.”
The grey in her eyes started to twist, blue pigments making their way into her iris. The music starts to change.
“Don’t  blame yourself for what happened to me. The doctors tried all they could.”
The pink color around us started to fade into the grey-blue color of her eyes. My heart was breaking all over again. She reached for his hand, the touch of her skin was soft and cold, as it use to be.
“I visit your grave everyday. I wish I could have been at school that day. I could have stopped you from being the hero.”
She gave him a look, the kind I knew all too well. The look she gave me when I was wrong. “Could you though?”
She was right. She always was. The song started to become more familiar to me. It was the song that was played at her funeral; it was You Raised Me Up by Josh Grobin.
She smiled slightly at me, “This was always such a good song.”
I averted my eyes from her, “It was. Until I watched them lower you down to it.”
It was quiet between them for a while. Tear welled up in my eyes as the look on her face changed. I felt the pain in my heart grow thicker as her eyes turned a darker shade of gray.
“I didn’t mean to make you upset.” I said quietly, grabbing her hand.
She looked at me for a moment, a sad smile crossing her lips as sorrow still crept in her eyes. “I didn’t mean it either.”
I knew what she meant. She never wanted to hurt me, or anyone. She never did. She stood up and reached out for my hand. “Come on. You need to see what happened.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I know what happened, I don’t want to see it.”
She smiled at me, “You don’t know everything.”
I stared at her for a moment more, before reluctantly taking her hand in mine. The scene swirled around me as the intensity of the song changed once more.
We were standing on the left side of the cold, empty, all white school cafeteria, closer to the red exit door. I turned his eyes from her and looked toward the center, seeing Jared, the sophomore that was a new famous figure around school for what he did to Melody. He pointing a revolver straight at Melody’s head. Her hands were in the air slightly, and her demeanor was calm. I wanted so much to just run and grab her, taking her to safety. But my body was frozen as my blood began to boil.
“Jared, right?” Her voice echoed through the empty cafeteria.
If she was nervous, you couldn’t tell it.
“Shut up.” He said, fear in his voice.
Why was HE scared? He was the one holding the gun on HER. Anger rose in my body, but the feeling of her hand on mine calmed me slightly. “Just watch.”
“I’m going to be straight with you Jared. Cops are surrounding the building as we speak. If you fire that gun, and you kill me, you aren’t getting out of here alive. If you give me the gun, you can run on out of here and I will tell them you complied. It won’t be as bad that way. Do you understand?”
“I’m not going to jail.” He said, lowering the gun slightly.
She slowly made her way to him, “That’s understandable. You just have to give me the gun.”
I watched her stepping closer to Jared, without movement. He was listening to her. Anxiety raced through my body. I knew that Jared wouldn’t listen to her. He didn’t. That’s why she’s dead.
She slowly wrapped her hands around the barrel, and I could see a bead of sweat run down her forehead. His grip was loosening, when the doors on every side of the cafeteria swung open and swat started filling the room. They both turned toward them, wide eyed. One of the cops pointed his gun at his chest.
Jared pointed the gun toward the cop, pulling the trigger quickly.
He missed.
“No, stop!” She yelled, jumping in front of Jared.
My heart stopped as a shot rang out. I dropped to my knees as her body fell lifeless onto the ground. Jared’s eyes were as round as full moons as he looked down at the stranger than spared his life. He didn’t even hear the cops approach him and jerked suddenly when they slapped the cuffs on his wrist.
I just stared at Melody, her eyes wide open as blood seeped from her torso. All I could think about was the report that I had read over dozens of times. Jared Rikes had shot Melody Page in the stomach, which was unrepairable by surgeons. Jared Rikes, not a police official.
She knelt down beside me, never taking her eyes off of herself. “He was a trained professional that knew how to kill. There was nothing anyone could do for me. Jared.. Jared was a good kid. He just needed some help.”
Tears ran down my  face as the song started to end. My world was dark, cold, and shattered all over again.
She kissed my cheek, her tears mixing with mine as she did so. “You have to stop blaming yourself Aaron. You need to stop letting me hold you back.”
I looked into her bright, grey-blue eyes again, and knew she was right. As always.
“I love you.”
She smiled, “I’ll see you soon.”
My vision of her started to blur. No, no. I wasn’t ready to let her go again. Not yet. I blinked a couple of times, trying to make his vision focus on her smiling face. But I was back in his room once again, without her.  The music was over.
I checked my phone that was laying beside me on my unmade bed, which had died from the music playing on loop.
It died, just like her.