Hex Beat - Part 4

The fourth and final installment of my novella Hex Beat is now live.

It's presented as a continuation, rather than as a separate standalone entry, so the story still starts at the beginning.

Christine sat behind her drum kit and stared at the tom to her left, admiring the whorl of the grain that gradually became more visible as the color transitioned from purple to the natural hue of the wood.

This was the place she felt most at peace. No matter what was going on in her life or the world around her, this configuration of circles always made sense. She wanted to play something, play anything that would bring that happy mix of endorphins and dopamine to wash away the torrent storming inside her head, if only for a little while. Every time she scrolled through the songs in her playlist trying to pick one, or attempted some unaccompanied beats and fills by herself, it all felt wrong. She unplugged the cord of the bulky hearing-protection headphones from the jack in her phone and started to pull them off but then stopped.

Christine grabbed the sticks resting on her snare and started playing, slowly and softly at first, but increasing the tempo and force with each repetition of the pattern. She kept going until the muscles in her forearms ached and sweat saturated the back of her shirt.

“And here I thought you’d forgotten about me.”