Gabriel

Gabriel slowly walked over the tile floor into the library. Books circled around the room and stretched up to the second floor balcony. Through the windows above, light cast into the room, settling on the piano that stood in the center.

Gabriel hesitated slightly as he reached for the bench that stood next to it. What should he play today? He considered for a moment before deciding and seating himself in front of the piano. Reaching his hands out, he began to play.

It started quietly, uncertain as the theme formed in his mind. It was peaceful, but melancholy. As he closed his eyes, he felt the ceiling open up above him, the warm light casting more fully into the space. The library itself wasn't a library any longer. As he moved his feet on the pedals, he felt soft blades of grass begin to grow. Soon, a stream grew behind him, it's bright blue waters giving life to the plants that began to grow around the room. A tree sprouted amongst them, taking seed just behind the piano and quickly reaching up to the newly opened sky above.

As he saw this, years in this new world passing in but moments as he played, he heard the melancholy grow. Though life grew about him, time was passing, and off far distant he felt the rise and fall of empires as the world passed uncaringly on.

At some point a plane crashed into the earth next to him, but the ground grew and swallowed it up. Time left only the tail exposed, and even that began to decay as he played, it too being taken over by the earth.

He sensed that the end of the piece approached as the once confident theme began to falter. Time took that too, as Gabriel recognized that it would take all. Rather than hold onto it, he simply followed the theme through to its end, allowing it to pass on willingly.

As the final note died, he opened his eyes, bringing himself back to the library. He looked around at the beautiful building that stood around him, and wondered how long it would be until it too suffered the same fate.