Author’s Note: I wrote this short story (~5,600 words) back in February after emerging from a three-year depressive period—an attempt to fall back in love with writing and to explore some of the darker emotions I’d been working through. The feeling that part of “me” had been erased or forgotten during my depression found its way into the prose as the character of August. The thing that broke me out of my depression was anger, which I personified as the character of Luca. To anyone who’s struggling with depression, hang in there. There are a number of things that can help, but for me, it was getting active again. Forcing…

The following is an excerpt from my current WIP. This manuscript tells the story of a gifted young pianist who fights to reclaim his dreams of the stage with the help of the same person who once drove him to quit.