Shuffle

Shuffle
Written: 2006
Synopsis: Guy loses girl. Some hallucinations. Possibly deep, but probably just emo.
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This is my story. This is not my story. This is your story. This is everyone's story, and the cast is everyone you ever knew. She is the girl. The one you loved, the one who meant something to you. He is him. He needs no further introduction, I think, but if I must, he is the one she loved. The one you had to fight, the one you had to hate. You are the author. You are me and I am you and we are everybody. I am the walrus. Coo-coo-ca-choo and all that.
- - -
Shuffle
American Pie - Don McLean

A long, long, time ago. That's when it starts. That's when all stories start. And when all stories end, if they come to an end. Not all of them do. This one doesn't. Any tale becomes a tale of the past. Even if it was not written as such it shall become one, as the now melts away and the future becomes the now. So it goes.

Shuffle
Funeral/Rebuilding Serenity - David Newman

Music used to make me smile. Now all it does it make me sigh. What's a man to do when all seems lost? The cards have been dealt, and you can bluff your way to the top, but when you finally get called, can you still win? I lean back in my chair, lean back more than is really necessary, and dream of better odds, of possible futures.

Shuffle.
Duel of the Fates - John Williams

I knew if I had my chance, I could take him out. And this is it. I see him coming. I have a sword in each hand. I toss one to him. This has to be done honourably. He makes the first pass, I block. The metal echoes into the void that surrounds us. I counterattack, and everything falls away. There is nothing else. There is only the duel, there is only the dance. Nothing else exists. It lasts for eons. Empires rise and fall, great civilizations are dashed into the dust. Universes are born, suns die. Then she is there. I see us reflected in her face, the fear etched across her visage. My concentration wavers. I do not feel the metal biting into my neck. I do not feel the hot blood spraying from my jugular vein.

Shuffle.
Wheel of Fortune - Hans Zimmer

I see him coming again. I drive one of the swords into the asphalt and step back. He draws it out. This time I make the first move, driving hard at his flank. His parries and counter-attacks, and the world slips away once more. I see the whole of existence spread out before me. A massive hand stretches out across the starry heavens. Cards flutter down, each one dealt is another clash of metal. The Ace of Hearts floats down before me, then the Knave and the 10 of the same suit. The King of Hearts follows shortly thereafter. Then the Queen of Hearts is falling towards me, and its face is her face, and I meet her eyes. I blink, and glance away. My concentration holds, and this Royal Flush fortells my fate. Nothing can stop me now. My sword rends muscle and bone, and he is torn apart. But the cards keep falling, and her screams echo in my ears even as she tumbles away across the stars. It makes me shiver.

Shuffle
Flamenco Sketches - Miles Davis

Everything is merely a reflection of who you know, and who the people you know know. A few dollars in the right hands can make a world of difference. One day he doesn't show up. He left home and no one ever sees him again. No body is ever found, but I know what happened. My friends held up their end of the bargain. I console her in her grief, and then we're together, for a while. But the pain eats through my mortal soul, devouring so completely music cannot save it.

Shuffle
It's Not My Birthday - They Might be Giants

Sometimes fate plays Baccarat. Two cards are easier then five. She's the nine of hearts, a winning hand by itself. But you need two cards to play, and he's the ace of clubs, leering out at me from the unlucky clover. Together, they make nothing, nothing at all. I know I'm out of luck. I can call for another card, but the odds are not in my favour. They never were.

Shuffle
The Switch - David Arnold

I followed them to the mall. A trenchcoat to guard my form, a cap and sunglasses to hide my face. They never saw me coming. But the odds are wrong, and he's still ready. He ducks and my first shot passes over his head and into a coatrack. Then he's charging at me, and I'm tumbling back across the racks. The shirts are falling everywhere and people are running helter skelter. I pull the trigger again. I don't hear the report, I realize I can't hear anything, but blood blossoms on his shirt and red trickles down his mouth as he collapses. She's there, her mouth is open, I think she's screaming but I cannot hear her. She stares at me, and her eyes are so full of hatred it hurts more than any bullet wound.

Shuffle
The Fool on the Hill - The Beatles

Sometimes I just watch. I can see everything, everything that was, everything that will be, everything that won't be. My mind arcs across the possibilities, and he pops up each time, heading me off. They say that life's a stage, and if so then he's a damned good actor. I clench my fists and howl at the injustice. It feels good to scream. But it doesn't help anything.

Shuffle
Calico Skies - Paul McCartney

Sometimes you sit down to a game and you get a great hand on the first go. No drawing, no bluffing, no tricks. He never existed, never will exist. I sit with her on the hilltop, watching the starry skies, no city lights to counter their glow, no zepellins to obstruct their eternal gaze. Nothing is wrong, and yet everything is. It's not real, never will happen, never can happen. Hope fails, and the Challenger explodes.

Shuffle
He's a Pirate - Klaus Badelt

What are the odds? Just numbers determining a random fate. A million to one? 3,270 to one? Ten to one? Is that all that life is? A random hand, a stock deal? We are nameless, we are faceless, we are nothing in the grand scheme of eternity. But not everything can be random. There has to be hope. Never tell me the odds.

Shuffle
A Narnian Lullaby - Harry Gregson-Williams

I cannot always know the odds. He drifts in and out of my vision, but I can feel his presence like a weight on my back. Then he's gone, and I don't know why. I spot her in the hall, and I ask her for some happy news. She just smiles and turns away. Have I done something wrong? Has he done something I know not of? I hate him all the more for not knowing.

Shuffle
Anakin's Betrayal - John Williams

Everything changes. Probabilities shift, the odds are changed. What has happened may have happened, what has not happened may never happen. What has happened never happened, and what will happen never will. She went out with him yesterday and never came back. Was she killed? Is he dead? Did they run off to a better place? Did they catch the last train for the coast? I look for answers, but there are none to be found.

Shuffle
The End of All Things - Howard Shore

It ends in fire. Most things do. I cannot win against the oppresive tide and I am swept away. She goes on, she does not. He goes on, he does not. It doesn't really matter anymore. You cannot fight fate. So I'll just wait here, biding my time. Nobody's perfect, certainly not me and least of all him. Sooner or later, he'll make a mistake. When he does, I'll be ready. I'll be waiting. Waiting hurts, and sometimes every day feels like it'll be the day that I die, but patience is a virtue, as they say. And so I wait.