Pan Piper

The sun finally set, putting me out of my misery. In the last eight hours, I had broken seven wooden mugs, spilled a keg of beer, and set my hair on fire. “Ugh,” I sniffed under my arm, “I smell of beer.” It must have been a hilarious sight, I had dropped the entire keg on myself.

“Hey Pan,” the innkeeper was a short man with an even shorter temper, “be on time tomorrow and I don’t want you to break anything.” I never wanted to serve beer to weary travelers and brutes, I wanted to be a musician. wrapping the long trench coat I had stolen from a drunk traveler I left the inn with a heart heavy with the weight of my failure.

The village, Hamelin, was built off the King’s Road and saw many travelers, “hey,” a man with evil eyes whistled, “come to me girl, I’ll treat you well.” he flashed a gold coin between his fingers.

“Not interested,” I wrapped the coat tighter around me like armor. The man shrugged and waited for someone else to pass. Whenever idle– no– all the time, my mind thought of fiddling a lute or a flute. “No Pan.” I squeaked, “You cannot play the flute.” Although it was melodious, the flute was considered an instrument of the devil. I had tried to play the flute once when I was a little girl and my mom had beaten me twenty ways to hell.

Aimlessly, I wandered into the woods. It was summer so the woods were teeming with life. Crickets chirped, songbirds sang and dogs barked somewhere in the distance. Woods around Hamelin was a place of solace for me. Whenever I felt broken, the rustling leaves of the towering trees made me whole again.

Although I had walked this path a thousand times before, something felt different today. The woods were alive, there was no doubt about it, but I could sense something else, something darker and repugnant. A chill ran up my spine, sending my body bolts of shivers. I was about to turn and go back to Hamelin when I heard it. At first, it was soft and distant, almost inaudible. The sound grew closer with every heartbeat, I tried to move away from it but it was left me in a trance.

The notes were perfect, the melody felt like a leaf dancing mid-air. I wanted to run away and hide under a bed but the music– that grew louder and clearer– filled the air with awe. I knew that sound. How can I not? I had been pounded for it.

“Hello,” a gravelly, rasping voice spoke from above. I tried to stop myself from looking above, I knew whose voice that was the moment I heard the music. The melody crescendoed, and I looked up against my will. A simple face smiled at me, but the eyes chilled me to my bones.

“Umm,” I tried to speak, “Hello.” My voice was hardly audible to me. But the person hanging from the branch smiled and dropped to his feet.

“What do you desire, Pan?” the man asked with a radiant smile.

“I’m not talking to a demon!” I said. But he didn’t look anything like a demon– he was the most handsome man I had ever laid eyes on, “but you don’t look like one.”

“Oh,” the man said, “I’m a demon.”

“My mother used to tell stories about demons,” I said, looking at my feet, “You are supposed to be distorted, smelly, and foul.”

“Ah,” the demon said, “You humans surprise me.” My heart raced inside my body, I wanted to run, but the melody that poured from his flute was so beautiful I couldn’t move a single toe. My body trembled and the demon raised his hands and gently placed them on my shoulders, “Tell me, Pan, what do you desire?”

Hesitating, I finally tell him my deepest desire, “I always wanted to be a musician.” I caught his eyes and held them with mine, “I wanted to play the flute.”

“Ah.” the demon chuckled, “You wanted to play the instrument of demons?”

“Umm,” I thought for a moment, “Yes? Why not? It is a beautiful instrument.”

“You are in luck then, Pan.” the demon smiled and offered me his flute, “Take it! It has magical powers.”

“What?”

“You’ll have to discover them yourself!”

I wrapped my fingers around the metallic body of the flute, “I don’t know how to play, though.” When I looked up, the demon had already disappeared, leaving me alone in the woods with a cold, black flute and a mile-wide smile.