Hanna stood on the edge of the stage. Slowly she lowered the microphone to her side, listening to the last bars of the songs die away as the lights swooped and fell across the stage, and faded into darkness. Out across the arena in front of her, she could see the slowly-swaying glow sticks. The arena fell to darkness and to silence. The last encore was sung; the concert was finished. Hanna slipped the microphone back into its stand and stooped to pick up her guitar, before she turned and made her way to through the instruments and wires, reaching out to hug John and Halldor as she passed them. She choked over the words she spoke to them, spoken as they were with regret and sorrow.
Slowly, Hanna made her way to the back of the stage, passing Bj&bauml;kk where he sat the drum kit and stepped out past the flats at the back of the stage, down the short flight of stairs and into the back stage corridor. She quickened her paste, more and more so, the further she went down the long corridor until she reached the dressing room. She stuffed her guitar back into its case, flung her few belongings into her shoulder bag and slipped on her leather jacket. Suddenly she was ready to leave. That was when she caught sight of herself in the full height mirror. Her eyes were red and wet, her mascara smeared. She wiped away the tears and left.
Later, she sat in the front seat of her jeep and waited, in the dark in the car park at the rear of the club. The passenger door next to her was pulled open and Bjäkk got into the seat next to her. He didn’t say anything but just sat. Hanna kicked the car into life, thrust the gear into reverse, swung the car round, pushed the gears again and accelerated out the club, and soon, out of Reykjavik, turning left onto the main Route #1 and driving north into the night.
The beginnings of a companion piece to The End of All Worlds, its set at some point after the events of that story, and surrounds Hanna Katla Baldursdottir, after she has returned to the band, reached success, and now leaves, to move to a house at the end of a fjörd and write her novel…
