Malice in e minor

Busking in the subway on Halloween to pay my rent literally changed my life.

I was two seconds from getting evicted when I got fired because some rich prat dined and dashed. I hauled my beat-up violin to the subway to play for tips when it all changed. I had no idea that was Doctor Faustus of Blackvale Academy who stopped to listen to me play Danse Macabre because it was Halloween until he handed me his card and offered me a full scholarship with living expenses paid. Blackvale is the grad school to go to if you want a professional career in the arts. It's super competitive to get in and I never tried because I'd never be able to afford the tuition.

There is a crazy man stalking me who thinks he’s an angel and my patron is the devil who is trying to buy my soul. The Bad Boys of Classical Music are students here, which I don’t get because they’d been on a sold out world tour before it was abruptly canceled and their social media went dark. I was given two days to make a decision to come here or the offer was rescinded.

There’s so much weird stuff going on here between me being told I could come here two weeks before finals or not come at all, famous people who should be on world tours instead of grad school people go to so they could get famous, and my new stalker who appears to be deep in some kind of psychosis.

I plan on keeping my head down and graduating, but the way I was brought here has everyone’s eyes on me. And some of the students don’t like it.