Yet another cold, lonely night wraps its spindly frozen fingers possessivley around the streets of Portland in a vain attempt to sedate them to the chaotic if perhaps meditative melody of countless tiny droplets crashing against the rough paved streets underfoot.

The city doesn't slumber however, the dirty yellow light of the flickering street lamps and the soft glow of pink and purple neon signs reveal shady figures slinking in and out of dark alleys that seem to stretch out into a dark nothingness and beyond while others go about ther business seemingly unperturbed by the perpetual rainfall outside.

Above the street level, faintly backlit by a cold artificial light is a silhouette of a man, his posture slouched, his left hand wrapped around a stainless steel flask, idly moving back and forth causing the liquid within to lightly splash quietly, barely audible over the tapping of rain and the sound of whaling police sirens off in the distance, while his right hand is lazily jutting something down in a small leather bound journal.

The air smells strongly of petrichor mixed with an incessant smell of cigarette smoke.

The streetlamps and neon signs spill just enough light onto the pages of the journal laying in the mans lap to make it readable -

Trench coat thief - a naive spear wielding child who thinks himself a hero, the same one who stole my coat a couple months back... though it was covered in blood and shit at that point anyway.

Middle school dropout - a white haired child with a concerning obsession with bags and a propensity for begging... and blazers.

Metal slug - more of a snake actually, with anger management issues.

Sword guy...? - some arab guy with an oversized sword and an apparent aversion to speaking.

A heavy sigh rips through the night and a tough gravely voice proceeds to mumble in a disappointed tone bordering on shame

"...Losing to a fucking child..."

the sentence lingers in the air for a second before the man raises the flask to his mouth and takes a swig before speaking again

"Way to go Harry..."

The light behind the mans back flickers out, blending his silhouette into the surrounding darkness.

[Murphy Martin uploads their blogs on a long-standing YouTube channel, complete with videos of countless original songs, covers, and musical games. They are often seen with their group of friends, developing an entertaining collection of unique personalities that cameo in various videos. Even as they became more well-known, their videos have always remained a genuine expression of their personality and life experience.]

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[Video Title: Scary! My first supernatural day! Learned a new trick?!]

[The video begins slow with shots of the Emergency Room that Murphy was dropped off at by the Harbinger after the last game. Melancholic piano music plays as different shots of the hallways flash by. After about twenty seconds, we come to a frame with Murphy looking into the camera, hair messier than usual, their expression clearly distraught]

“Hello lovelies!” they say with a forced smile. “So I know it’s been some time since I uploaded now, but I have a bit of bad news for y’all. I’m in a Florida ER recovering from a really crazy day. I’m not sure that I’d be here to tell that to all of you right now if not for, uh,” They pause, voice choking a bit, “For some else’s sacrifice…” They look up, over the camera, taking a moment to compose themselves. “It’s been three days since I saw something really crazy. Like, I know that everyone’s been posting those videos online with the supernatural stuff, but I was never really sure that they were real until now. And it’s not very kind…” There is a shallow cough from Murphy’s right, and they continue after a quick glance. “I had some surgery done. My lung has some really rough damage on it, so I don’t know how I’m going to be able to sing… even now I can my breath is short.” They angle the camera down slightly, showing the audience the thick bandages that cover their chest, just underneath their medical gown. “I don’t really know what to do now. I…” they trail off, “I’m going to record a few more of these quick updates and probably upload them later, so I’ll give some more details about what happened soon… I just feel… lonely here.” They move to turn their phone camera off, fading to black.

A few moments later, Murphy returns, significantly more chipper than they were during the previous clip. “Hello friends!! It’s been two days since my last recording and I have some exciting news!” they flip the camera to the forward-facing setting, showing a slightly worn, but functional ukulele on top of their legs in the medical bed. They reach out to pluck the four strings, and they are slightly out of tune. “Ta da! It’s not mine, but I found a fan here at the hospital!!” they say as they flip the orientation back to their face. “She said that she’d lend it to me while I’m here since they wanted to cheer me up. She’s just to my left, but she’s kinda shy. I told her not to worry, so come over here Elise!” Shuffling into frame is a blushing brunette woman in scrubs, she’s smiling, unsure of whether or not she’s supposed to look into the camera or at Murphy.

“Hey, everyone! This is really crazy that Murphy is here, but don’t worry, they’re doing really well now. Our best surgeon worked really hard to make sure that they’d be able to keep playing music,” Elise says, looking back to Murphy hesitantly.

“Aaaaand, tomorrow’s her sister’s birthday, sooooo,” they hand the camera to Elise fumbles it a bit. They both laugh as she repositions the shot so that both of them are in view. Murphy has the ukulele in their hands now as they quickly get it in tune. They strum a chord and begin singing happy birthday to “Melony.” As they reach the end of the tune, the nylon strings of the ukulele begin to glow a very faint blue, but it appears that neither Murphy nor Elise noticed. “Yaaaay, happy birthday, Melony! And thanks for letting me borrow your ukulele for a little bit, I promise to get this back to you soon.” They put the ukulele down and retrieve their phone camera, waving goodbye to Elise. “Alright! So, anyways, the doctors said that I’m healing a lot faster than expected, and it seems that my body is taking to the surgery well. So I’ll probably be out of here pretty soon! They still wanna keep me for a bit longer, and I wanna make sure to visit the other guy that was with me last Friday before I leave.” The video fades to black once more.

As the video fades in again, Murphy is just outside the Hospital, wearing plain clothes. The day is slightly overcast, but it’s clearly humid as they’re already beginning to shimmer with sweat. They’re barely able to contain their excitement, they have a broad smile on their face. “Hello lovelies!!” they almost scream. “y’all will never believe what just happened… I think that my music is actually magical now!!” They look around for a moment, quieting slightly, “okay, I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. Look, my lungs are completely healed,” they say before singing a long, melismatic improvised melody in one breath. “See? It’s like they were never hurt at all! And all of the burns?” they show their shoulder, pulling the neck of their shirt down slightly, “They’re completely gone. Vanished! The doctors are in absolute shock, they have no idea how this happened.” They look intently into the camera. “I do, though. Remember when I was singing happy birthday to Elise’s sister? After rewatching the footage, I noticed the strings of the ukulele were lighting up, weird right? Well, I think that was the music beginning to heal me!

“I had been sitting in my recovery room, writing some new songs, and I started to notice that Melony’s ukulele started ringing and glowing. I stopped, obviously startled, and the glowing stopped. After that, I started to sing and play for a while, performing some of the songs that I started to write about the supernatural experience that I had last Friday. And, after some time, I noticed that my lungs felt completely full again. I felt all my skin heal underneath my bandages, returning me almost entirely to normal. I’ve still got some small burns on my side, but the really big one, the one that caused the lung damage, is completely gone!!” They spin around with the camera, making an exuberant squeal. “Okay, okay, now, I’m gonna go back in there and find Robert, the guy who actually helped saved me. I’m going to make sure that all of his injuries are better, too.”

At this point, the video fast forwards over upbeat ukulele music, going through the hospital, first to Murphy’s room to grab the borrowed ukulele, then straight to another room, assumed to be Robert’s. Once outside, Murphy begins narrating again. “Okay, so here’s Robert’s roooom~. He doesn’t know that I’m coming, so I’m just gonna surprise him.” They slide the door open, calling out their friend’s name. “Hey, I’ve got a surprise for you, Rob!”

There’s the clack of a laptop closing as Robert coughs in surprise. “Oh, why yes, I’ve been expecting you…” he waits, extending the last sound of “you” until Murphy steps into his view, “…oooou Murphy. When you are as in-tune with the universe as one such as myself, there are few surprises, however, I appreciate the attempt, as it is the thought which is what really counts.” He’s sitting in his hospital bed above the covers in plain clothing, left arm in a cast. He has a tarot deck sitting on his lap and is slipping his laptop underneath his pillow. “As you can see, I’m reading the fates right now, would you care to join me?”

“Maybe afterwards, but you’ve gotta see this. I wrote some music, and I think it’s going to make you feel a lot better.” Murphy says, putting the camera down on a nearby chair, angling it so that both Murphy and Robert are just barely in-frame.

“Ah, yes, music truly is the best way to heal the soul, please, go ahead.” He says, glancing at the camera. Murphy begins playing their ukulele, singing a new song never before heard on the YouTube channel. It describes a story about a cat in a tree, how that cat only wanted to be left alone, a creature so free to sleep its cares away… They continue beyond this original, playing some of their old favorites and a cover or two. At each strum of their instrument, bursts of blue light emanate from the strings, swirling through the air around Murphy’s diminutive form. This colorful display begins to find its way to Robert, who is entranced by the music, then by the mystical spectacle. Murphy’s beautiful voice rings out through the room as they continue to play their concert. The YouTube video fast-forwards through the individual songs in the interest of time, stopping only at strongest hooks and choruses of the tunes. After Murphy strums the final note of the last song of the set, both they and Robert glow momentarily, both of their forms outlined in a light blue that shimmers into a spectrum of colors as it fades away.

Robert looks down at his arm in the cast, moving his hand with ease. “I… This is… incredible… The spirits are truly with us today!” he says, shuffling out of his bed and towards Murphy. He extends his right hand out to shake theirs, which they do gladly. “This is amazing, my arm doesn’t hurt even a little bit anymore!”

Murphy smiles brightly, nodding their head, “Yes, well, that’s my gift to you, for keeping me safe and getting me out of danger. I don’t think I’d still be here if it weren’t for you.” They look up at Robert’s face before looking back to the camera. “See everyone? It’s true! I hope my music can help heal even more people in the future!” Robert looks at the camera and begins to say something more as the video fades into Murphy Martin’s YouTube end card.