He was a solitary creature by nature, but there was a difference between being alone and lonely. At least this time he knew better than to do something that would make it worse instead of better.

He turned off half the lights, then climbed the back staircase to his rooms above the shop. His furniture in the living room was dark reds and black, and the lamps and the pictures gleamed with touches of gold and silver. A meow came from the black chair in the corner. Mystic, curled up, wisely staying away from the fracas. On the table next to the black chair, a tenor saxophone glimmered in the dusky light.

Noah crossed the room, bent and picked Mystic up. Her body was warm, pliant. He sat, draping her on his lap. She allowed him to pet her, her body rumbling with purrs.

"I have you," he said. Usually he had more than one cat, but he'd seen too many die. Every death wore on his soul. Even beasts had souls, and sometimes lately he thought his was rubbed down to translucency. Like a fine silk cloth, so thin only threads remained.

A siren wailed outside. Mystic meowed, jumped off him and padded into the kitchen.

He didn't follow her. He needed something to fill the gaping emptiness inside him. To smooth his rippled emotions. To bring him peace.

A need roared in his chest. Not for food, not for liquor, not for women.

Music. That's what had kept him sane this all these years. Kept him alive.

He picked up the saxophone, the metal smooth beneath his fingers, bringing him a small measure of peace, mending the torn threads of his soul.

Then he lifted it to his lips, took a breath, closed his eyes and played "Is That All There Is?" The Peggy Lee version. Slow and sexy and sad.

The sounds outside faded, and nothing mattered. Not Beauty, not the thief, not the lonely, lonely years. Just the music that poured through him and out of him. Out of his soul.

When he finished, he sat in the chair for long moments as night invaded the room, darkness falling around him like a magician's cloak.

"Is that all there is?" he whispered to the silent room. "Is that it?"

A noise answered, someone knocking on the alley door.