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The Calling(10) : A beautiful melody drifts on the air from somewhere far away. The vocals are in a language you don't quite recognize, but feel somehow familiar to you. Something about the song calls to you, but no matter where you go, the song seems to sound the same distance away. The longer it goes on, the more emotional the song becomes--and the more emotional you become. Something about the song is possessive and consuming, like it's all you can think of. Something resonates in you as the song crescendos, and the feeling is at its strongest--be they good, bad, anything, but suddenly the song fades, and there's only an emptiness inside of you. The feeling of loss is strong, and can leave someone feeling emotionally numb. Someone out there was calling to you, and you couldn't find them.
At first, Saiph hadn’t really minded the soft, half-heard music. It was something pleasant to listen to as she, reluctantly, set out to patrol. She’d thought, at first, that it was a foreign language cover of some song she knew. Something about it had hit her I know this from somewhere button. She’d honestly chalked it up to someone just out there living their best life musically.
Only, no matter where she went, she could still hear it and the longer it went on, the more she felt like her heart was being punched in the metaphorical d**k. She finally ducked into the park and found a quiet little grotto to curl up in to try and escape the music. Only, she could still hear it. And, without the soft bustle of the city to try and drown it out, the melody was all she could hear and think about. Perhaps, if it had been a happy song, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But no. Even if she couldn’t understand the language, she could hear the raw loss within the song. And the fear. It was almost overpowering. And it was all she could focus on and think of.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d sat there, just listening. Five minutes? Five hours? It all felt the same either way. Saiph had given up on trying to ignore the music, hoping, at this point, to simply outlast it. Tears were already leaking from her eyes and the softly sun words still made no sense to her. Then, something in the music changed. It felt louder, even if it had not actually increased in volume. Feeling almost unable to think about anything else, the chibi senshi listened and felt the sense of agonizing confusion, fear and loss intensify as the music reached its crescendo.
Ugly, racking sobs that bordered on screaming howls shook her. Her world was the song and she wished she knew who was singing it and where it was coming from so that she could find them and make it stop. Anyone holding that much hurt couldn’t be left alone to suffer. Then, without warning, the melody suddenly stopped. But not in a natural way. More like it had just cut off, throwing her out of the bubble she’d been wrapped in. Gasping and panting, Saiph laid back in the damp grass and tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. She should have been thrilled to have the music stop. Instead, she felt bereft. Like something important had been torn out of her, leaving a drained husk. In some ways, the emptiness was even worse than the feelings the song had brought up.
Turning her head slightly, intending only to wipe a ticklish tear away on the grass, Saiph felt something hard scratch her cheek. Hissing a little, she brought her hand up to pat the grass and found the thing that had scratched her. Holding it up in the dim moonlight, she saw an amber star charm and frowned. She was laying here feeling as if she’d been put through the emotional wringer and people were just dropping s**t wherever and leaving it? The absolute insanity of something so mundane put up against something much stranger would have normally made her laugh. But right now as emptied and strung out as she felt? It just made her brain hurt.
Without thought or effort, she opened up her subspace and shoved the damn thing inside to deal with later. It was all she had the emotional and mental spoons for.
Word Count = 602
