The Calling (12) : 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.
There had been a time, too long ago, that Arianna (then Izobel) had been ensconced in a loving, relatively normal family. Her parents had been supportive of their only daughter and she had had a grandmother that doted on her only granddaughter when she visited. Even before she had become a part of the powered war that Destiny City was embroiled in every hour of every day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year ... her grandmother had been lost to her. Arianna could vaguely remember, as a small child, listening with adoration to her grandmother's lilting voice as she sung in a language that was unfamiliar to her at the time. When her grandmother had passed away the teen had tried to find recordings of the one song that she always remembered the melody to but it seemed as though perhaps it was a song that was either lost to time or one that her grandmother had randomly created as she did those chores that needed attending to when she stayed for her visits.
The Izobel of the past had tried to persuade her grandma to sing into a tape casette recorder but had always been gently rebuffed by the old woman who assured her granddaughter that there was plenty of time to enjoy the music later on. If only she had known what she knew now Arianna would have tried to secretly record the songs back then. At least then the tune wouldn't have been lost to her. All she had to go on now were a few snippets of the song. It was never enough to jog her memory completely and since it was in another language even the words escaped meaning.
But why was she even thinking about that memory of ages ago? Arianna had been outside tending to a bit of overgrown plants that were trying to climb up the sides of her beehive when a distant strain of music had reached her ears making her hands still in disbelief. Almost on autopilot did she remove the gloves that she had been wearing before straining with all her senses to get a sense of where the melody had been coming from. How was it even possible that she was hearing what she thought she was hearing? Making sure that her bees were happily doing bee things Arianna began to weave around the back area of the Farmer's Daughter before exiting the gated entrance before pausing. In which direction did it seem the music was coming from: east, west, north or south? Or was it one of the other mixed directions like northwest? Arianna didn't care to stick around too long to list all the directions that she could travel in. Would it have been easier to walk or ride in search of the strains of melody that she now could recognize with growing clarity as being the one that her grandmother had always sung. She needed to find out where the source of the music was coming from. Eventually deciding that riding was perhaps out of the question did Arianna start walking in one direction always straining her ears in an effort to figure out if she was going in the right heading or not. Even as she turned a street corner in the downtown core was she not even mentally questioning the absurdity of the notion blooming in her heart and her mind that perhaps her grandmother hadn't been lost to her at all. Perhaps this was how she had finally decided to let her granddaughter in on the secret that she was still alive.
If this was truly the case than Arianna had to get to the source of the music. It would all be alright in the end. She could still be a dark mirror senshi and have a family member from her past life brought into her new one. Rhona and the others would understand. Rhona would have to understand ... look at what happened with her and Misha. So it was perhaps a thing that she could gently guide her new family into accepting a member of her old family. Of course she'd have to explain things that had happened and that wasn't going to be fun at all. But things would be okay.
Wiping away a stray tear that leaked from the corner of her eyes did Arianna realize that the melody was growing in power and at the same time did her feet carry her faster across the open playing field of her old high school. The ringing of her cellphone didn't even register in her mind as she continued onwards, entranced by the melody. It had to be her grandmother singing. No one else would be able to sing in that same cadence, the same language, everything the same. And yet ... Arianna could feel her feet moving even faster as she broke into a run through Meadowview's expansive field before passing through an exit into the woods beyond. Who else but her grandmother? Who else, who else?
No matter how fast she moved though it always seemed as if the source of the melody was just out of her reach. Frustration, hopefulness - followed by hopelessness ... anxiety ... longing: all these emotions were swirling around in her mind. How was it that a simple melody from long ago could make her feel this way all at once? Even as a stitch in her side force her to slow down her frenetic pace did Arianna realize that the music was slowing, fading, getting softer and sounding farther and farther away.
"Wait for me," was panted out in a shortness of breath, "grandma please wait. Don't go."
And then the unthinkable happened - the melody stopped all at once and Arianna crumpled to the ground. Her feet pounded inside the shoes that she was wearing and her limbs trembled with exhaustion. It was even too much effort to lift her head up to take in her surroundings. Inside though was where Arianna hurt the most. Her grandmother had been calling to her, using her own music and she had failed in her attempts to locate her and now ... now she was gone again and Arianna was still so very much alone. Tears fell freely from her eyes as her body was wracked with sobs. Turmoil roiled through her body as she lay, collapsed in a heap, mourning the chance that had been lost to her once again.
Moments passed and the young woman continued to remain prone ... feeling the waves of anguish crash over her. Internally she knew she still had family to count on and that lessened the sting a little but it didn't stop her from yearning for what had been lost to her. It was the jarring ring of a cellphone that lay on the ground before her that finally broke through the numbness that she'd been feeling with the loss of the melody and Arianna glanced to the number before sitting up with a distracted look in her eyes before she slowly reached for it ... hoping that maybe the melody would start again, but knowing, deep down inside, it would not return.
