She stared out the window, rain falling softly to the ground outside.
Her hands danced swiftly across the piano's keys as the music rang throughout the house.
Her heart was in the music, and so was her soul.
Raw and unfeigned, something she needed in her life.
Her fingers played the words she could not form.
The fire crackled to her side as it mixed with the piano, creating the sound of the house.
Alone but not lonely, she played for hours.
Breaking her heart with one song and stitching it back together with another.
She let her mind run and her thoughts clear until it was one stream of consciousness going into the music lying in front of her feet, all that she would and could ever feel.
She felt alive, and she felt free.
Free from worry, anxieties, and stress.
All of it faded away until all that was left was peace.
As long as the music lasted, she felt connected.
Connected to the earth.
To the rain falling outside her window.
To the fiery sky quickly turning to dusk.
To her future and her past.
As far as she was concerned, her past and future were gone; all she had was the moment.
Nothing else mattered.
This moment meant everything, and everything else meant nothing.
She was infinite in a finite world.
Endless possibilities stretched in front of her.
She was tied to nothing, and nothing could hold her down.
Letting the music of her heart run down to her fingers, invigorating her soul, she could only pick one word to describe the ethereal feeling, alive.
No, not just living but truly and utmostly alive with intensity, unlike anything she had ever felt.
Alive.
It's all she can do to feel understood.
Although no words, the music is her in every aspect of her being.
The melody is an unseen but wholly felt representation of the existence of her.
It is who she was, who she is, and who she will be.
To be understood.
Isn't that why she plays?
She thinks so.
No one is around, yet she pours her heart into the music so that she can be understood.
Not by any person.
But by the world in which she lives.
Maybe then she will finally find what she has been looking for all her life.
The unknown ache that consumes her and her heart.
She doesn't know what she yearns for, yet she yearns for it strongly.
But the unknown ache is familiar, known only by her soul.
And while she is still looking for it, the piano brings her closer, the music, the notes.
It is what she dreams of when she closes her eyes.
The music takes her to the world of her heart's desire.
The world that lives in her, with her, the world that is her.
Isn't it funny what the music does to her soul?
It carries her away from the house, from the fire, from the rain, and even from the piano.
She is no longer on this earth; she is floating, past the tall, dark trees, into the orange clouds that light up the sky.
She dances on the tops as the mist gathers on her hair.
And soon, she is past the clouds and reaching into the stars until brilliant diamonds surround her.
All that she sees are shimmering lights.
A city in the sky.
She reaches out her hand and grabs a star, a glowing ball of brightness falls gently into her hand.
Maybe it was all in her head, but maybe it was real.
To her, it was.
It was her land of dreams where no one else could go; only she could see the magnificence of the product of her heart and soul.
Her songs could take her anywhere, for time does not exist where she is.
Only she exists endlessly, for she was in her world, and in her world, there was no pain, no hurt, only peace and peace alone.
Yet tears streamed down her face as she played on into the long and beautiful night.
Sadness was not the culprit, but neither was joy.
She felt no emotion that could be written down, made into words to be understood by people.
It could never be tamed enough to fit on the pages of a piece of paper.
Her heart felt longing and desire for what she knew not.
A time long gone?
A time that hadn't yet come?
A place she could not find?
A place that never existed?
Pulling at her swaying her heart to the tune.
The music breathed life into her soul, she was one with the music, and the music was one with her.
She was the song, and the song was her life.
What she saw that one rainy night could never be seen, what she heard could never be heard, and what she felt could never be described.
Only a few short hours of her life, it was everything to her.
She was given three lifetimes over again that night.
And although, as time passed and her memory slowly faded farther from this moment many years ago, her soul would remember not the night, the rain, the fire, the piano, or even the songs she had played.
But she could never forget what she felt that night so long ago, the feeling of forever that captured her endless soul.