Rosewood and the legend of the Unicorn

Chapter 12- Reminiscing

Cradled on the floor like a new born baby, Ariana awakes on the cold, hard ground.

The smell of the garden that was always freshly cut, and the sounds of the washing machine that never got fixed, all confirms, that Ariana has returned.
Gradually adjusting to her surroundings, she raises her head, and eventually catches a glimpse of where she is.
Dashavou takes a sudden hit, although this time, she knows it's certainly happened before.

Not a single thing has changed since the day she was rescued, or as everyone else knows it - murdered.

She sits cross-legged on her copper-tiled floor amongst the scattered mess of smashed dinner plates. The day comes flooding back in to her memory, as she reminisces the day she revealed her powers to her parents.
They were never going to look at her  in the same way again, especially after she held a knife to their throats.

Ariana looks up to the ceiling but finds herself peering at the clear blue sky. Nixon hadn't entered their home very subtly, and the resulting damage is more shocking than she had remembered.
There had been no attempt of fixing anything damaged in this home. But Nixon did tell Ariana that the police were investigating, and from all those TV shows she used to watch, she knew they liked to keep everything exactly how it was, to try and work out what happened.

The era of silence freaks Ariana out, but it reminds her of why she's actually here. So she begins shouting frantically "MUM! DAD! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS!?" She sprints around the house whilst trying to search for any signs of life. "MUM! IS ANYONE HERE? PLEASE!"
She makes a final attempt to find them, by launching herself up the stairs and carelessly barging through her bedroom door.

The second she enters, she stops shouting, stops running, and just stands there. In the obismal that is her old room.

As she crouches down she is smothered in all her destroyed belongings, she almost forgot about the outburst she had before revealing her powers to her parents. Breaking down in silent tears, she holds up a beautiful yet shattered photo frame of her with her mother and father. It holds one of her favourite memories, their trip to Disneyland when she was 9 years old. "I'm so sorry Mum. I'm so sorry about everything I said. I never really got to say Thankyou." She takes a large breath out to try and calm herself down. "But it's okay... I'm going to make things right again."
Swiping the salty tears away from her poofy eyes, she gradually stands up, putting the photo frame in her jacket pocket.
She takes a last look at her room, then proceeds down the stairs trying to not get distracted by the events of her past. The events that can't be changed.

--

A few hours go by and there's no sign of her parents. But giving up has never entered Ariana's mind.

Severe perseverance eventually pays off, as the rumbling noise of a possible vehicle pulls up outside of the house. With trembling ankles, Ariana dashes to the living room window and breaches open the curtains.
Unexpectedly, her eyes fixate on an ambulance, she carefully gazes at the figures exiting the back of the ambulance. "M - m - Mum?"
She now stands up with her whole body pressed up against the window. The second figure eventually turns around and reveals his identity "dad?"
Feeling indescribably ecstatic, she propels herself away from the window and to the front door. Through the letter box in the centre of the door, Ariana apprehensively watches as her parents get closer. Just a straggling few steps away. Ariana begins panicking. With sweat dripping down her forehead, she regretfully turns away and hides behind the kitchen door.

The keys rattle inside the lock, they struggle at first but eventually manage to wedge it open. They stumble inside, her dad with his arms linked around his wife, as if an old couple had just entered.
Ariana stares at her mum as she covers her mouth and gasps at the sight of her house. As if she hadn't seen it in a long time. Which maybe they hadn't? 'Have they been in hospital this whole time?' Ariana thought to herself.