The waves were pounding, crashing on the cliffs, and above them stood a young girl.
She looked back, detached, at the howling mob that had driven her here, and time itself seemed to slow.
As she watched, the members of the mob seemed to fade away until they were naught but etchings in mist.
The torches they carried seemed to dance like merry will-o'-the-wisps, leading the bearers teasingly onward,
down path and through thicket then disappearing in a flash, leaving the follower hopelessly lost and forsaken.
She giggled a bit at the idea and how the symbolism would be lost on the crowd behind her.
As she turned back, her thoughts drifted yet again to her violin, that most precious of her possessions.
She regretted that never again would she create such beautiful music, and she looked down at what awaited her.
Still caught in that almost timeless moment, she became aware of a music which she had never before noticed.
The rushing waters seemed to sway in a hypnotic rhythm, punctuated by the crashing cymbals of the rocks.
The melody eternal called to her, the ceaseless interplay of wave and rock, swirling and
beckoning her to join them, to become an instrument in a song greater than she could have dreamed.
And she jumped, her body hurtling down the cliff side, splashing amongst the waves and currents.
Her awareness instantly fled her body, but her body remained, and eventually nestled between two boulders.
The boulders steadied her, the waves parted to make way for her, letting her join in their music.
Long after she was naught but a skeleton, her remains were one with the seas and their everlasting song.
Fin.
(As to the beginning being different than the guidelines.... Creative License!)