No.I won't.I'll never stop.
You ignorant girl!
What are you doing, child?
Something snares the tail of my shirt and jerks me to the side, where I slam into the stone barrier.Grappling with the edge, I haul up my right leg and clamber onto the top.Wind hits but I'm on a mission.Back on my feet, I sprint.
"Fuck, get down.Please!"
A quick look over my shoulder is all I give the voices—they can't be trusted.They'll lie and grift to get me back in their clutches.But I see him.The demons...they...they've never taken on his face before.This, him, is a trick, I know he is, but I slow to a stop anyway.
"S...sunshine, p...please come down," Elias gulps down his labored breath.
It’s him, I swear it is.The green in his eyes...it's perfect.
I see fear swirling in them, his cautious movements, and hear the tremble in his voice as he tries to coerce me off the edge.Calloused hands that have held weapons of mass destruction rest mere inches away from my arm, silently begging for me to fall into them once more.
God...the comfort and acceptance he radiates calls to me.It would be so easy to let go and shiver beneath the rough rasp of his fingertips—across the dip of my stomach, along the so-close ridges of my sternum, my throat that has screamed and cried for him, through my hair until he tangles his fists there.Even the weight of them as he held my hand at the hospital, then held his forehead against our laced fingers, calls to me.
I could let him close the gap because a part of me wants to lose myself in this man.Sink into him because I know he will keep me safe, hide me if I want him to.
I just can't anymore.
One second's all I need.
Our eyes meet and the world stops its mundane spin.Lifting my arms out, I let myself fall.
"No!"
Air captures my hair, my clothes, and soothes my skin as I soar amongst the clouds where freedom hoists my tattered wings through a thunderous sky.
I'm right where I belong—angels carrying me home.
Elias
You go, I go.
There's something to be said about soulmates and universes working in mysterious ways.When her feet disappeared over the edge, not only did my heart go with her, but I followed directly behind, as if there's a rope tethered between her existence and mine.
I understand what it means to believe this is the only way—to know she thinks the world would be better off without her.While they may never know she exists, I do.If there's anything that ever matters, she does and I'm not letting her go alone.
Together or nothing, Sunshine.
Angry, pitch-black waters swallow her in one horrific gulp.In a blink, she's gone.
Bitter cold slams into my body when my hands pierce the surface and I let it consume me, too.
Momentum and gravity pull me deep before I slow and start to kick.Without resistance and lighter than me, the current will carry her faster, so I have to blindly swim with it and have faith I'll find her in the fray.Years have prepared me for extractions like these, but panic is dismantling every bit of calm.
I thrash when I can't find her.Left and right, my arms fling through suspension, reaching to grab anything I can find.There's no such thing as a soldier left behind, a dedication I refuse to prove wrong.Until she's in my grasp, I won't leave her.She won't do this alone.Again and again, I swim a bit, stop, and reach haphazardly into the dark.
A ghost of sensation flutters near my right hand so I shoot my arm out and feel it again.Cotton—saturated, unmistakable cotton.That stupid baggy shirt she always wears, two sizes too big and ready to disintegrate like other shit in her wardrobe.Surging forward again, I snag the worn hem—a small bit is all I need—and burn every muscle in my hands and arms to pull us together.Finally, I crush her to me with a gurgling cry.
She...she's here.
My head and lungs are on the verge of exploding but I have her as I kick for the surface.There's no way I can tell which way we're moving, as long as we're headed up.
Water bends, reluctant to release us from its deadly grip.The barrier aims to trap victims and lay claim to souls that are not his to take.Its inescapable tension bows then snaps as my head breaches the water's edge and I gasp painful lungfuls of air.
