• Mistakes

    "Please," tears ran down her face and blurred her vision. "Don't jump." He looked at her with an unfathomable, inconsolable expression and held himself as if he were injured, slightly hunched and withdrawn, standing at the edge of the cliff. He was barefoot, his feet bloody and cut from days of running. His eyes regarded her calmly, but warily. The boy was surprised as she was to find tears streaming down his face. He hadn't noticed them, hadn't felt them. But he hadn't felt anything lately.
    "Everything will be okay, I promise," she begged.
    "Liar." The word was barely audible. Nothing is okay, his eyes accused. He held a foot over the edge, one tiny shift of movement forwards and he'd plummet down below to the jagged rocks. He spread his arms wide, as if preparing for flight.
    "I'll take good care of you. Things will be better. We can get help, you can get through this."
    He looked at her and smiled, but the small movement of his mouth twisted into a grimace. Like with everything else, he failed at even this simple task. He was stupid and worthless, just like he'd been told countless times. "I'm sorry," he murmured. But the truth was he wasn't. He was going to be free— why couldn't she understand that? There was something wrong with his mind, something dark and ugly in there that made him a bad, bad person. Didn't she want him to be happy?
    The boy did not realise he had spoken aloud until she answered him.
    "I do, I really do," she said. "But not like this. No good can come from this."
    "I will be at peace," he countered.
    She shook her head. Her eyes fixed intently on him, and shone with desperation and love. "Please. Please. I do want you to be happy."
    At this his face relaxed, the sorrow from his handsome face gone. This time his smile did not falter. "Okay," he breathed, and a sigh of relief escaped from his mouth. Before she could realise the error of her words, he was gone and she was left with nothing but the wind, and the ground beneath her feet, hard, cold and unforgiving.