I just want to say, before you read this chapter...
I'm sorry but I'm not sorry.
TW- THIS CHAPTER IS HARD FOR ME TO REREAD EVERY TIME. SO...YOU MIGHT BE SAD AND ANGRY. I GUESS THIS CHAPTER DOESN'T REALLY NEED A TRIGGER WARNING, BUT SOME PEOPLE MAY HAVE A SAD FEELING IN THEIR GUT AFTER READING THIS. ALONG WITH MAYBE HOMICIDAL THOUGHTS TOWARDS ME, THE AUTHOR. BUT UH...ANYWAYS, ENJOY THE CHAPTER!
Heh heh...
Skylar looked at her feet as the ground beneath her disappeared, crumbling into the ocean below. She tried to run, but it was too late. She felt herself fall, her stomach turning as she stumbled over the side of the cliff. But she would not give up that easily.
As if her hands were being guided by an unseen force, Skylar grabbed onto a ledge, holding herself there even as her arms began to shake.
“Skylar!” Skylar heard Luke yell from above. Risking a glance, she looked up to see his face a little ways away from hers.
“Just…just hold on!” he told her, and was gone for a moment and came back with a stick. Skylar carefully lifted one of her arms and gripped onto it, then the other as Luke began to pull her up. Her feet dug into the side of the rock face, as she desperately tried to climb up the cliff.
But then, the stick snapped. Skylar screamed as she fell a few feet, one of her arms hitting another ledge farther than the one she’d grabbed before. She gripped onto the small save from a greater fall, her body shaking with adrenaline and fear.
Skylar’s breaths were now shaky, her arms just barely holding on as she looked at Luke who was leaning himself over the edge of the cliff, trying desperately to reach her. “Don’t worry,” he said, holding his arm out, “I-I’ve got you.”
Skylar thought of reaching up to grab his hand, but it was too far away and she felt that if she did, she’d only pull him off the cliff to fall into the waters below like Boromir.
“No-no stay up there! I’ll figure something out!” she shouted to him, racking her brain for any idea. But time was running out. Her arms were barely hanging on and she knew that it would only be a matter of time for one of them to fall.
Stealing a look over the side of the ledge she was clinging onto, the waters frothed like an angry storm, threatening with the inevitable moment when Skylar’s arms would give out. The moment she-like her greatest enemy-would fall to her death.
“Luke,” Skylar looked up at him, looking at his bright blue eyes as she realized the reality of their situation, said, “You…you can’t pull me up.”
“No,” Luke whispered, his eyes horrified beyond anything she’d ever seen. He reached out further, “No! Just-just wait a second, I-I-I know we can do this somehow! I can’t just…let you go!”
“I…I know you can’t,” Skylar answered, feeling the tears prick at the corners of her eyes, looking up at Luke who was only just out of reach, “A-and I can’t just let you go either.”
Desperate, Luke turned around for a moment, shouting for Richard to help him. But the battle was still raging on and Skylar knew Richard couldn’t hear him.
“Luke, Luke you have to listen to me, please. Luke,” Luke finally looked over at her, this time tears in his own eyes.
“You..you have to take care of them. Take care of Helen, and-and Peter. Take care of Alice and Adalene and…take care of Richard as well. And take care of yourself, Luke, alright? You have to take them to Dueglestein. You have to make sure you all get there, alright?”
He shook his head, his eyes tight as he still did not want to let her go.
“Luke,” Skylar begged, tears streaming down her face, “I-I know you don’t want me to do this,” her arms shaked, and she prayed to Luna to just let her hang on a little longer. “But…but I think this is the only way. There’s…no escaping this time.”
She pleaded with him, staring into his eyes, those beautiful, sad, eyes, to keep the others safe. To keep himself safe.
“I-” he started to say, but his voice broke. “Okay…” he relented, “I’ll-I’ll keep them safe.”
Skylar offered a sad smile, feeling her arms shake once again, losing their strength.
She thought back to when she’d fought the witch, how she was not ready to die. She needed to stay with her friends. But now…now, she was. She was ready to die for any and every one of her friends, but especially for Luke.
“And Luke,” Skylar called to him. He looked at her, trying his best not to cry. “Luke, I-I don’t know how else to say this, but…you are my love.”
She wished she could see his reaction, wished he could say the same, but now she knew what she had to do. For Richard, for Helen, for Peter, for Alice, even for Adalene, and especially for Luke.
She needed to let go.
Skylar closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let go...
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