The wind raged through me, flicking my fringe back along with my hair behind me. The cliff rose steadily before me, desolate and dark. Not a single flower attempted to grow, even thistles refused to try their luck at the gateway of the cliff. Water lashed at the cliff face constantly, leaving behind mist to cling to my clothes.
I shivered, goosebumps running up the back of my neck as though the water had latched onto my skin. I looked down and frowned as I registered the ridiculous dress I wore. The long, blood red gown billowed out behind me, corseted to my body so it dug into my skin uncomfortably. I looked lik a opera singer about to belt out the chorus of her debut, a bleak Shakespearean view for a bleak situation.
I ran across the cliff, ignoring the stones digging into my bare feet. The gown pulled me back every second step I took. A romantic thought that didn’t work in practise. An ironic thought as I pulled myself up closer to the tip where a figure stared down into the waves.
He didn’t turn as I approached him, transfixed by the waves below. I yelled his name and he turned slowly, as though every step was painful to him. I ran closer, terrified that he would do it.
Again.
“DON’T!’ I yelled through the wind, feeling it ripping my words from me, from him. My yell seemed feeble and weak, any power it could have held was but a whisper.
‘Why?’ He yelled back, ‘why do you bother? What is the point?’
‘DON’T JUMP!’
I ran for him, clawing through the wind, wiping salt water from my eyes. The freezing water seeped into the dress, deep red splotches like wounds dotting my chest. It was nature’s gunshots hitting my body, jarring my bones, freezing my heart. He hurriedly turned back to face the cliff, his movement causing the sand around his feet to shift and catch the wind.
‘Please,’ I whispered as the wind changed, throwing my hair over my shoulders and across my face, blinding me. I tripped on a rock as I reached out for him, forcing me to fall to my knees. I bunched up the dress whipping my legs in one hand, pushing my hair back with the other as I pulled myself back up.
He lifted one foot to dangle over the edge, mocking my struggle and fight to reach him.
He watched me over his shoulder, studying my face as my expression changed from panic to fury. He was a child seeing how far he could push me, testing any weakness I had for him. I charged up the steep incline, pushing my hair out of my eyes as I stumbled up to face him. To yell at him.
‘Don’t you idiot!!’
‘You never loved me,’ he yelled hoarsely over the wind.
‘Would I be here if I didn’t?’ I screamed, throwing myself up closer to him, grabbing his arm and pulling him down to the ground beside me.
He smiled that little smile I loved. It was that of a child who had been caught in the act. A caring child who tried to fold up washing, only to find they had done it wrong and made it worse. It was a mischievous grin that cooled the rage I held of his idiocy.
‘You have too many gifts to do this,’ I growled, pulling him closer, ‘You have touched too much, loved too much, protected too much.’
‘Anyone can do that. People will forget.’
‘I wouldn’t.’ I vowed, ‘I would tell anyone who listened, I would tell my children and they would tell theirs. You would be in future conversations.’ I grinned at him, ‘I would tell them all the stupid things you did, and you couldn’t be there to stop me.’
‘You wouldn’t!’
‘I would! Everyone I came into contact with would know you as Watson – is that what you want?’
‘You couldn’t pull that off! That’s evil!’
I moved his fringe so I could see his eyes, smiling when reached up and try to fix the mess the wind had created.
‘Guess I can’t die if you’re going to wreck my memory.’ He grumbled.
I nodded wordlessly as he hugged me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer as his body shuddered from fear.
He hated heights.
I curled my arms around his neck, watching silent tears run down my face to pool on his shirt. We stood up together, and I moved away in an attempt to keep the gown from flashing the Cliffside.
Something cracked behind me and I turned to see the ground of the cliff run along in jagged lines, dancing along the ground to circle just where he stood.
No.
He looked down at his feet and his eyes widened, fear washing away the colour in his face. I tried to run for him, such a small distance. He would be safe, he should be safe.
But he shook his head quickly at my approach, the last movement I saw as he smiled. A smile that said everything was okay, that lit up his blue eyes with his bottomless kindness.
The ground beneath him crumbled away. I leaped at the space he had been moments before, missing his shirt by moments as he fell, my hands grasping at the air hopelessly.
And he was gone.
ns 15.158.61.55da2
