Fall

A Story by Kupo

A boy recounts moments from his life, those he thinks most precious yet most painful.

And so we all stood at the edge of the cliff, staring at the sunset that was slowly fading into the horizon.

As the light got dimmer, so did our hopes for the future.

Everything we had done was to get here, but it seems that our ship would crash and burn just before the finish line. She was the first to comment on our situation:

“Kill us swiftly, it’s the least you can do before leaving.”

I did not know who she spoke to, and it will probably haunt me till the end of my days, but I swear I met her gaze whilst I could still see her face.

A week later, I went back to the same cliff.

Although the surface of the cliff seemed identical, I could see that on the ground upon the cliff, something was amiss.

Surveying the ground, I found that the places we once had stood upon, were no more.

Holes had seemingly sprung out of nowhere, making what looked like a mischievous octopus’s prank. The holes led down into the cliff itself, eventually ending In a horizontal angle. If one were to jump into this hole, they would be doomed to certain fate, one way or another.

I know this, for I myself jumped into the hole, seeking meaning in my outing.

As I fell from the cliffside, day seemed to turn to night, my hearing became impaired, and the sound of the waves swallowed my conscious. I didn’t open my eyes, yet I could see just as clearly as had I awoken in the greatest underwater palace known to humanity’s fantasy. But I had not. All I could think of was not, in fact, my imminent demise.

Not the things I would leave behind. Not the people who would cry at my disappearance. Not my feelings of regret. Not my lost hope.

But her.

Because she knew all along that I could not resist her. Even till the end, as my body hit the surface of the water, the cliffside sneered at me, mocking me with that wide smile of hers I could only hope to give to her as a farewell present.