Thursday, June 3, 2010

And As You Walk Away

As I open my eyes, the world forms around me. The night sky above me, the damp grass under my back. Sitting up, I look around. I recognise where I am. It's the local school. The place is empty, as it usually is at this time of night.
I stand up, start to walk around. Why am I here? I think to myself. Suddenly, a voice calls out from behind me.
"Ashm," the voice is quiet, weak. Turning slowly, I face the person behind me. It's a female, that's for sure. But she has no distinguishable features, no way to recognise her. Her face is blank, expressionless. Her hair has no colour that I can determine, it changes smoothly, rapidly.
"Who are you?" I ask. The girl doesn't reply, she simply turns and walks away. The state that I am in, I am aware of everything. Figures flash around me, cold, a weeping face with bleeding mascara, lonely youths with acoustic guitars. The world is filled with noise, colour, and life. The girl continues to slowly walk away. My need to follow suddenly increases. I take a step forward, and the chaos disperses. Silence.
I am in a field of headstones, crumbling away. As she walks away, through the headstones, grains of stone reverse, float up, rebuilding the headstones, perfecting their ruin.
Another step forward. The headstones disappear. She is getting further and further away. Throwing caution to the wind, I run after her. She turns again, facing me. Now her face is beautiful, composed of all the pain, hurt, and love in my life. I stop in my tracks. Her long, brown hair flows in the sudden wind.
It all goes black. I hear her voice again, calling out through the dark.
"Hindsight. It's a beautiful thing, it shows successes and mistakes, fear and love."

Suicidal Tendencies - Failed Exemplar to... whatever you want to call it.

She took a deep breath, tried to relax. Slowly putting the pen down, finalising her message to the world, she glanced at the mirror on the cabinet. How she despised what she saw. Her long, stringy, pitch black hair fell over her face. Brushing it aside with her soft, olive-coloured hands, she took another breath.
As she thought back on her life, her mistakes, her few successes, the many people who hated her, none so much as she hated herself, a tear fell from her piercing dark eyes and landed on the paper.
Her thoughts rushed around inside her head, the confusion and turmoil endless. Pain, agony, all self inflicted. Depression, resentment, incurable. There was no one for her to live for.
She rested on the floor, letting the tears flow freely from her bloodshot eyes. Although she contemplated her next move, she knew she only had one choice. All other options were exhausted. The answer to her problems, her questions, the cure to her disease, it sat a few inches away from her hand. She pondered it for a second; she is worthless. Her life is a wreck, crashing around her soundlessly. There was no other way out.
All doubts cleared, she lifted her cure.
Whispering to herself, always to herself, she pulls the trigger.
"It's the only way out."

A drop of blood flies, soaring through the room, empty of life.
It lands on a piece of paper, and mingles with fresh tears, an eternal reminder of a life lost.
It lands under a single word, as if emphasising it.
Sialon.