Sabre looked down at her muddy sneakers. Her feet ached. She had walked for a day and a half, completely lost, in more ways than one, before she found herself at the edge of this cliff. Cold, exhausted and bitter, she took in the scenic view and sneered. It was as if it were mocking her, as if it were saying, Look. Look how beautiful the world is. This world is beautiful, and you are ugly. You have no place here.
Sabre agreed.
A stillness settled over her, and it was decided. She took a couple firm but quick steps before she let herself fall.
Wind gushed up at her as she flew down, filling her clothes and hair.
Flying... She'd never felt this free.
The air whistled past her ears. A vague notion of the term 'terminal velocity' flitted across her mind, then her computer screen, a picture of a crescent and star, someone was quickly fastening something around her arm, a news article she read once, her mother's face, her scarf whipped once across her cheek, then twice, then- nothing.
Sabre heaved, suddenly, violently, her whole body lurching as it launched a gallon of salt water up and out of her lungs. She rolled to her side, and her stomach followed suit. For what seemed like an eternity, her body continued, uncontrollably, to empty itself onto the seafoam covered sand, until she was left dry heaving and gasping for air.
All she could taste was acid and bile. Every breath burned and reeked of rotten fish. She blinked. Her eyes were on fire and her vision blurry, she looked up to find herself on hands and knees, yet still dizzy. Everything sounded far away, her ears still filled with water.
Disoriented and delirious, she saw some sort of animal scramble up the cliffs that bordered the small speck of shoreline. She swayed, trying to focus her eyes and failing. Sabre landed on her shoulder with a wet thud, unable to support the weight of her head. Squinting, she only could make out a shadow against the sun before it quickly disappeared from her, rather limited, field of vision. She choked on an ironic laughter. She was hallucinating.
Her laughter quickly became hysterical as she found herself on her knees again grasping fists full of freezing sand and rock. A frustrated, enraged, scream escaped her lungs as she began to pound he fists into the sand, her whole body thrashing.
She was still alive. It wasn't fair. Why?! She couldn't even KILL HERSELF properly. God was laughing at her. She was sure of it. She screamed until her voice was empty and pounded the ground until she could no longer feel her hands. She could no longer feel...anything.
She looked down at the bloody mess she'd created and noted her left thumb hanging limp. She rolled over on her back and stared at the sky as blood flowed from her knuckles into the ocean. An hour passed, maybe two...maybe four.
Sabre eventually gave in.
Fine, she thought bitterly, you win this one GOD.
She dragged herself to her feet, only to discover she was missing a shoe. She snorted.
Of course.
She scanned her surroundings, her vision now clear, or clear enough. She swayed, then stumbled back down to one knee. She'd never felt this drunk in her life, and without a drop of fun that would have usually preceeded.
My head...
Sabre reached up toward the top of her head and winced at the touch. She pulled her hand back covered in fresh blood.
...Great.
She looked around again, arching her neck upwards, now in the shadow of the cliffs she must have jumped from. Opposite the cliffs, the sand and rocks stretched toward a path that curved sharply upwards into the tall grass.
A path!
Sabre glanced back at the ceaseless waves.
I could try again, she thought, mezmorized for a few moments by the churning waters. She looked back up toward the path.
Ugh... fuck it! Something's bound to kill me sooner or later.
With honestly not that much else to do, she took one heavy, water-logged, step. Every muscle in her body protested, frozen and stiff. Sabre shrugged. She took another step. Then another...
A path. A path would surely lead to a road...and it did.
A road!
Sabre looked one way, then the other, nothing but the wind blowing through the grass and brush. Downhill, she decided. She wanted to go downhill.
A road. A road would surely lead to...well, to SOMEWHERE,
...and it did.
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