The Precipice Calls

My outstretched arms felt like failing vines as I held on for dear life. I tried to avoid looking down, but the pull of the descent was too much. I could hear it talking to me, telling me in grotesque detail of the various victims of death by misadventure it had caused.

“How many scraped themselves bloody before reaching the bottom?” it whispered.

“My favourites are always the ones who think they can control their fall — but they never do.”

It didn't need to show me the pile of bones that lay beyond the smoke-like fog that, today, veiled the beautiful view of death.

For just a second, my eyes flicked downwards, as my focus was redirected from the drop to the limp, near-lifeless but quietly breathing body I was gripping. My fiancé. I felt her hand slip a little, as my muscles tightened and eased in quick succession from shock.

Not enough to lose her. But that scare left me unsure whether we would make it out of this situation.

We’d seen worse — the death of my father, the revelation of what Sam’s uncle had done to her — tragedies that hollowed us out and left scars that refused to heal.

Still. There was a clear and present danger. We had breached the precipice, and my weakening arms were all I had to stop my world collapsing.

Then the whole world shifted beneath me…

In that moment, all our petty debates felt pointless.

We glanced at each other for as long as the cliff remained steady.

The look on her face was one of gladness and desire diluted by fear.

A wink, the only thing I could muster in that moment.

Then we realised we had been worried about the wrong thing, as the fog consumed us, and our blood rained down.

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: Just wrote a little micro. Felt like a clearing of my brain or something.