Hope

The sun shines brightly, its warm rays gently caressing her cheeks. Slowly her eyes open; she squeezes them shut again at the brightness of the light.

She rises groggily from the floor and looks around. She is unfamiliar with the place, yet she is not scared.  This place has a soft, calming effect on her.

Slowly she opens her eyes and takes in the sight before her; there are so many faces smiling at her. She recognises only one face; she hasn’t seen that face in such a long time. The last time, her face was a deathly white and covered in her own blood. She racks her brain trying to remember her name. But it feels as if her mind is being blanketed in a thick fog.

She steps closer to the mystery person and slowly takes in her features.  The long golden hair, reaching down to her shoulders, reflects the sun’s rays, giving her an angelic glow. Her face, heart-shaped with silky, soft skin, was no longer white but a healthy golden colour which only added to her glow. Her magnificent blue eyes, reminding her of an ocean, were sparkling and full of life. The last time she had seen them they were full of so much sorrow and hurt. But now they are filled with so much happiness. The lips turned upwards into a thousand-watt smile.

That’s when the fog had lifted from her mind.

Tears of happiness fall from her eyes but she is uncaring.  She is full of so much happiness she doesn’t even notice. “Hope.”  Her voice sounds foreign to her; full of emotion she almost does not recognise it. The tears are coming faster and she is finding it hard not to sob.

She is hit with the memory of the very last time she saw her childhood friend.  She remembers the spine-chilling scream, then running towards the source to see what had happened. The gasp at the horrific scene that lay before her eyes. The tears forming in her eyes as she stood and stared. The panicked voices as people start to gather.  The realization that Hope was dead. And there was nothing she could do. She remembers the guilt hitting her like a tidal wave. She should have been faster, she shouldn’t have left Hope on her own, and she shouldn’t have told Hope she hated her.

She opens her eyes wondering when she had shut them, but that thought quickly fades when she sees her friend in front of her.

She engulfs Hope in a warm embrace, the tears still falling down her cheeks but she doesn’t care. For the first time in too many years she is happy. The silence is broken by her friends’ nearly angelic voice, which is full of mischief, “Took you long enough.”

And for the first time in years she laughs.

The Real Life Ending

Drip…..drip…..drip.  The sound of a lone droplet as it crashes onto the ground, the only companion of a lone girl.  She lies motionless on the cold and unforgiving pavement.

She can hear the steady rhythm of her heartbeat.  She tries to concentrate on the sound of the rain, but she is too far gone to hear anything but her heart. She slowly turns her head to the left and watches as the water trickles down the drain.  She laughs a bitter laugh, one filled with hatred and regret. The irony of the sight reminds her of her life slowly trickling away down the very same drain.

She groans remembering why her life is being drained from her.  She can still feel where the knife had been embedded into her.  She can still feel the warm blood trickling past her fingers.  Her mind wanders.  She is thinking; but oddly not about her regret of being there or of her family.  She is wondering, ‘How can one body bleed so much?’

She laughs again.  A sorrow-filled laugh as she realises no one will save her.  No Prince Charming will come on a white horse to rescue her.  There will be no fairy-tale ending; no happily ever after.  In fairytales, damsels never bleed.  The princess is never left alone to die. The princess NEVER gets stabbed.

Her heart is slowing down now.  She hadn’t realised the numbness was setting in until she could no longer feel the pain.  In a way she is relieved that she can’t feel anything.  She is done with feeling. She is fed up with feeling disappointed, especially with her ending.

As blackness seeps into her vision, she tries to focus her eyes.  She is greeted by the sight of her blood, mingling with the rain, slowly being washed away. She has lost hope.  Her heart is coming to a stop.  Her story is coming to a close.

She closes her eyes, giving into her ending. The last sound to escape her lips is not a gasp for breath, but a sigh of relief.  Her heart has stopped. But a lone tear travels downwards, to mix with the rain and her blood.

Her rescuers arrive too late.  She is gone, her life flowing down the drain along with her fairytale ending.

Her real life, ending.

Copyright © 2010 Mistress Chaos