She lay in my arms; dead.

[Dr. Alka Wolf]

Hello. I'm new to this board on the forums but not new to writing. I decided this was one piece I wanted to share, because I'm quite proud of it.


Here's the context. This is real life, and the two characters in the story are based upon real people. And not just any real people. One of them is me, and the other person truly was my best friend. She's still alive, but dead inside. This was based upon a nightmare I had a lot back when me and her were close, because she would always talk about cutting and suicide. It was supposed to be a larger short story (10 pages at minimum), but I lost interest in writing at about the same time she started blocking me out.


I'm not using her real name, but I am using mine (or at least a shortened version of it.) With that, I hope you enjoy!



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The cold of the dead night picked at my skin, but I didn’t shiver. I just kept my gaze on Gaia as she prepared the noose. I couldn’t believe she was doing this. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Why wasn’t I stopping her? I loved her didn’t I? That’s what someone would do if they loved someone, right? They’d stop them from trying to kill themselves. It didn’t make sense why I wasn’t doing anything but I wasn’t. And then, I finally muster the courage to say something…

“Wait.”

Gaia looks my way. “What? Look, you don’t have-“

“It’s not that. I promised you I would stay here, and I’m not going to break a promise with a dead girl.”
 
“Then what is it?”
 
“I just… You never said it. Not over the phone, not before we came here, not ever.”
 
“Said what?”


“That this is what you wanted. You acted like it, said lots of things besides it, but never actually came out and said that you want your fate to be damned.”


“Al, I can’t turn my back now.”


“See, you’re still not saying it.”


“If it’ll make you happy, I can assure you this is what I want.”


I bit my lip. As much as I didn’t want her to say it, I had to make sure. I had to try something at least. She began climbing up the tree, putting the noose around her neck and sitting on the branch. I look up at her, our eyes meeting. For some reason, I wasn’t crying. I surely felt like it. I felt nothing but cold and dread. But the tears had yet to show themselves.
 
“Gaia, just before you do it, I want to say…” I try to continue, the words not coming to my blank mind.

“Save it Al. I already know.”
 
A slight blush came to my face as my eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s why you’re the only person I trust to be here. Because despite your feelings… All you did to try and stop me was make sure it was what I wanted. Even if it kills me… You’re letting me making choices the way I want to. You’re letting me take control of my own life and not judging me for the path I go down.”


The tears finally came, welling up in the corners of my eyes.

“Thank you Al. I’ll see you on the other side…”


With that, she took a deep breath in and fell back, the noose almost instantly catching her. Her entire body jerks, and her arms instinctively move to try and get the noose off, but it’s too tight.
Once they realised what was happening, they fell to her side and her entire body went limp. She wasn’t dead just yet. Still within the unconscious state. I needed to wait a few more minutes before she was truly dead. I took out my phone to check the time. 12:00am exactly. At the very least, the weather wasn’t pulling the old ‘raining at death’ cliché, allowing me to stay dry. And the cold was no longer bothering me.


My heart ached with much more intensity.

The minutes, passed and I had already began crying. The only thing here that could judge me for it was a corpse, so I felt no need to hold back. I took out the pocket knife I had in my back pocket and cut Gaia down, lowering her gently to the ground. Once I had reached the ground as well, I sat against the tree she hung herself from and pulled her in close. I hugged her cold body. Hugged it like a teddy bear and just cried. A baby holding onto its mother is a better comparison. I wasn’t sobbing at all. My breathing was actually quite normal. The tears were just freely flowing from my eyes and dampening the damsel I was holding onto.

And there. In that picturesque setting. My cold body against hers. Our embrace beneath the hanging tree in the cold dead night. Not a breeze to disturb the grass or the leaves, not a drop of rain to saturate our clothing. Just me, my now dead best friend and the moonlight.

She lay in my arms; dead.