Fatal: Part 1 (The First Snow)

Chapter 16 (Trigger Warning)

"Kayla..."

"I've been afraid of the water since last summer, Chris." McKayla says, stepping over the barrier and to the very edge of the bridge, "I don't want to be afraid anymore."

"So help me God, Kayla, if you jump I'll - "

"You'll what? Jump in after me and rescue me and be the big hero? What's your girlfriend gonna think of that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

McKayla doesn't respond.

"McKayla, this is crazy."

"Maybe to you, Christopher." McKayla says, mocking him for using her full name.

Chris pauses, then slowly takes a couple steps forward, "I know what you're going through right now, McKayla. I know what it's like to feel like everyone else would be better off without you. Just because I live in a big house doesn't mean I have a home."

McKayla pauses, "What do you mean?"

Chris sighs, "I've been trying to prove to my parents for the longest time that me trying to pursue music isn't just a waist of time or a phase; that I actually can do something with my life, but...sometimes I just feel like I'm a disappointment." He says, "Kayla, you can't do this. Your mom cares about you; your friends care about you, Kayla."

"My mom is too busy with work and liquor to notice when I'm not super careful with a knife while I help her cook dinner even though I can't cook, or when I take a few too many pain killers when I have a headache. She just...doesn't care."

"How often do you think this way?"

"Every day since the day of the shooting." McKayla says, "I can't help but feel like I was meant to die that day, and now the universe is just out to get me."

"It isn't." Chris says. He walks over to McKayla, then looks down and shudders, "God, that's high."

"Not a fan of heights?" McKayla asks.

"Never have been." Chris says. They were at least twenty feet up.

Chris swallows, then balances himself on the barrier and steps over to the other side so that he was next to McKayla. He takes a shaky breath and looks up.

"McKayla, please walk away from this. I won't tell anyone. I know you're feeling alone, but you're not. There are people that care about you. I care about you for God's sake. Is that not enough?"

McKayla doesn't say anything.

"Kayla, please...." Chris says, shakily extending his hand to her. His other hand was gripping the barrier so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

McKayla takes a shaky breath...then nods. She takes Chris' hand and steps over the barrier, back onto the bridge. Chris then steps back over as well. He takes McKayla in his arms and holds her as closely and as tightly as he could. McKayla wraps her arms around Chris' neck and cries into his chest; and for a minute, they just sort of...stood there.

"C'mon." Chris says, quietly. He leads McKayla to his car.

x

The car ride was silent.

As soon as they pull up outside McKayla's house, Sophie walks out. She looked like a wreck. She runs over to Chris and McKayla as they get out of the car.

"Oh, McKayla, thank God. I've been looking all over for you." She says before hugging her daughter, "I've already lost one of my babies. I can't lose you too."