Flight School: Prey

闇の光

There was no point of fulfilling a promise if it meant losing someone he cared about.

Obscured and a little clouded, the eagle failed to see that this was, exactly, the purpose of their promise. Even so, he was far too selfish to take into account whatever this promise meant to Io for Io—meant everything to him.

He abandoned the girl meters before the gate and turned back.

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The boy was on the edge.

He hadn't noticed it before, but now he had. Instinct brought him to look down and as always, instincts made mistakes. Below was an abyss that belonged to a chasm, somewhere dark, down below; way below, he could not see what it was. He knew it was an abyss.

He stepped back; frightened by the drop and feeling the strength in his legs give out. It was not unusual. Turning behind, there was nowhere to go. He, a sole individual, stood in the middle of an edge with nothing before and nothing behind, and everything—everything below.

Was there only one place to go?

He knelt on the edge, refusing to look at the sight of darkness that seemed to be calling from the depths and how this, this was going to be his end. The boy lay down sideways and brought his knees up to his chest for there was nothing else to hold.

He closed his eyes.

Was this how it felt like to be abandoned? He asked himself; for the boy, till death, was one to never let a question go.

He reasoned that it probably was.

Nothingness;

And only down.

He would have to fall; but he considered yet another option. What would it be like to stay? He felt a warmth in his eyes and shrunk further into himself, wishing for blend, for once, with the darkness. After all, it was safe and warm. There was no one to see him; and no one to abandon him for he would do the abandoning.

The boy would never be hurt ever again. Falling was the better option. He would never have to think again. The heights he had always feared, they would disappear.

When he opened his eyes again, they were wet and obscured. He could no longer see the edge.

Ah

He had fallen.

So this was what the darkness felt like, he thought as it consumed him, making a nest out of his heart and rotting, taking the brave creature away to replace, instead, one that merely slept.

The cage was no longer needed.

It was comfortable in the dark. He might just live down here. He hadn't known that it was so soothing; so much easier than where he was—before—on the edge. Falling was good.