Short Stories

Short Stories One

English Class-topic, narratives. Emphasis on short stories

She's standing still in the moonlight, despite the wind that's threatening to blow me away.

I look around, not able to make out any shapes of the surrounding trees or anything really. Someone could be standing just over five metres away and I wouldn't see them. I can hear it though. The trees are screaming in the wind and the water, far below on the shore of the cliff is yelling back at them.

Up above, the moon casts milky light down on us, on her, almost like a spotlight on a stage performer. I look up at it and it seems to echo the same question back at me. Why are you here?

I turn back to her as she continues to stare out into the darkness of the night. She seems eerily calm, and it puts me on edge. Usually, when I'm with her she's always moving, whether that be tapping on the arm of her chair or fiddling with her long hair or bobbing her knees up and down. But she stands still and I feel more and more sick the longer she does.

Finally, she turns around. She's not shivering, even as my bones cry out at the icy wind. My mind tells me she has to be cold, has to freezing just like me. But the moon stares down at me and tells me she doesn't even feel it.

"Hey, glad to see you could make it. " from anyone else, those words would be casual and perhaps playful but they come out stiff and restricted from the back of her throat.

"What did you want? It's so late to be calling me out here. " My voice seems to get lost in the wind, and for a second I pray she didn't hear me. But then the second passes and she's nodding her head with an empty echo of sympathy.

She doesn't answer though. She's quiet and seems to be thinking. I stare at a spot above her shoulder, just inky blackness dotted by stars. Her arms are tucked into her sides, and for a second I think of wrapping myself around her.

I don't.

I ask her again, this time the question clipped and short. Things have been tense between us lately.

She nods again but this time with more movement, mumbling something to herself.

She looks up at me, taking one deliberate step forward, then two, and then three. By the fourth she's standing so close to me I can see the faint freckles dusting her nose. She's so close I can see the scar on her cheekbone from when she tumbled into a rosebush. She's so close I can see the moon reflecting off her eyes, making them seem more intricate than I've ever noticed. So close I can feel her bated breath on my face. So close, yet her eyes scream to me that she's somewhere far away.

Her arms move from her side, slowly but surely making their way for me, like a snake slithering towards prey.

Looking back, I think I felt it before I realised what it was.

Cold metal, colder than the water below, colder than the tips of my fingers. It digs into my side. I don't say anything. I don't breathe, don't gasp, simply tilt my head at her in question. Was this some kind of game?

I must have said it out loud because she chuckles faintly and the movement causes the knife to poke deeper into the soft flesh of my stomach. It draws blood, which softly runs down my front.

"I'm not the one playing games." her voice cracks. "You run around with her all day long, make me look like a fool! But you don't even mention it and suddenly" she taps her free hand to her temple repeatedly "I'm wondering if I'm crazy! Crazy to love someone who doesn't love me back! What did she even have that I don't?! I've got everything and you still go off with her!"

And with that, she puts more pressure on with her wrist and the knife doesn't feel so cold anymore. It begins to feel red hot, and like my brain just rebooted I realise what kind of situation I'm in. My thoughts are sprinting around, bumping into each other. Run, scream for help, talk to her, attack her.

I don't know what to do. I look around, anywhere but her face and my eyes land on the moon.

There's nothing I can do, it tells me. I have a sinking feeling in my gut that it speaks the truth.

Still, I try.

"b-but I do! You're amazing, and smart and funny and gorgeous! How could I not love you! "

Her breathing hitches for a second and the blade is relaxed.

But then she digs it in deeper. Hissing through her teeth with venom she speaks.

"Say it."

"Sa-say what?"

"Say you love me!" for the first time that night I see the emotion in her eyes. Not love, not fear but pure animalistic rage.

"I l-love you!" My teeth have started chattering from the cold, but I focus on getting the words out. I say it again, willing more truth into the words that tumble out my mouth

Her brows soften, and her shoulders relax. She breathes out heavily against my face, warm on my frozen cheek. The words come out one syllable at a time.

"I don't believe you. "

All I can feel is the hot pain in my stomach. I fall back onto the wet grass, which seeps through the back of my shirt. As I lay on the ground, with my breath getting away from me, I look up at the moon for the last time that night.

Goodnight, it says as the stars begin to wink out and my vision goes dark.