Rapture

Black

Why me?

The question echos in my head as a sandstone slips under my bare foot, and I hang dangling on the face of the cliff.

My arms burn with tension, my toes wiggling against the cliff-side for grip.

Don't look down. I tell myself, glancing downwards, and getting woozy just from the potential of the fall. We've been climbing a while, and the people in the camp below look like lined up ants.

My foot finds grip, and I kick myself up, trying to catch up with Lily again. She seems to brush with death less intensively than me in her climb. Though sweat is dripping from her skin, and I can hear the strain even in her quiet breath.

I figure she might be right, about my mortality in this adventure. Might as well ask.

"Why me?"

Lily laughs in response.

"I'm serious. There are hundreds down there. Why pick me to climb?"

"You were the prettiest girl in the desert, so I'm taking you up the mountain to watch the sunset."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? I am a sucker for romance."

"Lily." I frown at her. "I deserve to know."

She laughs again, but the tone rings harsh.

"If you knew, Elena, you wouldn't think you deserve anything."

"You don't like me, Lily. If it were up to you, you would've kicked me down-"

"That's still an option."

I sigh. "Who are you doing this for?"

Lily stops above me. She reached the edge of the cliff-side, her face rising out of the shadow. She smiles at something I can't see, then glances down to me.

"Your son."

"What?" My voice trembles, and a terrible feeling wrenches me from the inside.

"I brought you here for your son."

"I don't have a son..." I murmur back, but she had already swung herself out of my sight. A dread more ominous than the drop falls over me.

My son?

Pain splits me from the inside out. Black. Red. Black. Darkness.

And just as I fall, a hand catches mine, long, lean fingers wrapping around my wrist.

I look up in his eyes, and I know it's him.

The boy from the nightmare.

My boy.