Ch. 1: I Saw a Light
AARON WATSON'S POV:
I was running; running from my past, my family, and my home. My mom died and my dad left when I was sixteen, and my bitch of an older sister had to take care of me. She made it her main goal to fuck up my life, and she succeeded. She would hit me, call me names in public, and convinced me that cutting my wrists would somehow help me. One day, I decided not to take her shit any longer. I grabbed her gun, slashed her tires, and ran west.
She never believed in me, no one ever did. No one ever thought that I was telling the truth when I told them that she would constantly abuse me. Everyone gave the same excuse: 'brothers and sisters are supposed to tease each other.' What I went through was not teasing, it was fucking torture. No one believed me when I told them that she abused me. I was laughed at when I tried to show people my talent for music. And I was flat-out ridiculed when I said I had the power to stop time. I have been belittled and have been made to feel worthless my whole life. Well fuck it - I had enough. I was nothing - nobody was going to miss me. Who would even care if I simply vanished from the face of the Earth?
I did not know where I was, but I was on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I sat against a tree and said with tears in my eyes, "Mom," I pulled out the gun, "I'm coming to see you again." I put the gun in my mouth and pulled the trigger.
MAX CAULFIELD'S POV:
It was a peaceful night; there was no moon, there were no clouds, and there were a million stars in the sky.
"Okay," I said to myself grabbing my camera, "just need to cover the flash and I will have a great landscape picture." I took the picture and the photo ejected from the camera. "Freaking solid," I stood in place for a little while, and then I heard a loud bang nearby. "Oh no," I said turning on my flashlight, "I know that sound." I searched around for a full minute until I found the body.
The top of his head was completely open and blood was splattered all along the tree that he was leaning against. His right hand held the weapon of his demise, a small handgun.
"Oh God, oh God, oh fuck," I panicked. "Calm yourself Max, you can just rewind time and save him."
I held out my hand and concentrated. Suddenly, the air was filled with a whirring noise with incoherent whispers and noises in the background. His head pieced itself together like a morbid jigsaw puzzle. I could not help Kate, but I could help this man.
AARON WATSON'S POV:
I did not know where I was, but I was on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I sat against a tree and said with tears in my eyes, "Mom," I pulled out the gun, "I'm coming to see you again." I put the gun in my mouth and…
"STOP!" A female voice yelled from the darkness, and then a light came on that was probably a flashlight.
"You can't help me," I said putting down the gun, "no one can."
"Look, I don't know what you're going through and I'm not going to say all that crap about how I understand what you are feeling right now, because no one can. Only you know how you are feeling at this specific moment in time and no one can dictate to you how you should feel," the woman in the darkness said.
"No one cares," I said, "I wouldn't be missed if I died."
"You feel how you feel. You are not doing anything wrong by feeling this way. Don't ever feel as if it's your fault. It's not. What is wrong is that someone made you feel that way in the first place?" I could hear her coming closer, but I did not mind.
"My sister hurt me, and sometimes I would hurt myself," I said showing her my wrists. "Whenever I would tell someone what she was doing, they would all tell me to fuck off and grow up. No one believed in me, no one ever did."
"I know I'm just some random girl you don't know, but at least listen what I have to say. You're not going to lose anything by listening, right?" She asked.
"I guess not," I answered.
She began to monologue, "Life is messed up and nothing ever goes to plan, but you make the best of every situation, you keep going and you live for those moments when things go your way. For when the person you love smiles at you and tells you that they couldn't comprehend living without you. For when that kid you told to follow their dreams turns around to you and tells you that without you believing in them, they wouldn't be where they are now. For when that person, who's eyes once filled with despair, decides that they are worth everything and they decide to keep on going, until they find their own happy moments."
My hands began to shake, I dropped the gun and began to cry, "She was my sister, she was family."
"Don't let your sister ruin your life. She isn't worth dying for. You are worth a million times more than she ever could be. Screw her. She doesn't know crap. Don't let her win. If you live, then whatever she has tried to do to you will have failed. You will have won. You will have beaten her. She can't break you," she said.
"You seem like you know what you're talking about," I said with tears in my eyes.
She sat next to me, "One of my friends, she… she took her own life. I couldn't save her. I tried, but I couldn't. I didn't try hard enough, I failed her. I could see she didn't really want to. She felt trapped and alone. That was the only way she saw out. When I look at you now, I can see the same look she gave me when I looked into her eyes before she… before she jumped. She looked so desperate. She wanted someone to listen, someone to help her… someone to save her… I promised myself that I would never let anything like that happen ever again. You don't have to do this. You can stop right now. You won't have failed if you stop now. If anything, you would have succeeded. You would have beaten your demons and survived another day to tell the tale. There are so many things you haven't experienced yet, so many people you haven't met."
"What can I do?" I asked. "I have no family and no place to go."
She put her hand on my shoulder, "You live for the people. You will meet people who will love you and care about you, and you will help and make their lives better. Most importantly: you can live for yourself, for your own happiness. You can get through this. You are strong enough to do this. I know it. Hell, if you've survived whatever you have up until now, then you can pull through the other side of this. If no one else gives a shit, know that I care. The world is a much better place with you in it and it will only cause pain and suffering if you take yourself from it. It won't make anyone happy. I will help you in any way I can. Just please don't do this. Don't rob the world of someone who could do great things, who could make people happy, who could save them."
I couldn't hold it in anymore. I wrapped my arms around her and bawled my eyes out. She returned my hug, and then I knew that I finally had someone to count on.
I had not realized that I cried myself to sleep in her arms until the next morning. We were both asleep together and, for the first time in years, I felt safe.
I'd like to give a shout-out to my co-authors: Nothing You Can Prove, HawtDawgMan, and Fatal Grief. Favorite and Review please.