Title: Spring Nicht
Summary: The rooftop is so tempting when you have problems that would kill normal people. To her, it's that exact reason she fell in love with them.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except my friend Deanna, her I own *evil laughter*
Authoress Note: When they say we can't write about normal people, they include the actors, actresses, and voice actors of our favorite shows. When we write about what we love, the shows we watch, why do they care?
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Deanna sat on the edge of the roof, her feet dangling over the edge, the void of shadows. She considered what it was like to fall, was it like when she jumped off of high dives? That brief, exhilarating, rush? Or would it be slower, sweeter than knife blades running across her tormenters throat?
She nearly slipped from the edge right then, just to see, but decided not to. She didn't want to fall just yet, maybe later.
She turned her body around and got up, placing one foot in front of another, back to the door that led to the stairs. Once she reached her room she gathered her stuff and folded it neatly, packing it all back in her bags. It was time to move on; she had gotten too attached to this place.
Especially to its high rooftops and the darkness that surrounded the ground from the sky at night, when everyone had their lights turned off.
She rolled her bags out and placed her keycards on the front desk, smiling at the man in front. Then she left, and hailed a taxi, put her bags in the trunk, and roe off in it to the nearest airport.
She'd heard that there were some good rooftops in Chicago.
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"Warum sind wir hier wieder?" Bill glanced at his brother and then at the button on the elevator. He had been determinedly ignoring his whining for the past ten minutes.
Geez, if Tom didn't want to go up with him, he could get off at the floor.
He turned to his brother, "Wenn Sie wollen nicht mit mir gehen, dann können Sie im Zimmer bleiben." He mumbled. Tom cocked an eyebrow at him.
He looked thoughtful, and then shrugged, "Ja, was auch immer, drop me off auf unserer Etage." Bill pressed their button and soon Tom was off the elevator.
He sighed in peace and headed the rest of the way up, thanking God that Tom's whiny voice hadn't stayed with him.
That would have made looking at the other buildings around them not as peaceful.
Soon enough the elevator dinged again and Bill got off, he had to climb two other flights of stairs before he could get to the roof. But he felt that it would be worth it.
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She smiled and wriggled her toes in the night air; her shoes were to the right of her tonight. She felt like taking them off to feel the air curl around her feet.
She hooked her Zune up to her sister's old speakers and turned on her playlist. Last Dollar by Tim McGraw started playing and she hummed along with the lines.
"I'm so glad you're here today, 'cause tomorrow I might have to go and fly away." She sang out loud. She loved that line; it reminded her of herself a couple of years back.
When she still lived with the ones she hated.
And the one she had left behind. Her friend, her best friend, her flesh and blood sister.
But, she hadn't really left her behind; it was kind of the other way around. Only, the kind of leaving her sister did was the kind that was permanent.
The next few lines played before she felt compelled to join in again, "But look at me still smilin', as I'm wonderin' what I'll do," she closed her eyes, "since I ain't got nothin I got nothing to lose." It was very true.
She opened her eyes and leaned, looking over the edge of the roof, she was on top of a particularly large hotel. But tonight the darkness wasn't present, lights were on all over, and screams pierced the night air.
But they sounded so far away.
"But I don't have to worry, bout things that I don't have," she sang along again, "cause if I ain't got nothing, I got nothing to hold me back." She meant it.
There was nothing to stop her from sliding, slipping, or even just jumping, from that roof tonight.
She felt like this was the night she could do it. She had everything in order, the exact place she would land, how it would feel, who would find her.
Who wouldn't care that she was gone.
"And one, two, three like a bird I sing, cause you've given me the most beautiful set of wings." She threw her head back and laughed. "And I'm so glad you're here today, cause tomorrow I might have to go and fly away."
She jumped up, got off the edge, and paced a couple of feet back. "Ima do it this time!" she screamed out loud, throwing her arms and head back and laughing joyfully.
Then she took her jacket off and placed it on the ground, along with it was her necklace, her bracelets, and her hair bow. But not the anklet, her sister had given that to her, she had found it on the road and had given it to her older sis on her fourteenth birthday.
Then she strode purposefully back towards the edge, her music was still playing softly, now it was Concrete Angel by Martina McBride. She took a deep breath and then stepped up on the edge, kicking the player off to the shoes.
She hated that song, it reminded her too much of the life she had left behind.
"I'm comin sis." She whispered, the wind whipped her words away, straight out of her mouth.
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Bill made it to the roof; he opened the door and walked out onto the smooth black pavement.
He immediately noticed that he wasn't alone, not only because music was playing, but also because someone with long blue and purple hair was singing along with it.
He shut the door quietly, standing in front of it as he watched; she was sitting on the edge of the roof, singing along with some song he didn't recognize.
She stopped singing along with it for a couple of seconds, and then she picked back up, only to stop again after a couple of verses. He finally figured out that she was only singing those lines on purpose, they had some sort of meaning to her he guessed.
She fell silent for a couple of more seconds before singing along with more verses, and then she jumped up and walked back a couple of feet.
Her eyes on the ground, he didn't wonder why she didn't see him. When she turned her back on him once again she looked up.
Then she threw her head and arms back and shouted, "Ima do it this time!" to the wind, he wondered what it was that she was going to do.
He started to get the vague idea when she started getting rid of items that she had placed on her body. Her jacket, necklace, bracelets, he saw her hand hover over a little gold ankle bracelet before she straightened up and then strode purposefully to the edge again.
She kicked the music player off the edge, he saw it land beside her shoes.
Bill decided this was the time for action and so walked forward until he was directly behind her.
He barely heard her words, "I'm comin sis."
She then crouched, as if preparing to jump, that was when Bill grabbed her wrist.
She started badly, turning wide green eyes on him; they narrowed quickly before returning to their original size.
She straightened and allowed him to pull her off the edge, when she was off she looked up at him. "Yes?" she asked, taking her hand and removing it from his grasp.
He blinked, "What were you about to do?" he asked, wincing at his bad English.
She shrugged, "Nothing much, just jumping off the side of a building." She told him, looking back at the edge, and then back at him, "Why?" she asked.
Bill blinked; she was talking about suicide so smoothly, as if the thought of dying did nothing to frighten her. "It doesn't frighten you?" he asked, leading her away from the edge and sitting her down on the ground, he sat across from her.
"No, nothing really scares me; I like the feeling of falling. It brings such a rush." She shrugged. She didn't really care that he had distracted her right then.
She could always jump later.
Bill leaned back on his arms, "Why would you want to jump? Isn't there someone here who would miss you?" he asked.
Deanna shook her head and leaned back so she could reach her Zune and turn it off, she sat right back up, "There's nothing here for me, no one, if there was, do you think I would have spent the last five years of my life staring into that void of blackness?" she retorted, raising her eyebrows.
Bill felt his jaw drop, "Five years?" he asked, not quite believing it, she looked barely sixteen.
"Yeah, I started when I was fourteen, small stuff back then, just the edges of my house and whatever was high enough in the neighborhood. Then, when I got… older, I moved onto the big leagues. Always wondering, always waiting for that moment."
Bill blinked, "That's very odd," he noticed when she had hesitated at the older part, "what did you mean, you didn't say what you wanted." He told her.
She smiled wryly, "You caught that?" she asked, he nodded, "Well, I might as well tell someone, since I had it bottled up in me since I was young." She mused.
Bill scooted closer to her, "What?" he asked.
She shook her head, her hair falling around her face, "Aren't you eager?" she laughed.
Bill flushed, but he didn't back up.
"Well, it all started when my sister was born, I was maybe six, seven years old. That was when my parents started acting funny, like, not right in the head you know?" she tapped the side of her head, "When she was around three and I was nine they started beating us, the littlest things would set them off and then we wouldn't be able to move for hours." She lay back on the roof.
Bill was astonished, he had never heard of such atrocities, Deanna guessed what he was thinking, "Oh, people like that exist in the world man, they do, its epically sad." She told him.
"Well, anyway, we continued to grow throughout the beatings, and I occasionally struck out on my own for walks, my sister toddling behind me." She sighed, "No one cared that little kids screams pierced the night. No one cared that we were out without a light." She almost sang those two sentences.
"Eventually they progressed beyond beating, to starving. That was really horrible, I would usually go without food for days, giving it to my sister so she could grow." She sacrificed her own needs for a sister she had loved dearly.
"That's not right, why would parents do that?" he asked.
She shook her head, "I'm not the one to ask, that's a question for the books right there." She stated.
He nodded even though she couldn't see it, "Ok, when I was finally fourteen, my dad bought a gun, my mom bought a new target, and my sister found a golden anklet. It was one of my saddest birthdays in the history of my birthdays." She told him.
"Not because I got one thing, but because, while my parents were out target practicing with their new toy, my mother grabbed my sister…"
** Flash-back **
"Come on honey! I want to show you something!" their mother looked dangerous, her eyes were shining with something Deanna couldn't name.
Her mother grabbed Maria by the arm and dragged her out of the sisters shared bedroom. If one could call a mattress on the floor a bed.
More like a prison.
Deanna grabbed her sister's other arm, pulling desperately, her sister crying that she didn't want to go with mommy.
But their mother was bigger and more powerful; she slapped Deanna down to the ground and then slammed the door shut, locking it.
Deanna threw herself at the door, crying and screaming and pounding on it to get her sister back. The back door slammed and Deanna slumped against the oak door.
Their bedroom was in the front part of the house, she couldn't see what was going on behind it. Though, she could hear it loud enough.
Maria's screams were muffled outside, but Deanna still heard them, along with the laughter of the monsters who called themselves parents.
Suddenly the screams stopped, Deanna stood up fast, her eyes wide, wondering what they did with her sister. There were three muffled pops and then Maria screamed once more, this time more blood curling than any screaming she had uttered thus far.
There was another pop and Maria screamed no more.
**End Flash-back **
Bill's eyes were wider than he thought they could ever go. He couldn't believe it.
"The next couple of hours they shot that thing off like it was a toy." She said bitterly.
She didn't even realize she was crying until one of the tears trekked down the side of her face.
She wiped them away and sat back up, "Anyway, that's why I want to jump, now, if you'll excuse me, I have unfinished business." She told him.
Bill got up with her, "Wait, can I show you life isn't all bad? Please, give me a chance, don't jump. Spring nicht." He saw her waver at his request.
She looked at him, and then at the edge, but then she looked back at him.
"You don't even know my name." she pointed out.
He was smiling triumphantly on the inside, "Ok, I'll give you mine, Hi, my name is Bill." He stated.
She turned her torso back to him, not completely won over yet, "I'm Deanna." She said tentatively.
She didn't know why, she had just told her life story to this Bill.
He stepped forward about a centimeter, "I'm twenty years old and I'm a musician." He said.
She took one step from the edge, "I'm nineteen, and I stare down pizza from time to time." She allowed a miniscule smile to come through.
Bill took her hand, "I can show you how to speak my language."
She let him hold her appendage, "How much time do you need to show me that life isn't that bad?"she asked.
He brought her closer, "Until I say so?" he questioned.
She shrugged, "I don't know, there is a lot loaded to that one." She inched back a bit.
Bill panicked, "I'll need that much, you may take a lot of time to convince." He said.
She sighed, "Ok, but, if I say it's horrible as hell on earth, would you let me go?"
He shook his head, "I'm not sure to the answer of that one."
She nodded, "Fine, I'll allow you to try and show me how life isn't that horrible."
He smiled, "Nett."
She sat down, "I need my stuff though." She told him.
Bill ran and gathered her stuff, she slipped her socks and shoes back on before putting everything but the necklace on, that she threw over the edge.
If Bill wondered why he didn't ask, "Do you have anything you need?" he asked.
She shook her head, "I gave all of my stuff to goodwill earlier today, not expecting to need it." She told him.
Bill nodded, "We'll need to go get you some stuff tomorrow, tonight you can sleep in my old clothes." He offered.
"Is this the start of the better life part?" she asked.
Bill nodded, "Yes, I'll show you even more if you choose to follow me." He told her.
She shrugged, "What do I have to lose?" she asked.
Bill smiled, "A life." He joked.
She nodded, "Yes, what would the world have been without its staring teen?" she continued.
He led her in.
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-Is that a good ending? Or should I continue?
-Mistress Fang
Tom: Warum sind wir hier wieder = Why are we here again
Bill: Wenn Sie wollen nicht mit mir gehen, dann können Sie im Zimmer bleiben = If you do not want to go with me, then you can stay in the room
Tom: Ja, was auch immer, drop me off auf unserer Etage = Yes, whatever, drop me off on our floor
-Those are the translations