Doesn't Even Matter

By Desertdweller



A/N: It was just an idea I had after listening to Linkin Park's 'In the End.' Sorry for any mistakes… Normally I am not this depressed. But the feelings the song evoked stirred me to write this… Thanks.



Thunder rolls menacingly and spears of lightning strike the earth. The forest shivers as the storm approaches and begins its bombardment on the terrain below. Briefly illuminated by the flickers of heaven's anger, a lone form is seen standing on the edge of a cliff. The angry sea batters against the cliff and rages continuously.

A soft pitter-patter is heard and a sudden drop of water impacts on the dirt.

He ignores it and reaches inside of his tunic to pull out a battered portrait, depicting two happy faces. One smiling and one trying not to smile. Instead of causing a happy warmth to spread over the observer, a mask of pain and anguish colors his expression.

The rain begins to develop a counter-rhythm to the storm and begins to fall with a certain cadence.

More drops begin to fall.

A soft voice suddenly begins to weave its spell, synchronizing with the rhythm of the storm.

"It starts with

One thing.

I don't know why.

It doesn't matter how hard I try.

Keep that in mind,

I designed this rhyme,

To explain in due time

All I know

Time is a valuable thing.

Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings

Watch it count down to the end of the day.

The clock ticks life away

it's so unreal

didn't look out below.

Watch the time go right out the window.

Trying to hold, but didn't even know

Wasted it all just to

Watch you go.

I kept everything inside and even though I tried

It all fell apart

What it meant to me

And eventually

Will be a memory

Of the time I tried

so hard."

The voice gets stronger and more pain becomes apparent in the man's tone.

He lifts his face up to the whirling clouds above as if asking for a semblance of hope but all that he receives is an arrow of lightning flashing by.

He steps closer to the edge.

"One thing

I don't know why

Doesn't even matter how hard I try

Keep that in mind

I designed this rhyme

To explain in due time

I tried so hard

In spite of the way you were treating me

Acting like I was part of your property.

Remembering all the times you fought with me

I'm surprised it go so far

Things aren't the way they were before.

You wouldn't even recognize me anymore.

Not that you knew me back then.

But it all comes back to me

In the End

You kept everything inside

And even though I tried

it all fell apart

What it meant to you

will eventually be a memory

of the time I tried so hard

And got so far.

But in the end.

It doesn't even matter.

I had to fall

to lose it all."

The photograph suddenly rips free of its owner and flies upward on the conflicting draft of wind.

Pained garnet gems watch it escape into altitudes unknown. He shifts to the very edge of the pinnacle of cliff that he stands on. He looks down to the raging ocean and a mask of resolution settles onto his young face with aged eyes.

"But in the end it doesn't even matter.

I put my trust in you.

Pushed as far as I could go

And all for this

There is only one thing you should know...

But in the end it doesn't really matter..."

The soft voice ends it's lament.

Piccolo spreads his arms out wide, his ivory mantle hissing in the wind and falls forward. With a dancer like grace, he plummets into the abyss and warm embrace of oblivion and forgetfulness. No one will remember. No one will care.

That is how he prefers it.

To plunge into nothingness…

To plunge into oblivion…

To forget…

To simply fall…

To calm his turbulent heart.

The raging sea devours the willing victim into its frigid liquid embrace, bringing it down into its bosom.

Almost as if this was the sacrifice demanded by the storm, it begins to die down.

Rain continues to fall but with less force and something begins to drift down out of the shifting sky.

The photograph, so rudely torn from its owner, comes to rest on the muddy ground below the spire of rock that had just been vacated. The turbulent streams caused by the sudden downpour pour downward in an attempt to rejoin its parent oceans. The lone photograph is swiftly borne away on the impatient current, sweeping away the last traces of the individual that once was there. The ground bleeds rivers of mud.





Silence…





All the while the rain continues to fall...





Fin