"You know, by the time you finally wake up, I'll be lying on some trash heap!" Ilse spat bitterly, her voice cracking. She stormed off, Gustave Baum's shirt whipping in the wind like white birds, attempting to free themselves from a net. The wet, slushy snow was cold on her feet, but she couldn't feel it, not now, she was too hot and angry.
How could he? How could he just...just abandon me like that? Melchior had abandoned her; she didn't expect anything less from a radical like him, but Moritz, Moritz was sweet and kind...and nothing like Melchi. She felt hot tears stinging her eyes as she marched through the street, her hair bouncing behind her, her vision to fall, sticking to her eyelashes. Does he not want me? Maybe he thinks I'm ugly. A lump formed in her throat...another man who does not want me. Her stepfather grew bored of her. Melchior abandoned her after just one night. Hanschen... well, maybe Hanschen not wanting her was a good thing. But Moritz...why Moritz, why?
"Ilse, ILSE!" she stopped cold. She heard his voice over the rising winds, calling out her name. She shook her head fiercely, refusing to let herself turn around. Oh, now he wanted her? Well it's too late now. She wasn't going to sit and wait for him to wake up. Go back to your stupid Virgil and equations, you, you...She heard footsteps, but they stopped as quickly as they came. She turned around, but it was too dark. Ten minutes ago you could see the whole horizon, but now the night had taken over. The fog had settled in, and everything around her was a dark mass. Then she saw it; a little glimmer in the distance, up on a shadowy knoll. It looked like a candle. She wandered towards it slowly, her feet now numb with cold. As she came to the base of the hill, she recognized it. It was the hill between Wendla and Thea's house, where they all used to play pirates together. A wave of warm nostalgia washed over her, twice in one night. She could just make out the tree on top of the hill, the one Melchior used to climb to the top and shout "You'll never take my treasure!" while Moritz sat at the base of the trunk, watching. She could finally see what the light was; someone was burning a piece of paper. The figure was tall and thin, but too hard to make out from the bottom of the hill.
"So what will I say?" the figure cried, his voice muddled with tears. It was Moritz; she'd recognize that pubescent voice-cracking anywhere. "I'll tell them all," he was saying, "The angels..."
Angels?
"I got drunk in the snow!" he was crying full-out now, his words came between heavy sobs. "Then sang...and played pirates! Yes...I'll tell them...I'm ready now...I'll be an angel." Then she heard a clicking sound, the same clicking sound she heard that morning, when she woke up to...
Oh God. Her blood turned to ice water. With a sudden rush of heat, she dashed up the hill like a deer. It was slippery from the dew; she tripped and fell, but was up again before she could even feel any pain.
"Ten minutes ago you could see the entire horizon," Moritz was saying in a monotone. She got faster, and faster. "Now...only sparks. You see...shooting stars." Faster and faster still. She reached the tree and peered around it. "So dark..." She saw the glint of metal. "So dark, so dark, so dark...so dark..." Moritz put the gun in his mouth.
"MORITZ NO!!" Ilse lunged from behind the tree and grabbed Moritz's arm with both hands. Moritz jerked his arm and cried out in surprise, the gun lurching away from his mouth. She clutched the gun with one hand, pulling it down towards the ground, pointing it away from his face.
"Ilse!" Moritz finally exclaimed, and Ilse heard a tinge of anger in his voice. He began to struggle. "Let go! Let go of me!" He grabbed her arm with his free hand and tried shoving her off him.
"Don't do it, Moritz!" Ilse cried, fighting the tears in her voice, trying to sound brave. "Please don't die, I need you!" She clung to him for dear life. He wouldn't shoot her to shoot himself, would he?
"I want this!" He shouted, the anger rising. "Dammit Ilse, let me GO!" He jerked his arm harder now, using his shoulder to try and bump her off, but she held that gun down. "I said LET ME GO!!"
BANG!