Thanks again, Tigerkat51
And thanks greyslostwho, sorry this is already the last chapter, doesn't mean though there might not be more in that line, we will see…
He's on that same roof again; he thinks he's never left it. He sees the man, hears the man, tries to get to him in time. He thinks he should be screaming but he can't hear anything, just those words, over and over again: I'll take you with me. He sees the man fall. He blinks, sees Stella where the man has been. She looks at him earnestly. He's still several feet away from the edge. She raises her arms into the air, spreads them out like wings. He tries to move towards her, feels like he's sinking into the tar of the roof.
"You said you'd be at my side. So that…" she moves her head to look at the other man who's lying on his back, somewhere down there, "… that's what's kept you away." He reaches out, still too far away when he sees her fall, falling in slow-motion, but still too fast for him to hold her. He stands motionless, doesn't bother to move anymore, what for? He doesn't know what he's waiting for or if he's waiting at all. He sees darkness rising up from where she has gone, reaching over the edge and stretching out, feeling its way towards him.
Somewhere he catches a glimpse of light. She's on the edge again, stars glowing around her let her arms appear like silvery wings. The darkness stirs, extends arms, holds his legs. Stars move, she steps into the black cloud, it curls, wriggles under her feet. "Very well, I said I'd take you down with me, doesn't matter if it's through her." Those words again, that voice again. He sees the cloud shoot up around her. Black wings envelop her, starry wings rip through the cloud, it flows back together. He sees them fall again, spreading across the sky, clouds covering stars, stars piercing through clouds, over and over again.
Stars at his side, "don't let him get you!" Clouds at his side, countless sheets of paper, one in his hands. Letters form words, words form cloudy, menacing sentences. We find this man guilty of murdering a suspect. He wants to read it again, can't find the beginning. Letters float around, new words appear, blacker and blacker. Verdict… murder… in police custody… cold blood… HIV… negative. He thinks those last words glimmered, he looks again. Take you down with me the letters spell out. HIV… positive… it says in letters so black, like black holes on the paper, swallowing all the light.
He sees her face again, remembers the fear in her eyes when she first told him, remembers his promise, and now she's the one at his side. Blackness crawls up again, billowing around him, around her. Black fingers stretch into his brain, she's losing the fight. He's surrounded by darkness; stars explode before his eyes because he can't breathe. A faint sparkle in his brain, the last impulses of his nerves as he tries to think, tries… to remember… something.
Sparks. Stars. Stella, Stella is still out there, fighting for him. He forces his eyes open against the heavy blackness, searches for the stars shining through. He sees them move through the clouds slowly, flickering weakly, sees them sink to the ground, burning out. He makes a wish, starts tearing at the clouds, reaches into the light.
