"Get down from there!" His voice was verging on panic, fear racing through him and fueling him towards her as an outstretched hand reached for the woman while a single light on the rooftop glinted off his metal fingers. "Please, you don't have to do this!" He was begging now, his foot shuffling forward and leaving a print in the freshly fallen snow that continued to decorate the morbid scene unfolding before him.
"You don't understand what I've done," She yelled, her voice strained in the silence that weighed heavily over them as her body trembled. "I can't go back; I can't ever go back!" Tears slipped down ivory cheeks while gemstone eyes blinked rapidly against the snowflakes that had already created a blanket over her shoulders.
"This isn't the answer, you know that it isn't!" He pleaded, taking another cautious step forward towards the shivering woman as his heart pounded wildly in his chest.
"What if it is?" The words were barely a whisper, long brown hair falling in front of her face and hiding her broken features from the man who had pulled her from the darkness before, the man who was desperately trying to do the same again. "What if all my life was leading up to this very moment?" Her hands shook as she balled them into tight fists by her sides. "I've lost everything, James. Everything!" Her body shifted back on the ledge, barely half an inch, but that was all it took as the man lunged forward the last few feet.
"No! No, you haven't lost everything! You still have me! Isn't that enough? Can't that be enough?" His words were full of pain and nearing on hysterical, ice colored hues that mimicked the falling snow watching in fear as the woman lifted her hands up in a show for him to stay away.
"After everything that I've done to you, after everything that I put you through, why do you still care?" Her tears trailed faster, every inch of her shaking from the cold.
"Wanda," He whispered hoarsely, the lilt of his voice pure agony. "I don't blame you for what happened, I never blamed you."
"You should!" She cried, her form hunching down into a jacket that was more for style than warmth. "What I did wasn't okay, and it shouldn't be forgiven! I've ruined this, I've ruined all of it." Her voice trailed off, her eyes shutting tightly as her body swayed in front of him.
"Wanda!" His fingers brushed against the hem of her shirt as she pulled away, her feet half off the edge as she shook her head, a melancholic smile lighting up her face in such a familiar way. All those smiles she'd shown him in the past, all that pain. Would anything have changed if he'd known that it was all leading up to this very moment?
"James, my sweet James. I'm sorry, but we both know how tonight has to end."
"No, I won't let you!" His hand reached for her again, the edge of her shirt slipping through his fingers as she fell backwards into the night, falling far and fast with the snow.
His breath caught in his throat as he stood frozen, staring at the ledge where she had been just moments before. The same ledge that held only a trace of her that had been left in the snow. Deafening silence settled over the rooftop, falling into place just as the snow was. And just as the snow fell down around him, so had his world in the blink of an eye.
A/N
The start of something new, or the end of something great? Perhaps both? Oh the questions to be answered.. Leave a comment if you're so inclined, they make my day so much brighter!