Living life on the edge

20 | swept away

2 singular tear drops fell onto the thin paper, he placed it on the ground beside him and put a small rock underneath to stop it from moving. 

clearing his throat, he spoke loudly, "hey mom and dad" he greeted. "i get to see you soon. are you excited?" no response. "i have so much to tell you, I know you already know most of it, but you never got to see how i really feel, i can explain that. and mum, i get to see you, i get to see how caring and kind and beautiful dad always said u were and-" he was interrupted by a huge gush of wind almost knocking him over, he moved his foot to gain stability and accidently kicked the small rock on the ground in the process, causing the piece of paper to fly away with the air. Karl ran a little and jumped to reach it, but it was too late, he watching it disappear from his grip. 

just like everything else he had.

~

nick sat shirtless and ready for bed as he admired Alex as she paced slowly back and fourth across the room, humming and shushing their child in her arms. soon enough Thomas had drifted off to sleep. Alex left to go to Thomas' newly decorated nursery to put him to bed, giving nick time on his own. he sat in silence, twiddling his thumbs, hoping Alex wouldn't come back in a bad mood and start shouting at him for no reason like she does every night, but he wasn't very hopeful.

he wondered, like he always does, about Karl. about what he's doing this exact moment. he could never think, he didn't know how Karl was feeling right now. had he forgot about him, had he found a new partner? 

he was startled by Alex bursting loudly through the door and walking straight to her huge closet that filled floor to ceiling of her traditional dresses, corsets and shoes. muffled crying very quickly emerged from the other room. 

"oh for fuck sake nick go fix that thing I'm trying to organise and your being useless"

nick did as ordered and went to check on Thomas, who was indeed crying from being awoke by the loud bang of the door. he walked calmly over to Thomas, soon realising he has no idea what he's doing. he picked his child up and rocked him, mimicking exactly what Alex had done just a bit ago, but he just wasn't calming down, nick walked over to the rocking chair in the corner and sat in it, making sure him and his son were comfortable as he lay on his bare chest, almost immediately, Thomas stopped crying and had fallen back to sleep with a grin on his face, nick lay there, almost falling asleep himself as he patted and rubbed across his soft back. as he began to close his eyes and fall asleep, he heard a quite faint bang on the glass door leading to the balcony outside. 'its probably a leaf' he thought and relaxed back into the chair, but he was an overthinker, he stood up slowly, not waking up Thomas and placed Thomas in his bed to sleep.

he walked over to the noise and opened a crack in the curtain, he looked all around. nothing. until he was jump scared by a piece of paper flying at the glass, it fell on the ground and got caught under a bit of raised slabbing, so it couldn't move. nick unlocked the door and opened it just enough the retrieve the paper. 

~

he sat in his chair in shock, reading over the lettering again and again. those two words. forget me. what was he planning to do. he couldn't bare the thought of what Karl was implying, but he knew he had to do something. he grabbed a dirty white shirt that he had somehow left in there the other day and slipped it on, still gripping onto the paper in his hand. he lent over quietly to the child and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead "I love you" he whispered. causing Thomas to smile, he was listening to him after all. 

he slid out into the outside and climbed down the wall of the castle like he did every night before, this time with a bit more urgency. he ran and ran as fast as he could through the forest, focussing on not tripping over the overgrown roots and plants across the path. just 5 miles from the cliff, then 4, then 3, then 2, then 1...