24 hours

hour 9

3:00 am

we ran through a garden and into high grass

i poked my head through the tall, green blades

"i think it's clear"

we started walking the opposite direction of my

house

until we reached the train tracks

the train tracks were about fifty feet under a bridge

and the only way to get up to the bridge was to

climb the surrounding rocks

he grabbed my hand and pulled me up

"i don't think i can do this"

"why not?"

"i'm terrified of heights"

i thought more closely at the situation

i could always jump if i got too scared

i mean, in a few hours i will be intoxicating myself

and feeling the oxygen rush out of my body as

i fall into a cold, deep sleep

it wouldn't matter if i fell from a cliff or took some

pills anyway

my mom doesn't want me home

everyone at school wants me dead

"okay, i guess i can do this"

"alright"

he took my hand and pulled me up onto a stiff rock

one by one he raced to the top

"you okay down there?"

"yeah i'm fine"

i put my right foot into the next rock

it wiggled a little bit

i moved my arm up a few inches until i felt

confident enough to push my left leg off the rocks

the rock under my right leg fell down to the train

tracks

i looked down

he had pulled me up about thirty feet

"i can't do this!"

"you can! you're more than halfway there!"

i heard a rumble

and heard train whistles

"oh my god! there's a train coming!"

"it's okay, it's farther away! you can make it!

concentrate"

i couldn't

but now that i was this close to death i suddenly

wanted to desperately make it out alive

the train made the rocks shake

"please help me!"

i felt a jolt as the train whipped past me

my arms were flown off the rocks

and i could smell the train

i could smell the exhaust right in my face as i was

jolted off the rocks

i let out a scream and felt my body become heavier

as the wind rushed past me

i was falling

4:00 am