Pleasantly Raising Cain

A Dead Soul (Part 3)

TRIGGER WARNING: Self harm and suicidal thoughts.

She looked at herself in the mirror before she left the room for the last time. Her hair hung down over her face and covered the dark shadows that she had under her eyes. This was it.

She crawled out the door, not wanting to make a sound, and towards the bathroom. When she was sure that no one had heard her and no one was going to walk in on her, she pulled a razor from on of the drawers.
"I miss you so much," she whispered, and blinked back tears. She flicked the safety clip off and took a deep breath.

Then she raked the razor across her forearm, drawing blood that dribbled onto the floor. She hissed as the cuts began to sting, but she'd had worse. She kept cutting herself until her whole arm up to her elbow was covered with slits. Blood ran freely and she swapped hands, slicing open her other arm. She gritted her teeth together and continued raking the razor along her arm, so now both of her forearms were covered with cuts and blood covered them like a red sea.

Oh God...

The tears came again. That was something that he had said. About Elementals not being able to part the Red Sea or anything but having a little influence over water. That had been when she'd first met him. She tried to keep herself quiet, not wanting anyone to hear. She needed to end this.

She walked out of the bathroom, the blood from her arms dripping onto the floor. She tip toed down the stairs. Now, how would she do this? She stopped. Yes. That was it. She walked back up to her room and grabbed one of the belts that was hanging in her cupboard. She hurried to the window, her breathing becoming ragged, and opened it. The cool air hit her hard and blew the hair off her face.

She looked up at the water pipe above her window. Perfect. She threw the belt up and caught the other end, tying it in a knot before climbing out the window.

"Valkyrie."

She heard a very familiar velvet voice behind her. She almost fell off the side of the house but managed to regain her balance. She looked behind her, and below her. What? It was him. It had been his voice. Where had it come from?

"What are you doing?"

There it was again. His voice.

"I'm killing myself," she muttered. "I thought you were meant to be the detective."

"Please Valkyrie. Don't do anything stupid."

"Why? You did! With the Accelerator!"

"That was different."

"How was it different? You left me! You died! Now I'm going to die!"

She didn't realise was screaming at the voice inside her head until her mother and father rushed into her room.
"Steph!" Melissa Edgley cried.
Valkyrie looked back out of the corner of her eye.
"Stephanie get away from the window." Desmond said firmly.

Valkyrie looked down at the ground below. A fall like that might be enough to kill her, if she landed on her head...

"Steph! Get back inside!" Her mother ordered.

"I'm sorry," she said. Valkyrie looked down, took a deep breath and jumped.