The Mighty Fall

Falling Out Of Love

He felt like every second counted.

Every second with her had to be used to its fullest.

She expected so much out of him.

So much.

Maybe even too much.

But how could he think about something so pessimistic while he was lying here, under the stars, his hands tangled in her long red hair?

How could he think that when he was looking into her deep, jade green eyes?

Doubt can be a very dangerous thing.

Usually he was able to keep the doubt that ate away at his mind at bay.

But tonight was a different story.

His eyes wandered farther into hers.

It felt so wrong.

It all felt so wrong.

He realized sadly that his doubt was starting to seep into his mind even more.

Like a poison being injected into his bloodstream.

"What's wrong?" she whispered to him.

Her voice sounded foreign to him.

Alien.

It was as if he had never heard it before.

She was slipping away from him, strand by strand, filament by filament.

He reached out and cupped her cheek.

He felt nothing.

No surge of pleasure, joy, happiness...nothing.

Her eyes reflected the conflict in his.

"What's wrong?" she repeated, this time more urgently and laced with fear.

He didn't answer, just got up off of the rumpled picnic blanket.

He stood there for a moment, as if making a final decision.

He ventured out into the grass, leaving the warm comfort of the blanket behind.

"Aaron, where are you going?"

He pushed on through the clearing until he reached the border of trees.

He breathed in a lungful of cool night air.

He heard the pounding of his heart in his chest like a caged songbird.

He started sprinting through the woods.

He ran faster than he ever had before, reaching speeds unimaginable.

He finally slowed down as he reached the end of the woods.

He emerged out of the trees onto a rock outcropping.

A cliff that rose hundreds of feet above the choppy ocean waves.

"Aaron!" the girl burst out of the trees with a terrified look on her face.

"Aaron, please don't do this."

Tears started to form in her eyes.

His time was running out.

He stared at the sea churning below far,far below him.

Beckoning.

He finally turned to her and said, "This is what happens...,"

he took a breath,

"...when the mighty fall in love."

He looked to the stars, as if the heavens were waiting to reach down and claim him.

He took a breath and smiled one last time.

Then he jumped.