Queen of The Reach

1

The silver bullet was diving. Too fast it plummeted, changing colour entirely from cool reflective metal to menacing black soot, only overthrown by orange and blue flames dancing opposite my lookout.

Worry when it's time to worry. You'd sound off those words, your personal mantra, with admirable conviction. When you tried to calm me on my darker nights you'd whisper those words to me and let your fingers trail gently over my cold skin. Your warmth was a comfort but it never reached all the way to the cold that settled in my bones.

We didn't have far left to fall now. I looked to you at my side, your dark chocolate eyes searched the glowing plane frantically. Always your opposite, I did not. I knew there was nothing that was going to halt the sickening falling. Your nails punctured through your seat, you were so afraid.

While I couldn't help looking at you, there would be no better way to slip into eternal slumber than with the idea of you sparkling behind closed eyes, you were not looking at me. I know I would have been a mess with my dark hair framing my pale, hollow face, my arctic blue eyes trying to pry yours from the devastation surrounding us. But you wouldn't look at me because while you were afraid, you weren't afraid for us or even me, you were afraid for you.

The fear of being alone at my end launched me into my own state of tormented panic. I tried not to join them but my screams echoed off the curved walls with the others.

All at once the falling stopped and the impact shot sharply through me. We skid violently to a stop, metal scraped the earth and twisted us into a crushed mess. I expected the warmth as we went up in smoke but it never came. I desperately tried to get my bearings. Glancing at you sidelong I thought "Please be okay." I begged anyone who might be listening.

You were mercilessly tearing at your seatbelt, trying to get out and then it snapped and you were free.

You took nothing with you, not even me, as you sprinted up the hazy aisle. My world was spinning and I let my eyes close with the thought of you running from danger and the betrayal of your abandonment making a home in my aching chest.