Short story collection

Darkness

Surrounding him was only darkness, sorrow seeped from every pore the black drowning him in an abyss, but still he smiled and laughed falling ever deeper into the pit from which he would never return. But still he wasn't alone in there. Words like knives sliced cuts deep within his heart, every hit breaking him a little more, whispers in the halls echoed in his ears; "Such a weirdo..." they said when they thought he couldn't hear; "He won't achieve anything with that attitude..." The teachers didn't understand and his parents even less so. They just cared about grades, never about him.

At night the big empty house was filled with the sound of yelling as yet another pot broke. He sat in his room, tears floating in his dark, dark realm as he sunk further into himself. The darkness is warm, he thought, the darkness is calm. That night was not the first night he had laid a blade against his skin. He welcomed the sharp spike of pain; it told him he was alive.

To him school was just the same boring, monotonous thing. He already knew it all, why did he have to be here? He got top marks yet the teachers pitied him, he always had friends but always felt lonely. The smiles and laughter were his only shield as his heart slowly continued to wither and die. Nobody could tell, but he would rather be anywhere but there.

That first day was different though; he had been greeted by what felt like the sun itself, and she shone through the darkness surrounding his soul, piercing it like a blade and ripping it open. She may not have known at the time but she had just saved him. She had given him a ledge to stand upon and a lifeline to drag him from his despair. He would not give up so easily.

Now everyday sunshine filled his life, his days filled with joy. Now, he felt, life was finally worth living. She would listen to his problems and comfort him when he was down. She was his everything... but even that came to an end leaving him spiraling back into the darkness from which he had come. His sunshine had entered someone else's life.

She had tried to deny it but he could see it in her eyes as the way that she had held the man was still fresh in his eyes. The way she had kissed him held more passion than he had ever seen. Why had she done this? Why had the eternal night come again? Why had she hurt him so?

On that final day something had snapped inside him, if he couldn't have his sunshine nobody could, why should anyone have sunshine when he had nothing? What did they do to deserve things that he couldn't have? The pain kept welling up. His head pounded and his vision went black.

He became aware afterwards to find himself standing over her with a knife. She was beaten and bloody, staring at him she was pleading, begging, cowering, boxed into the corner. There had been no escape. He backed away dropping the knife, "No..." he thought. "No... no, no noNONONONONONONONONO!!!" He broke down on the floor screaming and crying, what had he done!? Seeing the opportunity she grabbed the knife standing up.

"I-I never should have agreed to date you!! I always thought there was something wrong with you! You were too good at pretending!" These words hit him harder than all others before, people wanted him to fit the mould so he became the model student and yet now she was saying he was too good..? He chuckled slightly as she stood there pointing the knife towards him. His head had started pounding again. Pounding so much it felt it would explode.

"Kill me."

These solitary words rang sharply throughout the room clashing harshly with her ears. "What are you waiting for?! Just get it over with! End it all, let the darkness take me!!" He looked up sharply letting her see his eyes begging, pleading for death, tears flowing down his face on either side of a gruesome smile. The look of pure insanity on his face drove her backwards a step. "No no, don't go away!" He lurched forward grabbing her hand that held the knife pressing it to his throat. "Do it! please..." the smile fell leaving a broken expression so pitiful it angered her. She was the victim here. Not him! So how dare he beg her in such a way, her face twisted horrendously.

"Let go!" She tried to yank her hand away but found it stuck. Enraged she kicked him away. How dare he try and bloody her hands! Throwing the knife away her disgusted gaze fell on him again as he curled up winded. What a pitiful man. As she thought that he started laughing, she hadn't been able to end his suffering either. "What's so funny?" Every ounce of him disgusted her. Not getting a response except for the continued laughter she asked again kicking him in the stomach as he lay on the floor. "I said: What's. So. Funny?" As the laughter refused to stop she kicked him again. "How dare you do this to me?!" Kick! "So what if I cheated on you?!" Kick! "You did nothing but complain! Going on and on about how shit your family life was! Couldn't you just once try to be more interesting?! You were nothing but a shitty pawn in the game of life!" The laughter had stopped now but she still continued kicking him. Over and over she went on. "Come on answer me!" She finally stopped looking down at what she had done and backing away. The boy's body was mottled black and blue and yet there was no sign of any pain on his face, only a slight smile. "No." She froze in terror, had she killed him? She didn't know.

The tears started falling again, with this she was no better than him. Looking around blankly at the chaos a dreadful ringing filled her ears and her eyes fell upon the knife where it lay on the other side of the room. Stepping slowly over her head was pounding. Tripping over a broken chair she fell to her hands and knees before dragging herself up and continuing, her face the empty mask of hopelessness. Reaching the knife she fell to her knees unwilling to move. Picking it up her eyes fell on his body prone, still and lifeless as it lay there. A mottled picture of blue and purple on the hard white of the tiles and the multicoloured pieces of shattered crockery that lay spread around him like a halo. The knife was such a simple and beautiful silver, like liquid in the brightly lit room. 

Was it always this bright?

Were the lights always this blinding? Such a scene should only happen in the dark. Placing the blade to her wrist she flinched feeling it's cold power. Shutting her eyes she slid it across pressing down with as much force as she could without screaming. It wasn't a particularly clean or deep cut but for her it did the job. That's better. It's going dark now. Her eyes began to dim as she suddenly heard sirens. She was floating, in her ears cotton, over her eyes an impenetrable mist. She finally understood "the darkness is warm." She muttered as everything disappeared.

*note: Uh, hi, welcome to the second short story in this collection... completely different mood to the first one and this one actually took me around two years to finish since I had to be in a certain mood to write it. Is slightly newer than the first part but was started before it.

I hope the trigger warning was clear enough and all in all this is probably one of my favourites currently despite its cliche nature, wasn't sure if I had to put the mature tag but it's better safe than sorry.

ps. I am also sorry for any trauma caused upon the reading of this story.