FRSTella
The sound of a child's laughter is usually the most beautiful thing in the world, but when it's followed by a terrified scream and the sound of loose gravel sliding toward a drop, it becomes a nightmare.
I didn't think twice. My body moved before my brain could process the height of the cliff or the jagged rocks waiting at the bottom. I felt the small, trembling weight of the boy as I shoved him back toward the grassy safety of the trail. For a fleeting second, our eyes met-his filled with tears, mine filled with a strange, sudden peace.
Then, there was only the wind.
Gravity is a cruel mistress. As I fell, my life didn't flash before my eyes like they say it does in the movies. Instead, I thought of my sister's messy bedroom and the stacks of notebooks she filled with her "silly" stories. I thought of how I used to tease her for her obsession with the "clingy brother" trope in her latest Boy's Love novel.
*"Seriously, Kaye? Why is the brother always such a nuisance?"* I had asked her just last week while she was sketching the cover.
*"Because, Riku,"* she had laughed, pushing her glasses up her nose. *"Without the overprotective brother to stir up trouble, the leads would fall in love too easily! There's no drama without a little bit of chaos."*
I closed my eyes as the ground rushed up to meet me. *Well, Kaye,* I thought, *I guess you'll have to find someone else to critique your drama now.*
I expected the cold. I expected the end.
Instead, I felt the sharp, stinging smell of disinfectant and the distant, muffled sound of a basketball hitting a hardwood floor. My lungs, which should have been crushed, were suddenly burning with the scent of dust and old gym equipment.
I wasn't on a cliff anymore. I was on a floor. And as I slowly blinked my eyes open, I realized that the "chaos" my sister loved so much was about to become my new reality.