Another one had left.

Galina smiled through her tears; it was a smile born of madness, but she no longer cared. No matter how long they stayed, they always left in the end. Her parents had abandoned her when she was a child, leaving her to be tossed from one family to another, none of them bothering to keep her long enough to become so much as a memory.

Far too quickly, she had grown up, and then she had found love, or rather, a bitter mockery of it. His name was lost in the shadows of the madness, as were the names of the ones who had come after. Galina only remembered the leaving, the wretched feeling of abandonment that accompanied each loss, and the terrible holes in her soul that only seemed to multiply every time it happened again.

But this last one had seemed different, he had stayed so long... She shook her head, concentrating on her feet as she walked along the path leading to the cliff's edge. Many times she had come to this place, to watch the sun set and rise, and to count the stars. Galina loved the stars. He had loved the stars, too, but now he was gone.

The stars were just starting to come out; she moved her mouth slowly as she counted them one by one, until her limited knowledge ran out of numbers. Then she sighed and continued walking, counting her steps.

He had wanted to marry her. He had said it so often, Galina had let herself believe it; and that had been one of many mistakes. She had hesitated, always giving him half-answers and maybes, and then she had finally accepted. But then that night had come. She had seen him with the pretty woman with dark hair and laughing eyes, seen him smile and say things to her that Galina had thought were special words meant only for her, Galina. The woman had laughed and kissed him, and Galina had wept.

Once, she might have confronted him, fought to keep him from leaving, but experience had made her wise; nothing she could do would stop the leaving. They would always leave.

She smiled that mad smile again, and took another step, almost casually, into the darkness that stretched past the cliff's edge.

This time she would do the leaving.