The breeze blew gently through the tree branches, sending the lush green leaves circling to the ground. A girl stood beneath the tree staring at the patch of bark before her. A single hot tear slipped down her cheek. She wiped it away fiercely. Angry at herself for crying. Tentatively, her fingertips traced over the words so delicately carved into the smoothed wood.

“Why?” she whispered, in a voice gone hoarse from forcing herself not to cry.

Her eyes scanned over the words one more time. She still couldn’t believe. There was no way they were gone. They couldn’t be. They had just been there not to long ago. How could this happen? She leaned forward, kissing the engraved words lightly. Another tear fell from her pain filled eyes. She read the words over again.

“ Here lay two lovers lost;

A relationship their kinsmen scorned,

Born of loving two and hating many,

Seven, twelve when begun;

Seventeen, twenty-two when black wings enfolded,

Now the hating cry because the loving die,

White wings open above dead shoulders;

As to heavens gates they fly.

In loving memory of:

Jason ‘Baby Boy’ Mayfair

And

Trevor ‘Who me?’ Mayfair”

The girl began to beat on the tree with her fist as the tears finally started to fall. They gushed forth from her lost eyes in a stream of frustration and agony. She kicked the tree trunk with her foot. Words flew out of her mouth as if they were the cry of a violins saddest melody.

“Why? Why didn’t you listen? You two shouldn’t be here? What about me? I need you. Who’s gonna hold me now? You guys new me better than anyone else. I can’t survive without you. My chest hurts. It’s hard to breathe. I told you not to go. I said it was a bad idea. No one loved you more than me. I loved you two about as much as you guys loved each other. You were my first friends. Immortal. That what we all thought you and your love was. Now what am I going to do? No more pictures. No more memories of laughter and tears and getting sick after deliberately eating bad food. Jason, come back. Trevor, come back. Come back, come back, come back.”

She hiccupped as a sharp piercing pain raced threw her hands and up her arms. She gazed at her torn, bloody knuckles, palms, fingertips. Her knees gave out. She fell to her back on the freshly churned soil. Blood mingled with salt water as her body quaked with uncontained sobs. Her heart hurt so badly that she thought she would die right there. The sent of recently dug up earth penetrated her senses like a ghastly reminder of who and what lay beneath.

Her fingers were splayed across her face as she slowly opened her eyes. Numb eyes watched the sun shine filter through the branches. A menacing bittersweet laugh clawed its way up her aching throat, tearing itself from between her lips. It echoed out from behind the mask of her blood-covered hands. The girl sat up quickly, fingertips sinking effortlessly into the dark soil. She shook her head.

“Pathetic. All of us. Why do we exist? What’s the point of living? There is no point. We exist merely because it can’t be helped. Humans are evil. They’re lying, cheating, sniveling dogs that should have never been created. Sadists. Everyone of them. Some more than others, but it’s still there. It thrives beneath the surface that flesh creates. They get joy out of another persons’ suffering. Ha!

“Most don’t deserve what they get. And others should be given more than what they have. How come all the populars get the attention? How come no one cares for the misfits? The kids that hide in the chaos of worthlessness because they aren’t good enough. But when was anyone good enough? Sure they can talk, but can they back it up? Humans care for not a soul but themselves. They speak of truth and love and change; yet do nothing to enforce such words. That’s all it remains. Talk!

“Love.” She hissed a breath. “Such a word leaves a vile taste on my tongue. I hate the word as much as I hate life. I don’t deserve love yet I can’t escape it. She loves me. They love me. Though it seems there are more people hating me than loving me. I don’t seek attention, only answers. I get none. Go figure. I just want the very thing I try to run from, to push away. It’s not fair. Pathetic! All of us are pathetic!”

She balled her hands into fists, soil and rocks grinding deep within her wounds. Her eyes flinched shut as her face scrunched up in intoxicating pain. She like it- no, loved it. It made her feel complete inside. Pain was good for her, and yet, she knew it was to be her downfall. She unclenched her fists, letting the soil fall back to the ground. Fresh tears threatened to fall from eyes so darkened over by hatred that if any demon from hell had seen them, they would have run away with their tail between their legs.

The girl cocked her head to the side. “Hmmm. What an interesting idea?”

Gingerly she reached into her back pocket, revealing the knife that dwelled there. She flicked out the blade, staring at the glimmering metal in awed fascination. Her eyes flicked back and forth between her wrist and the blade. She knew she could do it; it was all a matter of if she would do it. A sudden raging desperation took hold of her. She cut and hacked at her wrist viciously, never stopping. Not even when blood sprayed up form her mutilated vein and splashed across her face like badly put on lipstick.

Warm tears ran down her cheeks, mingling sweetly with the blood that dripped off of her paling skin. She licked her dry lips, laughing bitterly. So this is how she would die, even though she promised she would never do it again. She shrugged, hanging her head so that her eyes stared at the grave beneath her. With numbing fingertips, she picked up some of the blood-wetted soil with her free hand. She let it slip through her fingers like it was nothing. She made a ‘tsk’ like noise.

“So this is the end, huh? I told you guys I would never make it. She’ll be pissed at me, but…but I just couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t keep pretending like I was happy when I wasn’t. She made me so happy, but…. I don’t know. Something’s changed. I can feel it. Doyle’ll be mad when he hears what I have done. I hope they all know that I love them and I’m sorry. I just can’t fight anymore. Especially, when I have no one fighting beside me. I’m sorry everyone, so sorry.”

A dead weight settled over her body as her lifeless brown eyes drifted closed. She fell forward, her body relaxing on the dirt below her as her last breath scurried out from between her cooling lips.

The sound of flapping wings filled the air as two figures- one a boy of seventeen and the other a man of twenty-two- departed into the air and disappeared.