She looked at the crumpled piece of paper one last time before finally deciding on her actions. Eyes misting as they scanned over the messy arrangement of words hastily scribbled onto the page, she nodded her head as if to make a silent compact to herself; there was no turning back. For a brief moment she thought of her family, her friends. But no, she couldn't give up now. Not when she was so close; not when serenity was just inches away. Listening to the satisfactory rattle that told her the bottle was full, the girl carried the pain killers back to her room

Empty. Mind, body, and soul… all were empty. For months the girl had tried to fill the gap she had felt growing inside her, yet her mind had died a little more with each attempt. The gap was consuming her, tearing her apart. It shut her out from her loved ones, boxing the girl in a corner, leaving her family only to wonder if she was okay. The lack of communication between the two parties made the girls pain unbearable. The dark gap fed off her pain, growing… and growing. It beckoned her to eternal slumber. It beckoned, and she returned the call.

She stared at the labeled bottle, feeling a longing rise up inside her, the first emotion she had felt in weeks. She could no longer staunch the flow of tears that were coming; freedom was just around the corner; eternal slumber; pure bliss. She hoped the creased page with the messy scrawl said all she wanted to say as she fell back onto her mattress, her final decision made.

Her parents later found her lying on her bed, the crumpled piece of paper clutched in her right hand. Weeping their woes, they gently unfolded it and read her last words to them, written in the messy scrawl that would haunt their dreams for nights on end:

"I love you."