"I fell in love."

"And? What happened?"

"She died."

XxX

I was sixteen when I first saw her. She was standing on the edge of a cliff, the wind blowing her hair back, and her hands were raised like she was trying to fly. Her head was tilted back, towards the sky, and her eyes were closed.

In hindsight, perhaps I should I have been worried that she was about to jump--surely that's what any sane person would've thought. But instead, I pulled my digital camera out of my bag and snapped a picture of her--minus the flash, with the hope that I wouldn't startle her.

I took a few more pictures. It seemed a little strange, but it was such a beautiful picture, maybe because she was so beautiful herself, but it all came together-- the cliff, her hair in the wind, her face to the sky, her arms spread out-- to be absolutely stunning.

The wind stopped blowing, and she put her hands down and opened her eyes.

"Who are you?" She asked, without even turning to look at me. I jumped, startled.

"Mark," I told her. She smiled over at me.

"I'm Dayna. It's nice to meet you, Mark." She turned towards me, still smiling, and looked at the camera in my hands. "Did you get good pictures?"

"Um, yeah," I replied. They were beautiful pictures. "Would you like to see?"

"Sure." She walked over to me, and I turned on the camera and showed her the pictures I just took. She stood close to me, and though it was almost eighty degrees out I could've sworn I could feel the heat from her body, and I knew I could feel her long hair against my arm as it fell over her shoulder. Her skin was snow white compared to mine, and she smelled like cinnamon.

She laughed as I showed her the pictures. "How strange. I actually almost look pretty."

"But you are!" I said, louder than I'd meant to. She laughed again.

"If only." But she smiled at me, her face almost lighting up a little. Her eyes were green, and they shown like lights even with the bright sun.

"So what are you doing here, Mark?"

"I was just walking," I told her. I'd just been looking for some good pictures out here, "What about you?"

"I come here all the time. I didn't really think anyone else knew about this spot. It's kind of my sanctuary."

"Oh. I didn't mean to--" To what, I thought. Bother you? Invade your sanctuary? But she laughed, and didn't let me finish.

"That's okay. It is nice, not being the only one that knows about this place."

"Oh..."

"Come here," she told me, and took my hand, guiding me to where she'd been before, on the edge of the cliff. "Close your eyes."

She spread my arms out like hers had been, tilted my head up towards the sky, and stood behind me. The wind blew again, and I almost stumbled back a step, unprepared for it. I both heard and felt her chuckle, and I could feel her breath on my hair.

"Open your eyes and look," she whispered, and I did. And... I felt like I was flying. In front of me, there was no ground, only a sudden drop, and above me was the sky, as far as I could see. The wind blew against me, making me feel like I was really in the air and not just on the ground. And Dayna stood behind me, the only thing reminding me that I wasn't actually in the air. "Isn't it amazing?" she whispered. I nodded in agreement.

"See why I like it here so much?" I could almost feel her smiling against me as she said that, and I smiled back.

"It's so..."

"Magical," she gave me the word. The wind stopped, and she let me turn around and step away from the edge.

"Thank you," I told her, not sure what else to say. She smiled, and her eyes lit up a little more.

"My pleasure." She glanced down at the watch on her wrist and sighed. "I have to get going, I need to get back to my house."

"Oh, okay."

She smiled again. "It was very nice to meet you, Mark."

"You too," I said back. She waved at me, and left, not looking back. I stayed, and snapped a few more pictures, and then left myself.

XxX

"What do you mean, she died?"

"Just that. She died."

"How?"

XxX

I saw her again a few days later. She was wearing a sundress that had to be expensive and was walking with a guy that looked like he was used to being worshipped. She was smiling, but it looked fake, and the light that I'd seen in her face and eyes was gone. Her hair was up, twisted and clipped in a way that looked complicated, and it looked almost black, instead of the dark red it had been before.

I wanted to go talk to her, to say hi or something, but I got the feeling that I wouldn't be welcome. She saw me after a minute, though, and looked surprised. The guy beside her kept talking, totally oblivious. She gave me a pleading look, and put a finger over her lips for a second, seeming to silently ask me not to say anything. For a second, she looked almost like she did back at the cliff, and she smiled quickly at me, her eyes shining for a second before going back to the same dullness that had been there before.

Dayna and the guy kept walking, and I watched until I couldn't see them any longer. She seemed so... different, than she had on the cliff. So pretend. I wondered what could make her that way, when just a couple days before she'd been so alive and bright.

XxX

"It was an accident."

"What?"

"She fell."

XxX

The next day, I went up to the cliff where I first met Dayna. I waited there for a while, hoping that she would come up there. I wasn't sure why, but I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to see that light back in her eyes and face, and I wanted to see her long hair hanging down. I wanted her to smile at me in a way that didn't seem fake, and I wanted her to laugh like she meant it.

I was there an hour before she arrived. She looked sad, though she smiled when she saw me.

"Mark," she said, her voice sounding tired and a little worn out. "I thought you might be here."

"I, um.." I what? I wanted to talk to her? See her? Find out what made her act like she did yesterday? I don't know.

"I'm sorry," she interrupted me. "For yesterday."

"You were so different. You weren't...as pretty." It didn't sound like I wanted it to.

She laughed, like she knew I didn't mean it that way. "What every girl wants to hear." Her eyes were a little brighter.

"You didn't shine, and your smile just seemed fake." I clarified, trying to get her to understand. I think she did.

"I shine? I didn't know that." She smiled. "I don't like that guy that I was with. My family kind of just forced him on me. They're trying to make a good match for me, so they can get me out of their hair as quickly as possible and still be able to brag about their prize daughter."

"Oh... That's terrible."

"I know," she laughed. "But they don't see it that way."

"Why not?"

"They live in their own little world, and anything that doesn't fit into it doesn't deserve to be around them, and I don't fit."

"That's awful."

"I know," she said again.

We were silent for a few minutes. She sat on one of the large rocks and stared at the place in the distance where the sky met the earth, The wind blew a little, and she seemed to light up at the feel of it. She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky, like that first day I saw her. Then she smiled over at me.

"Come sit with me," she said, moving over enough so that I could easily sit down next to her. She shifted a little closer to me after I did, so that she was right next to me, her right arm and leg against mine. She laid her head on my shoulder, and sighed. I felt her hair as it fell against my arm, soft and barely there. She was warm, like before.

"Why did you come here?" she asked me quietly.

I wasn't sure how to respond. Telling her that I wanted to see her, that I missed her, or that I wanted to talk to her just sounded creepy. But why did I want any of that?

"I don't know," I told her.

"I'm glad you did," she whispered.

XxX

"Was that really what happened?"

"No."

"Tell me what really happened."

XxX

I saw Dayna one more time.

I was back up on the cliff, taking pictures, as the day was fading. The sky was all kinds of reds and pinks and golds. Dayna was posing for me, with her arms out and her head tilted back like before. The wind was stronger this time of day, and it blew her hair out behind her. She was wearing an expensive-looking sundress, and it rippled in the wind, pressing even tighter against her body. She looked like an angel, or a goddess.

The guy that she was with that one day, he found his way up onto the cliff where we were. He was angry, and she was scared, and I was confused.

I don't remember what they'd said to each other, or what got him so angry, but he went over to her on the cliff and tried to drag her away. She resisted, and he finally let her go. She was still pulling against him, and the force from it made her stumble over the edge.

He stumbled away, and ran off a few seconds later.

I ran over to the cliff edge. Dayna had managed to grab hold of the side of the cliff, and hang on. I was able to pull her up, and she fell against me, crying.

She calmed down after a little while.

"I have to leave," she told me. "I have to... get away from here."

I nodded. "Then go."

She smiled weakly at me. There was no light in her face, but her eyes sparkled faintly. She let me help her up and she kissed my cheek, giving me a long hug after.

"I could have loved you," she told me. "I'm so sorry."

"I already love you," I whispered back. "I'm sorry too."

She hugged me again, and she left. I waited an hour, and then headed back home.

XxX

"The guy never said anything to anyone about what happened. He assumed she died. Some others assumed that she ran away, and a few were convinced she was murdered. I never said anything."

"And that's it?"

"That's it."