By breath turns to condensation in the frigid evening air. It's only six o'clock , but the sky is a coal blanket blinding us all. I jog to catch up with my girlfriend, Maia. She's listening to her iPod as we walk, and I can hear faint sounds of Korn coming from her headphones as she bobs her head to the beat. I take her hand and we keep walking. She smiles at me.

It seems funny to me
How fucked things can be

We met sophomore year in AP psychology and now it's the December before our final semester of high school. Everything is falling into place. My parents should care I'm not at home, but they only seem to care when I am home. It's always been 'James, do this,' 'James, why can't you do that?' I'll be relieved when I get to leave this place

"Sometimes I just don't know what I'm going to do, James. I hate it here. I hate walking the halls at school and I hate the way they all judge me. Sometimes it hurts to be alive."

"Maia, you can't think like that. No matter what happens, I'll be here."

My feet crunch in the fresh snow, and Maia pauses her music and pulls out her headphones.

"What's going to happen when we graduate?"

I'm not too sure what made her think of this question, but it's one that I've been dodging for months. I wish I knew. I wish I could tell her something, but I can't.

"I don't know."

She stops walking. "How can you say that?"

"I don't even know where I'm going or what I'm going. I need to work out what I want first."

"Don't you want to be with me?"

I'm about to respond when she shoves her headphones back in an plays her music. I don't know what put her in such I mood, but when I reach for her hand again, she pulls away, so I just decide to give her some space. We can talk tomorrow.

Do what others say
I'm here, standing hollow
Falling away from me
Falling away from me

The wind picks up and I pull my coat closer. Maia doesn't even flinch.

The trees swish, and something feels incredibly off. It's like there's something here that wan't here before. The air isn't as pure as it was and the dark is now threatening. She doesn't notice anything. It's just me.

"They way people act, it's like the end of the world. Everyone's gone mad."

"There's always hope, James, there's so much more out there than here."

Her footsteps are falling behind mine, but not very far, so I keep going. I listen to the crunch of my own feet and I don't know how long it been, but at some point I realize she's not behind me. I retrace my steps briskly, frantically, my heart rate growing faster with my footsteps and my mind brewing ideas. Did she get cold and leave? Did she leave because she was mad? Did someone take her?

I get to a bend in the road, and there's a set of footsteps that just stop. Just stop in middle of the snow. Like she was here one second, and then gone the next. They look like Maia's bootprints, but I can't be sure. The mud from the bottom of my shoes contaminates the snow around her tracks with dirt. The feeling slowly comes back, the feeling that something here is very wrong. I hear a faint sweeping sound arcing behind me

Screaming some sound.
Beating me, beating me.
Down, down.
Into the ground.

Her iPod.

The sound comes back, but when I turn around, nothing is there. I exhale, but when I turn around again the sound comes back. There aren't any foot prints anywhere.

Hey, I'm feeling tired.

I'm starting to feel dizzy from all this turning.

My time is gone today.

This song's been repeating for a while like it's stuck in one place maybe she was listening to it on repeat. (I turn around). Mayb

You flirt with suicide.
Sometimes, that's ok.