Alone in the storm
They stood on the rocks on the side of an empty beach with the waves crashing up and down around their feet. There was a storm raging in the sky. Rain was pouring down from the sky and lightning was splitting across the sky. How they got here they were not sure, it was not clear to them but they were sure of one thing, they kept reminding themselves they did not need them. They did not need anyone.
One step after another they walked to the shore. Their feet slipping on the sharp black rocks. Their knees were shaking because they tried to keep their balance. Words that the people they had known had called them was playing back inside their heads. You're sick, broken, mentally ill. The anger they felt towards the people they once loved was like a rock inside their stomach.
They kept walking regardless. They repeated to themselves that they did not need them.
Then they stumbled. They fell and scratched both of their knees on the rough part of the rocks. Blood mixed with the salty water around the injuries and the pain was unbearable. Lightning struck somewhere near the ocean and they went back in fear. A wave hit them again soaking their clothes and freezing their entire bodies. The effect of the cold was almost immediate. They felt their legs go numb, but still they kept walking.
Now they were crawling on their hands and knees through the rain. The tide moved back for a short time and that only fueled their anger. They screamed in frustration and forced themselves to crawl closer to the water. Their hands were bleeding. The water made it hard for them to crawl and the rock dug into their nails as they dragged their useless legs along.
Again and again the old memories came back. Those people who had betrayed them. What they had said about them to other people. How they had been left out and talked about. It made them sick but they still kept pushing themselves forward throwing up on the rocks as they did so. They refused to stop, they refused to give up.
At last they touched the cold water with their fingers and hands. They crawled closer to the water one last time before they slipped off the edge of the rocks and jumped into the ocean. They looked down at the rough water below and then up at the beach where they had been standing a few moments ago. For one second they imagined that perhaps somehow the people they had known might come back and apologize. That they might see what they had done and change their ways. That things might go back to how they once were.
But they knew that would never happen.
For the last time they told themselves that they did not need them and then jumped into the cold ocean. The cold took over immediately and changed their temperature. Their feet turned into fins and their skin became thicker. When they rose to the surface they took one last breath.
They did not need them, they had themselves. And then they went under the waves.