Short Sroty: "The Moment before Death"

Alia stared at the night sky with a heart-warming smile as she stood on the rooftop of her school. A pitch dark sky filled with beautiful, glowing, shining stars flashing above her. Beautiful. Stars are beautiful. No matter what happens or what goes around them, they still shine so bright from their core. No matter what their size are, they still shine through darkness. “Sparkling and shining until they die,” Alia whispered to herself softly, never taking her eyes off the biggest star of the night. Alia exhaled deeply and said, “I wish I could be a star just like you. Sparkling way above and gleaming so beautifully. ” Underneath her, quite the opposite of peacefulness was occurring. Cars were honking unstoppably on a typical New York night. Street fights were happening during this witch hour, hidden away in the alleys. Fights picked in the alleys where the weaklings were made a fool and brought down, while others would feel accomplished for being able to conquer another. Quite oppositely from night, during the day, students would walk to school with a grin plastered on their face with their best friends as they gossipped about the latest celebrity news. Friend. A word that Alia no longer understood the meaning of because she never had a “true” friend. A grim face was abruptly replaced as that made her think of someone that she never wanted to see again, Adrien. Suddenly, she was back in that hallway in great fear and seething pain. There stood Adrien in the middle of that hallway in his track pants and plain white t-shirt with hints of bruising found under his shirt.

Adrien was her “friend” who supported her through everything since ninth grade, but he wasn’t her friend. His short, shaggy brown hair with deep blue eyes had blinded her. She was so conceived that she didn’t even realize until it was too late, that he was the one causing her pain for the last four years. Alia knew he was too good to be true. That day, she was walking down the hallway trying to blend in with the crowd to get to her next class, however, something she didn’t expect had happened. Adrien was standing in front of her with his toned arms crossed and a smug look on his face. He was standing with some other seniors that had spent their last 4 years bullying Alia about her nose. Alia knew she was not as pretty as the other girls in her school, but she wasn’t self-conscious about it, except her nose. Her nose was like the star of her face, but not in a good way. It looked like it was drawn by a lazy artist, who drew with no precision of symmetry. It was flat down the bridge and stuck out like sharp beak of a bird. “Adrien…” she started out saying, questioning in her mind of why he was standing with those seniors. “Didn’t see this coming huh? You see, you shouldn’t be thanking these guys for creating the worst four years of your life, but thank me. These guys aren’t your worst nightmare,” he pointed to the seniors behind him. “I am because I was the one all these years who had plotted against you. ” “Why?” she asked desperately wanting an answer. Her lower lip was quivering now because she didn’t want to accept the truth. “Because people like you deserve to die, just like how your mother died because she didn’t want to see your ugly face for another second. ”At this point, Alia was about to explode in tears because that wasn’t true. Her fists were clenched tight with her eyes staring daggers into Adrien. She refused to believe that, even though she didn’t even know why her mother had suddenly died two summers ago. She wanted revenge against him. She wanted him to feel the pain that he caused her because of just some rumour.

She wanted him to die because she didn’t deserve this treatment. No, no one deserved to be punished wrongfully. “Everybody take cover! She’s going to blow!” Adrien yelled while everyone else snickered and laughed as they make their way towards their next period. Where had all the teachers gone when I needed them the most. Why had nobody stood up for me? Why does the world hate me?Slowly she was brought back to reality as the wind slowly blew in her face, but her eyes stayed focused on the stars above her. Alia tried reaching for the brightest star of the night, but it was unreachable. If the stars can’t be touched, they can’t be hurt. Alia placed her hand on her chest and thought of all those times she had been hurt. Of all the people that had lied and broken their promise to her. She took another long glance up at the twinkling lights littering the upper atmosphere. “I just want to shine. ” The stars became a blur as tears formed in her eyes. She took a step onto the edge of the building with her toes just passing the edge. “I’m ready to become a star,” she said to herself. The stars sparkled beautifully as Alia took a step off the ledge. However, something was holding her back. She looked up and saw something, no not something, but someone. Adrien. He swiftly pulled her up before she started to slip away. “What the hell were you thinking?” he yelled as he pulled at his hair frustratedly after letting her go. His shirt rose and she could see scars of old deep cuts lining his waistline.

“Why does it matter what I’m doing! Leave me alone! “Remember, your mom wouldn’t want this for you. Especially this act towards death. ”At this point, she was sobbing. She covered her face with her small hands and continued to cry. She cried for minutes with heartbreaking sobbing tears because she felt ashamed of herself during this moment. He broke the silence and continued on and said, “You deserve the world. ” Something felt wrong the moment he mentioned those words. She glanced up after uncovering her eyes from her hands. He was standing at the edge of the building with his eyes closed. He looked at peace. Too relaxed. Before she could even get a word out, he had taken his last step and pummeled to his death. She couldn’t move. She felt paralyzed. She tried to move her legs, but her mind wouldn’t let her. For some reason, that made her feel happy. Her mind felt at ease, as if her greatest problem was relieve, which it was. She finally felt happy. She knew that she shouldn’t be glad that Adrien was gone, but for some giddy reason, she was. She knew it was cruel, but she couldn’t help but laugh that she was finally free. She started to jump around while laughing, but something caught her off guard. A note was left behind right where he had stepped off. Curiously, she went to grab it with shaking hands. It said, “Goodbye. I’m leaving my existence in this world that I never truly belonged to orfit in. Don’t cry or ache at my departure, but view it positively, if there are any. I’m saying this because I expected that you won’t miss me at all after the terrible things I’ve done. I can only hope that this will help create an opening for those that I hurt. I know you won’t weep for. So don’t. But I do ask you to try to live on as I couldn’t because I was that much of a coward. ”Suddenly the world made sense for once.