“Lacey, Lacey please …DON’T!” I begged.

Lacey was smiling and jokingly swinging her feet over the cliff edge like an innocent and excited child not knowing the possible consequences if her foot slipped, except Lacey knew ,too well, the consequences, but she willingly chose to ignore them. I was heavily upset, I wasn’t going to lose my sister because of everything that was happening. It was crazy, we didn’t deserve any of the things that had so suddenly happened. Me and Lacey were both sagacious, eclectic students who faced challenges with alacrity but we had had enough, both of us had faced enough problems, defending each other in every step of the way but we were done. The rules that were enforced upon us were preposterous and stringent, our family was crumbling and the tension every time we entered a room with our parents, it was incredibly tempestuous and abusive. As the older sibling, Lacey was done with everything, every single injury, mentally and physically, everything was trauma-induced and I knew that all too well.

“What’s wrong sis?” Lacey turned around chuckling.

“LACEY YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT’S WRONG!” I yelled angrily while stomping towards her.

“Oh? Do I?” Lacey laughed.

“Lacey.. please.” I cried.

Lacey put her hands around my head and gave me a hug, I was fuming and my face was florid.

“Lacey… I can’t lose you, you’re the only one I love” I stuttered with salty tears reaching my mouth.

“Gracia Anabelle Cheng… I love you so much” Lacey looked down at me and wiped my crystal tears.

“If you love me don’t jump” I demanded but I was disquiet.

Lacey turned around immediately, the incandescent sun was making Lacey’s altruistic facade drip away. Lacey looked down shamefully and shook her head, she looked straight into my eyes again and her face was stolid, her stance nonchalant with her hands in her pocket I felt the poignance of this whole conversation and I couldn’t help but commiserate with my sister, it was assiduous how I tried to keep my sister alive for as long as possible but now it was over and she was so obviously at her breaking point; I couldn’t help her anymore.

“Lacey.. what do we do?” I asked panicking.

“I’m sorry Gracia I will jump.. I can’t take this anymore”

“Lacey-“

“No- I’m sick and tired of being ripped off every second.. I know I’m selfish but I just can’t.” Lacey answered firmly.

“Is that your final answer?” I replied back standing up straight.

“That’s my final answer.” Lacey confirmed attempting to hold her tears back.

Lacey was confused but I knew what I was doing, if she was jumping then I, Gracia Anabelle Cheng, were going to as well.

“Hold my hand Lacey” I told her.

“What?” She asked.

“Just do it” I demanded.

She stood still ,startled and quite shocked, I sighed while chuckling a bit because what I was about to do was mad and I would probably rue it sooner or later but I didn’t care anymore. I grab my sisters hand and pull her towards the cliff edge with me. She nods slowly in my direction. Then we jump.

We were flying. Holding hands and flying. We were probably plummeting down a good 50 feet but it felt so nice. The wind was slapping aggressively against my face as I was diving down, I turned to look at my sister… her eyes were closed and for once she seemed relaxed and genuinely happy in her life even though she knew she was about to die. At least we would die together. Happily ever after.

I could see the large pieces of sediments in the flowing waterfall beneath us just a few seconds away. In a few seconds my head was going to be smashed against a large piece of sediment and police would come declare us dead due to excessive bleeding or something. We didn’t care about anything anymore, we were done and our parents could sit and mourn for the rest of their lives ,but they wouldn’t care so it’s fine.

“GRACIA I LOVE YOU” Lacey screamed hastily.

I gave Lacey a quick look and then shouted even louder.

“LACEY I LOVE YOU”

I was thinking about the time Lacey and I ruined our neighbour’s garden with a ton of spray paint, we were around 5 or 6 ,it was incredibly fun, being mischievous, we knew we’d land ourselves in some sort of trouble ,but we wanted to brea-

SMASH!

Red gushing blood, how ironic, we were falling on a flowing waterfall and the blood blending in with the murky, filthy water making it even filthier and the lifeless bodies floating with the water. Down I went being thumped harder and harder each time, I was overcome with lassitude, I didn’t even care that I was bleeding so hard, I was hurt but I felt like I was under anaesthesia, I couldn’t feel a thing. My eyes were barely open and my hand had disconnected with Lacey’s. I had no idea where she was but probably somewhere near me, wait…. I just realised that I’m alive, I could feel my consciousness gaining but how? I slowly sat up and even though my senses were still pretty numb I was still able to see a bit. I turned to my left to see my sister dead, bloody and blurry I was left with no words. I could hear a few screams and I looked up to see people screaming, many were in neon yellow with black caps and blue trousers; police. I had to run, I didn’t want to live without my sister even if I checked her pulse that would waste time because I could tell she was dead.

With my hands and legs I crawled blindly and attempted to drown myself in the water, I took one last look at Lacey and smiled, then one look upwards and I pushed myself off.