On the Edge (Thaedael&PoetDreamer)

It wasn't always this way. She had always been a nice girl; she had her moments, but for the most part she got along with everything. She never claimed to be the best at anything really, but she wasn't the worst at anything other than sports.

However, life turned around right before her senior year. A month before she started her last year of college, her mother was killed in a car accident. Since she had been driving, her father blamed her. That's when the abuse started. He would beat her and leave bruises for her to hide. No one knew, not even her boyfriend of 3 years. Said before was getting tired of waiting, and she was so close to giving him her virginity until the abuse started, and she didn't want him to see the bruises so she kept saying no.

Finally, he was tired of waiting. It was March. In 3 months, she would be done with high school, but he didn't want to wait for anything anymore. Frustrated, her boyfriend forced her to have sex with him. There was much blood and tears shed that night. When he was done, he just left her there on his basement floor since his parents had gone out for the night. When she realized he wasn't coming back, she decided she had had enough. For months now she had debated ending it all for good, especially once she noticed her boyfriend wouldn't wait much longer, but she always expected a huge fight and break up, not a rape.

Now here she was. She had pulled her jeans back on, without her underwear since he had cut them off of her and they were ruined, slipped on her socks and shoes, her shirt, since her bra had been cut off to, and a black sweatshirt. After running out of his house, Brielle took off running. She was tired of the abuse, and with the rape on top of that, Brielle wasn't sure how anything could get any worse. It had just started raining when she got to the edge of the cliff and looked down to the rocks below. Although she had thought about this, she couldn't believe she was finally going to go through with this. Her black, shoulder-length hair was getting soaked and started curling up on the ends, and she could feel her clothes sticking to her as she stood there, the wind hugging her body. Her eyes shut and she just stood there for a moment, trying to get herself to admit she was finally going through with it.

His foot was tucked gently against the wooden crossbeam that formed the "X" of the the fence, his body hunched along the flat wooden top of the piece, hands slowly being brought to his face, shielding a lit match. The wind flickered the flame towards the hand that had shielded the match, before it finally made contact with the end of a flattened cigarette, the ends of the rolled tobacco finally catching, a small flicker of fire before giving way to the slowly glowing amber ring that confirmed it's ignition. A testing puff, then once more, before, content, he shook the match in his hand extinguishing it. He tossed it to the ground easily before crushing it against loose gravel with his free foot.

It was a quiet early evening for him, the party having ended earlier in the evening because of the home-stretch for the university students. As a result, he had wandered about the Lover's Peak, a local tourist attraction that was popular for couples giving it the namesake it bore. About him the beginning of a rain storm started, the gently falling drizzle heralding the storm to come. The wind brushed through the pine trees of the gentle slope, rustling their branches and making the area come alive with the sound of trees swaying. All was right with the world, he thought to himself.

From his vantage point he could see the lights of the small city below, the way it's form snaked through the dark sea of green trees, following the form of the major river that it followed. As the storm drew closer, more people had made their way home, the lights flickering on further on by one. The city was almost a reflection of the starry sky that had graced the skies above, now hidden behind the rolling storm clouds that had hidden their view.

He continued to lean against the wooden fence that kept people away from the sheer cliff-side that overlooked the southern edges of the city. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, holding it gently between index and middle fingers, letting it hang loosely from his hand, glowing ashes falling from the edge as he gently tapped it. With his free hand he pulled his black hair off his forehead, holding it against his temples, a pounding headache from the loud music that had played earlier, giving him cause to close his eyes and bare the brunt of the pain. Gently, once more he opened his brown eyes to the city below, the lights flooding back into his consciousness.

It was a small city, more of a town than anything else, but it is where he had grown up most of his life. It was where he had spent his time as a student, where he continued to spent his time as a university student. Against the back-glow of the city below a female form stood one level down from the highest peak, standing on the edge of a sheer cliff. He smiled to himself, before drawing the cigarette close to his mouth once more, allowing it to hang on it's own between two pursed lips. She probably was enjoying the sights of the city below as well, he thought to himself. He puffed at the cigarette once more, watching her draw closer to the edge.

His mind clicked, the scene before him taking a darker tone as she drew closer and closer to the edge on the level below. His mouth went slack-jawed, the cigarette falling from his mouth, his foot swinging free of the fence. Pushing against the ground, feet digging into the loose gravel of where he stood, he begun to run, before the cigarette finally hit the ground below, a shower of ashes sparking as it fell to the ground. It was not right, not as it seemed. It was known as Lover's Peak, but it was also the site where something like fifteen suicides a year take place.

He drew nearer, sprinting like a bat loose from hell, before sweeping her off her feet, knocking her to the ground.

The wind was howling around her, the rain falling a little bit harder. Although Lover's Peak was normally crowded with romantic couples and horny teenagers, the storm had driven everyone away. She just stood there. There was plenty of time. No one cared about her for her to be worried about someone coming to look for her. No one would even notice she wasn't in bed until the following morning when her father woke up, hung over, and went to bang on her door and tell her to make him breakfast. That was how the mornings usually started at least. The next morning though, there would be no answer from inside her bedroom. She never planned on answering anyone again.

It wasn't hard to get over the fence since it wasn't really made to prevent people climbing over it; the fence was simply a precaution to avoid accidents. This would be no accident.

Usually, her thoughts were all over the place. Brielle could barely ever clear her mind sufficiently. Normally, thoughts of when her father would stoop to the next level of abuse, thoughts of when her boyfriend would finally get tired of waiting and leaving her, thoughts of the friends she used to have before she had to hide from everyone. None of that tonight. There would be no more "what ifs" or wondering when something would happen. There would be no more nothing for her. For once, her thoughts were in bliss knowing that no one would be able to lay a hand on her again.

Until someone tackled her. Bri's first reaction was to scream. She thought it was her boyfriend following her, coming to either rape her again or finish her off himself. Her fists went out to connect with whoever had knocked her to the ground. Her feet kicked out, wondering if she could possibly kick him over the edge, drag him down with her after what he had done to her.

This guy wasn't right though. He had a different build than her boyfriend. There were more muscles and less hair. The fight left her and she just laid where he had knocked her down, her eyes closed once more, tears rolling down her cheeks and mixing in with the rain. What could she possibly say to this guy? As soon as he left, she would jump and not waste anymore time, and his life would go on like normal.

"Woah" he said, wrestling with the girl that was trying to connect a fist with his body. "Woah, there, take it easy, take it easy" he said, the girl flailing against him harder, trying to kick at him and shake him off. "I am not here to hurt you, take it easy" his tone was stressed, even though he was trying to bring a reassuring confidence to her through his voice.

She had connected with him multiple times, managing to batter his chin before she noticed who he was, before suddenly stopping. He sat atop of her, semi straddling her in this position, his body pinning her torso, her arms held at the wrist to either side of her head. "I am not going to hurt you. I am not going to hurt you" he repeated, looking into her face, the rain running down in droplets across his face. He didn't appear that much older than the girl, his face clean shaven, a red mark across his chin where she had hit him. From the corner of his mouth blood was drawn, before he smiled to her in a calm reassuring way, a chipped tooth clear to see in his mouth.

"I am going to get off you now" he said, before slowly standing up, and backing away from her, hands held to either side of his body, away from himself, palms open and fingers away in a sign of peace.

He was wearing jeans, of which the knees were torn up, bloodied, and bruised, having slid against the gravel when bringing her to the ground. Above the waist of his jeans was a simple red polo shirt, semi tucked away under a large canvas rain coat.

"Are you ok?" he said, standing away from her.

Although she had felt her fist connect with him, that didn't make her feel any better, or safer. After everything that had happened to her, she doubted there was anything out there that could make her feel safe again.

When she gave up fighting, she was aware that he had her pinned down. With how he was on top of her and straddling her, Bri was strongly reminded of how her boyfriend had held her down and raped her. That was part of the reason she resorted to just staying completely still until he got up. If she didn't fight against him, it would be better. He wouldn't have to hurt her as much if she didn't make him. That's what he had told her at least. But this guy wasn't him. He wasn't going to rape her. His words and voice we both reassuring.

Thankfully he didn't stay atop her for long. Still on the ground, Bri watching him get off of her and back away, holding his hands up almost in an 'I surrender' fashion, which was kind of funny to her, since she had been the one hitting him to begin with. It was then that she finally noticed that he hadn't once hit her back after the initial ramming to knock down.

It was nice that he told her what he was doing, so she wasn't caught by surprise or anything. This man was reassuring. Too bad that didn't change everything else that had happened. Yes, there were good people out there, but none of them cared about her, so she was still convinced that this was for the best.

Bri took in his appearance and his question. At first, she didn't answer. Slowly, she got up, wincing a little since her entire body hurt, especially after being tackled by a guy who was bigger than her.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Bri said, just loud enough for him to hear her over the rain. Her eyes were pointed to the cliff beside them, and she was ready for the running start she could now get since he had knocked her back from the very edge, as soon as he walked away. It would only take a second to jump, and not too long after that for her to hit the ground, and instant death after that. He wouldn't care any more than just calling the police to tell them, and then he would go on with his life like normal. "Just fine." She whispered, never looking away from the edge. "I'm sorry for hitting you." It was her last act of kindness before she left. "You can leave now."

Bri had spoken to him, her voice drowned by the sounds of rain colliding with the ground about them with a heavy pattering. All about them the rain fell, a halo of suspended rain hanging about the singular lamp post that had illuminated them from above. As a result, the light hung heavy on the raised areas of his face, his eyes ablaze with a golden amber. He brought one hand to the side of his mouth, touching at the corner gently with the back of his hand before pulling it away, the blood drops rolling off as it meshed with the rain. Shit, he thought to himself, his body bruised, battered and hurting. He gathered the saliva in his mouth, the metallic tang of blood on his tongue, before he spat against the loose gravel of the cliff side. It was bloody, the bubbling mixture of saliva and blood staining a smooth stone slightly red, before once more fading to the cool grays below. He could feel the pain of his jaw, where teeth had collided against teeth, a front canine feeling chipped. he ran his tongue over it once more, before looking at her the face of Bri.

She was at least three arms length away, her eyes never drifting from the cliff he had tackled her away from. Damnit, he thought to himself. He had been right, and it was no mere mistake he made here. The wind blew against him, the sounds of the trees rustling once more causing shivers to run up and down his spine, from the cooling of his core temperature, as well as the realization of the situation he had found himself in. His clothes hung about him, matted down by the weather, clinging to him in ways uncomfortable.

"Don't you dare think of it." he shouted to her. He slowly drew closer, trying to shorten the distance between himself and the girl. She was intent on committing suicide the moment he turned, and he could feel it in every fiber of his being. She did not have the look of someone that feared being on the edge. She did not look like someone who had a lot to live for. No, quite the opposite. She looked like she was ready to end it all.

"Don't you dare think of it" he shouted again, an arms length away by this point, his feet gently dragging along on the loose gravel, rain gathering in the troughs his shoes had dug, turning the loose dirt into mud.

"You do not get to hit me and then end it all. You do not get to go and end it all with that pitiful apology. Now get away from the edge..." he held out a hand, waiting for her to take it.

Pain was slowly turning to anger. As she laid there, Bri felt every rain drop hitting her body, most of them pounding on different bruises. Her knuckles, the one part of her body that normally didn't hurt, were throbbing from where they had collided with his face. Everything else hurt both inside and out from a combination of abuse, rape, running, and the wind that was trying to tug her light body this way and that. Why couldn't he just leave her to end it all in peace?

He just told her not to think about it. Ha. There was no way for the guy before her to know what she was thinking, or why she was thinking it. She knew that several people committed suicide here, and most of them had dealt with significantly less than she had, and she was tired of it.

However, it looked like he wasn't going to leave any time soon. Damn him. Sighing, Brielle put her hands in the mud and used them to push herself up. The mud stung the cuts on her body, but it's not like she wasn't used to pain. Anger over took her body though as she looked at his offered hang.

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to think? To feel? To want? You know nothing about me, and you have the nerve to stand there and tell me what I can't do?" Oh, she was getting mad. To have been so close to what she had wanted for so long, and to have this stranger tell her that she couldn't have it because she had hit him and not apologized correctly?

Wrapping her arms around her midsection to avoid giving him the chance to grab one of her hands, and to slightly hold herself up because she was in pain and feeling sick, Bri took a step away from him and toward the edge. "You don't want me to do this so you can press charges because I hit you? Guess what, I'll win. You tackled me first. You can't tell me what to do." She would never take his hand, or anything else of his because she just wanted to get away from him and over this delightful edge.

"Are you that desperate that you would ignore all offers of help?" he shouted to her, his voice becoming hoarse. His hand was still held out despite the fact she had refused to take it, despite the fact she had stepped further away, to the very edge of the cliff. Any more, and she would surely fall to her death, much as she had planned, or so he thought. He grit his teeth, the pain sharpening his senses to the weather. His clothes were soaked through, the rain coming down in distinct torrents, the wind blowing against wet material chilling him to the core.

"To you, I am simply nothing. Another meaningless encounter in another meaningless place. I understand that right now you do not want to talk, or to be reasoned with. To me, I am going to base this moment on the person I am stuck with on this cliff. That's what life is, it's a series of encounters and the people we are stuck with. Do you want this encounter to end with your..."

He stopped, wincing at the pain that his body was feeling. The girl was a fighter. How could she fight so hard for life when he tried to stop her before, but then want to throw it away now.

"You can't die with dignity, only live with it. No matter how much it hurts now, if you throw it away: you throw everything away. You kill everything you were, everything you are, and everything you will be. You will kill everything you could be, and those that could come from you. Every encounter your future selves have, they will all disappear."

He had no idea what he was saying, grasping at any thought that came to mind that was semi coherent, trying to reason with the girl before him. He continued to hold out his hand.

Some of the words the guy said hit her hard. Others just made her more angry. This guy knew nothing about her, so it amazed her how he could say such things. He didn't know her name, where she came from, or what she had been through to make any type of statement about her, and here he was doing just that. How could he have the right to say it wouldn't be better if she ended it. No one would miss her, and she wouldn't miss this life anymore.

He was right on one thing though; he was nothing to her. She was tired of guys and them telling her what she should do and how she should feel. But would she have been any different if a girl stood before her trying to save her? Probably not.

"I don't care about dignity. I only care about dying. You know nothing about my life to have any claim about it. What if I want to throw everything away? What then? You'll walk away and let me go in peace like I had wanted." Not that she thought she deserved to go in peace. She wasn't sure what she had done wrong to deserve all of the abuse, but surely she had done something right to deserve a peaceful death the way she wanted it.

"Why should I care about anyone when no one cares about me? No one helped me or kept me from getting hurt, so why must I care?" It was true. He wanted her to think about all of these people she would meet, when no one she had met before had helped her. Brielle didn't want to help anyone in this cruel world. Brielle didn't want to be in this cruel world anymore.

Yet here she was, stalling her death. She knew that all she would have to do is take the smallest of steps back; she could feel the edge of the cliff at her heels. The guy was too far away to be able to stop her if she did. It would be too late, and she would die like she wanted to. But here she was, talking to him, talking to someone who was trying to save her. But why was he here? And why did he care? Why did she care whether he did or not? Could it be that she had finally found someone nice in her life.

Shaking her head, Bri turned slightly to glance over at the emptiness before her. "Why do you care?" She asked. Was he really talking her away from the edge?

"Because you care" he simply stated.

The silence hung between them, his words having long since left his mouth. He slowly moved towards her, moving gently as to not startle her any more than she already was, her footing on the edge enough as it is. "Why else would you have attacked me. Some part of you, deep down inside, that you are ignoring or trying locking away, that part of you doesn't want to die."

"Suicide is not the answer, it will never be the answer. So take my hand, and let's get out of here. Ok?"

When this stranger answered why he cared, Bri was taken aback. He couldn't know whether or not she cared. What about a suicidal girl gave the impression that she cared?

Then he moved towards her and explained why he claimed that she cared. "I attacked you because you attacked me. Because I thought you were someone else. Because you ruined my peaceful ending." Brielle shot back to him. She didn't fight him because she wanted to live; she fought him because she hadn't wanted to be murdered like that.

"You know nothing about me." She said, tears in her eyes. However, the urge to fight was leaving her. Anger was being beaten down by defeat. It was apparent that she wasn't getting her sweet suicide tonight. Maybe tomorrow night. The girl finally took his offered hand, allowing him to help her just this time.

The man held her hand tightly, the warmth of his hand in stark contrast to the cool skin of hers. "I don't know anything about you. Just like you don't know anything about me. Funny how we are so sure that the other is wrong". He walked slowly backwards, his hands still in hers, as he led her back towards the safety of the fence-enclosed area, still back peddling as he kept his attention on her. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" he said, before finally letting go of her hand.

At this point, he had been through an emotional roller coast, from tired, to melancholic, to abject terror, to gut wrenching sadness, all in the span of a few hours, culminating with this singular event that left his heart pounding hard. He could hear the beat of his heart in his ears, the adrenaline running full force in his body, only now was he finally coming off of it. With it, the pain redouble, the bruised jaw, the scraped knees and elbows. He was hurting, but no price was too small to pay to save the life of another.

"It's fine now, you are going to be just fine" he said, before leaning in to hug her. As if the act itself would alleviate all the problems in the world. Both his hands were around her awkwardly, his head placed over he shoulder as he tried to comfort her. "It's going to be fine"

Feeling the reassuring grip of her hand in his, Brielle squeezed his hand, following him to the fenced in area. She was aware that his eyes weren't leaving her, probably afraid she would ditching him and take off running to toss herself over the edge like she should have done so long ago. But he was right, she knew nothing about him either. Nothing except that he had just saved her life, whether she wanted to be saved or not.

At first, the girl wanted to mock him for his comment about whether or not that was so hard. He didn't know that. It was the hardest thing she had done in her life, not giving into the black abyss like she so desperately wanted to do.

Then he was hugging her. When his arms wrapped around her, Bri froze. The last guy to have arms around her was raping her. This wasn't her boyfriend though, and he was helping her instead of hurting her. As he attempted to comfort her, she just stood there awkwardly, her arms to her side, listening to him tell her it would all be fine. He didn't know that though, and she told him that. "You don't know it's all going to be fine." She sighed, though her defeated side was taking over and she was just sore and tired all over, and feeling guilty that he seemed to be in pain as well. "I'll be fine, you can go on with your life." Bri said, though doubted that he would leave her now, like she had wanted him to earlier.

"If I don't know it is going to be fine, how are you so certain that it won't be?" He held the girl tightly against him still, understanding that her mind wasn't in the best of states, for being on the edge did that to people. He had no experience with situation, but he could just feel that it was wrong, that there were options for her. Patting her a few more times on the back, he let go, pulling away from her.

He leaned against the edge of the fence, a few paces away from her, but still within reach if she had tried any sudden movement yet again. "If I go on with my life, will you go on with yours. With life that is?"

He instinctively pulled a box of cigarettes out of the pocket of his pants. Before shaking it, annoyed, that the whole pack had been compromised by their scuffle and the rain. Crushing the pack in one hand in frustration, he put it back into his pocket, awaiting her answer.

At his answer, she knew he had a point. She couldn't sit there and tell him nothing would be okay when she didn't know for sure, then get upset when he told her it would be okay. But it was so hard to see the light at the end of this cave when people kept kicking her farther into it. The girl couldn't get out when she felt chained down.

He wanted her to go on with her life. "There's not much of a life to go on with." She admitted. Now that the fight was over, her entire body felt drained. At that moment, she felt as if she could sleep for a week, especially since he wouldn't let her sleep forever. Everything that had happened that day had zapped her energy and strength, and now she was left with nothing to go on.

Watching him crush his box of cigarettes, Bri realized how much he had risked to save her. He risked his own life being so close to the edge just to pull her back from it, and he had risked his handsome face and cigarettes in this rain. "I have no where else to go to be safe." The girl admitted, wrapping her arms around her body again. Her entire body was still aching, and the wet clothes were seeming to pull her down to the ground, adding weight to a body that barely felt like holding itself up. Death had been her escape, and now she had no where to turn since it had been pulled away.

The man's hand was still in his pocket, the balled up cardboard of the cigarette box clenched tightly in between his fingers, the liquefied interior of the box dripping between clasped fingers. "... Fuck" he muttered to himself, realizing the stupidity of his own actions. Of all his actions. He had forcibly brought the girl to the ground, risking her life, and his own. He had pinned her down as she struggled, receiving hit after hit to the body, the chipped tooth still hurting as he grit his teeth against one another, annoyed at having potentially ruined his jacket on top of his torn clothes. He pulled the box from his hand, confirming the worst of it, the stained dark-brown water running from the box as he held it to one side. "Well so much for this dirty habit anyway" he stated, before tossing it off the edge of the cliff she had been near only moments before. He wiped the palm of his right hand against his thigh, a streak of the brown residue left behind on torn jeans, the skin on his knees cut and bloodied, small trickles of red mixing in with the water that had flowed down his body.

"You look hardly over the age of twenty, and you are saying you don't have much of a life to return to?" he spat to the side, annoyed at the attitude she had held. He was annoyed, his temper flaring, veins on his forehead bulging out from under his dark hair. "You have the rest of your life, at least another good eighty years of life if you are lucky. That's a lifetime. That will have been five times what you have now."

He leaned back against the wooden crossbeam that had formed the bracing of the fence behind him, placing a hand on either side. "Come here..." he motioned to her, tapping at the flat top of the fence to entice her to sit down next to him. "Come on, don't be shy..." he said once more.

"You have the rest of your life to live. You are unfortunate to have been driven to what you wanted to do. But. This is it. You have hit the bottom of life. The furthest low you could possibly hit. There is nothing but up from here."

Brielle sighed. She watched him as he threw the carton of soaked, mashed up cigarettes away, looked at his hand, then wiped it on his jeans. Then she looked up up and down. Seeing his cut and bruised face made her feel bad, but what she had done had only been a normal reaction to being tackled to the ground. Trailing her eyes down his body, he looked mostly fine until she saw the torn knees to his jeans, and the cuts on his knees. Probably also from tackling her. That had been his fault. She had never asked to be saved.

Next to him, Bri looked a lot better. Or at least from what could be seen at that moment. Underneath the sweatshirt and jeans were many more cuts and bruises. Her back ached from where the force of two bodies had pushed it into the ground, and her insides hurt from everything else that had happened that day. Everything just hurt, and the pain wouldn't go away.

When he doubted that she had so much life ahead of her, she just rolled her eyes. He really didn't know anything. If he would just look at her, he would see the slight black and blue under one of her eyes, or the bruises at the top edge of where her sweatshirt was before it could cover the rest of them. Of course, everything else was hidden to him.

At him offering her to sit, she decided she didn't see the harm in it. The rain was slowly letting up, leaving just the cold behind, which felt extremely bitter when the wind hit the wet clothing.

"I thought I couldn't get any lower before he forced me to have sex with him." She finally said. She would give anything to trade places with this stranger for a day, then see what words of wisdom he would give to someone in her situation.

"Look, it's cold and wet, and you won't let me go over the edge, so why are we staying out here just to get sick?" No, she didn't intend on going anywhere with him, but that didn't mean she wanted to stay here and chat with the guy who ruined her peaceful ending.

Her words. They had cut through the storm in an instant, clear through the sound of rain tumbling about them, clear through the heart that continued to beat heavily in his ear from the shot of adrenaline that flooded his blood stream. She had revealed she had been raped. He continued to sit next to her, sitting still, unsure of what to say. For what could he have said? I am sorry you were raped? I am sorry you were pushed to the option of suicide? I am sorry I stopped you from committing suicide and thus having to reconcile with everything that happened? There were no words, to convey what he felt towards her. Just as his mere presence had meant nothing to the girl all this time, his words would hold even less sway, even less weight, especially now that she opened him to the dark world that was her life. There was nothing he could do. There was nothing he could want to do.

About them the pine trees moved more, the wind coming in full force now, causing a shiver to run up and down his spine, his body damp and beaten, bloodied and tired. What could he do? If he left her here, she would probably try again the minute he left. Would he do the same in her position? Probably not, but he was in a right state of mind, if there was such a thing for him. She obviously didn't want to go home, probably couldn't go home. What about his place? No. She already had trust issues, and if a man raped her, she would be wary of him. The best he could think of was to at least get her in the car, to get the heat started, and to mull over where he could take her. Yet..., again, how could she ever trust a man again? Why would she want to trust a man again, especially one that had caused her bodily harm in forcing her to the ground against her will but a moment before.

"We are staying here, because you said you had nowhere else to go. I am thinking about where to take you, but that isn't going to happen, now is it? I could call the hospital, they could take you in for the night. The other option is the police, if the man that did this to you is still around, we can get him arrested and press charges."

It was weak, but it was the only topic at hand. It's not like he could suddenly switch the conversation to something more light hearted, or to something other than what had brought them together under such circumstance in the first place.

"The only other option is if you want to sit in my car for a bit, at least to dry off a bit and warm up." He offered to her, doubting she would take the kind gesture.

What did he want her to say? She had told him about the rape, but that was only the most recent of her problems. It was the tip of the iceberg, and if he had trouble knowing how to cope with that then there was no way she could ever tell him about the rest. But why would she have to? Her remark had only been a sharp remark to what he had said to get him to see that he didn't know everything. Now here he was suggesting hospitals and police stations.

Doctors were something she had avoided at all costs all year. The bruises couldn't be explained away very easily; maybe at first they could have, but now they were all over the place. Her thumb had been sprained before, and she was pretty sure she had fractured a rib at one point this past year, and all of it had gone on untended other than what she could try to do herself. There were too many questions involved. Besides, what would happen to her when her father was locked up? An orphanage where the unwanted children went? No thank you.

"I'll just go home if you want me away from you that badly. I'm not going anywhere else." Brielle said. She didn't even know his name and here he was wanting to get her into his car and take her all of these places. He obviously didn't know her either. "Just because you know one thing about my life, doesn't mean you know everything. I know who raped me, but no one believes a boyfriend could do that to his girlfriend. There's more than what you know."

Now all she wanted was to get away from him. Maybe she couldn't kill herself right now, but he couldn't be out here every night. Or she could just try a different cliff. Hoping down from the fence, Bri looked at him. "Thanks for keeping me from suicide, but I'll just go home." No, that wasn't safe, but no where else was either. Besides, what were a few more bruises?

She had hopped off the fence, splashing up water and mud as her foot made contact with a large puddle that had formed where the asphalt ended and the dirt begun anew.

"You are being unfair."

His legs hung against the side of the fence, his feet moving forward and back as he talked, the heels hitting against the crossbeam every so often in a loose rhythm.

"You are treating me like I have done the worst thing in the world by stopping you. You are telling me I know nothing about you, which while true, it's a claim I never made. I know nothing about you. If you go on ahead with your plan, or run away now, I will never have gotten to know you. The more you talk, the more I learn about you."

She had revealed more than she had probably intended, that she felt like she had no other options but suicide was a given. He stood just meters from where she wanted to end it all, on the edge. She had hit him, kicking and punching before he got on top of her, proving she wanted to live. She had also revealed that she had been raped, and that going home was no longer an option, for she said she had nothing to return to.

"You and I both know you can't go home now. So, what other option is there but to stand here?"

As soon as he said she was being unfair, anger flared up in the girl again. Walking over to him, water splashing up from the bottom of her shoes, she shoved him in the chest, not hard enough to knock him off from where he sat, but hard enough to get the point across. "Me? Unfair? You're the one who tackled me. You're the one who barged into my life without being asked. You're the one who put us in this situation. I had one place I could turn to, and you took it away from me. You could be wherever you belong, lucky enough to have a safe place to call home, living your happy life instead of out here, in the rain, ruining your cigarettes and face. That's not my problem, so how am I being unfair?" She had gone so long without fighting back, and she had thought the fight had left her, but his words were just making her so angry.

"You have no clue what it's like to live in my shoes. You did do something horrible in stopping me. You think me hitting you was bad? Imagine someone bigger than you hitting someone my size, every single day, tossing you into walls, throwing stuff at you. Tell me death wouldn't be better than living like that." She knew she had given him too much information, but she was....she didn't know what she was trying to do. Get him to allow her to kill herself? Trying to convince herself that what she had decided to do was what should be true.

There were no tears in her eyes as she turned away from him. This life was one she was used to living, so she had long ago found it useless to cry over this anymore.

Brielle sighed. "I know I can't go home, but I can't go anywhere else either." She said, about to admit defeat because she had no other options. He had taken away the only one she had seen, and even knowing what she had just told him, she didn't think he would let her now either. "I just want it to end."

"Fine."

He slipped from the edge of the the fence, his own feet splashing as he slipped away from between her and the fence. He was angry as well, trying to argue for the viewpoint of life over death with a person he didn't know, or had any relationship with, but cared about only because they were a living, breathing person, and that life was always better than death. Always.

"I am being unfair." he paused, walking out towards the cliff side she had been near earlier, a few paces away from the plunge that would have given her bitter peace.

"I am being unfair." he repeated again for emphasis. "I am the one that tackled you to the ground. I am the one that barged into your life without being asked. I am the one that put us in this situation. I took away your one place. Yes, I could be where I belong, and yes I am lucky to have a home to call my own, and a happy life to live, and without rain, and with a cigarette in hand. These are all my problems."

He extended on arm towards her, five fingers spread, palm up in her direction.

"So no. I have no clue what I did that is so terrible. I have no idea what being hit by someone who I am supposed to trust is like. But I will tell you this again. Death would not be better than living like that."

He balled his extend fist in anger, fist shaking as he did so.

"However, continuing to live life like that would be stupid. You have a problem. Change the problem. Don't run away from it. Don't throw yourself off a cliff. You barged into my life. You are keeping me in this situation. You have nowhere left to go? You don't want to go anywhere else? Than stay here. Just don't go throwing yourself off any cliffs. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever"

She didn't know what else to say. Her eyes followed his movements, but she just stood there. Everything would have just been better if he had just ignored the girl on the edge of the cliff, or if he had just called the cops because they would have been there too late to stop her. It would just be better that way because she was lost in this life.

When he admitted to being unfair, the girl nodded. About time he admitted it. None of this was her fault. The only thing she could take the blame for would be trying to kill herself, which had nothing to do with him, and hitting him after he attacked her, which no one could blame her for. She wasn't guilty of anything else, so who was he to tell her she was being unfair. It was him that was being so unfair, and she was glad he was finally admitting that. Now her task was to get him to leave her alone.

However, he still was bent on saying death was not the solution. Then what was? Bri walked out to the edge again, letting the wind whip her wet hair about her face.

"When you're abused, you don't see the options available to you." She said, knowing he wouldn't understand. "Go ahead and call me stupid, but you can't fully judge me until you know me. I know I have a problem, that's obvious, but when you've been a victim for so long, all you know how to deal with is that problem. There is no where else to go. I can't live on this cliff forever." Now she was just tired. Bri sank to her knees at the edge of the cliff and just sat there. She wasn't trying to kill herself or try anything, she was just tired. Once you're a victim for so long, being a victim is all you know to be. It defined her now, and she didn't know how to break free.

"Then don't live on this cliff forever! Make your own decisions for once. Don't let others beat you into it! You want to end your life!? You really thing that is better!? Then go for it! If nothing I say, if nothing I could say, if nothing I can do, or could do, will stop you, then do it. Go for it." He had shouted, frustrated.

He pulled from his pocket a cell phone, wiping the screen against the side of his pants, before tossing it at her.

"Or, you can give life another chance. You can make tonight the first day of the rest of your life."

Hearing him tell her to kill herself hurt more than she thought it would. Here she was trying to get him to let her do the very thing he told her to do, and she was angry at him for giving up on her. It didn't make sense. He shouldn't care, and she shouldn't care whether or not he did.

As reflex, Bri caught the phone he threw at her. Start over? Could she really do that? She could barely remember what her life had been like before the abuse had started. It could really be like that again? He made it sound so easy to just start a clean slate, but she didn't know how. How could she get another chance?

"I don't know how to give life another chance." Here she was, on the edge of the cliff she had longed to jump off for so long, yet she was getting up off her knees and walking over to the guy she was mad at for saving her. "Can you teach me?"