Holding on and letting go
They looked down.
The red rock beneath their feet, crumbling and dusty, ended abruptly at a sheer cliff edge. The silence of the air beyond breaking only for low cloud and the rumbling of a sallow and strychnine storm within. Beneath that lay the distant promise of verdant forest below. Above them the sky was clear and blue, the sun doing battle with the cold air of altitude. Their vantage was deceptively peaceful, beautiful.
Violet felt the touch of a hand brush against her palm, searching absently for a gentle grasp. She responded in kind, fingers interlocking. Hesitation gave way to a comforting clutch, firm enough to feel like someone was holding on.
They were all holding on.
Violet permitted herself a glance to her side, to see the familiar warmth of Talia, her wild curls floating around her perpetually immune to all gravity, including that of their current situation. Talia’s smile only somewhat hid her trepidation.
‘We could just stay here…’ Talia almost whispered.
Violet grinned in response, a gentle chuckle released in a soft sigh. She shook her head.
‘I wish that we could’ Violet exhaled as she looked back out over the open air before them ‘...so much’
Talia responded with a little squeeze of her hand and Violet could feel the tremble beneath it.
Against the warning of her heart Violet stole a glance behind her. Red stood back, tall and dour, his arms folded. He still met Violet's gaze and his face cracked a solemn smile. Kai rested an arm on Red's trunk as he pulled off one boot, started to shake out a loose stone. Kai's blonde hair was as tousled, wild, and carefree as Kai himself.
And Misha, who saw Violet's expression and smiled reassuringly, her eyes creasing, before following her gaze back toward the encroaching darkness. A short distance off, the green lands broke into decay and desolation. The trees had withered and dessicated, the ground cracked, all life snuffed to silence. A dome of entropy within which even hope died.
And the dome was spreading.
Almost imperceptibly the lifeless boundary crept its way toward these five friends standing in their crude wing suits. The plan had come together perfectly. They would jump. They would fly. They would soar through the storm and hope against hope that their luck held out.
They arrived supporting each other. Kai encouraged Misha when she tired, she found her resolve in his belief in her. Red caught Kai when he nearly fell into a ravine, and never let him forget it. And Talia. Talia laughed at Violet's jokes, freely giggling in a way she seemed to reserve only for her. Talia was wholly impressive, vastly overqualified, and somehow remained profoundly humble, almost annoyingly so. Violet had to stifle the urge to celebrate her too effusively, for fear she might actually upset her, a fate she thought quite possibly less emotionally survivable than the entropy they now had to flee. Not that accolades mattered now. The wall had seen to that. Now the moment was all they had.
The moment before the fall.
Kai stumbled on one leg and giving a single rumbling chuckle Red held out an arm to steady him.
Misha stepped forward to look out over their destination, her face marred with concern. Violet reached out to her with a free hand, squeezed her shoulder. Misha rested a hand gently on hers. There were no words now. Violet searched for them anyway.
‘I…’ Violet hesitated. Misha looked at her and as Violet stumbled over consonants Misha hugged her, held her close. Violet felt Talia's body press against her from behind. Before she could say anything she heard ‘room for one more?!” as Kai bundled into the group. Red followed, his big arms encircling his friends. Kai made a noise like he was struggling to breathe and the tumble of arms and bodies jostled with laughter.
The laughter slowly subsided, but no one let go. They all knew what was coming. The dread of the storm. The roll of fate's dice. The silent chance they might not all make it.
Violet wanted to say so much to these people. To tell them what they meant to her. To lay bare her heart. To reveal how frightened she was. To decry their fate. But all she could do was hold on.
They were all holding on.
She couldn't bear to let go. The moment she let the world back in she knew it would consume her. This hug promised to defy gravity, for just a moment more, as though they might be able to just hold on forever.
But entropy approached and the cliff edge awaited.
They stood together holding hands, staring out into the storm below. Red's face darkened, though Kai noticed and took the opportunity to question how someone so muscular wasn't about to drop like a stone out of the sky, and Red couldn't help but smile. And Misha took a deep breath, always mindful of the moment especially when the future was so uncertain for all of them.
And Talia. Violet felt Talia's hand squeeze hers and her tears were falling freely now.
‘I'm so happy we found each other’
And she spoke for all of them.