" I choose you."
As the words whisper over my lips, Kieran looks at me in shock. He murmurs disbelievingly, "Say it again."
I feel the dark shadows, which always push and prod into me whenever I am with Kieran lean closer, invading my space, as I say it again. "I choose you, Kieran. I love you."
He smiles. The smile lights up his face even here in the darkness where we are huddled close to each other against the cold November wind.
From somewhere behind me, I hear Jayden grunt unhappily and close by a crow squawks, the sudden sound loud.
I feel Kieran stiffen under the palms of my hands. Quickly he reaches for my hand. Gripping my fingers tightly in his, he insists, "Run. We must run."
Bewildered, I step back from him. I have just told him that I choose him. For months, I have battled with my indecision. I love both Jayden and Kieran, but I knew I had to make the choice between them and now that I did, this momentous moment in my life is shattered.
A crow swoops down low over my head. I can feel the wind from its wildly flapping wings brush against my cheek. I look up and I see the moon glint off its black feathers in a rainbow of colours.
Jayden yells, "Run!"
I feel Kieran pull me along with him. I stumble over my own two feet and Kieran clutches my arm in a steel grip to pull me up again. We run toward the cliff. If we are supposed to be running away from danger, why are we running directly toward a dead-end, I wonder panicked.
I feel the crow clutch its claws into my hair, and I feel strands of it yanked out of my scalp. I scream in pain, but Kieran pulls me faster toward the cliff.
We reach the cliff and while we are still running, Kieran scoops me into his arms in one smooth action. He urges, "Close your eyes."
Petrified I close my eyes tightly and then terrified, I am aware of him running over the edge of the cliff. I feel the nothingness beneath us, and for a moment, it feels as if we are just hanging there, suspended in mid-air. Then I feel the updraught of the wind lift my hair up and away from my face. It does not feel like we are falling, it feels more like floating, maybe we already collided with the ground, and I am dead. Probably the only explanation for the feeling of weightlessness I am experiencing.
Scared I open my eyes. A very small part of me is relieved that I am not yet dead. The cliff face is passing by me, going upward, as if in slow motion. I can see every protrusion reflected in the sharp glare of the moon and I see Kieran's black coat tails flap up in the wind in front of my face.