Midnight Dreams

Yelling was all she heard. Yelling at her, her brother, mother, sister, it did not matter. She was done, she didn’t care, and she was spent. This life was not for her. The girl was leaving the world, and she was taking naught but her body, mind and soul with her. As she arose to leave her house, she heard the menial complaints of her father, his useless, ignorant words pelting her futilely, the incessant chatter of her mother’s mouth screaming for her to not go, but she was out the door without a second thought.


But she realized she had forgotten her keys. She slammed the front door open once more, and reconsidered taking her siblings with. She decided their fate was their own decision and she would not commit the fault of her parents by controlling the fate of her siblings. She took the keys off the rack, grabbed a wad of cash off the counter she hadn't seen before, and left again.

She was gone.

The car was a rusty, old pickup truck, its life so close to its end, very much so like her own. She started the car and drove, the tears finally hitting her lap and shattering like crystal shards. She went down the road and took a left turn, and turned the radio on, the lyrics to an ever so familiar song playing.

I thought I knew it all,
I've been through the highs, said all my goodbyes,
Learned to run before I learned to crawl,
It's not worth fighting for if one of us is sure,
And one of us is dying, trying to find love's cure.

She thought the song appropriate for the occasion.

The car’s engine began to sputter, and she realized it was at the limit, and that her bad luck had not stayed at home. She instantly purged the word home from her thoughts, home being such a depressing term in her mind. She drove to the next turn, and the car died there. She looked at the keys, and saw nothing she wanted, save for one thing: The picture of her with her brother and sister. Ripping off the picture from the keychain, and leaving everything else, she opened the door and left. The music of the radio played in her head still, its melody resounding in her thoughts.

When we learn how to fly,
We forget to how walk,
When we learn how to sing,
We don't wanna hear each other talk,
When we know what we want,
We forget what we need,
When you find who you are,
You forget about me.

She looked around, unsure of where to go. She looked to her left and noticed a small yet inviting line of trees, and to her right, a glimmering body of water, the moonlight casting its shine upon the surface, the white reflection of the mood ever bright upon it. Opting upon the trees, she turned, walking across the field before it. It was flat and lifeless, and now the moon truly struck her, and she turned to the stars, and realized her place was among them; destiny among the clouds. Her life was not meant for this world, and she was leaving it. Reaching the trees, she entered the forest and all at once the light of the dark sky was gone, and she was finally… alone.

She continued her trudging walk through the trees, and contemplated how she would finish it all. She concluded her planning with the perfect ending; fate demanded it. She saw the end of her journey approaching, an opening within the maze of trees, the moonlight glowing through it, and she walked to the very edge of the tree line. She took one look back, making sure she wasn't being followed, took a final breath, looked down at her shoes, noticedhershoelacewasdislocated, didn’tcare, exhaled, andjumped.
The last words to the song rang out in her head.

Here we are at the finish line, ah.
Here we are at the finish line, ah.
Here we are at the finish line.

She fell, her entire life flashing in her mind’s eye, all her pains and fears now forgotten, her single strength anchoring her to her fate: her will. She hit the ground at such a high speed that, when she arose again, the death of her previous memory and mindset of her hysteric, insane, lunatic life was complete. She took one look back for the last time; the small hill she had jumped from, a minuscule height, the final obstacle. Looking ahead, she saw a city, the lights suddenly diminishing the moonlight. Noel walked forward, and began a new existence.