Can Love Save The Broken?

• Sophie Correa, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

The sky cried tears upon her lifeless face. It cried the tears that she would never muster again.
Lightning brightened up the sky, turning the darkest of blues to shades of purple. The colours she would never see again.
Thunder bellowed at the trees, commanding them to bow down to its greatness. She’ll never have to listen to another command again, for she was free.
All her secrets would disappear into the oblivion. She could whisper to the sky the petty crimes of life she’d committed. She’d tell the birds hiding from the storm to not be afraid and to fly away from a life they didn’t rejoice in.
She would’ve done so much if the boy she loved hadn’t come for her. He held her body close. Warming her up with the fire inside him.
This lifeless girl wasn’t dead yet. Life had drained her reveries of freedom. She would’ve saved the man on the street that reeked of sadness but how could no one see the darkness that was consuming her?
They were lovers that could’ve brightened up the stormy violent sky and say it was art.
She was the star in the universe that made the galaxy so bright.
He was the fallen angel that the preacher warned kids about.
The boy found his love walking into the forest that broken souls go to find their freedom. He had told himself that she would walk past the forest, but she only walked straight in.
He ran after her.
When he found her on the ground, wildflowers swaying around her body, the heavens opened.
The thunder had drowned out his sobs and screams, as his love was one with the earth, not moving, cold as the winter night. He held her tightly to his body as he cried and cried. Despite his tears that almost extinguished his fire, a single flame of hope was still burning bright.
He wouldn’t loose hope for her. He could do no such thing.
When that flicker of hope scorched her skin, she came alive once more. She saw his face, his tears, his cracked lips. She felt the sky’s merciless elements against her pale skin.
She looked him in the eye, raising one hand to caresses his wet cheek.
“You were always so whole but people named you Broken, whilst I was falling apart and they named me Strong. I can’t hurt another soul as compassionate as yours.”
He brought his lips against hers. The kiss said the words he couldn’t speak. She kissed him back with the same amount of emotion he gave her. She passed her pain, love and sadness to him and he kept them locked in his soul. Once apart, she laid her head against his chest, listening to his untamed heart.
He then whispered these words into her ear, “I love you too much to let you go. Wherever you go I’ll go. Don’t leave me alone again.”