Eleven Words

• Esha Faisal, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2021

Raindrops plummet from the sky as I walk along the gritty path. I tread up the winding trail that snakes through the moist grass. Every step weighs a ton as if I’m dragging bricks instead of my feet. My hands are clenched into stark, tight fists. My bloodshot eyes are rimmed with a charcoal hue from a lack of sleep.

Clad in my pitch dark dress, I shuffle over to where you lay. I raise my head to the sky and instantly regret it as tears well up in my eyes. The sun isn’t shining cheerfully upon the land. In fact, the sky is filled with dark, shapeless clouds. The meaningless figures create a sorrowful aura. As if there is no purpose in life anymore.

There is a crowd surrounding you. Irrelevant people pretending they care. I know they don’t because I’m the only one who cares. I’m the one who really understands you. I’m the one who knows what you have done.

Pushing past the immaterial mortals, I finally get to the front.

And then I wish I hadn’t.

Your flawless face is there in front of me; your beauty is unreal. But you’re motionless, like a shimmering river frozen in time. Your perfect hair flows around a face that God might use to design his favourite angels. The silver cloth wraps around your delicate body, reaching to your dainty toes. The wind ruffles the silk, making it look as if you’re breathing. Your smile that was once brighter than the sun… is gone, leaving behind a pallid face. But the part that breaks me, are your wrists. Once they were angelic features but now they’re stained red.

How could you do this to me...?

The bond that we shared, a love that ran deep. The pain I endured just to keep you for life. I wanted to hold you, wipe the tears from your face. I wanted to stop you when you said… goodbye. I want to forget but I know I never will. I want to let go but I know that I won’t.

I wish I could go back. I wish I could’ve stopped you from doing this. But time can’t be turned nor your actions undone. Tears rolled down my face, the memories burned in my head.

All I had left of you was a note. One single note that had arrived on my doorstep, minutes before my world ended. A note with the eleven words that tore my soul apart...

“I love you so much, please don’t cry when I’m dead”.