Fatal Poison

• Katerina Vega, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2008

The twinkling neon lights blurred as Carol took another swig of the intoxicating venom that was numbing her senses. The strong, cold wind wrapped around Carol’s body and bit through her thin business suit. She always came up to the roof in the evenings but it was never to enjoy the view; only to have somewhere secluded and private to drink away her worries. The seducing feeling of addictive poison flowing through her body was what she lived for every day.
Carol turned to the stone safety barrier and looked at the softly glowing city around her. The breathtaking skyscrapers rose into the sky as if reaching for heaven itself and red, green and yellow neon lights shone down from one particularly magnificent building. Hundreds of small cars crawled along the road incredibly far below Carol and as she observed them, she vaguely thought that they were like busy beetles, scuttling towards their destination. Smiling childishly, she clambered over the safety barrier with the innocent intention of watching the cars with more ease. She stumbled to the edge and as she peered over the stone that was her only separation from death, faint screams rose from the ground and countless faces turn to her. Suddenly, the elevator door slammed behind her and she turned sharply in fright. She lost her balance and felt herself toppling over the edge when a strong, warm hand grabbed her own frozen one. Carol looked up and saw her friend and co-worker, Matthew, looking terrified into her alcohol hazed, brown eyes.
“What’re you doing here Matt?” she mumbled thickly, lowering her eyes.
“I could ask you the same thing” he answered softly. He tried to pull her back over the safety barrier, but her position was too awkward and when he tried, she stumbled and almost toppled over the edge again. The only thing Matt could do to stop her from falling, was to leap over the safety barrier and pull her close to him so she couldn’t move.
“What’re you doing up here and why have you been drinking?” he murmured as his body warmth brought life back into Carol’s frozen limbs. But when his words were processed by her numb mind, she scowled and roughly pushed him away.
“It’s none of your business Matt!” ‘Well’, she thought, ‘I can’t actually tell him that my infatuation with him is part of the reason I’m up here.’
As she pushed him away, she lost her balance again, and teetered on the edge of the building. Matt saw what was happening and he grabbed her hand, pulling her back towards the safety barrier. But when he pulled her, the strong wind caught him and cruelly threw him over the edge. Carol turned, just in time to see him suspended in mid air before he plummeted towards the unforgiving ground. Her mind cleared instantly and she screamed, dropping the deadly bottle of destructive poison, which shattered into a hundred pieces, just like her broken heart.