It was like I was on top of the world.

I couldn’t see far, but I could see enough in the evening light to let me know that this was a place I would never want to forget. Up here, I could lose myself. Up here, I didn’t have to be the great leader that everyone wanted me to be. Up here, I could breathe.

The setting sun had always been something that fascinated me. The way the light slowly crept up the edge of the world and bathed the earth in pinks and reds and oranges. There was something ethereal about it, knowing that billions of lightyears away was something so vast that dwarfed anything I would be able to see of experience in my lifetime. My mother had always told me that I needed to be strong, that I needed to protect and live so that others after may do the same. But what did it matter when I was but a blip on the sprawling map of the universe?

The wind rustled the leaves of the tree behind me. For as long as I had been coming here, the tree had been there. I was used to it’s gnarled branches and giant leaves swaying in the wind, producing a sound so haunting yet comforting. Sometimes, it sounded like the tree was talking, like it was whispering for me to be strong, to have hope.

On this night as I stood on the cliff, I could hear it again. I could hear the light murmurings in the air, a voice that told me that I was powerful, that I could take on any task given to me and win. I didn’t believe it. I never had.

I had never considered myself as pretty. Never clever, never thoughtful, never strong. I just did as I was told. Run, jump, take the lead. I did everything they told me to do. And when I had no direction I came here. I came here to let my mask break.

My mask breaks to a rhythm, a rhythm of footsteps and breaths. It doesn't stop when the sun goes down, there's always the rhythm in the shadows, in the light, guiding me into madness. It doesn't take much. One step. One breath.

Crack.

The buzzing in my backpack startled me, breaking the serenity of twilight. Glancing down, I let a little smile show. He was up late; how unusual.

[You didn’t text me back yesterday.]

“I fell asleep. What’s up?”

[I got suspended again.]

“What was it this time?”

[I accidentally may have punched someone in the face.]

“Did they ‘accidentally’ make fun of your lisp?”

[Accidentally, of course.]

I chuckled. The joke had been one we’d shared since he started high school.

“What did mom and dad say?”

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