...once and for all.


Five minutes. Five minutes of flight, five minutes to fight, five minutes to forget all the failures, the forgotten focus of living a life in a lie. Five minutes of waiting for the end to come, fully dead already but forever young.

Five minutes to realize that nothing amounts to much of anything, merely mockeries of magnetism, animal bright.

Pulling, pushing, drawing two together.

She made small sounds and he humored every one of them, settling a subtle touch to sooth nerves and alleviate fears.

He kept letting her go.

He kept lifting her higher and higher off the floor, and letting her go.

He kept acclimating her to fear. He kept letting her know that it didn't hurt to fall a little bit, as long as you could pick yourself up and start all over again.

A little higher.

A little stronger.

A little better.

Soon, he'd be able to let her go -- and when he did? She would not fall.

She would fly.