SnowFall

Breathe

Eira couldn't lose him. Not again. Not ever.

She gripped onto his arm so hard she wondered if it had hurt. She yanked as hard as she can and with Jason's combined effort, they broke the surface and threw themselves onto the sand together.

They breathed harshly against one another. Eira opened her eyes to check on him. His face was as pale as hers, but the colour was returning. She reached out and touched his cheek. They were cold, and Jason's eyes were closed, water dripped from his hair, but he was breathing; that was the important bit. He opened his red eyes, the colour as alive as ever.

Eira let out a weak laugh, "We made it..."

Jason slowly formed a grin, "Yes... we made it."

They sat up and looked at Luke, staring at them. The shock was present in his eyes, questions as to why they had saved him was steaming off him like vapour. 

"Why..." He finally croaked.

Jason's wrapped his hands around Eira's, and Eira felt his grip tighten; but not tight enough to hurt her.

"I should be asking you," Jason said, "Why were you trying to suicide?"

Suicide.

He used a big word, and Luke felt it as if he was physically hit by it. He didn't want to admit what

he was doing was trying to take his own life, he never thought about it. But then he realised, deep down, he had wanted to simply slip away; run away. It was so much easier than facing everything. And what was the point? They all loathe him for what he has done. He even loathed himself for it and he felt so helpless... as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was scared... scared of carrying on.

He let out a breath when he removed himself from an arm-propped position into a standing one. Jason and Eira did the same. Although Jason didn't push him, Luke knew he wanted an answer and he would wait forever for that answer that he didn't want to give.

Luke closed his eyes, as if pained. Eira watched him slowly crumble, all his emotions that were buried for so long. Eira felt for Jason's arm and held onto it. She searched for Jason's reaction to his friend's. A labyrinth of somethings... Eira could tell it pained him as much.

Trust... friendship... the truth... The memories between Luke and Jason also hurt him. Even though Luke — Lukas Black — had hurt him, had did bad things... at that very moment of seeing Luke fully expose his emotions in front of him, Jason forgave him instantly. He even trusted him. He told himself that he shouldn't let it pass so quickly, so easily! But he had hoped for too long, it was hard not to feel relieved that Luke had come out of the shadows...

Jason looked back at Luke, who had closed his eyes with tears running down his face, who was trembling like a lost child. Lukas Black, the one on the black list, the one who they call... dangerous.

"So... you didn't do everything. Did you?" Jason couldn't hold back the hope they all would've heard in his sentence, "I assume you're trying to come clean."

With a swipe, Luke wiped his tears away. He stared back with his pair of watery dark eyes, they hardened, "How can I come clean? After all I've-"

"You can when you decide to stop doing what you were doing, when you say everything that we need to hear. If you want to bring the axe down, then you better cut the wood in a clean half. We can't have you stuck in the middle." Jason said sternly. Then, he softened, "If that's what you really want."

"Are you helping me?" Luke whispered.

Jason gently let go of Eira's hand and took a step forwards, "Yes. If you want to be helped. And trust me... you can be helped if you want to change... you've proven that you wanted to when you helped me."