Don't give up

Part 2

"Jacob," an unusually soft, but still so familiar, voice cut confidently through the wind, causing him to turn his pounding head. "Come down," she offered, her hazel eyes serious now, as she stepped carefully towards him, "Please come down, it's windy and cold... how long have you been up here?"

"I don't know," he replied truthfully, his eyes meeting hers, "It seems like minutes, but I've watched the sun set and the sky turn dark,"

"It is mesmerising up here," she admitted, reaching him and placing a hand gently either side of his broad shoulders, "But please come away from the edge,"

"Drove the night toward my home, the place that I was born, on the lakeside, as daylight broke, I saw the earth, the trees had burned down to the ground."

He nodded, doing as she had asked, and turned around, standing in front of her, "I wasn't going to jump if that's what you think," he stated more forcefully than he'd meant too,

She reached forward and placed her hand onto his cheek, the warmth from the palm of her hand seeping into his very soul. Her thumb brushed against his wet skin, her heart aching for him as she felt the tracks where his tears had fallen.

"I mean, I thought about it for a second, but things will get better won't they?" He inhaled as she kissed his cheek so gently, "Please tell me things will get better," he uttered quietly against her soft hair, his voice hoarse as he struggled to hold back his tears,

"It will take some time," she told him all too knowingly, "But I promise they will... you won't hurt this much forever."

"You're cold," he noted, watching how fine goose pimples arose on her lightly tanned skin,

"Will you come inside? I don't like to think of you out here on your own,"

He nodded, "I will... but I don't think I can cope with going home, I'll stay here tonight,"

"Don't give up, you still have us, don't give up, we don't need much of anything, don't give up, 'cause somewhere there's a place, where we belong."

An hour later he lay, his head on her thighs as she stretched out her slender legs so her feet were rested on her ridiculously expensive coffee table. She ran her fingertips through his thick hair, her finger nails scraping gently against his scalp, making his body tingle as he closed his eyes.

"I feel like the whole world is spinning past me and I'm the only one standing still," he admitted, only to her. "Like that feeling you first get when you get off a fair ground ride. Your feet may be on the floor, but it's all hazy and you can't quite understand where the voices are coming from, and the faces are all blurred. He couldn't hold back the glassy tears that ran down his cheeks, "It hurts so much, I can't breathe. I hate being in that house without her. The pictures and the toys scattered everywhere, and then I just see blood, so much blood and the screeching of those damned tyres."

He sat up, his hands on his knees, "I think I'm going to be sick,"

She handed him a glass of water and placed her hand on his back, his body shaking from the nausea and the cold and the lack of food, "You need to go to bed, will you ring Jade and let her know where you are?"

He shook his head, "No... if she's that bothered she can call me."

"Jacob," she spoke quietly and he shook his head,

"Okay," she replied quietly, "okay."

"Rest your head, you worry too much, it's going to be alright, when times get rough, you can fall back on us, don't give up, please don't give up,"