Being at the bottom there is nowhere else to fall, this is where Leo was today. This was a falling week as he called them, a week in which his thoughts had wondered down avenues they shouldn’t, leading Leo in dark alleys that in turn only led to darker places. He would fall for days spiraling into obsessive thought steadily losing control until that sudden halt when he hit bottom. Bottom was the easy part he had two choices climb back up or lay down and die. To Leo though It was the falling that hurt…….
Day 1…… 6 days left until hitting bottom
There was no buzzing of an alarm clock this morning, just that tingling feeling that if he didn’t get out of bed Leo Tharrous would soon be wallowing in his own filth. Clawing his way out of bed he stumbled to the bathroom, he was up his day had begun. No breakfast as usual, Leo rarely ate more than one meal a day, it kept him trim but malnourished and moody. As he moved about his dingy two bedroom he heard a commotion outside. Peaking threw the blinds in his darkened room his eyes were stung by the sun’s piercing light. As they adjusted he saw that a man was hitting a woman whilst- what he could only guess to be the couple’s daughter- was screaming and trying to pull the man off the woman. Without a moment’s thought he threw on some clothes and bolted down the stairs and to where the couple were fighting. Already a crowd began to move towards the commotion and just as Leo arrived the man pulled out a knife from under his shirt and lunged towards the woman. Leo threw himself at the man pulled back the arm wielding the knife and threw the man to the ground. In a fit of adrenaline Leo grabbed the knife from the man’s hand and began to turn and check on the terrified woman. It was only then he began to hear a whimper in what had become an ocean of noise. Looking down he noticed the limp body of the young girl. Leo looked at the knife and suddenly the world turned to black and white, the only color he could see was of the red blood dripping from the knife he had so valiantly wrestled away. In all the commotion he failed to keep his eye on the child and as he grabbed the man’s arm he had plunged it in the child’s chest. The red blood was now all he could see, there were no other colors, just a mesh of dark and light shadows. Soon the noise of the crowd gave way to the cries of the child’s mother as she picked up her daughter.
Slowly the emergency services arrived; the man who it soon became clear was the Childs father was dragged away by police. The girl had stopped breathing even before 911 was dialed was still being cradled by her stricken mother. The ambulance crew could only lift mother and child as one, their bodies seemingly molded together. Leo gave his statement to officers as they arrived. The flashing red of the police cars lights blinded him. He was numb. The world was black except for the stained red grass. He was soon allowed to leave and he headed back up the stairs to his apartment. As soon as the door closed behind him the light was shut out of his living room and he collapsed to the ground in a fit of tears.
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