The crack of thunder and the patter of rain crashed under a young woman’s feet. She had just told the boy who felt nothing but love and support for her she was going to give up. She approached the pinnacle of the tower she trudged up, shielded by the temple it resided in. She was done, done dealing with the pain of her memories, done dealing with her failures. She had one chance though, if Roger escaped. She believed in him, he would be fine, even if she wasn’t. If her end could mean a new beginning she would gladly sacrifice herself for it. She gathered her courage; after all, she wouldn’t be gone long. Tears welled up in her eyes as the heart wrenching acknowledgement that she had failed set in. She shakily brushed her hands along the dress that clung with damp to her slim body. Her hands were shaking as she wiped a smudge of dust of herself, she had never been so afraid in her life. She didn’t notice when the tears began falling from her eyes, every single drop pouring from her eyes more loudly than the storm outside. She whimpered as she looked back at her fate, a large bell, with a chain against it. She only needed to ring it, and then it would be over. She could get another chance, but she would be leaving everything behind. What was there for her here, what was here for any of them? She was useless for now, but she felt the flow of time around here, telling her the future was coming and ending, and she would be alright. It was a matter of trust against her cracking emotions which wouldn’t allow her another step. Her bitter tears burned her face like the fire that once burned inside her, extinguished by the horrid experiences of this nightmarish game. It flowed down her with the water, her life and apprehension draining away with the trickle of water down the cracked stone steps, thoughts and memories pouring away from her eyes. Her dress trailed behind her, pulling her with its water weight, her nightmare dragged along with it. The darkness beneath her feet urged her up the stairs, nipping at the back of her shoes, making her whimper with every bloody memory. It was her fault, she was convinced of it. She tripped in thought, falling down to her knees with a pained cry, scraping her hands and tearing her dress, hissing in pain. She groans and teeters, picking herself back up again and drudging herself up the stairs, her hand carving a swathe of red across the rough stones. Her small body was racked with gasping sobs, her mind longing for the inevitable release of death, the darkness she may have imagined wrapping gently around her back, trying to drag her down into immobility. She shrugged off the madness wrapping around her, and put a hand on her chest, willing her racing heart to be still. She stumbled with every step, leaving the growing tatters of her dress along the staircase, a bitter trail of blood, water, cloth, and her burning tears a record of her frail sanity. She slowly ascended, but every step felt like a descent into spiraling depression, a trait also shared with this spiraling spire of neglect and rebirth. Ragged wounds split wider with each gyrating step she made, her hips swiveling in exhaustion and laziness, her poise and grace wavering, but still yet the only thing she could hold on to. She racked her brain; she could think of him and tear open the emotional scars of her heart, of her betrayal, and bleed out on the staircase deeper than any physical wound. She could think of every failure, one for each remaining step, but she was too close to the top to count them all, both her mental capacity and the amount of stone steps. Her eyes fluttered as her knees buckled, the pitch black murder waiting above her broken by crashing threats from lightning and rain. She hurried, blood flowing from her dress in an elegant death march. Her breath came out ragged and strained, and her vision wavered like a taught guitar string, plucked in front of her. The emotion of the metaphorical guitar spurned more burning tears from her eyes, wiping them away with a bitter scowl. She stumbled in the dark and cracked her head against the heavy wooden gate of the temple’s bell tower. She threw her shoulder against it, gasping with every hit, her eyes squeezed tightly against the pain. She rammed it once, twice, and a final time before the door was forced open, splintering against her frail body. She held her shoulder, feeling the bones in it wearing down with stress. It was probably a fracture, but she was blinded to the pain through the fear of staring her death in the face. Her legs buckled and she fell to the ground, grinding her fingers against the sharp ground as she crawled up the stairs, her legs dragging limply behind her with exhaustion. Her fingers bled and tore, fingernails cracking as she raked her nails against the sharp floors. She cut a swathe of blood and tears across the floor as she dragged herself to the center, gasping with every movement. She put her head down and tried to work through it by every muscle in her body. A winding twine rope hung down directly in front of the cracked bell, she could feel the temporal energy flowing around her, and she hated every moment of it. She belonged lodged in space, not running out of time. She grasped the rope and squeezed her eyes shut, and with the rest of her energy pushed herself up off the ground, what could she think about to make this easier. She couldn’t think of anything, maybe she could sing, or think about Roger and saving him. She would do both, she decided with an exhausted whimper as hey body rebelled against pulling the bell. She sang a song she used to sing for him, just as a stupid joke, but it seemed so meaningful now, their last unbreakable bond being a stupid song, and she resented it. She heaved and slipped backwards on the slick surface, swinging along the rope into the bell, gasping as it rung out and rocked her entire body. One bang roared through the planet, she just needed two more. She stood back up and kicked off her shoes, every sharp rock mocking her with their sharp spikes. Her feet-bloodied and broken-slid across the floor again, but she wrapped the rope around her arm and shifted her weight to hold it. She had one task to do, and with her dying wish she would do it. She gasped as her shoulder cracked and groaned, staring at her ever blurring feet in effort. She gave slightly as light tore through the tower from the lightning, shouting with bitter insults, exposing her emotions and her body to her. She sobbed, opening her mouth with a wet hiss, and crooning out a slow song she used to enjoy which now gave nothing but pain. She yanked with every word, pulling with all the energy left in her body. The song in question was a poem she enjoyed singing, but right now the only thing she thought about was the bitter accuracy of the words.
	“O-Oh…d-don’t…deceive…d-deceive me…” she sang softly, her voice coming out hoarse and ragged, her cracked lips splitting with the efforts, leaking blood down her quivering lip.
	“O-Oh…n-n-never leave…m-me…” her voice stuttered and cracked, the inflection of it bringing her to tears. She took a soft victory in making somebody cry with her singing, even if it was herself. She pulled hard and yanked on the twine rope, the bell ringing out in front of her, the vibrations shaking her and making her howl in pain as her shoulder cracked. Her legs buckled and she fell to one knee, slowly getting back up through tear streaked eyes. She was pathetic in every sense of the word, and running out of the same time she was trying to destroy. She swallowed her fear and continued the song through the burning flame of fear and sorrow. She sobbed loudly into the song.
	“H-How…could you…use…h-how could you…” she sang, repeating the line in passive thought.
	“U-Use a…poor maiden…s-s-s…” she whimpered, finished the first stanza, and moaning into the final syllable as her feet slipped again and she swung into the bell, and it rang out one final death note. Her frail body shuddered and cracked for the last time, the strain being too much on her. She stopped hanging onto the rope as her head shattered against the bell, bronze meeting a deep dripping red. Her eyes fluttered and her lip quivered. Her body relaxed and she let go of the rope, against her will. She slipped down, forced away by the roaring of the bell as it began steadily ringing, chiming in time to the time slipping away from her. It was the song of her death, as blood soaked and matted her hair, mixing the taste of iron with the taste of salt as the last thing her lips would ever touch. She fell through the symphonic opening the bell rested above, shutting her eyes to her fate, her mouth hanging limply open as wind whistled past her. She hit a rafter and felt her back crack unnaturally, a sickening eruption that she heard more distinctly than the world ending bell. She slipped slowly off it, back to the ground that would mark her grave. Another beam, and she felt her other arm break, trying to cry, trying to scream, but her body wouldn’t let her, it would just let her fall and suffer. She let out one final whimper and one final tear as her body fell faster than the end of her session. She hit the ground with an eruption of blood, shook loose from every hole and cut she had. Her eyes were blank and lifeless, not even tears leaked from them, behind them were pain and a small relief she was free from the suffering of insanity gnawing at the split back of her skull. Her mouth hung open limply with the loss of control of her body. She twitched in death, her arms lying broken and useless at unnatural angles, her legs lying crooked and shattered down to dust. Her spine was broken, cracked backwards and forcing her chest into the air, blooding oozing down her small frame and ringing her neck. Her head was cracked open, oozing blood and brains upon the spiraling pattern carved into the ground, blood welling up in the deep spacious grooves. Her eyes locked open and empty as she stared up into the scratching noises tearing through the temple. Her lifeless crushed and torn body could only lie there and submit to being erased through time. The scratch didn’t tear through her. She simply ceased existing, in an erratic symphony of death.