A Short Story - Help Came Too Late

No one is awake. The house is still. The only sound is the clock going tick tock tick tock. It is early but she has been awake for hours. Her mind is full of things to think about and decisions to make. She does not know what to do. Her life is short and getting shorter with each day. At times she thinks she has made the right decision but other times she feels she had made a mistake.

Where did she go wrong. She had thought about it for days, weeks and years. Somehow her mind seems to have taken a turn in the wrong direction. She was lost in a maze of decisions that appeared to be headed down the right path. She awoke one morning and screamed out-loud - no one was here - It was a mistake!! she yelled, and she wept - the tears slowly falling down her cheeks and then came down like a torrential rainstorm. Her face was wet and she was soaked in sweat.

She made one little mistake. She sobbed. She continued to weep until she could no longer breathe. She sat there for what seemed like hours - until her tears subsided, her breathe returned to normal and still she sat, as if in a trance, and stared out the window. It was too late now, she thought-and then she took the gun and shot herself in the head.

Her friends mourned when the news came out that she had died. They felt remorse when they learned that she had killed herself. They had not known the pain she felt; the loneliness she had endured or the mistake she had made that had haunted her and brought her to this final decision. No one had known or truly cared to know. They were friends and should have, but they turned their back on her when she tried to explain.

If only someone had taken the time to look at her and truly listen she might still be alive today. Each had their own life to live and ignored the look of anguish on her face each time they met.

They dressed in black and attended her funeral. They mourned and they wept. They each took turns speaking about her and how great a friend she had been. They all said if only she had said something to them they might have saved her life. However, at the time, none of them knew how deep the pain went since none took the time to listen or to truly care.

They were her friends. They were her family. They turned their back on her, and today they all came to bury her. Tomorrow, they will continue to go on with their lives and soon she will be only a memory.

So sad, if only one of them had taken the time to 'listen' and hear her cry for help - she still might be alive today.

The problem with the world today is that each person is so wrapped up in their own lives they have no time to recognize the cry for help or the pain and anguish that someone close to them is feeling.