Chapter 6: Mirror

'Fifty's the charm...' Erika thought as she opened the door and saw a barefoot woman with long blond hair standing at the railing. 'I guess I was wrong...' She thought with a sigh as she walked over to her. "So, what are you doing here?" She asked blandly. The woman looked at her with shock. "You gonna stay quiet?" She asked.

"N-no... It's..." She mumbled as she looked at the ground. "Nevermind..." She said. "I just don't want to live anymore." She continued.

"Why's that?" Erika asked. 'More of the stupid reasoning I usually hear?' She wondered.

"Everything just..." She paused. "It never works well for me..." She said. "From a young age, I had to scrounge up food myself if I didn't want to starve... I was hurt..." She paused and looked at Erika. "Sorry, I shouldn't bother you with this." She said.

"No, go ahead and continue." Erika said blandly. They stood in silence for a moment.

"My family's never paid much attention to me, and when they did, it wasn't what any child would want... The things they did..." She paused once more. "Bad things..." She said. "But if it ended at that, it wouldn't be so bad..." She said.

"It gets worse...?" Erika asked in shock as anxiety began to build in her chest. The woman nodded.

"People think of me as creepy and stay away, even when I try to make friends, they either call me names or just pretend to be my friends to use my body..." She continued. "I've been desperate for some kind of positive attention in the past... So..." She paused.

"You let them...?" Erika asked as her anxiety continued to build. The woman nodded.

"Then once I stopped, they'd leave..." She said.

"H-hey..." Erika mumbled. The woman looked at her with a curious look. "Don't... Jump, please..." She said. 'What the hell am I saying...?' She wondered to herself as she looked at the woman with a desperate look.

"I... I don't know if I have the strength for that..." She said.

"Because it gets worse, right...?" Erika asked.

"H-how'd you know...?" She wondered.

'What the hell am I doing...!?' Erika began to scream internally. "Y-you started thinking there was something wrong with you, then started to pretend... Right...?" She asked as she put her hands on the woman's shoulders.

"Y-yeah..." The woman said.

"Then it made you feel empty... You felt like you weren't a person, and what happened at home just made it worse, and you were afraid every damn day that you would starve, and you never knew how much time you had... And... And..." Erika paused as tears began to form in her eyes.

"H-how do you...?" The woman asked.

"P-please... Just leave..." Erika begged. "At least do it when I'm not here..." She said with a desperate tone as she began to fall to the ground, dragging her hands with her as she began to cry. The woman crouched down and placed her hand on Erika's jaw, lifting her face and looking at her.

"There's more, right...?" She asked with an empathetic look as Erika cried.

"If you want to die, then do it when I'm not here!" Erika yelled as she pushed away from the woman and ran to the door.