By Andrew Park
Adam was not meant to be in this world. Coexisting with beings much more fragile than himself, he was often ostracized and alienated. But in Adam’s eyes, he was just another teenage boy. Even though his mirror showed another version of himself, he did not notice such differences. His uncanny ability to be much stronger than anyone placed him in solitude and isolation. Every day, he woke up from his ephemeral world to the nightmare he was eternally trapped in.
“Society would be so much better if I weren’t in it,” he would often miserably think to himself. This action of driving himself deeper and deeper in this abyss of degrading himself went on until he no longer could take it. He couldn't imagine living another day in this society.
And just like that, he left home, wishing to land somewhere where he belonged. Standing idly there, everything became all so clear—the judgmental glares, horrified looks from newborns, and more memories filled his head, harsh reminders that he doesn’t belong.
Preoccupied by his conflicting feelings and emotions, Adam thoughtlessly walked wherever his feet led him. Getting away and away from the bustling city, Adam noticed that the world had shifted. From this view, the once gray lifeless world started filling itself with vibrant hues.
At last, he reached the top of the mountain after an arduous journey uphill. He jumped. Suddenly, a grappling hook clasped onto his waist, halting his accelerating body into a sudden stop in midair. Most people’s fragile bones wouldn’t have been able to withstand such a force, but Adam was unfortunately born with this gift.
“Wait!” Adam heard a voice as he found himself suspended in the air.
It was a girl with huge, worn out leather boots and a ragged polka-dotted shirt with suspenders strapped to her shoulder. It was Christine. The crazy girl that wanted to finally end the curse that had terminated her family members. Adam remembered her to be a rather strange girl.
“Stop…” She said, frantically trying to hoist him up, though unsuccessfully. Slowly stumbling closer to the edge herself, she pulled with all her might to save the valuable life that she so desperately wanted to protect. He had an opportunity to live his life, something she didn’t have.
How can he just waste it like that? She couldn’t afford to see him die, knowing the rippling effects that would have. She felt those consequences each time her family member had to accept the same fate that ended others.
Adam was engulfed in a state of confusion. She had nothing to do with his life. But why would she afford to expend her energy to save a worthless being like him? He thought he was just a harm to society. To everyone around him. What good was it to have him around in a place where he was not accepted? She didn’t have to put up the struggle to save him.
“I can’t hold on any longer,” she managed to say as she got pulled in with Adam to her death. Unlike Adam, she was just a fragile girl with limited powers.
With a deafening crash, they both fell, one breathing one not. Adam looked in horror to see the immobile body of Christine. He hated himself for it. A person that wanted and deserved the invincibility that Adam so desperately wanted to get rid of. For the first time, he felt the sensation he had never felt before. It attacked him from the inside, from his heart.
She saved his life, when he wanted to die. He decided to live, when she fell to her death. He could have jumped to his death with her. But he did not. He decided to hold onto his obdurate self, his adamantine physical self that was now firmly supported with his adamantine mind.