(align:"<==")+(box:"XXX==")[We’ve finally made it to the peak, just like we’d always talked about. It’s stained with blood. I’m not sure whose - not ours, yet. I brush the leftover rubbish down the slope, watching it tumble below the clouds. It won’t hit anyone, probably. No one to hit. I take my seat on the summit, legs dangling from the precipice.
[["Nice view."]]](align:"==>")+(box:"==XXX")[I could push him now, get this over with. And vice versa, of course. But if I wanted this to be easy, I wouldn’t have climbed a mountain. I sit next to him. He doesn’t push me. I’m not surprised, but I am relieved.
[["I guess it is."]]](align:"<==")+(box:"XXX==")[We sit like this for a while, waiting for the sun to hit the horizon and turn the sky violet. Neither of us speak. I’m sure we want to. I’m sure we both want the other to. But this is so much easier than saying I’m sorry.
[[“I’m ready when you are.”]]](align:"==>")+(box:"==XXX")[I’m not ready. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for this. I don’t want to do this. I want everything to go back to the way it was. This won’t do that. This is just going to fuck things up even more, past the point of fixing them. But I didn't climb up here for nothing. I stand up.
[["After you, then."]]](align:"<==")+(box:"XXX==")[I stand up, steel myself, and walk to the edge opposite of you. I’m not ready. Why did I say I was ready? Why did I think this was a good idea? This was not a good idea. I’m not ready for this. I take my gun.
(colour: "red")[[I shoot.]]](align:"==>")+(box:"==XXX")[There isn’t quite enough room for us to each take ten paces, but we make do. We’re left a bit close for comfort, but what else is new. It just means we’ll get this over with a little bit sooner. I take my gun.
(colour: "red")[[I shoot. ]]](align:"<==>")+(box:"=XXX=")[The bodies fall down opposite sides of the rocks, both bleeding out before they reach the bottom. There's no one left to find them.]