Zach loved the outdoors: the fresh air, the open spaces, the rugged mountains, the sheer diversity of nature. Maybe what he liked most was the fact that there wasn't any of those damn LGBT types out there. Heck, that was why he was out there now, them and their damn Pride parade! Still, storming through the woods and mountain trails helped work off some of the anger, though there was still a lot left. Maybe if he wasn't so angry, he would have paid more attention to where he was going that misty morning, would have been more sure of his footing. Unfortunately, such things are left as afterthoughts of such incidents and looked back on in hindsight.

The leaves were wet with the mist that had been in the air all morning, making them slick and acting like water on a slide, hastening his downward acceleration. Hoping for a tree or something to grab onto or at least slow his descent, he suddenly realized where he was headed: The Lookout! A small ledge on the rim of the gorge above the local river; not all that tall by most standards, but at 120 feet, most certainly a bad ending. Heck, talk was that someone had killed themselves out here some years ago, not that Zach knew the whole story, having just moved into town with his parents a few years ago. And still upset at leaving his friends behind. And for what? So what if his dad managed to get a transfer out here? More money? Was that all he cared about? What about him, Zach? Wasn't he important at all?

As he came to the precipice, he was fervently praying for a miracle he was unsure would be heard, all the while trying to gain purchase on the stone of the Lookout, his last hope of stopping growing slimmer. As he reached the edge, he thought he saw someone, but wasn't sure, as his head decided to bounce off the rocks before he went over, hands scrabbling for any purchase he might be able to find. In his blind panic his hand grasped something! An old frayed rope! As he brought his other hand around to try to grasp it, he could feel a burning sensation in his hand and knew if he survived he would have one hell of a rope burn on his hands. Grasping the rope for dear life, he managed to bring himself to a stop, some 20 feet or so from the ledge above him, better yet, some 10 feet from the bottom of the rope.

Swinging there, trying to get his heart and panic under control, he could feel the texture of the old hemp rope grinding into his flayed palms, the sweat making them sting and the blood starting to make them a little slippery. He started the slow climb back up the rope and made it almost halfway, but try as he might, he couldn't find the strength to go any further. As he hung there, panting and dizzy from the pain, he saw someone at the top!

"Help me!" he called out, but the person up top just looked at him with sorrow in her eyes.

"Sorry," she seemed to whisper, barely audible above the wind, as she started to shy away from the edge.

"Wait! Where are you going?" he called up to her. "You've got to help me!"

"I can't help you, I couldn't even help myself!" she cried.

"You can't leave me, I'll die without some kind of help!" Zach hollered back over the suddenly rising wind. "you've got to help me!"

As Zach hung there, he realized it was getting darker and the wind was definitely picking up. 'Was a storm coming in?' he wondered.

He also realized she hadn't answered back the last time. "Are you still there?" he tentavely asked.

"Yes, where else could I go?" She replied.

Maybe to get some help? By the way, what's your name? I can't just keep calling you 'Hey' all the time. Oh, and I'm Zach." he called back up to her.

"I'm... Cassie. Cassie Zumwalt," she replied.

While they were conversing, the clouds grew darker and the wind which was getting stronger, started letting loose with a few raindrops which were threatening to become a downpour.

"Cassie, why can't you go and get help? You made it up here, didn't you? There has got to be something you can do, isn't there?" Zach pleaded, literally for his life as the wind started howling up the gorge, making him realize how cold it was and how tired he was becoming.

"I can't help you, I just can't! Don't you understand?" Cassie yelled back.

"Understand what?!"

"I'm dead! I killed myself up here and I am stuck here now!" Cassie was crying now.

Now it was Zach's turn to wonder. "If I am talking to a dead person, am I dead now, too?" he started mumbling to himself. It didn't really help when Cassie came over the ledge a little further and answered.

"No, you are still alive, for a while yet, until you can get back to the top," Cassie answered, "but I can stay til you get back up here or someone comes."

"Can I ask a personal question, Cassie? You know, since I am just hanging here," asked Zach.

"I... I guess so," replied Cassie. Since she had been up here, she had been so lonely and with no one to talk to. She realized only now lonely she truly was. And it made the pain worse.

"Why did you kill yourself, Cassie?" he asked, barely audible, even to himself, afraid he might upset the last possible person he might talk to in his life.

"I.. I was hurting. I couldn't be what everyone wanted me to be. I couldn't be me. I wasn't what God wanted me to be so I must have been evil, an abomination to God."

Zach was genuinely puzzled now. "How could you be evil? God doesn't make mistakes, He loves us all. Didn't he give up his son to save all of us?" Zach was not a really religious person, but he remembered that much from Sunday services. And now he was concerned not for himself, but for her as well. He HAD to make it back up, if only so he could find out more, so he started the trip back up the rope.

Cassie noticed this and decided to try to encourage his progress. It was all she could really hope for, for she still cared about others, though she didn't care at the time she died. "Come on, Zach! You are almost at the top! Just a little more and you'll make it!"

"I'm tired and cold and wet, I need to rest," he whined, almost to the top, but also nearly spent.

"Zach! No! I need you to be okay, I need you to promise me something! Please?!" Cassie yelled at me.

"what? I don't think I have the strength left to make it,' he said, as his grip on the rope started to weaken.

"Zach! Hang on, please, I really need you to tell someone something and I need you alive to do it. Please!" Cassie pleaded, reaching out to try to do something, anything and inside she was praying to God that she could get some help, anything to help Zach.

And as she reached out to him, she was able to grab him! To say they were both surprised would be an understatement and to call it a miracle would be more appropriate, but with no witnesses, who would believe him. "Cassie! You're real! Help me please!"

And with her pulling him up and him struggling to pull himself up, he was able to reach the top and heave himself over the ledge, panting heavily. That was when he noticed Cassie glowing. Not a lot, but enough to see here there in the gloom. But as he was noticing this, he also saw her fading, and yelled out to her "Cassie, what's happening. What is going on?!"

"I don't know, I feel like I am being pulled away! Before I go, I need you to tell Jerry Sommers that I am sorry, so very so-" Cassie said as she faded from view.

Zach just sat there in stunned silence for quite some time, while the rain washed the blood from his hands, revealing the raw, ugly wounds from the rope that had saved his life. He slowly noticed voices in the distance, down the trail from where he was. "Up here! I'm up here at the Lookout!" he yelled out, hoping the heard him.

His hopes weren't in vain, as several people with flashlights and raincoats came into view. "man, am I glad to see you all! This has been one weird day," Zach told them.

"What happened? asked one of the younger guys, noticing the wounds on Zach's hands.

"I was up above the trails a bit when I slipped and came down the hill here and over the ledge. I was really lucky there was a rope there."

At that statement, the young man who asked what had happened turned really pale. "What's wrong, Jerry?" asked the girl next to him, "are you OK?"

'Hmm,' thought Zach, 'I wonder...'

Saying nothing, Jerry reached over the edge and grabbed the rope and brought it back up. "Is this the rope?" he asked Zach.

"Yeah, why? It just saved my life."

Holding it in his hands, Jerry could see the blood on from Zach's but still wondered. As he was examining it, he gave it a few hard tugs between his hands and was surprised when it broke.

"How," Zach started to say, then remembered his earlier train of thought. "Are you Jerry Sommers?"

"Yeah, do I know you?" he asked, having no memory of meeting this kid.

"Not that I know, but someone told me to tell you something before she left. She said she was 'sorry, so very sorry' whatever that means."

Turning, with tears in his eyes, Jerry started back down the trail. Zach started to follow, but a gentle hand on his arm stopped him.

"Let him go, please. He needs some time, I think," said the girl from earlier. "By the way, my name is Amanda, what really happened up here? We saw the storm come up and noticed you hadn't come back and got worried."

"Wait, you're the people from that parade in town, aren't you?"

"Guilty as charged. Pride, and a memorial of a lost friend, Jerry’s brother. He killed himself up here 5 years ago and the family never talked about it and was never explained in the papers. Jerry helped start this group but never said why, although we think it may have something to do with Charles, his brother."

The group had started back down and had caught up with Jerry, who was standing a little off the trail, looking out into the dark. Walking over towards him with Amanda training behind him, Zach asked "Jerry? Mind if I ask a personal question?"

Breaking out of his reverie, Jerry looked over and said "Huh? Yeah, I guess, I can always not answer if it is too personal."

"Did you know Cassie?"

"Not long enough, not nearly long enough," he said as he turned away with tears in his eyes and walked away down the trail, shoulders slumped.

Zach followed along, deep in thought, wondering what he could do for her. Maybe just telling her story would be a start.