𝑶𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑶𝒇 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 ✓

Chapter Eleven

MAL'S mother, Nawal, stood by the door for a few minutes to greet her costumers with a sincere smile. Mal sat quietly on her favourite table, staring at the street from inside.

"Hey, sweetie, do you mind if you give me a hand here?"

She didn't turn to her mother. In fact, she didn't move a muscle.

"Hey, mum, can I ask you a question?"

Nawal turned to look at the costumers for a few seconds. They were happily giving their orders to Rajwan.

"Sure, what do you want?"

"You know the bridge by the bay, right? Do you mind telling me why no one goes there anymore?"

Nawal sighed and sat down across from her daughter.

"Oh, sweetie... The mayor closed it down years ago after so many people threw themselves in the bay."

She immediately turned to the woman in front of her.

"Wait, what?"

"So many people killed themselves on that bridge. I remember when the police sent patrols to collect the bodies from the bay and went to bury them in the local graveyard just around the corner. It all happened about ten years ago, and now people won't go there anymore."

"If something like that happened again, they just leave the body in the bay. There... There were just too many of them that it almost didn't matter anymore."

The girl had a confused expression on her face for only a few seconds before the confusion turned into shock.

Then, soon enough, it turned into guilt.

She could finally understand what was happening.

She nodded at her mother, then opened her notebook, wrote down something and ripped the page away, folding it up and setting it down at the table.

Then hurried out of the restaurant.

-

Thomas ran his hand through his hair as he opened the transparent door and entered the familiar restaurant. He was expecting to see his girlfriend sitting on her favourite table, but when he approached it, he only found a note lying in the middle, with his name on the front.

He opened it, and began reading.

A few minutes later, his eyes widened. He ran out of the restaurant as fast as possible.

Clutching the paper in his hand tightly, he made his way through the different streets.

His chest ached for rest. His heart pounded loudly in his ears. He was out of breath soon enough, but he couldn't stop.

As soon as he arrived at the bridge, he glanced around eagerly, and spotted his girlfriend standing on the tall edge of the bridge.

"Mal! Don't do this, get down!"

Mal turned to him almost immediately, slightly taken aback. She was about to jump, any minute now, but not because it was tempting.

"Mal, come on!"

She stared at sympathetically. "It's okay, Thomas... I'm going to save Griffin. Just call the police, okay?"

He shook his head, unconscious tears streaming down his face. "We can call them together! This isn't going to work, just get down!"

He took a step forward, which made her back away slightly. She didn't want him to get involved. She would hate him to get involved.

Suddenly she felt the familiar heartache she felt before, when Griffin was ignoring her. She realized, for the first time in a while, that she actually missed him.

But it didn't go as planned.

As soon as she backed away, she felt her foot slip. She let out a scream.

And was met by the sudden drop in the air as she fell.

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