Skip Life

Chapter 1

What's the point of living? Waking up every day, going to work, making just enough to not starve and have a roof over my head. Working my butt off to make somebody else rich. Why am I trapped in this loop? Why is it that despite all my efforts to better my life, to be different and not be average, here I am stuck in a world doing things average people do.

Why is life so unfair to me? Why is it that people who do bad things seem to have a better quality of life than I do? Please don't tell me I haven't done my best, because if God does exist, He should know all the battles I've had to face alone. He knows all the rejections I've had to accept and all the efforts that have gone to waste. If God does exist, why is He subjecting me to so much pain? What's the point of asking? I wouldn't get an answer anyway. If I continue with all my questions, I'll just grow tired of asking, and I'm already exhausted.

I took a deep breath as the questions in my head came raging in, recklessly and relentlessly. I closed my eyes, and for once, I felt the breeze of the cold night as it passed through my cheeks. I felt the air enter my lungs and the coldness in my palms as they tightly gripped the metal railings of the bridge I was sitting on. For once, I didn't hate the silence. After a long while, the silence was finally peaceful to listen to. Without any effort this time, although no one could see it, a smile couldn't help but escape through my lips.

Finally, I felt free and happy. I guess this is what I had been waiting for - to leave everything and everyone that had hurt me. Finally, I was going to escape this meaningless game of life. This game was over for me.

Gently, I let go of my grip on the railing and leaned myself forward. There was no going back. I had never been this ready. My eyes were still closed and my head was clear. I couldn't wait to feel the rush of air as I fall down from this bridge. But before that could even happen, I felt a strong pull from behind, causing me to fall backwards onto the floor of the bridge. I felt a sting of pain rush through my back muscles.

"Why?" a deep voice, coming from a man, asked as I groaned on the floor from the pain of my fall.

"If that's already painful for you, why are you thinking of jumping from the bridge?" he said in a calm manner. His footsteps sounded like they were approaching me.

I turned my head to see who it was - who was this person that had stopped me from doing what I had been wanting to do my entire life?

A figure of a tall, bearded, gray-haired old man, wearing a black suit and tie with a big smile on his face, was walking closer to me. He bent his knees and crossed his legs, watching me closely.

"What do you want?" I asked him, my brows furrowed as I tried to show him how angry I was for what he did. But he remained quiet, the smile on his face fading a little, but his eyes still fixed on mine.

"I said, what do you want from me?!" I shouted.

I gently pushed myself up, recovering from the pain of my fall. The man, who appeared unbothered by the tone of my voice, is still calmly sitting and watching me closely. He seemed like he wanted to talk me out of jumping off the bridge, but it was too late. I had already made up my mind. Or maybe he is just a pervert looking for prey to lure when nobody was watching. But too bad for him, there are  CCTVs all over this bridge. Despite the lingering pain in my back, I forced myself to stand up.

"No, I am not a pervert, and yes, I want to talk to you about your plan to jump off this bridge," he said, breaking the silence between us. I looked at him closely, wondering how the heck he knew what was in my mind.

"I can read a little bit of what's in a person's head. I'm not that good at it yet, though. But did I get it correctly?" he asked, his eyes widening along with his smile, as he stared at me, waiting for an answer.