The night air is cold. Not the type of crisp cool air that greets you in the morning, the type of cold that stings and makes you feel hollow inside. It's the type that creeps into your bones and breaks you down until you are one with the wind around you. I've managed to clean off most of the sludge, but my uniform still sticks to my skin. I can still feel it rattling in my chest. Breaths come heavy and labored. My limbs, weak and shaky. It takes everything I have to stand here on the edge. It's almost laughable now, how weak I feel. Earlier today I fought so hard to stay alive, hell I might have even killed someone, but now? Now I'm standing on a rooftop staring down the abyss, asking myself if this is really where it ends.
It's not like I have much choice. I tried the door, it's locked. There's no other way down. I have two choices. I stay up here and wait for the hypothermia to take me, or I take initiative and at the very least die on my own terms. It's funny. I never thought I'd be killed by my hero. He crushed my dreams with a smile on his face and left me to rot. Story of my life.
As I stare down my end the cold disappears. The feeling of the fabric chafing against my skin is gone, the pain, the fear, it all leaves me here. As I stare down death I feel nothing. And maybe that's how it should be? Maybe this is fate? I was left up here to die, so why not just let it happen? The universe has spoken and this time I hear it loud and clear. It wants me dead. I take one step closer to the edge.
"Hey kid" a voice stops me in my tracks. It's gruff and callous. I turn to look at him. He's a scruffy looking man in a black jumpsuit. Theres a large white scarf around his neck and yellow goggles that hold back his mess of long black hair.
"Cold night for rooftop contemplation, isn't it?"
"What do you want?"
My words surprise me. For the first time in my life I allow myself to be rude. Not like it matters. I'll be gone soon anyway.
"I want to know why you're up here"
"Isn't it obvious"
I shift my gaze from the man to the abyss and back again, weighing my options.
He looks me up and down then gives a sarcastic smirk,"I thought it was, but you don't seem all that committed"
My focus shifts back to void, "It's not like it matters anyway"
"I'd beg to differ, but it's your life I guess"
I gaze longingly out at the city skyline, taking it in one last time. Tears stain my cheeks and I force myself to admit it, "I'm gonna die either way, might as well get it over with"
He casually joins me on the edge of the roof, standing on the other side of the railing. I don't turn to look at him.
"Ok, so talk to me, why choose this over the other option?"
He's trying awfully hard to distract me.
"I either stay here and suffocate or just end it"
"You do realize there's a third option where I help you and you live"
And there it is. The false hope I've been praying for. The blessing I know the universe isn't kind enough to give.
"And why would you help me?"
"Why wouldn't I help you?"
Then I remember that he doesn't know.
"Because I'm quirkless"
"And?"
"And what?"
"And why does that change anything?"
He can't possibly mean that.
He must have misheard.
"Because no one wants to help a worthless quirkless deku"
"I do"
And that catches me off guard. My whole life I've never met someone able to look past that part of me. It was all anyone ever saw, and here he was acting like it was no big deal, like I was just another kid in need of saving, "Why?"
"Because you need help"
"You seriously don't mind that I'm quirkless?"
"Why would I?"
I want so desperately to look him in the eye as I say it, but I just stare at the ground like a coward,"Because everyone else does"
He sighs and takes my hand.
"Look kid, the world has been cruel to you. Don't let that define you. You are worth just as much as anybody else"
I don't know what to say, so I say nothing at all. I just stare at him with tears streaming down my cheeks. I must look pathetic, but he doesn't seem to mind.
"Now, can I help you down so I can take you to a hospital."
"Yeah" I sniffle.
The second I'm back over the railing I collapse into his arms. The feeling I had lost comes back slowly in the form of my lungs screaming for air. He must not be realizing what I meant as he looks down at me in panic.
"You're hurt"
I just cry. It burns and I can't breathe and I'm so, so tired.
He holds me close as we scale down the building. It doesn't take long for the paramedics to arrive and take me away. To my surprise he follows me. When we arrive at the ER he stays by my side.
