Connection | 18+

Prologue.

   Have you ever felt like the world is ending?

   There are times when it feels like everything is collapsing, and there's no way out. The world seems to be heading towards a catastrophic end, and we’re caught in a relentless storm of despair.
  
   In these moments, it's as if there’s no escape, and hope is a distant memory. It's like the sky has gone dark, and we’re left stranded in a world that's falling apart.
  
   As the world marches towards its destruction, we’re left in a never-ending nightmare, with no light at the end of the tunnel.
  
   That's what is happening right now, As the world is hurtling towards its inevitable demise, I’m finding myself trapped in an inescapable maelstrom of despair, my hopes extinguished, and the darkness swallowing all traces of light I had left.

   I tried.

   I really tried.

   I tried anything I could to survive my inevitable fate but now I feel like ending it. I don’t think I can survive anymore.

   Once, I heard while watching a television show that everything happens for a reason, and if something is happening in your life, then God must have wanted it to happen. That all the pain you bear is the punishment for your past life. I’ve tried to endure the pain that the world offered me with open arms. I've lived with it thinking that it was what I deserved. That God must have wanted it to happen.

   After that, I heard somewhere on the radio that if you are in any danger then discuss it with someone close to you. I tried doing that too but no one listened to me.

   Apparently, I was disturbing my brother. And according to my teacher, the bruises on my wrist were because I wanted attention. She said that if I tried to come up with any more of my ludicrous, non-serious behavior then I’d be getting a suspension for two weeks and a long talk with my parents.

   Which was worse than what I was about to do.

   I was tired.

   I was tired beyond repair and I had no wish left to try and understand the universal script.

   Which is why I happened to climb up the staircase to the rooftop of our high school to end the misery of my fucked up life. I know that I can take my life just by picking up a knife and slicing it through the skin of my throat or my wrist but I once heard in a show that it hurts a lot and I was done getting hurt. Or Just hanging myself from the ceiling but if I was to leave this world then at least the last thing I wanted to see was something that was not a personal hell for me.

   I didn’t want any more pain but I guess the main reason I wanted to take my last breath from a rooftop was because I didn’t want anyone to interrupt it, the characters in the shows always did. No one wanted them to die in peace because of their own selfish needs.

   As I climbed the worn stairs to the rooftop, my heart weighed heavy with despair. The world had turned its back on me, and now I was ready to turn my back on it.

   I reached the top of the staircase and then looked down at the open lock of the door to the rooftop. Usually, it was locked and no one was allowed to come up there.

   There was supposed to be a tournament between the two branches of our school. My brother was also participating in it. I did not have enough will to know what the tournament was about but, whatever. I wish the deserving one wins.

    I pushed open the heavy steel gate with my malnutrition arms and heard the old rustic steel creak against the ground loudly, the sound making me jump. There was a strong yet distinct stench of tobacco and expensive cigarettes that filled my nostrils the moment I opened the door.