Jump Off

I watched her scale the bridge. Too wild and desperate to be graceful, yet her hands never faltered. Red and blue danced through the black sky to the tune of wailing sirens. The steady murmur of the crowd was broken only by cars honking and occasional shouts. Citizens on their nightly commute slowed as they passed by, some leaving their cars to join the horde. Eyes followed the flashlight beams up to her.

The bridge was cold underneath my hands. The wind was threatening to push me off. The smooth sirens blended with the cool night air and flew around me, screaming. I turned my back to the noise and the lights and kept climbing. Why did they care so much? Why should it matter, what one girl, in a world of billions of people, decides to do with her life? I wish they wouldn't make a scene. A soft, almost silent flicker of longing for their concern brushes my mind, only to be washed away by the noise and the lights and the silence and the darkness. I brace my foot against the next piece of metal and lift myself up higher, up into the dark, empty, infinite sky.

Still a girl, not yet a woman. Straight brown hair blowing around her face, dark jeans and a faded pink hoodie covering her frame. Pale hands and white sneakers pushing into the bridge, 40, 50, 60 feet up, ignoring the crowd, ignoring the police, ignoring the black river underneath her, barely 6 feet deep. The oily water reflected the red and blue lights like a trick mirror. Bulky officers climbed too, just a few feet up, yelling for her to come down. She hoisted herself to the very top, no hesitation. Sitting, looking, breathing in and out. Her breath was a cold cloud against the sky, absent of stars, blanketing the city.

Here I am. Finally. Ready to step into the silence. I breathe in and out, ignoring the crowd below me, just a busy bunch of racing rats, a series of numbers sitting on the world. I feel much better sitting above them. It's been awhile since I've felt this kind of relief. This knowledge is like a warm hug, the knowledge that I won't have to worry about anything ever again. Almost there. Almost free.

Will anyone miss me?

The volume of the shouting increased, but she sat, uneffected. She's too young. Her life shouldn't have to end. Not yet. She sits, eerily serene, as if she's been waiting for this. The screams and shouts swell, the crowd starts pushing and shoving, and it seems a lot calmer up there than down here.

Should I?

It's not even a question.

She jumps from the sky. I jump from the ground.

I'm falling. It hits me. I don't want to. I don't want to die I don't want to I don't want no no no NO

She's screaming. My fingers kiss the gleaming river. I'm invisible to the crowd. Too fast for even her to see me. But I'm under her now. I hit the brakes, hard, and let her fall into me, catching her so the fall doesn't hurt so much.

What?

She's in my arms, breathing hard. I fly up, just as invisible against the sky as I was against the river. She's shaking. I hold her as tightly as I can without hurting her, and I hover slowly towards the roof of the nearest tall building.

Superman?