The wind blew through my long, copper colored hair as I stood atop the building. Several passersby had looked up in natural human curiosity. The concrete ledge I stood on felt anything but, like it would crumble any minute. I wished it would, then I wouldn't have to stand here anymore, too terrified to jump or take a step back or do anything. The roof access door swung open behind me slowly and a man walked out, saying "Don't do anything you'll regret." I turned around "Too fucking late." I let my body's weight drag me backwards, off the ledge and off the 18 story building. I thought the wind was bad before. It slammed into me with the subtlety and force of a bus pushing 80 mph. It seemed like an eternity in the air. I see now why people change their minds halfway through the fall. Not me though, I knew this was the only way. The only way to escape. I've known this as the truth ever since I hit that little girl who died a day later from internal bleeding. I killed someone. That was the last straw, I'd been depressed my whole life and wanted to do this, but killing someone just made me realize the world would be better off without me. People say two wrongs don't make a right. It won't matter to me because I'll be dead. I have no loved ones who would mourn me, nothing will be different, except for me, because, as mentioned previously, I'll be dead. The dark asphalt approached, quicker and quicker, until, well nothing. And then, something horrible happened. I was an atheist, been one all my life, but now, it would be impossible to still say "I don't believe in the afterlife." When I was supposed to hit the asphalt, I went through it instead, into an abyss of darkness. It wasn't hell, but it certainly wasn't heaven. Something in between, as the blackness crept closer and filled everything, my vision, my hearing, feeling, my smelling, and even tasting. All I could do was think. I thought for a long while, until there was something, a light, that I couldn't see, but I knew it was there. I felt it's radiant warmth. It was a being, a living entity. "Fuck you, let me die in peace."
"there is no dying here," it said in a voice that was neither male or female, high or low, smooth or annoying as hell. "I am the closest thing you will ever know to a god, however not from any religion or belief."
"What do you want?"
"I don't desire anything, but you do."
"yes, to die, so leave me the hell alone."
"No, you want a second chance."
"What are you, the ghost of christmas past?"
"Look, I'll make you a deal. you get a second chance to right your wrong before it happened, in exchange, you must do a deed for me."
I seriously pondered the deal, but instead said "go to hell, oh wait, you're already here, or sorry, a non denominational after life."
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Second chances
Short Story***Trigger Warning*** Alex made a mistake. A really big mistake. She knows she has to make things right, but at what cost? ***This story contains descriptions of severe depression and suicide*