A Little Book of One-Shots

A Dream Upon a Building

The sound of my footsteps echoed in my ears, a dull thud against the worn metal staircase. My thighs burned with the effort it required to climb this many stairs, and my feet ached with the agony my high heels brought. I knew that if I looked over the banister, all I would see was a cold, dark oblivion. If I dared to look up, I knew I would not be able to resist counting the stairs until I reached the end of this infinite stairway.

Time passed. It felt like seconds, but for all I know, it could have been minutes, hours, even days, trapped in this limbo. The same sounds remained. My shoes hitting against metal, my rushed breathing, and the faint, subtle swish of my satin dress clinging against my legs, becoming louder the faster I moved. I gripped the material of the gown, feeling it slide between my clammy fingers.

The stairs stopped, and I found myself against the cool, damp concrete wall. I pressed my hands against the wall, my fingertips feeling every nook and cranny. I rotated slowly, until I touched hard steel, and pushed with as much force as I could. The door groaned open on its ancient hinges, swinging back to hit the wall outside with an almighty bang. I pressed outwards into the icy breeze, ignoring the deafening noise. I looked around me, awestruck by the pure beauty of the city. It may have been night, but the lights glinted off the Dome and glistened in puddles on the abandoned streets. Everyone would be at home right now, whether that be a flat or the street, a house or a mansion.

I stepped towards the edge of the building, feeling the wind playing with my hair. With every step I took, the edge seemed to get further away. I stopped and sucked in a deep breath, the first breath I had taken in what appeared to be an age, before closing my eyes. I stood there, the wind battering against me, tossing the skirt of my dress around me, for only a few seconds, but when I opened my eyes again, I was hovering on the edge of the building.

I glanced down. My Lee Coopers were nearly over the edge, and I had no idea how I was managing to keep my balance. I frowned. I could have sworn I was wearing heels as I climbed those stairs.

Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a battered pair of Converse to my right. I followed the owner’s body upwards, only to meet the eyes of a boy who I had never met, but had seen a hundred times, except never before had I seen him in a tux. He stepped forward, joining me on the edge. “Blue suits you,” he whispered, and I turned my gaze downwards. I was indeed wearing a blue dress, which was strange, because I never wore blue. It clashed too much with my hair. I also noticed something else – the colour of my dress matched exactly with the royal blue of his eyes. I was even more shocked by the dress when I noticed it was strapless and had elaborate detailing all over the bodice. I would never wear a dress like this normally.

“What are you doing up here?” I had expected the wind to whip my whisper away, but he heard it as loudly as if all else was silent.

“The same thing you’re doing, I suppose.” His accent was so thick that if I hadn’t have heard his voice more times than I could count, I would have never understood a word he said.

“What am I doing up here, then?”

He chuckled, but it didn’t sound humorous, and it wasn’t cold either. It was just… Empty. “Wouldn’t we all love to know?”

“So you don’t know why either of us are up here?” He nodded in reply. “And I don’t know either… Interesting. So what happens now?”

“Well, we could have a philosophical discussion on whether the meaning of life really is 42, or we could see just how much you trust me.”

“I quite like the idea of that philosophical discussion.”

“Really? Because I don’t.”

“Then why suggest it?”

“Why indeed. Turn around.”

I turned until my back was facing him, confused out of my mind. I had no idea why I was here, or what he was about to do.

I heard him sighing, before saying “I meant so your back is to the edge.”

I turned the rest of the way, so I was looking at the now closed steel door. He appeared in front of me, blonde locks sticking up at random angles. I shook my head internally. Trust him to always have messy hair, no matter how formal an event he was attending. Well, I assumed it was a formal event – he was wearing a tux after all. And he didn’t look half bad in it.

He rested his hands on my shoulders, his tanned hands highlighting just how pale I was. “I need you to listen to me, okay? You need to focus. You have to trust me. If you want to live, you have to trust me. Do you trust me?”

I looked him dead in the eye. Did I trust him? The word left my lips before I could stop it.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

He pushed my shoulders, causing me to fall back. My dress whipped against my legs and my hair flew out in front of me. I felt like I was falling in slow motion, like all the air in the world had suddenly turned to jelly and gravity was fighting to force me through it. I tried to breathe, but I couldn’t. My lungs didn’t burn. It was more like I didn’t need air to survive anymore.

I fell all twenty-something stories at a snail’s pace. I wasn’t afraid, and I couldn’t understand why. When I crashed into the ground, I looked up. He was still standing there, just watching. Yet from here, he looked like a tiny little figure, all in black.

My lungs constricted and I tilted my head to the side. There was someone else up there, too. I didn’t care enough to wonder who they were. I turned my head further to the side, resting my cheek on the road. My Nokia lay beside me. It must have tumbled out of my pocket while I fell, though I didn’t even know this dress could have pockets. I noticed it was completely undamaged, before I felt the darkness began to fight to take over my consciousness. I think my last words before I lost the battle were “Damn, whoever said Nokias were unbreakable was really good at stating the obvious.”