The Save Game

Chapter 1-Sneak Peek

It's funny how loud the silence can be. You can hear things that you wouldn't normally detect. It's like the silence is screaming out to remind you that life will always be there.

Except when it isn't.

Allison was all too familiar with life being taken away. She stood just behind the short brick barrier around the rooftop of her parent's swanky apartment building. She took one more drag from the cigarette in her hand and tossed it over the side without bothering to put it out first.

She watched the glow of the tip flip end over end all the way to the bottom. Briefly, she wondered if it might hit someone on the sidewalk below. Then she realized it didn't matter. She'd be dead in under an hour anyway.

She filled her lungs with the smell of the city.

"Too bad I never fit in here." She whispered into the wind. She had never met her parent's expectations. She'd never be the in demand socialite like her sister.

Allison rolled her eyes at the thought of her parents. She'd been a disappointment to them since she turned fifteen. Her mother had caught her drinking a beer from the can and smoking on this very roof. Allison watched her mom's dreams of a sophisticated and perfect daughter crumple like the beer can had under her mother's rage.

"Why can't you be more like Cassie?" Her mother had demanded, comparing Allison and her sister for the umpteenth time.

Allison glanced down into the darkness again and then stared straight ahead. She'd planned everything out. She wasn't going to look before she leaped. She would look straight ahead and then just step off the side. She took one final breath and put her foot on to the ledge, preparing to hoist her body up to stand there.

"That's not an exit." A man's voice broke through the silence.

She spun around, searching for the owner of the voice. There was a small table, with two chairs in the corner of the rooftop. She could barely make out the silhouette of a person sitting there.

"I thought I was alone." She squinted, trying to figure out who he was.

"You were. But I joined you." She saw him lift a glass to his lips but he never looked in her direction.

Allison looked over her shoulder at the place where she had planned to jump and then back to the mysterious man in the corner of the rooftop.

"You could have made some noise or something. It isn't nice to sneak up on someone." She crossed her arms over her chest.

She saw his head turn toward her for a second and then turn away again without answering.

"I didn't think anyone else would be up here." Allison said, looking around to make sure she hadn't overlooked anyone else.

When she didn't see anyone, she started toward the stranger. If someone was going to witness her jumping off the top of a building, she should at least know what they looked like.

"You don't have to join me. I just wanted to tell you that wasn't an exit." His sarcastic voice stopped her.

"You're a real jerk." Allison said matter of factly, and then turned back to where she had been before he interrupted her.

She walked toward the edge of the roof and stepped up onto the ledge with both feet.

"You know if you jump, I'm going to be the only witness and then I'm going to have to answer a bunch of questions. And I'm really not in the fucking mood to answer any questions about why some crazy chick decided to end it all on the roof of my apartment."

Allison ignored the man and stared straight ahead. She wasn't going to let him throw a wrench in her plan. And it would serve him right if he became a suspect in her death.

She lifted one foot and dangled it in front of her, preparing to take the final step off the ledge. She closed her eyes and started to lean forward. Just as she thought she would feel the air rushing around her, a slight fear of her impending death boiling in her chest, she was jerked off the ledge.

"God, you really are dense."

Allison gasped for air. She fought her way out of the arms, only to find a hand clasped around her wrist.

"You are not killing yourself. At least not tonight. I don't have time for this shit." The man tightened his grip on her wrist.

She finally looked up to get a good look at him.

"I know you." She said. "You're that guy, that does that thing, with those other guys."

He stared at her, waiting for her to piece it all together.

Allison pointed her finger at him and then snapped her fingers. "Sul! Right?" She asked.

"Yep, you got me. Sul. The guy that does that thing with other guys." He rolled his eyes before pulling her toward the door.

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