When Nothing Happened

Part 1: The Beginning

Whenever you see a crowd of people you usually see something worth seeing. I don't mean to sound rude to anything that may have happened, but in the city you expect to see something when people are gathering.

...Police calming a lady who was just mugged.
...A mother whose pram rolled into oncoming traffic.
...A failed suicide bomber...

The regular thing in the mind would be that you see... something in the middle of the crowd.

This was a Monday and I expected someone to have had a bad day. I am ashamed to say that, but even if something horrible happened to ONE person it would have been better than what had begin on this inauspicious of days.

I pushed through the crowd of people who were in turn looking at the roof of a nearby building, where police were alternatively looking down, and looking at each other asking questions and sharing a terrified expression.

A single police van was flashing its yellow warning lights but the two first-responding officers simply got out of their vehicle and also joined the group in staring, not even making a cordoned-off zone.

Once I managed to worm my way to the spot where people were gathered and gazed at the item at hand I was disappointed to find... a clean, empty sidewalk, save for several smashed smartphones on the ground in a peculiar circle.

I looked around, somewhat angry at people for pulling such a large prank on me.

"What's everyone so interested in the spot for? They don't have plans to dig it up and put a Hollywood star there, do they?" I asked, just putting in a conversation starter to the nearby man whose sleeve I tugged.

Several people around me looked up in frustration and shouted, "Don't you understand what this means?!"

I apologized and said I didn't see what happened here. I only then noticed a news crew van nearby with some frantic people coming in and out talking to a group of people with phones.

It must have been quite a while since whatever had happened here had happened because soon people were gathering at the nearby television screens which had been hurriedly switched to the news. People who were inmost at the interesting sidewalk made there way towards the tv's first and everywhere the newscast was turned up in speakers.

"... compiled footage from numerous people telling the man not to jump caught the moment he jumped. What you are about to see is even more disturbing than you will see, so we urge everyone to please be discreet..."

I could not see so well because of the taller people nearby so I stood on my toes and managed to see what was on in a screen to my left. The tv showed footage from a security camera at the entrance of a local chinese store across the road looking at the people waving and shouting up at someone. The footage switched to video from a handheld phone from the crowd that was looking up at the man. The man was shouting that nobody cared about him and his girlfriend left him and that he didn't care anymore. People suddenly gasped and ran away from the centre as he jumped and aimed to land right on the pavement.
There were several shocked people nearby this one person recording the fall that did not move far away. The video footage tracked the man's fall and it looked as if he would land right next to the person recording.
The recorder flinched at the last minute as the falling man's face got closer and closer.

People watching this screamed for it to stop, as if they could prevent what had already happened.

But then the footage and voices switched to confusion and swearing as people in the video footage began to gather back around where the man was supposed to land. The person recording swore and looking up and then down at the spot and shouted, "Where the hell did he go?"

Footage then switched to another video from a smartphone that was pointed at the ground when the man was just about to impact. The man's side profile was screwed up in anticipation of a sudden painful death, but the man's entire form just vanished from the spot!

More people shouted and swore at just what had happened.

I joined in too.

The anchorman held his finger to his ear a moment and said, "...just a moment everyone, we have a video submitted just now of a wide angle shot... and a confirmed second disappearance... please remain calm..."

A few more retorts at this comment were silenced as a video was played of someone talking with another on Facetime caught the event behind him as the man fell from the roof and was tracked as he spread his hand out... was seen reacting to something he was seeing other than the pavement before disappearing only a few inches before he would have hit the ground. A person recording right next to the point of impact fell on his side as he flinched to avoid the man. He was okay, but just as he was getting over his shock and getting to his feet... he too disappeared. The footage was played again a few seconds before this man disappeared, zoomed in, and slowed down. The man's legs appeared to vanish first and soon his whole body, leaving his phone to simply fall to the ground.

Police later decided to cordon off the area, but little did anyone know that this was not the only thing that would happen.