The Night We Met

My Saviour

My natural instinct was to look behind me, but I should've jumped. I should've ended my life right there and then. I turned around and I hear it again.

"Wait," he repeated, this time calmer.

A guy (maybe 17 I don't know) stood there with one hand reaching out to me and the other holding a flashlight. It didn't do much help but he still held it tightly with it facing the ground. He put his flashlight on the ground and took a step closer to me. He asked me to come off the ledge, his voice filled with concern but I stood there with a tear rolling down my cheek. Soon a whole stream of tears flowing down my face. He took me by the hand and brought me off the ledge. I tried to pull away from him and back onto the ledge but his grip was too strong. Eventually, I gave up trying to escape.

After what seemed like hours we got up and he  walked me towards the elevator. The journey down was quiet, it was hard to say anything. Like what do you say in a situation like this?

"Hey, thanks for saving my life!"

"Oh, you know anytime. But why did you want to end it?"

Awkward right? Well that's pretty much how our conversation started. I didn't tell him a lot, just enough for it not to be silent on the way down.

"My family died today in a car crash. I survived and managed to escape quickly before anyone found me. I didn't go far, I saw the ambulance come and take them. I went to the hospital and overheard some doctors talking about the family they couldn't save. They lost too much blood in the accident, they said."

At this moment tears were falling down my cheeks and I didn't even realise it, I felt nothing.

"I'd say it's a miracle," he said it with such confidence and I could feel my cheeks heating up, fury raged inside of me. How could he say something like that?! How could this be a miracle? I wanted to scream at him, let all my rage out.

"What?" I tried to keep so calm when saying this, yet he could still notice the anger in my voice.

"No no no, I meant it's miracle that you survived. From a crash that hard I'm surprised you survived."

I couldn't respond, it was like my voice had vanished. Luckily for this awkward silence, we had reach the bottom floor. To my surprise, when we stepped out everything was normal. No reporters coming up asking a million questions, no cameras flashing in my face, no one even came up to ask if I was okay. I didn't know what to expect, maybe that's not how the whole suicide thing works. 

I thought at that moment he'd say goodbye and leave. That I'd just be left there to wander the streets of New York, that I'd continue my life as normal. But he stayed. By now my standards had reached rock bottom and didn't expect anything from anyone, so this was a surprise to me.

"So do you want to grab a coffee or something," I should've said no but I had no where and no one to go to, "I know a great place down the street."

I could feel a small smile inching its way across my face. It was nice thinking that someone might actually care about you. And where else was I meant to go?

"Sure. But before we go, can you tell me your name?"