Short Horror Stories

We got a jumper

It was an early Sunday morning when a man decided to stand on the ledge of the Edinburgh Office Building.
Quickly the news of his impending suicide reached far and wide on the town's grapevine as hundreds showed up to watch his death. The audience grew even further as police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances rode in, flashing bright lights and buzzing sirens as if the scene were some carnival spectacle.
Megaphones blared out every trick in the book to get him to reconsider his actions, but nothing we said seemed to influence him. He just stood there, making no effort to move forward or backward. No one held the knowledge of who he was or why he was here.
At 6:00 pm, people started losing hope until it was discovered that this man has an ex-wife and children, who he had not seen in six years. With no other ideas in mind, we contacted them and brought them to the scene. Finally we had the voice to persuade him.
Everyone cheered as we watched him get escorted down the fireman's ladder. Not even I could help but smile as he reconnected with his lost family, but in the mist of excitement I saw that his ex-wife's tears were not of joy but fear. This man had been playing us from the very beginning for the last thing we saw was the unveiling of his jacket and the bomb underneath.