...City Lights

The sky was a brilliant shade of blue, as if a blanket of shadows had wrapped the city. Yet, the yellow lights devoured the starlight, leaving only faint traces of moonshine on the graffiti alleyways. Tall buildings stretched like steel spires into the sky, as if wishing to touch the clouds themselves. Cars rumbled along the streets, each embarking on an unending journey. The city’s heart was alive, throbbing melody of car-horns and voices, never sleeping. Beating, beating, beating.

He looked out over the ledge, and he was a giant, the world seemingly at his glorious fingertips. He took in a sharp breath of the polluted air. How long had he been here? An hour? Two? Too long. The wind tousled his golden hair, a caress, but his face was stony. A crowd, lathered in confusion and panic, had formed around him now, friends with wild eyes calling his name repeatedly. Their voices fell on deaf ears.
“Please,” one called, shaking his head as if emerging from a nightmare, only to find he was awake the whole time. “Please, please come back.”

Another crowd had accumulated beneath him, waving their arms excitedly, signaling their unseen friends. Their whispers carried like doves, like pigeons, on the wind: “Will he jump?” “Oh, God, no!” “Someone help that crazy man!”

The police were here now. They split the horrified crowd, rooted to the spot by their fear, their curiosity. They pushed to the front, their gruff voices carrying over the din of the electric confusion.

Their words were empty, leaden, and dripping with the fact that even they were fearful. “Step back from the ledge, man. You have so much to live for, step back.” The jumper did not move, their reasoning was futile, their words pointless. His stony eyes outlined the form of the streets below. He wondered where they would carry him…

A cry of confusion rose from the center of the crowd as someone pushed forward, fighting against the masses, slipping through the hold of the police, who recoiled at the defiance. She sprinted like a madwoman towards the man, her eyes wild. She threw herself at him, locking her arms around his waist, pressing her face into the grooves of his strong back. Her tears, angry, fearful and saddened stained his shirt, running down her porcelain face. His body stiffened at the contact—her delicate touch that he recognized. He hesitated, and a hush blanketed the crowd, the sound of her muffled choking filling the void around them.

His head bowed as a gentle breeze carried her sorrow through the night, around the oblivious city, twisting around the daunting buildings, whisking it through the tires of the cars, letting it cascade through the minds of the citizens, through the street lamps, the signs, rocketing it through the domain of the skies…

“…I won’t ever let you fall…”