She liked the view past her converse, the way the bottom of the city looked in the shadow of the sunset. One shoe was untied, and the laces dangled below her foot, reaching down as if straining towards the pavement far below. Maybe they were trying to tell her something.
There really was nothing comparable to the view from up here. The sun waned over the jagged horizon, casting its fire across the city. There was something beautiful about the orange light glinting off the urban grey metal and glass structures.
She wiped away her tears. Yes, beautiful - that's what it was. Beautiful. Everything about the world was so beautiful. She closed her eyes and held her face in her hands for a moment, hiding herself from the cool wind. Her fingers were cold, and she balled them into fists and pressed them into her lap, looking out over the city once again. The cars moving below passed occasionally through narrow bars of orange sunlight, then back into shadow. If she turned and looked at the sky behind her, she could see darkness beginning to creep into the orange and pink hues - a deep, mysterious, bruiselike purple.
She took a sip of her water bottle and, in a moment of impulse, tossed the cap out over the empty air. It sailed downward, gaining speed until she could no longer see it against the backdrop of the black pavement.
She wasn't actually going to jump. This wasn't another Reichenbach Fall. She was steady-minded, never having suffered from any sort of mental illness. She was totally sane. Yes, totally sane. She had only come up here to think.
There were some people gathering below, though, squinting up at her, pointing. She briefly considering standing up, just to scare them.
She thought about things. About what they had said to her, how they had laughed. About how they had screamed at her, had lashed out, sending her running away to hide. And about his face, anguished, calling out her name as her feet carried her away, and then she had found herself up here, crying her eyes out while the sun and the people below watched her with amusement.
She stood up and moved her toes past the edge of the building, just a little bit, so that they barely jutted out over the empty air. It looked symmetrical, organized. She liked that.
She raised her arms so that they were parallel to the wall that she stood on, parallel to the ground. The wind picked up, and she smiled. She felt like she was flying; like an angel about to take off. She could hear people down below screaming as if they were calling to her. She didn't understand why.
After all, she had only come up here to think.
A hand snatched the back of her hoodie.
"Don't," said the familiar voice, and in that one broken word she could feel all the anguish, all the worry, all the pain.
So she let her arms fall to her sides.
She took a step back from the edge and fell into their arms.
This is brilliant. It makes me want to write; it inspires.
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