Chapter 1: I.I The First of Many
[Word] denotes Words in Bold/Louder Emphasis/Loud Noises
*Word* denotes Onomatopoeia/Sound Effects
/Word/ denotes Words in Italic/Inner Voices/Thoughts/Soft Noises/Softer Emphasis
* before the word or sentence denotes an Author's Note at the end of the Chapter
Thus begins this tale...
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"Hah... Hahaha..."
A small chuckle escaped her shivering lips. Cold... It was freaking cold...
"Hahahahaha..."
What the hell was she thinking?! Of course it's fucking cold. It's the middle of the night and she was standing in the middle of a thunderstorm.
"Hahaha... Hahahaha!!"
Pained laughter echoed throughout the empty rooftop. She was utterly helpless.. alone. How did this even happen?
"It- It's not even funny..."
Averting her gaze away from the dim city lights below, hollow eyes found themselves looking up at the raining sky, staring straight through the clouds and onto whatever metaphorical god there was.
"Why... Why me..."
Why her? Why curse her with this kind of existence? She felt her eyes water even more, her tears mixing with the acidic rain. Was there even a point to this? Didn't she already accept that this was the price to pay?
"What am I doing with my life?"
She stepped towards the open edge, her disheveled locks blown by the cold, hard wind as she stared into the abyss. Who was she kidding? Running away from her problems was one of her specialties. Might as well end it all just to rid herself of the pain.
"Well, I guess it was fun while it lasted.."
The mere thought of committing suicide was appalling to her, and yet she can still hear it's haunting call. And to think that she always preached about it being the stupid way out. Heh. Funny how that turned out for her. She blinked away the tears as she did the inevitable-
["Don't do it!"]
What the!? Was she hearing things? Now of all times?! She found herself planting her raised foot back to solid ground. It wouldn't be the first time. Although she never experienced hallucinating a male voi-
["You still have so much to live for!"]
Again? It was stronger this time.. so it's definitely a person's voice. Was he serious? She didn't have anything too important tying her down to this world. Only bitter memories and nightmares were at the forefront of her mind right now. So what's stopping her from going off-
["W-what you're about to do is not the answer!"]
An awkward shiver tried to make itself known to her. How cheesy. Whoever he was, he shouldn't get his lines from B-Grade movies. Plus, it's far too late for him to try. She's not about to let her shame and hypocrisy stop her now, especially since she already has her trembling foot hovering dangerously off the edge of the building.
She just needed to take the final step.
["Please!"]
So just slowly...
["It's.. It's not the end of the world!"]
Of course it wasn't. it's just the end of hers. Aaand she's stalling again.
["Li-Life is too beautiful to miss!"]
A small chuckle escaped her lips. Wh-what was that line?! It's atrociously bad.. And why was she still alive at this point?! Why can't she just do it!? *Malaka! Was she... afraid?
["Just relax, and gently step away from the ledge."]
Disbelief washed over her as the earlier traces of fear morphed into a mixture of anger and melancholy. What a coward, not even able to take her own life. With a strange feeling of unwanted relief and disappointment, she slowly stepped away from the drop, not even bothering to look back as she turned to face her impromptu counselor.
/How typical of her to run away, even from the escape of death~/
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"Time to repair this blasted cell tower."
A lowly maintenance staff grumbled to himself as he fished for his keys to the roof. It was the middle of the night! Why did he even need to do the emergency repair now instead of tomorrow morning? It's not as if anyone's even awake it this hour.
"Bossman really making me question my life choices right now."
Turning the key on the glass frame, surprise adorned his face as he was met with little to no resistance from the supposedly locked door. "Huh..." How did that happen? "Maybe one of the staff forgot to lock it for the day." It was certainly plausible. While guests and permanent tenants can lounge at the rooftop during the night, nobody's going to be doing so during a storm. Hell, even he forgets to lock it every once in a while. "Still, to leave this unlocked in the middle of a storm is pretty sketchy." Pushing through the door, a blast of frigid air immediately greeted his cloaked form. Good thing he had a spare raincoat down in his room for these kinds of occasions-
/"Hahahaha!!"/
A haunting sound of pained laughter seeped through the blowing winds. Wh-What was that?! Surely nobody's gonna be there right now.
"Is the rooftop haunted now?"
With his left arm shielding his eyes, he scanned the rooftop for anything that can cause the creepy laughter he just heard. Maybe he's paranoid, but with the door unlocked someone could've-
There! Braving the cold battering of the rain, the man finally found the source of the laughter. There was a person standing over the open ledge of the roof. They were shaking, likely from the cold. And they had their right foot- Was... Was this...
"Don't do it!"
He found himself shouting the first thing that came to mind. Was this a suicide situation?! Dammit, he's not trained for this kind of *malaka!
"You still have so much to live for!"
This was bad. He had to slowly try and bridge the gap and maybe try and save this person. In the meantime..
"W-what you're about to do is not the answer!"
He had to try and maybe talk the person out of it!
"Please!"
The man cautiously made his approach, being careful as to not spook the person on the literal edge of the building. He only hoped that those lines from the very few TV series he watched would help in this situation.
"It's.. It's not the end of the world!"
Was it working?! The man strained his eyes as he observed the figure for any type of reaction... They were shaking. Crying perhaps?
"Li-Life is too beautiful to miss!"
And with that being the last line that he can remember from the scant amount of drama shows he'd watched, from here on out, he's on his own. He'd just hoped-
Success! Relief washed over him as he noticed what looked like the person's feet was firmly back on the ledge. Time to bring it home before they changed their mind.
"J-just relax, and gently step away from the ledge." He stopped himself from running over, making sure the person was at least comfortable enough to talk. "I-I'm sorry if I offended you. But please, l-let's not be too hasty here okay? Life's too short to make it even shorter."
The man spoke with restrained confidence. The downpour intensified, as if sensing the events about to unfold.
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The woman now looks at her negotiator, noting the raincoat and the toolbox that he held. Must be a guy from maintenance she thought. His face was shrouded by the poor visibility but she could tell that the man was older than her, maybe in his early to mid-twenties. She grimaced from making him go through all the trouble of stopping her from offing herself.
/Who was she kidding? She'll go through with it anyway. Maybe not now, but maybe even later~/
She lightly shook her head. Her decision was already made. Perhaps she should just play along until he goes away.
"I guess you're right. Maybe I am being a little drama queen." She addressed as once again found herself with the safety of the guard rail. "But judging from your lines, maybe you're the rightful bearer of the crown."
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*Malaka is a Greek slang that can mean an exclamation of pleasure, dark horror, a cry of anger, a declaration of affection, and other different things. Common alternative meanings include "asshole", "motherfucker" "jerk" or "idiot", and the contrasting "dude", or "mate", depending on the context.
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