Sitting on the edge of a rusting bridge, staring out over a deep ravine at the turn of the creek far below, Desmona Percowitz dangled her feet freely from her perch on the side railing. She looked down and pictured herself falling, the sensation of gravity turning over in her stomach before the final crunch ended it all. As she scooted closer to the edge, butterflies raved in her stomach, smashing her confidence and forcing the girl to tear up a little and scootch back. All the thoughts racing through her mind told her to just end it all, and everything would be right with the world.

She moved closer, then backed away.

She'd been there for hours, just trying to gather the courage to jump. The sun had already peaked and was starting to fall. She had left her phone at home so she couldn't be tracked with it, but she had no other way to tell the time. She wondered what everyone else was up to, likely living their regular lives without so much as a thought about where she is. Her mother probably dismissed her disappearance as her crazed daughter pulling a stunt to get attention.

She checked her surroundings to verify that nobody was coming. That nobody cared.

Sure enough, Desmona was alone, and she sighed. Her very last hope was that someone, anyone, would appear to save her. To pull her back and give her life meaning, or at least numb the pain.

But nobody showed. Yet another reason to jump.

A ruffling from the forest had the suicidal girl look up as something barreling through the brush collapsed on the way to her. It got up and kept sprinting, breathing heavily as its desperate panting caught her by surprise. It certainly wasn't a jogger, but it was definitely human and heading her way.

Interested, Desmona slid down the railing onto the outside of the bridge, looking down the walking path as a person ran towards her.

Stanley, a boy she had never talked to before and hardly ever saw in school, was running at her like a bat out of hell. He was wearing a winter jacket and sweating all the way through it as his physical state deteriorated from all the forced exertion. He saw Desmona on the wrong side of the railing and kept running, his ragged appearance upsetting the girl more than her tenuous future on this mortal coil. His glasses were falling off his face, his pants were covered in mud from several falls on the way over, and one of his shoes was gone, stuck in a muck pit that just wouldn't let go.

"Des- Des- Desmona-" Stanley panted rapidly, his body trying to shut down on him. He coughed violently, spitting something that tasted like blood but came out clear. "Don't- Don't do it."

"Why not?" she demanded, leaning over the railing as Stanley collapsed on the bridge.

"I don't want you to," he huffed.

"But why, though? What's the point?"

"The point?" Stanley coughed. "The point to what?"

"To life! Why do I have to live if every day is just going to be worse than the last? Why am I here like a fat, ugly, stupid bitch who can't do anything right!"

Stanley was trying to formulate an answer while also catching his breath, but he didn't know enough about Desmona's situation to come up with anything.

"Just, please come back," Stanley pleaded weakly, "I'll be in a lot of trouble if you don't."

"That's it?" she cried, tears filling her eyes as the crushing weight of her non-existence dragged her down. "You don't want me to kill myself because YOU'LL be inconvenience by it! I just throw myself off right now, you fucking bastard!"

"That- That's not what I meant," Stanley pleaded, interrupted by a text. He pulled his phone out to read a text from Ben about how miserable his anti-suicide talk was.

"And now you're on your phone?!" Desmona screamed, grabbing the railing and sticking her whole body out. "What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing," Stanley quickly apologized. "I just came here to stop you!"

"Oh, you're one of those freaks! Even if I jump, you'll probably just lift me back into the air or cushion my fall, right?"

Desmona let go of the railing, but Stanley jumped just in time to catch her arm. He was tired from the run, and even the adrenaline wasn't enough to catch her completely. She slid into the bars, banging on them enough to knock the wind out of her as Stanley screamed from his arm being bent around the railing in a way it wasn't supposed to bend.

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"Just use your power!" Desmona screamed, tears flowing from her eyes.

"I CAN'T," Stanley shouted back, also in tears as his arm bent on the verge of breaking. "IT HASN'T WORKED SINCE MY UNCLE!"

Desmona felt the butterflies again as she realized Stanley was incapable of saving her once she fell. She tried to find a handhold to grab onto and managed to climb her way back up.

Back on the rail, Stanley let go and rolled backwards, in extreme pain from a bone fractured as slowly as carbon could break. He was in tears, rolling around and whimpering as he was taken back to his middle school soccer game when he crossed legs with another kid and broke his shin. It felt like his arm had been caught between the gears of a heavy machine, with crushing force on all sides. His own heartbeat worked against him as every pulse flared the pain anew.

Desmona climbed back over the railing now that Stanley was clearly the one suffering, and saw the huge swelling in his arm.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed, "Stanley, I- I'm sorry I thought-"

"I KNOW!" Stanley barked, the pain mixed with embarrassment as he nursed his injury. "MY UNCLE FELL AND I TRIED TO SAVE HIM, BUT I JUST MADE IT WORSE! WHEN I TRY TO USE MY POWER, I SEE MY UNCLE FALLING AND I GET SICK, AND I CAN'T DO IT! I CAN'T SAVE ANYONE!"

Desmona looked over the railing, then dismissed the thought as Stanley coiled up like an armadillo to seethe through the pain. She put hands on him to stabilize them both, then worked on isolating the injury. Remembering what Ben showed him in the first aid course, Stanley removed his jacket and had Desmona tie it in a sling. He gingerly slipped his arm through and stabilized it as well as he could.

With first aid accomplished to the level two teenagers were capable, Desmona asked, "Are you okay to walk back?"

Stanley nodded with a sniffle, "Are you coming with me?"

"Yeah," she said awkwardly, "I didn't want anyone to get hurt. I'm sorry for being human garbage."

"We're all eating a shit sandwich here, Desmona," Stanley cursed, repeating something his uncle used to say. "Some people have mustard or ketchup, white bread or rye. It's never pretty, but that doesn't mean your shit's worse or mine's better. It's just different, and the ones who fuck it all up are the people that don't brush their teeth afterwards."

Despite the day's events, the suicide girl snorted in laughter.

"That reminds me," Stanley said as they stepped off the bridge and into the forest. "You might want to stay away from Katherine for a while."

"What? Why?"

"She's on the warpath for Kacy and Michelle. She knows they stalk you, so keep an eye out."

The duo hobbled to the entrance of the park where firefighters and EMTs grabbed them and did a check-up. Thanks to one of the EMTs having X-ray vision, he was able to diagnose Stanley's fracture as incredibly minor, if painful. The arm was bandaged as Desmona's mom arrived to hug and kiss her daughter all over before taking her home.

Ben showed up a little while later to pick up Stanley, receiving some light instructions on healing the fracture before the EMTs drove away.

"Didn't you use your power on those homeless guys?" Ben asked curiously. "Were you lying to make Desmona freak out?"

"My power still makes me nauseas," Stanley admitted, rubbing the bandage sourly. "I've been using it in small amounts, but after the stabbings, it's really hard to control."

"That sucks," Ben remarked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Hey, can you heal my arm? The same way you healed that lady?"

"Yes, but no."

"What? Why?"

"Because, a minor fracture like that is going to keep you out of games for roughly three weeks. That's enough time to rack up a few losses and stop Katherine from entering us into the State tournament."

"Why don't you want us to go to states?"

"Because, I am supposed to be a regular village council member who doesn't have the coaching chops to take a first time high school team all the way to serious championships. The further you guys go, the harder it's gonna be for me to lay low."

"Then, why don't you just not let us go to states?"

"Because this town has two past-times: playing sports and watching sports. If they even got a whiff of me not being a good coach, I could kiss my mayoral candidacy goodbye."

"Then, why didn't you just save Desmona? Couldn't you do it in an instant?"

"Stanley, I'm not a hero. I don't save people."

"Then why did you make me do it?"

Ben was silent for a moment before confessing, "Because, Stanley, I'm not a villain anymore, either. I don't have to turn a blind eye to evil just because it doesn't suit my agenda, and I don't have to let someone die just because they've stopped being useful to me. If I want this town to be my own little slice of heaven, I'm going to have to put some work into making it so. That means, if someone's in trouble, I'll help. But only so far. That girl was talked down today, but she could jump again tomorrow, and I'd let it be. Not everyone's worth saving."

Ben pulled up to Stanley's house and let him out, but frowned when the boy trudged his way up to the front door and opened it up. The councilman could tell something was bothering the boy because his tear ducts kept filling up, but the exact reason illuded him.

"Stanley, wait up!" Ben called, getting out of the truck and walking around front. He didn't get too close so that the harpy mother couldn't screech at him, but close enough that most of the house could hear what he had to say.

"I didn't mean to diminish what you did. That girl was going to jump, and now she's not because of what you did. Maybe it didn't go down the way you wanted, but a human being is going to see another day because of you. And you didn't need your power to save her, you just had to catch her when she fell. You saved someone, so...

"...how does it feel to be a hero?"

Despite himself, Stanley cracked a smile and tried to hide it by wiping his face. The rest of the family listening perked up at the mention of heroism.

"It's alright," he grinned childishly.