It was a dark, dreary night. The moon had been covered by endless black clouds. Strong winds blew trash bins across the streets and lightning became the sole illumination of the world. A massive storm was brewing, maybe a hurricane off the coast of Maine, USA. 

Thousands of families will soon lose everything. Their homes, livelihoods, family relics, and any semblance of a decent life. Government aid did help, but that was nothing more than attempting to bandage a heart attack. It did little to ease the suffering. 

Ben stood there. Fighting the wind for a few moments more before it was all over for him. Everything he suffered would end today. He looked down from his perch on the roof of a seven story building, the darkness preventing his eyesight from seeing his final destination. 

Hard, cold, concrete. 

The jitters were real as they spun madly in his stomach. Benjamin Sterling White took a deep breath, letting the emotions and memories of suffering fitter. The future he had when he first graduated from High School valedictorian of his class. The sleepless nights he suffered after his first major sports injury, then the next, then the next. 

Year after year. 

The six-two jock of corded muscle and high wired brain power, everything combined in one person, was now a slob weighing over two-hundred and eighty pounds of worthless fat and the inability to fully commit to anything he attempted doing. 

He would always start guns blazing, but his mind would lose focus, body aching to be elsewhere as he attempted to accomplish anything in life. University classes were delayed, any project he would try seemed too far and distant to reach. 

Worse of all, each surgery only made his knees and body weaker. The first tore his Acl, Mcl, and lat. A killer trifecta. That never healed properly. The second tore his other knee into smithereens. But that one had been solved, but the third was just everything being retorn. 

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From a low wage job to low wage job, he attempted to get his life in order, but things kept piling and he, as a man, could only suffer in abject silence. Who would he speak to? Would his ego allow him to empty his heart out to a stranger? Did any of his friends from years ago still remember him? 

He hoped not. 

Ben’s family had forgotten him, he begged that no one else was left with any memories. He wanted to disappear and end it all. He couldn’t be a burden on society anymore than he was already. 

Benjamin Sterling White stepped onto the ledge of the building, his eyes closed and hands spread. He cleared his head making sure to silence the dicenting thoughts of his mind begging him to reconsider. It attempted to buzz around like an unhittable fly. But he squashed it without mercy. 

A smile graced his face for the first time in four years. He let his heart sob to its content, tears flowing unrestrained. It was good to let go of everything. No one would see him anyways. 

Cold rain drops pelted his body. Growing stronger with each moment as the hurricane drew closer and he struggled to stay on the edge. The drops only seemed to grow stronger the more he waited and the wind…

It roared around him. Like a titan’s battlecry before war commenced. 

Ben laughed. His years of binging stories created a picture of magnificence as he sacrificed himself for some greater good. He was the hero of this story and evil would be quelled today. The world shall become safer as the monsters were forced back into the holes and crevices. Humanity would have another moment to regather and strengthen for another wave. 

He guffawed at the impossible scene. Monsters? Heroes? Humanity regathering? It would make for a good novel wouldn’t it. Maybe if he somehow survived the fall then the hurricane he would become a writer or something. At that point, what was he supposed to say. Who would even think of attempting to end themselves if they made it out of this hellhole alive?

Not him. 

Benjamin Sterling White let his body fall forward, the wind pushing his body and gravity making sure he fell faster each passing second. Eternity seemed to cross by as he counted the seconds before making landfall. Time ticked slowly. 

His mind began playing tricks on him. The wind sounded like a roaring crowd. Drums beat and a horn blared. 

Hysteria. It had to be. His mind attempted to play tricks on him but he knew better. Any second now he would go splat and everything would be dark. No more suffering, no more aching knees, no more feeling like he was eighty at twenty-four. 

Ben waited. And waited. 

Nothing. There was nothing. 

He tried to move a bit, but found his body incapable of anything. 

His heart dropped. He could still feel his body…?

He groaned in an attempt to scream. The pain surged forward as it raged into him. Every part of his body shouted in terror and agony. His hands curled, the distinct feeling of stone, solid and unblemished, was at the back of his mind. 

Then came the reprieve. As the roaring crowds, wind, quieted down. The rhythmic beating of the drum stopped and no one dared to sound the horn. Ben heard footsteps, like some fantasy reenactment. Cold metal clinking of a single person approaching him.