It was eight o'clock at night of a normal busy Monday in the city. The wet, desolate streets of the city rested in silence as the starry black sky wept over it. The water in the potholes shimmered by the glow of the bright, yellow street lamps. The small, green trees on the roadside swayed as the strong breeze hit them. A few lonely strangers walked on the slippery pavement after a pouring rain, some were heading home, some just wandered around without any actual destination, some just went out for a change of pace.
Above a faded zebra crossing, a traffic light frantically changed colors seeming rather like a disco light. A watchman snored comfortably on his dark blue stool under the protection of the shops' roof. Huge giant buildings stood besides the street, quiet as if taken over by an army of libraries. Some windows gave out white and yellow lights, but the others were completely pitch black.
It seemed like the clouds had gotten a sudden fascination to the moon and wrapped themselves around it. The moon's faint glow passed through them, coloring them white from grey. Beside the lightened clouds, there were quite a few looming stars, pretty enough to ignite the heart of any nature's child, yet no one of them rose their heads and cast their eyes upward to see it. All they cared about was the lady sitting at the edge of the rooftop.
“ She is about to fall! ”
“ It is dangerous! Get down! ”
“ It is terrible! I can't stand to watch her fall! ”
“ Ah...... ”
There were various of voice coming from the huge crowd gathered in front of an old-fashioned five-story apartment. There was a lady around her thirty sat at the marble fence of the rooftop, with both of her legs in midair. Behind her was four men with anxious expression, all of them were in uniform except the one standing at the middle among them, who looked like the most nervous person on the scene.
“ Please, don't jump! Come back! We can talk this out! ” said the nervous man.
“ Talk? Fuck you! You knew very well what you have done to me! ” answered the lady with a sobbing voice.
“ It's not what you think! She is just.... ” the man tried to comfort the lady.
“ Shut up! You break up with me just because of that bitch! ” shouted the lady uncontrollably.
“ Like I say... ” the man tried to explain but he didn't finish his sentence. He was too shocked by what was happening in front of his eyes.
“ I hate you!!! ” yelled the lady and she jumped. The time around the apartment seemed had stopped at that very moment. The air around them felt like it had never moved the slightest. Everything was frozen until a random guy in white robe charged in suddenly.
The man in white robe jumped from a building next to the apartment and landed at the corner of the rooftop. He tumbled forward once his feet touched the floor to greatly reduce the impact. Without any hesitation, he ran toward the falling lady at great speed as soon as he got up after the roll on the floor. A hand was reached out when the lady started to become a free fall object. Everyone on the scene could feel as if the breath of each other infused themselves far more deeply than it did during usual day.
The air in deep slumber started to move again when the lady's arm was caught by the helping hand. Everything on the scene started to move again, the crowd shouted and screamed and the policemen on the rooftop stared at the mysterious white rope guy as if they just regained their consciousness from the shock earlier.
The mysterious white rope guy quickly pulled the stunned lady back to the rooftop and sprinted toward the edge in a mere second. The shocked policemen acted hastily after standing still at there for a livelong second.
“ Hey, you! Stop! ” said one of the policemen.
Didn't wait for the policeman to finish his words, the white rope guy jumped down directly from the five-story apartment. Everyone watching was dazed once again as the mysterious guy fell straight down into the darkened alley between two tall buildings. The thing that most amazed the police wasn't the fact that he jumped down, it was they couldn't find the mysterious white rope guy in the dark alley after the incident, not even his body.
***
I slowly walked out from the alley behind a row of shoplot just like a badass youngster who thought he was an adult when he was nearly twenty years old . I tried to look cool by wearing a grey hoodie with white strip on it and matched with a plain black jean. But come on, it didn't really stand out for an insignificant random guy wandering at the roadside. What's eye-catching was the thick dark circles under my eyes that told others about me who seemed to lose sleep for a great amount of time, maybe a week or two. Fine, never mind, it didn't really matter. I was just like a pebble at the roadside, no one will ever bother to notice me. I even went through the effort to purposely set up a messy but stylish hairstyle which my bang slanted across my narrow forehead, covering my right dark blue eye partially. Damn, this appearance was fucking cool, at least I thought that.
I walked leisurely into a well-designed coffee shop in front of a T-junction. Inside the shop was tranquil, it was so quiet, except the intermittent noise of the coffee machine at the counter and the mounted television on the wall. Only two tables in the cafe were occupied: a middle-aged woman was sitting alone at the table beside the entrance and three college students were talking cheerfully with a low voice at a corner of the cafe.
I found a small table with two wooden chairs that was beside the french window, which was full of raindrops. I slowly pulled the chair backward and sat down comfortably.
“ Ouch! ” I murmured with a sour expression on my face as I sat down.
A female waiter came forward with a captivating smile to take my order.
“ One black ice coffee, please. ”
“ Ok, anything else? ”
“ No thanks! ”
The beautiful female waiter walked back to the counter to place his order. I leaned back and started to look around, the scenery outside the window, the chatting college students or the worker who was brewing his coffee. My eyes returned to the screen after I accidentally glanced over the television, my vision stopped at the news broadcasting on the television right now.
“ Good evening and welcome to ITV News London at 8.55pm. I'm Susan Xader and here's what just happened in our city. Tonight, the White Reaper strikes again. ”
“ Hmmm......white reaper....damn......what a cool name. ” said I while taking a sip of my coffee.
“ Just now at seven o'clock, a lady tried to commit suicide by jumping off a five-story apartment, his boyfriend and the policemen had already reached the scene by the time but couldn't do anything. This standoff had continued for nearly an hour. Unfortunately, in the end the lady decided to jump off the building. ”
“ However, at this moment, the white reaper suddenly charged in and swiftly saved the lady. According to the eyewitnesses..... ”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I stood up and walked out of the coffee shop step by step after paying my bill while pressing on my butt throbbed with dull pain using my right hand.
“ It's great that they didn't find out about me falling into the garbage bin. Damn, it still hurt! Guess I will think twice the next time I jump down from high building. ” I mumbled.
I walked down the street and stopped in front of the zebra crossing, waiting for the traffic light to turn green.
“ The lady I saved just now still looks young, maybe 27 or 28? Nope, none of that matter, what's important is that I have gotten more closer to death! Haha, this sure excites me! Hmmm.......I guess that's all for today. I wanna go home and take a nap. It's fucking tiring. ” I spoke silently in my own mind.
Suddenly, I heard a faint scream coming from the alley beside the road. It looked like someone had encounter something unfortunate and needed some help.
“ Grrrrr......not again... ” I murmured.
The traffic light finally turned green, but the road was clear, no one was crossing.
***
“ Go away! ” A lady in working suit pushed a guy with scruffy appearance away with all of her effort. The other two thugs quickly grabbed the lady tightly upon seeing this.
“ Shut the fuck up! ” The scruffy guy slapped the lady right at her cheek. The lady fell down while landed on her butt, her head smashed directly at the concrete wall, which was full of graffiti.
“ You better listen carefully and do as I say! ” The scruffy guy pulled out a knife from his pocket and pointed at the lady's throat. The lady was so scared that she couldn't even move or scream and just leaning against the wall with shaking limbs.
I hid behind a garbage bin in shadow, thinking that this a great timing to jump in. “ This will make a cool intro for a hero. ” I nodded.
Just when the three thugs let out a terrible laugh, a voice came from the end of the dark alley, “ Mind if I join you guys? ” I, the mysterious guy in white robe, walked out deliberately slow from the cover of the darkness and appeared before them. I thought that they would be surprised and begged for forgiveness just like in the movie, but it turned out that I was wrong, I was too naïve.
“ Wowowo, who the fuck are you? ” said the scruffy guy ferociously.
“ Assassin's Creed? Seriously? You think you are playing cosplay?! ” said the another thug followed by a burst of laughter.
“ God damn, Hereson! I told you not to wear this shit! This costume is hilarious! You really think you are Altair?! ” I talked to myself. “ Ok! Fine! It is all in or nothing! ”
“ Let her go! If you do as I say, maybe I will consider to turn a blind eye on you! ” I ordered them.
“ Huh? What did you just say? I can't hear you. ” the scruffy guy walked toward me slowly as he spoke. “ Say that again, you son of a bitch! ” he gave me a surprise attack by swinging his knife to stab me.
I swiftly drew back two small steps to dodge his sudden attack. He quickly turned his wrist in order to push the knife straight into my stomach after noticing he missed the first attempt.
At this crucial moment, my ultra instinct activated unconsciously. I could see it! I could see his movement! I could clearly see the movement that he was holding his knife and leaning forward to stab me, as if the time around me became frozen, everything was in slow motion.
I quickly dashed to my left and reached out my hand to grab his wrist, another hand at his broad shoulder. The next instant, I pulled strongly and of course, he fell head down to the ground thanks to real world physics. I promptly disarmed him by knocking off his knife with my knee.
The whole action was so fast that the other two shocked for a lifelong second before they realized what the fuck was happening right now.
“ You gonna pay for this! ” one of them clinched his fist and gave me a right swinging punch. I blocked it with my left arm without any delay and gave him a hook in his jaw as my counterattack. The thug was completely defenseless and fell right down after receiving the punch.
The thug beside him hastily grabbed a stick nearest to him, which was almost one meter long, and hit me while aiming at my head.
Fine! Same trick!
I decided to block it with my arm again but it turned out that I made a huge mistake. The stick broke into two instantly, so was my arm. I screamed in agony, I could feel the bone inside my arm had broken.
“ Ahhh.....fuck! ” I gave him a kick at full blast, which sent him sticking right on the wall, while holding my broken arm in pain.
The dark alley suddenly returned to its usual silence, everything was fine and tranquil except the noise of me panting. “ Grrrr......I think it is over now. ” I murmured.
“ Enough of this! ” the scruffy guy rose to his feet just when I gonna approached the fainted lady to check out her condition. He drew out a pistol from his waist and pointed the muzzle at me. “ Die! ” said he calmly while pulling the trigger.
The bullet flew out from the muzzle at great speed followed by a loud bang.
“ Shit! This is bad! I can't dodge it fast enough! ” I told myself. “ I am done! ”
The emotionless bullet landed at my left eye and sliced through my brain, leaving my head from behind in an instant. My blood spilled out and splashed onto the wall, becoming a part of the graffiti.
I thought as I fell face down to the ground, “ I didn't expect they have a gun. They got me! ”
The dark alley returned to its usual silence once again, except this time I was lying on the ground, he was the last man standing. “ Ha, is this all you got? ” he provoked.
There was complete dark and silence I was feeling right now, it was like I was floating in the space, no light, no sound, nothing at all. However, I started to feel something as time passed. Faintly, gradually, it was sound, I could hear the sound around me from weak at the start till it become more and more clearer.
“ Hey, man! You killed him! ”
“ It is him who fucking pick up a fight first! ”
“ Crank! ” It sounded like someone stepped vigorously on the garbage bin.
“ Huh? What's that! ”
“ Who are you? ”
“ Ahhhh.... ”
“ Holy shit! ” the scream of the thugs mixed with the sound of several gunshots, “ Pow! Pow! Pow! ”
After that, everything backed to complete silence, I couldn't hear nor see anything.
A continuous noise of footsteps was transmitted into my eardrum, it was becoming louder and louder, and it stopped at some point as if a person stopped walking and stood right in front of me.
“ Pathetic! ” a male voice came out.
I wondered if he was talking to me but I couldn't do anything, not even move a finger.
“ You're pathetic! To be killed by a mere human. ” he spoke.
I could feel his cold glance even though my vision was totally blank. His fearful appearance was slowly disappearing, into the darkness, leaving the immobilized me lying on the freezing ground.
Everything seemed to back to the starting point, back to the void space before The Big Bang, where the space had no boundary and the time had no limit. I felt nothing, I couldn't even sense the flow of time. I truly hoped that this sensation will stay on forever.
***
My eyelid moved suddenly, my eyes opened wide, staring at the starry sky. I held out my hand in front of my eyes, moved my fingers around randomly to make sure I was still alive.
“ Who the fuck is that guy just now? Nope, it doesn't matter. Still alive, huh? ” I sighed.
Yep, I was alive. It wasn't that I survived the headshot luckily and could barely get through the struggle to keep living. I just couldn't die even if I wanted to.
I stood up slowly with the support of my hands. I raised my head and continued to stare at the starry sky. All of the image that I jumped down from a skyscraper which was nearly 40 floor high in the past still hovering vividly in my mind even now: the rooftop I remembered, the suicide note I wrote beforehand, the wind current I felt that day and the last breath.
I always thought that everything ended there. The bullying, the despite, the betrayal, the loneliness and the reality, everything ended right at that moment I reached the ground. But, it wasn't. It turned out that I was wrong.
Right when I thought I was dead, I could feel something appeared before me with a dazzling holy light. It didn't look like God nor Devil. It didn't even have a true form, it was shapeless, there was nothing around, I felt like I was in void.
“ Young man, what is life to you? ” a kind voice was heard lingeringly all over the space.
“ How precious life is? ” the voice spread through my eardrum and reached my head. It kept hovering and echoing in my mind.
“ Young man, you have committed the sin of irresponsibility toward your own life, which include shutting yourself in, rejecting others' help, losing your own self, falling into the path of evil and the act of suicide. In the name of the mighty God, I hereby declare, Hereson Atwood, you are guilty. Therefore, a punishment shall be imposed upon you. ” the voice kept gushing out from my head and it didn't seem to stop even though I am in pain. My sanity was falling apart gradually at this point.
“ You will suffer from eternity, you won't experience the flow of time, you won't get old, you won't die. Only you can shorten your life by giving others a chance to live, you can break free from this eternity curse only when you understand the truth beyond all of this......... ”
I open my eyes abruptly once again, sweat rolled down smoothly from my forehead, forming a small river. I wiped my sweat away with my bloody sleeve and stepped out from the dark alley while carrying the fainted lady, facing all the dead body with my back.
“ Save others to kill yourself, huh? …....Interesting! ” I mumbled with a smile.