Dreamcatcher [OLD]

"What would it feel like to... disappear?"

"To stop existing in this world."

"To die."

"I want to find out."

Anora sat down at her desk for the last period of the day, math class. She looked up at the board, saw the notes, but immediately zoned out and looked out the window. She could hear her classmates talking in the background, like a hum of busy noise. She watched a flock of geese fly by, and turned back to her studies.

"What did you get for number 3 on the homework?" Her friend, Nafisa, whispered to her, pointing to her paper. Anora was going to answer, but her head felt fuzzy. "Uh... I don't know..." She ignored her and looked out the window again. She looked up to the roof. There was someone up there... she could not tell who it was.

"Miss Rishi?" The teacher, Mrs. Hemmingway, called. "The answer to number 3?" 

Anora's midnight blue eyes were fixed on the figure standing on the roof. She felt like she could not hear anyone else. Like no one else was important. "Anora!" Nudged Nafisa. The figure started climbing up the railing of the building. "Miss Rishi!"

"Number 3!"

"Number 3!"

"Number 3!"

The figure now stood balancing on the railing of the school roof. 

Arms held out. 

"THEY'RE GONNA JUMP!!"

Anora abruptly got up from her desk, her long blonde hair swishing behind her as she ran from the room, bumping into desks and chairs on her way to the door. "ANORA RISHI, GET BACK HERE!" yelled Mrs. Hemmingway, furious at the behavior of the already troublesome student. "Woah, look, there's someone on the roof," gasped a few of the students as they started gathering near the window.

Anora ran as fast as she could through the school. Bumping into teachers. "Do you have a hall pass?" They would ask. Ignoring them, panting, she searched for a way to the roof. "Where is it?" she whispered under her breath as teachers and students alike stopped and stared at her frantic race. 

She saw a custodian. "Where is the door to the roof? It's important." She was breathing heavily, wiping her sweaty freckled face. The custodian pointed it out for her-- it was opened. "2 minutes have gone by," she muttered and ran up the stairs to the roof.

She paused in front of the door to the outside. Was she too late? Could she stop them?

She pushed it open.

Anora froze, looking at the back of a boy, not much older than she, standing on the railing, ready to let his balance fail. To take his life. His blackish grey fluffy hair danced frantically in the wind, and for some reason she felt she knew him from somewhere...

"DON'T!!"

"Tell me one reason not to."

Anora was shocked by the response. She didn't expect him to answer. She paused, then proceeded in a calmer voice.

"Because somebody loves you."

"No one does. I'm sorry, but this is what must be done."

He turned his head to look at her. His dark eyes were wet with tears, and he smiled, pained, back at her. "Go back to class. Go back to your happy life."

     

He turned back around and jumped.

Time froze.

Anora could hear the teachers and students reaching the roof behind her. Calling out to her. The boy looked at her, smiling, as he fell, and closed his eyes. Tears welling up in her eyes, adrenaline pumping, fear screaming inside her head, Anora ran.

She jumped, too.

She was so fast an had so much momentum from the running start that she caught up to him in mid-air. He opened his eyes and looked at her, panicked. He mouthed,

"Why?"

She reached and grabbed hold of him, all in mid-air, time seemed to slow down for them. She hugged him tight, curling up, squeezing him. She had no idea who he was. His name. His age. Why indeed?

She looked through the tears into his eyes. The ground was fast approaching. People were looking down at them from the roof, screaming and panicking. Cops and the ambulance was running to them on the ground. They had no time. 

"Because you're loved."