Leap
By Nicholas Deroose
Leap
You have been here before. This quiet familiar spot that you have always turned to in times of need. Here, high up above the city on the rooftop of your office you watch the city move like a silent movie.
The tall gleaming skyscrapers stretch, reaching for the velvet night sky with its doors endlessly inhaling and exhaling people onto its asphalt arteries.
From up here the busy intersections lit by a thousand cars and streetlights twinkle like a sea of amethysts but from your high hideaway you are far from the wheezing exhaust fumes and screaming horns, leaving you with a distillation of the city in its most beautiful form.
Up here the air is free and cool. You take a deep breath and your blackened lungs sing a sigh of relief as a crisp gentle breeze runs through your slick greasy hair taking with it the troubles of today.
You feel relived. You feel lighter even. You stroll to the ledge and lean against it, the metal railings sending a brief chill to your palms. The first sign of actual feeling you have felt all day.
In the stillness of the night, you then begin to hear a voice.
This is shit.
It is a familiar voice. Your boss's.
This is worse shit.
A booming voice that has repeated and compounded itself over the years in this building echoing throughout its halls, stopping just behind the protective rusty metal door to your hideaway.
This is terrible shit.
The voice now swells like an angry wave, bursts forth from the final gate and fills your head like an unstoppable storm, spilling out of your ears and infecting your body.
This shit is worse than yesterday's shit.
You claw at your ears and fall to your knees, drowning in the whirlpool of voices as crippled cries tumble out of your mouth in whimpers.
Your shit.
Your world is filled with darkness but in the depths of your despair you feel a light touch your back.
You inhale sharply, summoning a deep reservoir of strength as you reach for your railing of comfort pushing yourself up again to face the immaculate scenery that is the city before you. It's gentle glowing lights wash over you, calming the demons inside as the winds continues to stroke your cheeks and brush away the tears.
You then slowly raise yourself up onto that narrow ledge, quivering slightly at first but then with a determined look in your eyes and muscles clenched, a ripple of courage blooms in you and finally, you are standing tall, high above the office building.
Up here the city looks so beautiful. Everything is before you and nothing behind you.
The lights, they call out to you and a warm smile begins to spread from your face and over your weary body. The wind whispers you on. You close your eyes, and leap.
Leap
You have been here before. This quiet familiar spot that you have always turned to in times of need. Here, high up above the city on the rooftop of your office you watch the city move like a silent movie.
The tall gleaming skyscrapers stretch, reaching for the velvet night sky with its doors endlessly inhaling and exhaling people onto its asphalt arteries.
From up here the busy intersections lit by a thousand cars and streetlights twinkle like a sea of amethysts but from your high hideaway you are far from the wheezing exhaust fumes and screaming horns, leaving you with a distillation of the city in its most beautiful form.
Up here the air is free and cool. You take a deep breath and your blackened lungs sing a sigh of relief as a crisp gentle breeze runs through your slick greasy hair taking with it the troubles of today.
You feel relived. You feel lighter even. You stroll to the ledge and lean against it, the metal railings sending a brief chill to your palms. The first sign of actual feeling you have felt all day.
In the stillness of the night, you then begin to hear a voice.
This is shit.
It is a familiar voice. Your boss's.
This is worse shit.
A booming voice that has repeated and compounded itself over the years in this building echoing throughout its halls, stopping just behind the protective rusty metal door to your hideaway.
This is terrible shit.
The voice now swells like an angry wave, bursts forth from the final gate and fills your head like an unstoppable storm, spilling out of your ears and infecting your body.
This shit is worse than yesterday's shit.
You claw at your ears and fall to your knees, drowning in the whirlpool of voices as crippled cries tumble out of your mouth in whimpers.
Your shit.
Your world is filled with darkness but in the depths of your despair you feel a light touch your back.
You inhale sharply, summoning a deep reservoir of strength as you reach for your railing of comfort pushing yourself up again to face the immaculate scenery that is the city before you. It's gentle glowing lights wash over you, calming the demons inside as the winds continues to stroke your cheeks and brush away the tears.
You then slowly raise yourself up onto that narrow ledge, quivering slightly at first but then with a determined look in your eyes and muscles clenched, a ripple of courage blooms in you and finally, you are standing tall, high above the office building.
Up here the city looks so beautiful. Everything is before you and nothing behind you.
The lights, they call out to you and a warm smile begins to spread from your face and over your weary body. The wind whispers you on. You close your eyes, and leap.