I had had an experience like this before. Dad and my step-mom had gone out to eat, again. Dad had left me with the duty of looking after his other children, again. I had projects and homework and tests to study for, and he had given me a different task. I’m sure that if he knew how much work I already had, he wouldn’t have done it, but the reason he didn’t know was that he would never make time to talk to me and check in. I felt unwanted, unneeded, by the person I needed to love me most.
So when I saw that man, in this terrible shape, up on this high of a floor, I knew what he was going to do. I broke away from my dad and started running towards him. At the same time, he began running towards the railing. By the time I had gotten to the railing, he had started to climb it. The railing had been built high and curved to prevent situations like this, but he seemed a natural climber. In addition, there were narrow squares built into the railing at the top, seemingly too small for anyone to get through. However, this poor man had a lithe figure, and he was easily able to poke his head through. He started squeezing his shoulders through too.
But I called out to him, “Hey!”
It was enough for him to stop and pull his head out to look at me. He stared for a few seconds, said nothing, and resumed trying to fit his body through the grate. At the same time, I could hear several people around me murmuring into their phones, telling the police to come and help. All I had to do was stall.
So I did. “What’s your name?” I asked.
He paused again, and this time, without looking down, replied, “Edward”.
I nodded slightly. “Okay, Edward, so tell me. What’s the point of this? This isn’t just about running away from your problems, it’s about showing something to the world, right?” He said nothing, so I continued, “So how about you tell me why you’re doing this? Otherwise the world will never know, right? And then what will be gained?”
He sighed visibly and jammed his shoulders through. His stomach was yet to clear the square, however. Settling there, he shouted, “Everything that could happen today happened. Everything and everyone I depended on failed me today. I never did anything wrong. Why does it have to be me? Today, at work, I did my job. I did it perfectly and to the letter, but did my boss appreciate it? No, because that jerk took the credit! The world is too unfair, it’s too unjust! Why do the jerks win, why do the nice guys finish last?”
“Hey”, I said in a softer tone, “It’s okay. I know how it feels to feel like the world owes you something for the amount of pain it gives you. But you know what the best way to show the world up is? You show it that you don’t need its help. You can take anything it throws at you and you will be okay, because you are unbreakable.”
He sniffled, and then buried his face into his shirt. “I’m too tired”, he sobbed. “I’m just too tired. Look at me, taking advice from a teenager! I should be the one teaching you! I’m just a burden and a waste of space.”
He sucked in his gut and easily pushed the rest of his body through the top. There he sprawled, taking in the glory of New York, readying himself to take his own life. He almost did, too. As he crawled outwards towards the edge, I panicked. I ran forward and grasped the bars with my hands, and shouted one last “PLEASE! DON’T DO THIS!”
At that moment, the time turned 7:43. Although For those who have been stung by a jellyfish, you would know that jellyfish do not actually produce electricity, but the feeling when you are stung is similar to being electrocuted. My finger felt vaguely like it was burning. My entire arm felt extremely uncomfortable. My first instinct was to cry out in pain; but I wasn’t in pain. I touched the metal, and the metal responded to me. At my fingertips I could feel a slight vibration, like the metal was speaking to me.
At the same time, it seemed that Edward’s resolve to live strengthened. Without saying anything, he suddenly started crawling towards the square again, and squeezed himself back through. When the police arrived a minute later, they found a green-faced Edward sitting on the floor.
Riley
They let me go. They had no clue what had happened either, and so they had decided to take me in for questioning. They had never believed that I was capable of moving all those tables and stopping the lights. I guess it's that girly charm. They didn’t exactly learn a lot from me, either.
I myself am very interested in knowing what exactly happened yesterday. I’m pretty sure Toby will never look at me again because of this, so I’d like to at least know why. So, after I came home, I spent the day on the computer. My friends called me, of course, asking if I was okay, and if I wanted to hang out. But I was a little busy looking things up on the internet. My dad called a few times throughout the day. He was a little confused that I had, instead of going out to be with the girls, chosen to stay at home on the computer.
I didn’t manage to learn much. I searched for any news story that involved inexplicable events. The only thing I could find was my own story. Thankfully though, they hadn’t taken a picture of me. I don’t think I looked very nice that day.
Lucas
My web-crawler found someone looking up “unexplainable news”, and “special powers”. I tracked the address to a house under the ownership of one John White. John White has one daughter, Riley White. It's a small world. So either John or Riley tried to find someone else like her, or simply wanted to read the news reports about Riley. Either way, I think it’s time to pay Riley a visit.
Riley
The doorbell just rang, one second.
Max
Boston Police Department
Case #001 - Maxwell Iwao
Transcript
Q. What is your name?
1 My name is Maxwell Iwao.
Q. Would you mind telling us what you’re here for?
1 I am here for being loyal.
Q. Loyal to whom, exactly?
1 My friends.
Q. And how exactly was doing this being loyal to them?
1 You have no right to judge us. None of you understand the position we were put in. None of you have been up there, with them.
Q. Then enlighten us. We have all the time in the world.
1 Then I hope you’ll learn something about being part of a family.
Hunter
It wasn’t only my hearing. I spent a few days out at the paintball place on my own. I wanted to have time to see the extent of my senses. My learned that my hearing, seeing and smelling were insanely enhanced. Out on the field, in a free-for-all gamemode, I could smell and hear anyone who might be targeting me. My seeing didn’t help me as much as I had expected it to. Anything that I could see I could hear or smell first.
I would be able to get in an hour of perfectly controlled gunslinging action, and then my senses would spike. It was awfully hard to control. But after those days that I spent on my own, with no one to distract me, I was really able to single out my problems, and then concentrate and fix them. After only three days, I lessened the occurrence of the spikes to once every three hours.
Training was incredible. Not only did it let me gain control of what I could do, I felt like a superhero, learning to harness my abilities. I became a regular at the paintball place. Even after those few days, I came by at least once a week, usually on Fridays. People began to recognize me. I became "the paintball prodigy". Even though my senses couldn’t help my aim, they helped me by being able to dodge paintballs. Then, eventually, no matter how terrible my aim was, I would hit my mark.
I showed up in the local newspaper.