"The living world is a dream. The nocturnal dream is reality."
- Edogawa Ranpo
The morning wears a beautiful mask with breathtaking lies decorating it while the night was bare and shows the truth of this world, an ugly truth meant to be hidden by that mask the morning wears. That's why they prefer the masked morning filled with beautiful lies rather than the bare night with the ugly truth uncovered. With all the dangers hiding inside the dark, lurking as if it was looking for its next target. The night where people are rarely seen and going out of their houses, protecting their selves from that danger. People are afraid of the unknown.
Standing on top of the rooftop's railings, she stared ahead of her, not afraid of what's below her. The railings were rather thin, and is only as wide as the length of her foot.
One wrong move, one wrong step, and that mistake will put her in sleep forever not waking up ever again, ending her life. What it seems like death was already standing behind her, waiting for her to take one small empty step in the air and let her body fall forward, falling freely in the air, with the cold air hitting her skin as she waits for the painful impact her body and the ground will make. But of course, she didn't. Yet.
Looking down below, there were only a few people walking pass by and minding their own business. If ever one of them would look up and see her figure standing on top of the railings, they would think that she is going to kill herself, to jump. They looked like ants. Up here, it looks like she is looking down the world. Up here, everything that she can't see from down below on the ground was seen. It was like she is a free bird flying on the sky or she is riding on a giant's shoulder. Up here, everything looks so beautiful and breathtaking.
The breeze felt gentle and cold against her skin. As the wind blew, her light-colored hair along with it. Since she was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt tucked in her dark-colored pants paired with a pair of heels which she removed and placed on the ground, standing on top of the railings while wearing heels is pretty much hard. She wasn't wearing her coat as she left it in her office and the gun which she always concealed by it was seen on her waist.
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her left ear, looking ahead.
It was silent. Yet the silence itself was relaxing as if it was comforting her and lulling her like a mother singing a lullaby to the baby she was cradling to her chest.
She found comfort and peace as she stood on top of the railings instead of a pile of dead bodies.
There weren't any sounds of gunshots that she would always hear every day, the voices of people screaming and cursing, the sound of loud footsteps, and the scene of them running away. A large pool of blood underneath some bodies that laid still on the ground, not breathing. That scene would always creep her out no matter how many times that she had seen it, it would always crawl up her skin, sending chills down her spine. It would cling into her mind and would bug her non-stop about it.
The building that she was standing on top of was abandoned and nobody owns it so she could enter it freely whenever she wants and desires. It's not trespassing, no sign was stopping someone to enter nor a barricade that forbids entry. However, since it was abandoned and it looked like a haunted building, nobody dared to enter. Unless you are either brave or not normal. Hana wasn't normal, no, she was. What is even normal at this point?
She was normal but she was different from other people, she wasn't unique but there is this one trait of hers that makes her different from the normal people that you have encountered in your whole life.
Every person is different, their way of thinking, how they react to such things, how they live their life, their hobbies. Even if they have an uncanny resemblance to someone you know, they are still different. That's probably we can't understand others no matter how hard we try to do so.
In this view, in this position, she could see that blue carpet separating the land and the sky. It looked calm and peaceful as if it was taking a rest. The sunset in the sky as fresh colors brushed upon the sky like it was a blank canvas and the sun was the painter. Rich hues of red blended with oranges, purples, and crimsons. With the setting sun came a sky of fire. The sky that was once blue and covered with white clouds that seems like cotton candy to a child's eyes was now lit like fire and the previous white clouds looked like they were blushing at the sun. No matter how bad a person's day is, they could still get to see such a beautiful thing in the end.
But that was different for Tachibana Hana, her days were always boring and bland like the coffee that she always has in the morning and she forgot about it, bitter and cold. So even if she gets to see such a beautiful thing at the beginning of the day, the sunrise, and at the end of the day, the sunset, her days were still boring. In fact, she would just prefer to go die, to lean her body into air like there would be a wall in front of her to lean on and fall to the ground. However, she still can't. She still has something to do. To take care of.
Ah, death.
She didn't yearn for it even though she always thinks about it, not even a single day would pass without thinking about it. It kept on barging inside her head like an intruder entering her house as if it was his, breaking the door down in the process. It would always make a mess and would leave that mess, not having any intention to tidy it up to which she would just sigh and shook her head, organizing it all, her thoughts. She wasn't suicidal, she wasn't drawn to it yet it always approaches her like a close friend of hers. Death always follows and linger around no matter where she goes.
This world is ugly and cruel. The people are being blinded and fooled by their beauty. It's filled with bloodshed and death. She never once remembered looking at the world and think that it's beautiful, how would she think of it as one when she always saw multiple deaths and pools of blood?
A sigh slipped past her lips softly, the heavyweight on her shoulders and tension that she was feeling left her yet replaced with unknown sadness.
"Are you going to jump?"