It was raining. The air was cold and unforgiving in the post-autumn twilight. Cars sped by as I walked across the bridge; the traffic moving steadilly forward. Looking up, I watched the moon and stars play hide-and-seek among the clouds. As the evening grew colder and the rain harder I drew my hands into my pockets and doubled my pace. Hair soaked, clothes drenched, body saturated in the cold sting I wished nothing. This was the way I had always wanted it to be: always alone, always cold, always firmly in reality so I could make snide remarks about it. I suppose I never really wanted to expect the pain that came with it however. "It might as well be raining needles," I muttered under my breath.
As I came upon the middle of the bridge, I began seeing a figure, a person standing on the edge of the bridge. I supposed it was looking at the freezing waters below and not dwelling on thoughts of suicide. It must have heard me coming over the traffic, because it looked right at me. It's piercing green eyes meeting with my own blue-gray ones stopped me dead in my tracks. It was only standing a few feet away from me, and yet I still couldn't make out its face or whether it was a man or a woman. I walked closer to the figure. "It's going to be a cold one tonight," it said in a deep voice. My eyes widened.
"Y-yeah, it gets this way this time of year," I shivered. There was something about this man that seemed familiar. I couldn't place the voice or see his face, but there was something telling me that I could trust him. Rain dripped from his long, black jacket and hood. "A lady like you shouldn't be wandering around alone at night," he said, never breaking eye-contact with me. "Those eyes; where have I seen those eyes before?" I asked myself. I shivered again, shaking my head. "This is how it's been for a long time. I've gotten used to the lack of company," I answered. He looked down at the freezing river below us and sighed.
I continued to walk across the bridge when suddenly there was a slow rumble echoing through the cold, rainy night. I brought my hand up to catch something to hold onto, but slipped and found myself hanging off the edge of the bridge. I thought I had fallen off and plunged to my death in the frigid water, but he caught me. Holding fast to my hand, he looked down at me with those venom green eyes. "Give me your other hand!' he yelled. I raised my other hand toward him, grazing his gloved fingertips. I was shaking so badly that he couldn't grab it. My other hand was slipping out of his grip. I swallowed hard and looked down at the river. "Don't let me go...please...I don't want to die tonight," I sobbed silently. I looked up into his eyes and closed mine tightly as I felt our hands break apart. "Rin!" he screamed, arms open, hands trying to grab what was out of his reach. I opened my eyes and looked up at him once more, almost catching a glimpse of his face. It felt like I was falling forever, the same thought kept playing in my mind as if on a loop. How did he know my name? I closed my eyes and braced myself for the inevitable. When I opened them, I was in my bed, face-down in my pillow.
"So it was just a dream..." I picked my head off of the pillow and sighed. "...just a..." I ran a hand through my hair. It was still damp. My mind was racing. "Just a dream?" I thought. "How could that have been a dream?" I yawned. I shook my head, trying to think of something else, but the thought remained. Exasperated, I dropped my head back onto my pillow and drifted in the middle-ground of reality and my dreams.
