THE PRICE OF DAYDREAMS
CHAPTER 1
A/N: I have no idea where this came from. Well maybe I do but moving on. There will be multiple chapters of the same event but from different POVs then a conclusion one. They might take me a while to come up with, write then update but I will put them up. Promise. So yeah. Moral: don't day dream kidz (cus I'm hip init).
Arthur's POV
It was a normal day. Well not completely normal, my family was over which is a rare treat. Alistor, Erin, Seamus, Dylan and I were in town just messing around in the shops. We had just gone to the cinema and were reluctant to go home so soon. It always makes me so happy being with my siblings. I'm not one to be depressed but being immortal (to some extent) is tiring sometimes and having company for once is always welcome. I like my life. I am a proud personification of England, the greatest country in the world! It was just a harmless daydream I swear.
You see, in my country as of late there has been a sudden increase in awareness of certain issues such as depression and suicide. I find it saddening really, so many beautiful young people taking their own lives because of unnecessary hurtful things said or done. Everyone knows someone who wants to take their own lives and almost everyone feels depressed to some extent. It's at times like these I feel so helpless. I wish that I could influence my people like they can influence me. But instead I have to stand back and watch.
We were all on the second floor of a big shop, one of those ones that seem to sell everything. It was rather pretty from where I was standing. The second floor ended in a balcony but the floor below went on for a little longer and you could look down and see the people below. If you looked straight ahead you could see the river through a wall made of glass. The Thames was beautiful, it had definitely improved in hygiene since my pirate days.
We were passing the balcony now, browsing in the shelves nearby, so I decided to go closer to it. I was not touching it, still two or three meters away, but close enough to see the people below. I suddenly noticed how far down it was. Well not that far but still pretty far. Might even be far enough to kill me. I froze. What? I had no idea where that had come from but for some reason I started to humour it.
Was this the type of place people would think of committing suicide? Some person just going about their normal day's shopping, seeing the drop and deciding to end it? It might be too close to the ground to actually kill, just hurt very badly. But maybe if you went head first… yes that would do it, your head would take full impact, cracking your skull, exposing your brain and snapping your neck too. But would gravity and momentum maybe spin your legs around too soon? That might still work but you would probably just go into a coma with broken bones. Maybe just be unconscious for a couple of days and wake up in hospital with concussion, broken bones and a therapist.
I winced. To do something like this you would have to be careful. If it didn't work you would be in for a rough time. If you jumped in front of a train, car or into a road of a building, you could hurt, maybe even kill, someone else. This required thought. You also had to act quickly. People could realise any second and stop you. If you were jumping you would have to be able to get over any bars blocking the way quickly and easily and make sure people below didn't look up, they might call an ambulance or something and you had to maximise the time without professionals or they could revive you.
I looked at the balcony. That bar looked low enough for me to climb over. I might be able to hop straight over but that caused the risk of tripping. Tripping over the edge to the ground floor was okay, it was tripping and falling back the way I had come from that worries me. I would cause a massive noise and people around me would start asking what had happened. They would work it out then be horrified. There would be too much explaining.
No. The other way would take longer and increase the risk of being found out but still. I would sit on the edge, then swing my feet over and lean myself forward, would that be enough to tip me over? Maybe not so I'd push myself too and then I would be falling. I could feel that curved greasy plastic of the rail underneath me as I pushed myself forward over it, I could feel the transition between that and the empty air, the air rushing past me was so vivid; through my hair, rippling my clothes, making me breathless and squint my eyes, the speed of my decent would increase until finally: impact. It would shake my entire body. There would be a couple of milliseconds of no change: my body's reaction time. Then pain. As my bones shattered blood oozing as my breath hitched and systems started to fail. My blood would form a puddle, reaching the Christmas tree, why was that still there at this time of year? But I would not know that as my mind would be blank, never to think again. Yes that was it.
Suddenly a hand was gripping my arm. I gasped, falling back from having been so stiff. I looked up to see Alistor holding me firmly with a worried frown on his face. Somehow he managed to look worried, comforting and forbidding at the same time. I looked around disorientated. All my family was looking at me with concern.
I suddenly felt embarrassed which was completely wiped away with a feeling of horror. What the hell had I been thinking? I had almost tried to kill myself. Kill. My. Self! I had almost DIED! I was so close to… and then everything would be over. Forever. There would be no turning back. I suddenly felt really light headed and started to rock on my feet, threatening to pass out.
I vaguely felt one of my brothers pulling me into a hug, supporting my body and guiding me to what must have been an exit. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it, it was all I could hear, the only thing loud enough to compete with it was my rapid breaths. I wasn't blind but I couldn't concentrate enough to see, well more like register what I was seeing. I think I might have giggled a bit. I pressed into the secure grip of my brother and blacked out.