*Trigger warning for suicide attempt*
Someone's on the roof. Female, I think.'
Stuart looked from his colleague up to the figure at the rooftop's edge. A crowd of people surrounding him, including some fellow officers, also watched.
'Won't speak to anyone but you, it seems, Milligan,' the colleague said.
'Why's that?'
'No idea.'
He hoped he could help them. Frankly, he hated doing these, because they never ended terribly well when he did them. Maybe this time, his luck would change.
He reached the rooftop. Female, just as his colleague had said.
As he approached her, he studied her. It couldn't have been.
'Six floors. That's all it'll take,' said Andrea, her back to him.
'Andrea, I-'
'Six minutes is all it took you to abandon me.'
'But, you were the one who vanished when I came back inside.'
'No, I'd just gone to the toilet. If you had waited-'
'A man was sitting in your place when I returned, Andrea. He told me you were never there.'
Her head twisted round to face Stuart directly, but her body did not.
'And she wasn't, Mr Milligan.'
It was the man's voice, but Andrea's body.
Stuart couldn't decide if he was angry, frightened, or confused.
'Okay. Not an angel, or a ghost. 'What are you?'
Stuart stared at her.
Andrea's eyes filled with tears, as she looked forward again.
'I thought you cared,' she sobbed. 'But you're just like the others.'
Stuart's emotions raged like a battlefield. He stared long and hard at the woman before him.
'If you jump, you'll live.'
Andrea stopped.
'Do you want me to jump?'
'Of course not!' he said, stepping forward. 'I don't know what you are. But the woman you're impersonating...I love her.'
Silence.
'And I shouldn't. I'm not even supposed to know what love is.'
Andrea stood up, facing him. The malicious smile resurfaced.
'Save me, then.'
Before Stuart could speak, she plummeted.
He sprinted to the edge, as Andrea vanished from view.
Stuart watched as she fell further and further down...