My Legs Are Dangling

I shut my eyes as I fell, letting the feeling of the wind blowing around my body be the last thing I really felt. I heard a whoosh of something, but didn't bother to open my eyes to investigate, rather keep them closed and await for the feeling of nothing, but it never came. I still felt the wind, and it didn't feel like I was falling anymore, which confused me. I opened my eyes, but saw nothing, which confused me even more. It was just pure black, even though there was still light in the sky. What was happening? I couldn't really hear anything other than the wind, which was hitting me in the face uncomfortably, and when I tried to move my arm to cover it, I couldn't. It was being held by something, something that I couldn't see. My breathing began to pick up a little, and I tried to jerk my arm away from whatever was holding it, then trying the other one, but getting nothing. All that moved was my hand, and even that only moved barely.

I decided to ignore it, shaking my head a little, and closed my eyes again, sighing to myself. What a failure, you can’t even jump off a building correctly, now what are you going to do with yourself? I thought, sighing again. I could feel my feet touching the ground after a few minutes, and then I was dropped to my knees by whatever was holding me, my arms dropping to my sides as it let me go. I groaned and fell forward a little bit, feeling grass between my fingers, causing me to open my eyes and look at the ground in front of me.

Grass? No, that's not right, I was in the middle of the city when I jumped, how did I get all the way out to the hills at the edge of town? My head throbbed in confusion and I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping at the ground for a few moments, before opening my eyes again and snapping my head up, hearing a small grunt come from in front of me. My eyes widened when I saw a tall, shorter than me, however, middle-aged man, maybe 27, standing in front of me, every inch of visible skin, minus his face, covered in colourful tattoos. They reminded me of my own, except with more colour. I looked up at his face and squinted, not recognizing him. He was standing, his arms crossed over his chest, a frown on his face, staring at me in what looked to be disappointment.

I sat up a little, narrowing my eyes at him, backing away a little. “Who are you? What do you want with me?” I asked warily, earning a small eyeroll in response.

“I don’t want anything from you,” he spoke, his voice accented with a heavy British accent. “I expected better from you, though, Austin. Jumping off a building was not on my list, but it made it easy to save you,” he shook his head, uncrossing his arms and rubbing the bridge of his nose, starting to pace in front of me. I got even more uneasy.

“What do you mean you expected better? How do you know my name? Who are you?!” I asked again, getting slightly panicked.

He stopped pacing and turned to face me again, kneeling down in front of me. “I’ve been watching you, for a long time now. I watched your downward spiral, going from one of the happiest, nicest people on the whole planet,” he sighed, looking at the ground. “To a overly sad, bitter human, who interacted with no one. I know who you are, I know almost everything about you, and probably some things even you don’t know,” he rose to his feet again, offering me a hand, which I gave a wary stare before taking and rising to my feet after him.

“Okay, creepy, but you still haven’t told me who you are,” I told him, and he smiled at me.

“Think of me as… a guardian… of sorts. I watch over you, make sure you don’t get hurt, you know that stuff. I live in your apartment building, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed me yet,” he chuckled, turning to face the horizon again. “My name’s Oliver, but you can call me Oli if you’d like,” he said after a few more minutes of silence. He turned to look at me one more time. “I expect you can get home okay, we’re no more than ten minutes by foot,” he asked, and I nodded numbly. Oliver smiled again. “Good. Well, I’ll be seeing you, then,” he waved my way, and I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant, but he ignored me, starting to walk away from the town. I frowned, shaking my head, turning towards the city and starting to walk, wondering why he even bothered to save me. I’m nothing.