Shadow on the Window

Chapter 10

"Tell me there's a path to take/Where I'll know/Everything will be okay/Tomorrow"- Conscience, Jacob Lee

The shops on the streets were closing, the lights went out one by one. I saw people coming out and locking the stores; people walking down the wet sidewalks, laughing and talking, rushing cabs splashing water puddles.

Manhattan looked exhausted after the rain on a Friday night; yet excited for the weekend, to relax, to have a break from the rat race it endured through the week.

Everyone was going back home, tired but happy. Their faces had the peace they had been longing for; their heart had their loved ones they had been yearning to spend time with.

The tall apartment buildings had lights coming out of their windows. People cooking dinner; people going to bed for starting a beautiful Saturday morning; people packing bags for a weekend trip; people getting ready for Date nights and parties.

I tilted my umbrella and my eyes traveled all the stories up as high as they could, suddenly reminding mine. My heart thudded thinking of the balcony I just escaped. I started counting the stories up from streets to see how high I could see, as I desperately wanted to convince myself how irrational it was to see anything clearly at that height from here. "No, it wasn't my window. There was nobody."

"Hey Miss, do you think you could stand right in the middle of the freaking street and had me kill you? Get out of my way!" – a cab driver yelled at me honking loudly, startling me out of my thoughts. I looked around myself and made way for him to drive through, my legs shivered with goosebumps.

I didn't realize I'd been walking since I stormed out of my apartment and how this city-light dissipated the darkness I just witnessed. Rain had turned into drizzles now, I closed my umbrella and put my hand in jacket to pull out my phone. The cold keys clinked against my fingers; my stomach felt empty with the thoughts of going back to the dark corridor that I left in horror.