1 Dark Watery Depths

Sora leaned back on his office chair and stretched his arms high above his head, letting out a long sigh.

He thread his fingers through his messy brown hair, massaging his scalp in hopes to ease his headache. Thankfully he's finally finished work for the day.

The lights in all the other cubicles are off, and only the soft glow of the computer screen illuminated Sora's exhausted features.

Everyone had gone home already, and his eyes flickered over to the time in the bottom right corner of the monitor, blinking dazedly upon realising it was close to midnight.

Guess he should start heading back to the apartment now. Any later than this and he won't get much sleep, since he needs to be up at 6am, but then again he never catches that much sleep to begin with anyway.

Quietly, Sora turned off the computer and collected his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he went down the elevator and strolled out of the building into the cold night. The weather during this time of year was relentless.

He walks down the empty street, watching as his breath made puffs of white clouds in the air before deciding to tug his coat closer to his body, snuggling his face into his cheap navy scarf he got for himself last Christmas. It was itchy and uncomfortable, the fibres always irritated his skin but at least it kept him warm.

Sora's head was beginning to grow more painful and he knows he's also strained his eyes from staring at a screen all day but what else can he do? He has to work. That's all he can do. That's all he ever does.

The money he gets every month in his paycheck isn't a lot, but at least it's still something and it helps him scrape by with the main necessities. Rent. Bills. Food. Sora can't afford to have any sick days and time off work.

Life was a drag, it was the same old routine everyday. Wake up, go to work, go home, go to sleep and the cycle repeats. Nothing exciting ever happened, and Sora was tired. Stuck in a constant state of exhaustion.

Getting lost in his thoughts, Sora jumped at the sound of a loud cry. It was coming from the bridge in front of him, and he looked up, catching sight of a man and a woman underneath a lamppost. The man was grabbing onto the woman's arm, trying to drag her somewhere but she kept telling him to go away.

Sora's eyebrows shot up, heart hammering in his chest. What was happening? He got closer, recognising the scuffle, and shouted 'hey!' without even thinking. The man turned around and snarled, his hold on the woman tightening, making the poor lady wince noticeably.

"You might want to let go of the lady," Sora calmly said, subtly taking his phone out behind his back and typing in the police's number, ready to call if things escalated.

He made eye contact with the blonde woman who looked frightened, tears swimming in her eyes, silently pleading for Sora to help her. "I don't think she appreciates you grabbing her like that."

"F*ck off, man. Stop shovin' yer nose in other people's business, yeah? She's fine, she's with me." He said, voice ragged. Most likely drunk.

Sora fought the urge to roll his eyes. It's obvious to anyone that he was harassing her.

"Please Johnathan, I keep telling you this," The lady sobbed, "You're not my boyfriend anymore. Just stop this. Stop following me around! You can't-"

The man suddenly gripped the sides of her face with one hand, hard, and held onto her arm with the other. She whimpered and tried to pull her arm out of his grasp, but he was stronger than her.

The next sequence of events happened so fast that Sora almost missed it. The man had reached into his back pocket and taken out a knife, small but deadly, and held it up to the blonde woman's neck.

"Just come with me, baby." He slurred, the sexual undertones of his voice filling Sora with disgust.

"Why are you- you being so difficult? I know, you've probably had a rough day... and, yer wanna be alone. S'happened before, I know what you're like. That's why you don't want to come with me, right? But being all by yourself is dangerous. Don't worry, I'll protect you. Once we get to my house I'll, I'll make everything better, I'm the only one who can keep you safe. Things will go back to how they used to."

Sora swallowed his saliva. This man was sick. Delusional. The lady had tears streaming down her face, and Sora couldn't let this go any further. There was no way in hell he was letting this man take her away.

The moment he saw the knife he immediately pressed call, the situation had gotten worse, unfortunately. He sighed.

"Hello? Yes, there is a situation... a gentleman here is harassing a woman. He's also making threats while in possession of a knife." A beat. "We're at Knighton Bridge. Please hurry."

Was this an idiot? The police station was literally a 2 minute walk down the road, opposite his workplace. Did he think he was going to get away? Unsurprisingly, the sound of sirens blared in the distance.

When the man heard the sirens, he stiffened up, his eyes immediately turned deadly, staring at Sora- or more precisely, the phone in his hand.

"You… f*cker! How dare you!"

Enraged, he lunged at Sora, and for a moment, Sora was frozen still. His feet were stuck to the ground, as if wet concrete had been poured around his legs, heavy and unmoving. It was only a few seconds until he finally managed to gain back his mobility, but even then it was too late.

Sora saw the blade of the knife as it emerged out of his chest, glinting underneath the streetlight, dipped in dark red blood.

His blood.

F*ck. What the hell had just happened?

Stunned, Sora stumbled, shaking hands grabbing hold of the bridge railing. His vision was growing fuzzy, and his body felt unbearably warm, his chest burning in pain.

It was like there was a wildfire in his lungs. And the next thing he knew- Sora was facing up at the dark sky. The man had pushed him off the railing.

The last thing Sora heard was a scream, and before he plunged into deep cold waters he saw a hand reaching out towards him, but his fingers missed their grasp by a hair's breadth.