Continued from yesterday-BETRAYAL part 5

‘Hey there’, she said as normally as possible, as he put his left foot forward in the attempt to jump.

Damon’s smiled froze as did his foot. He frowned as he put his feet back together and turned around to face her. ‘What are you doing here?’, he snapped. ‘Don’t come closer! Don’t! Or I’ll jump.’

‘Oh.’

Damon stared at that girl, wearing jeans and shirt in a party of gowns and dresses. ‘What are you doing here?’, he asked again, surprised at her monosyllabic reaction.

‘I needed some fresh air. Downstairs is too full of complicated conversations of what who said to whom and why. I mean, there’s the dance and all, but I don’t have anyone to talk to, and I was bo...’

‘Just go away.’ said Damon, shaking his head.

‘I can’t.’

‘You have to.’

‘No I don’t.’

‘What do you want?’

‘For you to come off that ledge.’ Alice stepped closer as she said this, uncertainly, as she feared he would really lose it and jump.

Meanwhile, this unexpected turn of events had put Damon in a state of bewilderment. He had forgotten about his threat, but as she came within inches of touching him, he suddenly turned away again.

‘Why do want to save me? You do not know me. It’s better that I leave.’

‘How do I leave, knowing that I am talking to you for the first and last time?’

‘Forget you ever spoke with me. Just go, Alice.’

‘Do I look stupid, Damon? Maybe I do look stupid, but I am not. I don’t want to act hero or something, but the CCTVs have recorded my presence here as well as yours and I am not going to the gaols in charges that I persuaded you to jump off a terrace.’

Alice knew no better excuse right then for stopping him from taking that step. She knew she sounded retarded but she also knew that there was no way she would allow Damon in taking that one step.

‘Are you mad? You are worried about CCTVs while I’m trying to jump?’ Having never encountered such a situation, Damon’s bewilderment kept growing at this girl. Earlier, when he had tried to end his life, others had scolded, sympathised and even held long counselling sessions with him, so that he would never have such thoughts again. All such attempts had failed miserably. This girl, however, had something about her, a strange pull, which Damon wanted to surrender to. He wanted to come off the ledge after a long, long time.

 But he was fighting this urge. It had taken him a lot of pains to come to this point of time. He wanted to jump, but he couldn’t.

‘It’s you who said that I did not care if you take that jump or not. So better be the option where I care for my skin than yours.’ Alice broke his reverie. ‘Come on now, you don’t want to take that fall. God, you’ll be flatter than a pancake down there.’ She said peering down the edge.

Damon could just stare at her. Sandwiched in the middle of an internal war to decide whether to join her on the terrace, or join his brother upstairs, he chose the former. And for this decision, he couldn't believe himself.