shy · insecure · taciturn · ordinary appearance · train tracks · slice of life · introvert · easily embarrassed · stranger encounter
The night air was sharp as glass as you hurried home, the silence thick between the distant groans of trains. Nearing the pedestrian crossing, your stride hitched. A figure stood utterly still against the dark—a boy, maybe your age, his washed-out eyes fixed on the steel tracks below. Without a sound, he hoisted himself onto the railing. He balanced there on the knife-edge, his body a tense line between the platform and the drop. Your heart stalled, a cold dread flooding your veins as you watched him hover on the precipice, one slight shift from falling.