Chapter Two - With the Setting Sun

It took a while before I could think reasonably clearly again. What just happened?

My head was empty.

I cautiously risked a look at the clock, it was already two in the morning. Have I really been on the road for over an hour? It hadn't seemed that long to me. I should really go home, I thought to myself. Because my mom would get up at 3 a.m., she started work at 4 a.m. today, and if she found out I wasn't at home, she'd freak out. She didn't mind if I went out, even if it was a little later. But if she knew that I'd walked all the way to the end of town only by myself - I couldn't imagine that she would like that.

Although I wanted to start running, I stood almost motionless. I had no idea why. Something was stopping my legs from doing what I asked them to do. In the same second I had to think about the boy again and how easy it was to stop him from jumping - almost too easy. The memory caused me both an embarrassing and a conflicting sense of regret.

As I was thinking about everything so deep in thought, I didn't even notice that my legs were doing what I wanted them to do again. They carried me back towards civilization. But for some reason, I ran all the way home.

Just in front of my destination there was only one problem. The lights in the kitchen where shining, which was right next to the entrance, and my room was on the first floor, to which the stairs were diagonally opposite. Despite initial hesitation, I decided to take a chance and just try to sneak in by the front door.

My heart was pounding wildly as I turned the key, careful not to make a too loud click sound. I carefully pushed open the door and peeked in. I had looked through the window earlier and didn't see my mother or anyone else. Almost silently I let the door fall shut and crept to the stairs. It was an art not to step on the spots that creaked and to dance around them elegantly.

Thank God no one really noticed anything, so I was able to go straight to my room without any worries.

But just as I was about to take off my jacket, I heard footsteps in the hallway outside my door. Immediately I just threw the jacket on the sofa, crawled under my covers and pretended to sleep. I had pulled the covers completely over my head so that I could only peek through a small gap.

My mother came into the room calmly and looked around suspiciously. Her gaze lingered on my jacket, which she studied for a few moments. Did she notice something? I sincerely hoped not. When she finally disappeared again, I tried to sleep, which wasn't easy for me after tonight, because I had a bad feeling. It was just too easy to convince the boy...

____________________________________________

A new day dawned.

Around 10:00 a.m. I was sitting at the dining table. My mother was on her lunch break, so she had breakfast with me, even though it wasn't early for her. "Where were you last night?" she randomly asked me, at least that's how it should look. With my mouth full, I answered her, since I was no longer able to swallow, "Here, at home, in my bed, and of course for a moment on the toilet. Where else?"

She looked at me angrily, but said nothing. She continued to read the newspaper leisurely before tossing it on the table and mumbling something. I looked at the front page with interest. When I stumbled across the headline, I was shocked...

| Boy (20) jumps off the Temture Bridge.(LastWay Bridge)

Two hours after his body was recovered, it inexplicably disappeared. |

Noo... Exactly the same bridge I was at the day before and this boy - was it the same one? I spit out all the food I had in my mouth into a napkin. Excitedly, my mother asked me, "Morgan? Is everything okay?" I didn't know how to react, whether to tell her, so I just stayed silent and didn't say anything...

My mother shook my shoulder and kept trying to talk to me. "Morgan, hey, you alright?" But I only noticed it in passing. I just stared at the newspaper article. The need to talk came up. I really wanted to tell someone and needed someone to talk to about it. But with whom? If I told my mom I was gone last night, no doubt she would go nuts.

Who else did I have, who could understand it, who was close enough to me and who was interested? But what was now much more important: what should I tell my mother?

"Mom," I began cautiously. "Bella told me this morning that she was at the bridge last night.. and there was a boy who wanted to jump," I switched in a flash, the words coming out of me without much thought. Sorry Bella. The whole time I couldn't take my eyes off the newspaper, but when I said the last word, I just had to turn towards her with a desperate look.

"The Bella that joined your class last month?" she asked me. "Yes - exactly that one, and I think it could be the same boy," I answered a little heavily. "Bella should go to the police!" she said immediately. "To do what?" I asked. Nothing could be prevented now. "To give them hints. Maybe she knows why he jumped."

I swallowed hard. "Yes, yes, I'll talk to her. I'll go to my room and call her," I tried to end the awkward conversation. Before she could even answer me, I was running up the stairs.

All I could think of the whole time was: crap! Damn! Damn! Damn! Daaaaaaaamn!

What am I supposed to do now? I felt sick.

I leaned against the wall and tried to take a deep breath. But it took a while before my heart stopped beating so hard that my ears were pounding.

Since my head cleared after a few minutes, I decided to actually call Bella first so she wouldn't spill the beans if my mother asks her about it.

Bella was clearly confused but agreed to help me. I promised her I would explain everything at the best opportunity.

I planned to sneak out again, later tonight, an hour after my mom was due to go to sleep. All of this just didn't let me rest. I hoped if I just went to the bridge it would get better. In the end, it's a pretty naive thought.

There had been too many cops at the bridge during the day, so I hoped there would be fewer or no people later, when it got dark.

But right now, it was hours before my mother would go to sleep anyways, so I tried to find out more about the incident on the internet. I just typed in the title of the article. I had no other clue. Except for his probable first name. The first page I clicked on was a total hit!

| Boy (20) jumps off the Temture Bridge (Lastway Bridge).

Two hours after his body was recovered, it inexplicably disappeared.

On Saturday the 18th, around 4:30 am, a jogger found the body of a boy under the Temture (Lastway Bridge). The popular bridge, which is the last way out of town, once again lived up to its name.

The woman informed the police immediately after finding the body, who then investigated the alleged crime scene.

Commissioner Robert Krauss commented on the case after the investigation: "It was clearly suicide! [...] The young man must have jumped off the bridge at around 3 a.m. It is still unclear to us who the young man is exactly. [...] What the officials also noticed were some indications that could indicate membership of a disreputable sect in our town." |

I stopped at that line because I couldn't imagine that the young man I met there could actually belong to something like that. The headlines about a curious sect based in our small town shocked almost every week. All the things you heard and saw about these people. Jared just didn't seem to fit the picture.

So I opened a new tab and started trying again to find out more about cults in our area. More than just newspaper articles. Of course I had also seen many reports in the news and also documentaries about it, but I hadn't retained a lot of the information.

So I entered the terms in a search engine. But everything that was written there was only about pretty sick stuff. Death and ruin. Nothing was objectively described. After a few hours of research, I finally gave up the search and set off. I could read the rest of the article at another time.

Today I ran as fast as I could to the bridge. I was out of breath when I got there, so I leaned against the first street light to catch my breath. I was reassured because nobody was there. Only a few remains of barrier tape were still stuck to the railing.

I hastily ran towards it and looked into the abyss. There wasn't much water there. Much more mud some stones, grass and other growths were down here. There had been very little rain lately.

Breathing still heavily, I turned around and realized that I wasn't as alone as I thought I was. Back there, not far from the same spot as yesterday, someone was sitting.

The figure was several meters away from me and looked male, almost exactly like the young man yesterday. Dark hair, dark clothes. However, he wasn't sitting on the railing, but on the sidewalk in front of it. I slowly took a few steps closer to see who was there...

As always, I didn't know how and if I should really approach the guy. In the end, I just asked, per standard, "Are you okay?" The man, or rather boy, sitting on the floor immediately looked up at me. He really did bear a striking resemblance to the boy from yesterday, but he wasn't the same. He looked younger. "Yes, I am fine," he replied, a little annoyed and probably was trying to brush me off. "Mmh, okay." I was afraid of annoying the boy and was about to walk away when he threw his glass bottle down the bridge and stopped me with his question, "Why are you asking?"

I shyly turned back to reply, "You reminded me of someone," I sighed. "And to whom, if I may ask?" He still seemed bored or even drunk?

"Just a boy I met here last night," I explained with little enthusiasm.

I didn't expect the following.

When I finished the sentence, the boy jumped up excitedly. "A boy? Was his name Jared?" He spoke so fast and hectically that I didn't understand almost half of it and had to think for a moment. "Erm... yes, that's what his name was, I think." Despite my confusion, I answered in an almost normal voice. He stared dejectedly at the floor and sat down heavily again.

"Jared was my brother," he began to tell. "He jumped off this very bridge yesterday," his voice grew heavier, you could tell he was fighting back tears.

I just stayed quiet and listened. Should I tell him about what had happened here yesterday and go into more detail on the subject that was causing him so much pain? I sighed internally.

"I saw him here yesterday, he was sitting there on the railing." Without consulting my head, my mouth continued to speak. "Of course I spoke to him immediately. He said he wanted to kill himself and of course I was trying to prevent that. I talked to him until he seemed to changed his mind. Shortly afterwards he thanked me and then left."

As soon as I had finished this sentence, Jared's supposed brother kissed me. At first I didn't even realize it.

The kiss didn't last too long. He held my head, looked deep into my eyes, and then said, "Thanks for at least trying to help him." He smelled strongly of alcohol.

Soon he let me go and disappeared on the same street where Jared had disappeared the day before.

Now what the hell was that?

It must run in the family, first they kiss you all of a sudden for no reason and then they disappear. I was far more than perplexed and my mind went crazy.

I looked up at a lantern, confused.

Okay so it was Jared who jumped, I realized. I thought about my missed opportunity to ask Jared's brother about his possible cult affiliation and also about my mother's words. The former would have been tactless and the latter:

What would be the point of going to the police anyway? They would only ask me questions that wouldn't get anyone very far. He was dead and nothing would change that. So I won't go to the police, I told myself. Whether it was a good decision or a stupid one, I would find out. But what I was still interested in: why did his body disappear?

I hadn't gotten around to read the article any further, but the headline made it very clear.

It was getting cold. I was spending far too much time here again, which is why I gradually made my way home. At the front of the main street I stopped briefly on the sidewalk. I took out my phone and looked for something in the menu. I was about to start walking when it sounded like a voice whispering my name. It.. it sounded like.. Jared's voice.

With my heart beating fast, I stopped at the side of the road and turned around, but there was nothing. And right at that moment, a car raced past behind me at a speed of 70 km/h. I got startled and jumped back onto the sidewalk. What the? Did I just imagine the voice?

I was totally exhausted. My mind went completely insane.

At the same time I was glad, because if it hadn't been for that voice or imagination, the car would probably have run over me. I ran home as fast as I could to just lie down and recover from the shock.