“Frozen”, Payton Pan ‘22

e December air was crisp, a thin sheet of snow covering the bridge.

e water below was dark as ever, contrasting itself to the midnight ice.

I glanced down at my phone, waiting for it to buzz with a text from Rain. We had attempted to make vague plans for the day, but she had gone radio silent a few hours ago.

I had decided to head over to her apartment anyways, wanting to see if she was still up for something. She’d probably be asleep by now, but still.

Up ahead, just where the bridge ended, I noticed the ashing of red and blue lights. My body lled with ice as if I had become the winter bridge.

I jogged up to the scene, blocked off with barriers. Two police cars and an ambulance had gathered around the edge of the water. I craned my head to look.

A couple more people had gathered around the scene, obviously drawn to the lights like I was.

We all watched anxiously as they pulled what I had gathered to be a corpse from the water, and as they carried the body onto the stretcher and to the ambulance, my entire body went numb.

Her eyes were as blue as the water–a lifeless sea of black.

e world seemed to stop as my own crumbled, but I could make out the conversation of the people next to me.

“Can you believe she did that?”

“Yeah, I wonder if she regretted it before she hit the water. It is a long way down.”

at is where I lost her.