DO NOT OPEN.
That's what the big red sign above the window said. But Cat apparently wouldn't let any sign be the boss of him.
Josef could feel the cold air from the open window. It felt like small, cold knives, digging under his skin. He was in the Globetropolis Scepter, the tallest building in town. The head on the top of the tower was shaped like a gigantic diamond, and it was made out of Plexiglas so that you could look down and see the city below. The glass was so clear that it looked like you were walking on air. Right now, it made Josef even more uncomfortable.
"You want me to WHAT?"
"Jump." Cat waved an arm at the open window. "I can't believe I didn't think of this right away, really. It was so obvious."
"... Alright, that's it! I'm going home!"
"WAIT!" Cat blocked the way to the elevator. "Please, hear me out..."
"No! What, you want me to commit suicide just to prove that your little fantasy world is real?! Just make me jump from some tall building, and then hope tha-"
"It's not just A tall building, Starchild. It's THE tall building! This is where you discovered your powers, man!"
"Move aside, I'm getting out of hear, and I hope that I won't ever have to see your stu-"
"WHY did you show up!?" Josef sensed panic in Cat's voice. "If I'm just some crazy jerk, then WHY did you show up at all?"
"Because... Well... I just, I... ARGH!!!" Josef sat down on one of the benches in the room. "God, what is wrong with me..."
"Look, I know this will work. I just know it will. If we can re-create your secret origin, it could activate your powers, like the first time you fell down from the Scepter."
"That's easy for YOU to say! YOU are not the one who has to take a leap of faith! LITERALLY!"
"Come on, I'm not a complete moron. Uno momento!" Cat went over to a huge, human-sized bag that Josef only now notices. Odd ´, since it was next to the window. Then again, overlooking the window was sort of impossible right now. "Look!" Cat now held some sort of... gun(?) that he got from the bag. "Grappling-hook gun! If you don't start flying, I will rescue you!"
Josef looked at the gun with disbelieve in his eyes. "Does that thing... work?"
"Heck yeah!" Cat started to pose with the gun. "I tested it, like... three times!"
"Gee, I feel SO much better now..."
"Look... if I'm just some mentally ill guy, why did you show up?"
Josef gave Cat an angry glare. "... Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm a mess right now. I haven't slept properly for at least four days. And four days with only 2 to 3 hours rest kinda fries ones brain. And I wonder who's fault THAT is!"
"I couldn't come at day, could I?! If your neighbors saw me, they would call the police and they would send me back to the Sunflower Sanitarium!"
"Have you considered that you may BELONG there!? How can I REALLY know that you aren't crazy, and your little superhero world is not the result of being sad over lacking a purpose or that you are just darn sad about the state of the world? Can you prove to me that super-powered criminals actually rules the world from the shadows?"
Cat hesitated. "I, um... I guess I can't."
One of the things about Cat that really annoyed Josef was the tone in his voice. He usually had a sort-of cartoon slapstick kind of tone that made him difficult to both share a room with as well as taking serious. But that tone was gone now. Cat actually sounded like a real person.
"... I guess you could be right. Maybe... Maybe I'm just, ah... maybe it's all in my head. It's just so..." Cat started to giggle nervously. "I just... I'm so sure. I'm so sure that I'm not insane... But, ah... But the doctors and nurses told me that... that it's... that... Look, I just can't ACCEPT it, okay? My life, the one I remember... It, ah... It just feels so real, so... I just... I won't accept that it's something I made up. I NEED to know that it's not made up."
"So it's not about saving the world, is it? It's ALL about YOU! About YOU needing to know that you are right! And you are ready to risk my life to prove it!"
"Hey, screw you!" Cat pointed an accusing finger at Josef with one hand, and made a furious fist with other. Despite the ever-smiling mask, you could see his entire body shake by anger. "You are no better than me! You could have called the authorities! They would have send me back to the sanitarium where I would get the help that I may not want, but that I need! If I'm really that crazy, then you allowed me to run around freely, bringing myself and others in danger! And why is that, hmm?! Maybe because you realized that I was the most exiting thing that happened in your poop of a pathetic little life!?"
Then came a pause where they just gave each other angry glares. Granted, Josef couldn't see Cat's face, but he could just feel the negative energy aimed toward him.
"Look..." Cat sighed. "If you want to leave... Fine. I get it. Live your life. If anyone deserves a more or less peaceful life, it's you. You don't have to be a superhero again. I can find someone else. I just wanted to make you remember because... Well, I remember you as my best friend."
"..." Josef stood up. He looked at the elevator, the gate back to normality. He took a look at Cat, now sitting on the bench, burying his masked face in his hands. He looked at the open window. And then, the gigantic bag. "... Okay, I gotta know; what's in the bag?"
"... Believe me, you don't wanna know. It's pretty creepy. All you have to know is that it's part of the plan if yo- WHEN you fly, I mean WHEN."
"Oh..."
"Yeah..."
"..."
Josef took one last look at Cat. Then, he pressed the button on the elevator, and it opened. Now he could return to his old life.
Yep, his old, normal life.
A life of dealing out mail till he became an old man who would ask why he didn't do more. He would probably live the rest of his life in a neighborhood that smelled like pee, unless he accidentally looked at a drug dealer the wrong way, or bothered a pimp.
All he had to do was stepping into the elevator, and he would return to the dullness of lacking a true purpose.
If he had been a smarter man, he would have done that.
Cat looked up as he heard the elevator closing. Josef was still there.
"... And you are ABSOLUTELY sure that grappling-hook thingy works?" Josef asked.
"... YES!" Cat sounded like happy as a child from a Christmas film who had been told that the holiday had been saved by Kelsey Grammer. "I promise! It totally works! I'm 101,15% sure!"
"Alright, let's do this..." Josef placed one foot on the open window. He could feel all the hairs on his arm raising up. "Cat!"
"Yeah?"
"If I die, I'm gonna freaking kill you!"
"It WILL work."
"Hope you are right..."
"I'm always right, unless I'm wrong."
Josef looked down at the ground below. 400 feet between him and terra firma. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath.
... and then, he leapt.
...........................................................................
"... And so we lay him to rest, and hope his soul finds peace."
The end... ?
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