The Lagos skyline bled in different shades of colors through a twilight haze, a jagged symphony of chrome and ambition clawing at the bruised purple and blue skies that covered the island and chrome towers rising majestically from its heart.

  The below city pulsed and glowed, a frantic heartbeat of hover-traffic, jostling crowds, and sky rails descending to spit out one batch of passengers before ingesting more and taking off once again leaving behinds fumes that should be deadly but rather gives the refreshing scent of cloves and mint.

  The rest of the surrounding air was thick and cloying with the added odor of ozone, humid synthetic earth soil, and the metallic tang of biofuels in all grades – cheap, renewable and expensive.

  From his vantage point, leaning against the cool plasteel railing of the EkoBioGen University Hospital’s sky bridge, Disa felt like a ghost observing a life he couldn't quite touch – no matter how much he wished to do so.

  He adjusted the collar of his standard issue bio scrubs, the crisp brown gold fabric a stark contrast to the swirling city lights reflected in his mismatched eyes hidden beneath tinted holo lens – his right a warm, molten gold-brown while the left a startling, icy silver-blue. Occasionally they glowed or throbbed according to his emotional, or physical state. Caused by a rare genetic mutation of unknown origins or “Heterochromia with a twist”, it used to be called by scientists in online articles he had found buried under miles of old world codes in health archives on the net thread – it was wiki health or something.

  “Cursed eyes”, the cybernetic-alagbàs of the Bio-village he grew up in called them. “Eyes touched by the gods before birth, eyes that saw too much but felt too little”. Due to this most of the villagers regarded him wearily while others kept his family at arms length. Often times the elders had blamed him whenever tragedy struck the villagers.

  Modern day medicine however, labeled him a genetic quirk at best and a mutation at worst, a cosmic joke that marked him as, “àjòjì” – a strange being living in a world striving for synthetic perfection. Over the years as he grew older he quickly learnt that people stared. Some with blatant curiosity, others with suspicion, and most with outright hostility.

  In public whether at work or school he’d learnt to keep his gaze down, and himself safe from frequent criticism by retreating behind a wall of detached professionalism, or better still his tinted holographic lens – once he had been to afford one.

  Yet as he watched peers and lab mates interact and mingle with one another day by day. The loneliness gnawed at him – a raw and persistent ache for simple acceptance by his fellow men and society, wondering if he would spend forever searching for a place where his eyes didn’t define him before he even introduced himself.

  EkoBioGen was the pinnacle of Lagosian medical advancement a gleaming behemoth of two large sky towers connected together by series of sky bridges and rails. Here life was extended, enhanced, and sometimes, manufactured, in simple terms it was the place to be for any doctor, nurse or scientist seeking recognition in the century.

  For any biotechnologist, genetics researcher or technical scientist to be Interning at the hospital laboratory was a privilege and testament to dedication.

  For Disa it was a dream his aunt had filled his head with away from the toils and difficulties they faced living in a bio-village. A large mine where everyone from the oldest to the youngest toiled mining all sorts of biofuel they could get their hands for big corporations. Most days it was a frantic, caffeine-fueled blur of fetching samples, monitoring vitals, cleaning repurposed surgical bots, and trying desperately not to appear as overwhelmed as he felt in the day to day bustle. It was a world of sterile efficiency, humming machinery, and the constant, low-level anxiety of life-and-death decisions made by those far above his pay grade/clearance level.

  Even amidst the technological marvels – the Nano-med scanners, the auto-suture arms, the holographic diagnostic displays – remnants of the old world lingered. Herbal remedies delivered by renowned cyber alagbàs were sometimes whispered about in hushed tones in the waiting rooms, faded ancestral patterns adorned the robes of visiting state elders, and the rhythmic thrum of distant talking drums that constantly played at the metro TB square and tourist stations occasionally seeped through the soundproofed walls from the sprawling city below.

  Sometimes Disa envied the guides that got to show visiting tourists the unique beauty of a culture that was fast fading beneath the chrome like perfection of the city. He particularly loved the holo tour ads proclaiming : “This is Lagos: a city negotiating its future with lessons of the past”.

  It was a vibrant, chaotic fusion that both fascinated and unsettled him.

  Disa took a deep breath and held it, ignoring the different scent of chemicals and ozone that assaulted his senses this close to the top of the sky towers. He focused on the currents that filled the atmosphere instead. The charged low hum that constantly vibrated through the sky bridge’s structure caused the hair at the back of his to stand, while his eye glowed gently behind his lens. It was a peculiar mixture of the usual Friday night energy amplified by his own restless spirit.

  Absently he traced the glowing circuit patterns embedded in the floor panels with the toe of his worn boot. He should probably be studying, memorizing cranial nerve pathways for neural links, synth cells and their uses or the complex interactions of the latest gene therapies. Instead, he found himself drawn here, to the liminal space between the controlled environment of the hospital and the untamed sprawl of Lagos metro city.

  Below him rows of crisscrossing bridges linked both of the hospital towers to the flow of traffic and day to day hustle of sleek aero-cars weaving silent paths between towering holo-advertisements, battered cargo haulers lumbering through designated sky-lanes, and the occasional flash of a souped-up hover bike weaving recklessly through the gaps.

  A flicker of movement at the far end of the sky bridge caught his attention just as he pulled back from his dizzying perch.

  Indistinct at first. He straightened and leaned closer, squinting against the glare of a passing corporate shuttle.

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  He could see a figure standing so still and quiet that, if it wasn’t for the delicate braids threaded with silver wires catching the light he wouldn’t have noticed her against the glare of city lights. She looked small and slender, standing too close to the edge of the plasteel railing. With a frown Disa squinted again. “Too close” – he whispere, she was standing too close to the edge.

  Later on he would describe the moment he realized what was going on like a switch went on in his brain as his medical training kicked in

  “Assess the situation. Distance, potential hazards, subject’s behavior and approach”.

  The run down of emergency protocols he knew from the brief mandatory training all staff at the EkoBioGen hospital went through before employment zipped through his head as he realized the girl wasn’t moving erratically, wasn’t shouting. She was Just… standing there. Leaning over, towards the dizzying drop, mirroring his earlier pose. But the stillness was wrong. Too absolute. Too deliberate. And all too familiar for him to ignore.

  Disa started walking, his footsteps echoing slightly. Not too fast, but quick enough to get him closer without startling her. He kept his voice low, calm.

  "Excuse me?. Miss. Are you alright?".

  No response. The figure remained motionless, a fragile silhouette against the overwhelming backdrop of the city. He was closer now, maybe twenty meters away. He could make out the light color of her clothing, recognized the patient frock she had on. But still no reaction, none at all from her. It was like she was no longer there physically.

  "Hello !! ”.

  he called again, a little louder, forcing a non-threatening tone as he moved faster.

  “It's pretty late to be out here and Hospital access is restricted to staff only”.

  He tried again cringing slightly at his lie.

  The figure shifted slightly, leaning over the edge as though in a trance by the promise of oblivion the fall offered to her seductively.

  A cold dread, sharp and sudden, pierced through Dias’s clinical assessment. His steps quickened his boots now echoing loudly on the corner of the bridge as he strained to get closer. He saw the subtle shift of weight, and time seemed to fracture as his eyes twitched in time to the beat of his hammering heart and feet.

  He broke Into a run, the rubber soles of his boots squeaking on the plasteel floor, his own breath catching in his throat, the neon city lights smearing into abstract blurry streaks as he pushed to get closer before the inevitable. The distant unfamiliar thrumming faded to the back of his mind. As all his focus narrowed onto that small figure and the railing – just a few feet left.

  "No! Wait!!!"

  He screamed.

  She didn't. With a terrifying lack of hesitation, she climbed onto the lower rung of the railing.

  No!, Stop!!!”.

  He shouted again, no longer caring about protocols and approach measures. He pushed himself harder, legs pumping, heart pounding as he raced to cross the few feet that stretched into an infinite distance.

  He wouldn’t make It. The thought slammed into him, cold and brutal. Too far. Too late – as always.

  He saw her gather herself, both legs now over the railing and take a brief pause, one last breath to hold close to her chest before the plunge.

  After the incident he would wonder why he didn’t stop. Whether it was Instinct, desperation, or some primal refusal to witness death that propelled him. He launched himself the last few feet, arms outstretched, fingers grasping.

  He grunted when he felt the rough texture of fabric under his hand, before making a desperate, snagging grip on the sleeves brushing against a skin so soft he almost let go for fear of bruising it.

  Air whooshed out of him, and he closed his eyes against the sick lurch of his stomach and the dizzying drop down below.

  He didn’t see the startled eyes that stared up him in blank resolution turned to confusion.

  Let go they conveyed with a desperation he was too blind to see as he struggled to pull them both back from the edge of death they were dancing on.

  For a heart-stopping moment, gravity fought him, pulling their combined weight downwards and over. His shoulder screamed in protest but he braced himself, digging his heels in while yanking backwards with every ounce of strength he possessed.

  “Ahhhhh!!!!......…”

  Momentum broken. They fell heavily back onto the bridge floor landing in a tangled heap of arms and legs. Disa stared up into the cloudy sky, his chest heaving, adrenaline singing a high, frantic note in his ears as he came to terms with the fact that he could have died while attempting to save a strange girl on a bridge suspend so many feet from the ground it wasn’t funny.

  Disa pushed himself up onto his elbows, his own hands trembling as he pushed up on his elbows to see her clearly. The neon lights painted the scene in garish hues of shifting colors he couldn’t tell apart from the glow of his own twitching eye.

  He glanced at the young woman – probably not much older than himself. Her face was turned away, buried in her arms, strands of dark hair and silver synth threads plastered to her skin by sweat or tears he couldn’t tell.

  "Are you… are you hurt?" He managed, his voice hoarse.

  She didn't answer, her whole body trembled with each breath she took. Slowly she pushed herself up on hands that shook worse than her body. She turned her head Just as slowly to look at him. Her eyes, when they found his, weren't filled with relief or fear or even shock.

  None of the usual text book responses training protocol assured were necessary and normal were present. Instead both eyes were filled with blazing anger. A fury so profound it seemed to burn away the lingering terror of the near-fall. While also sending a pure electric jolt through his system.

  "Let go of me," she spat, her voice low and tight, vibrating with a controlled rage that was almost more frightening than the abyss she'd courted. Her gaze flickered to his hand, still clamped onto her dress sleeve, then up to his face, lingering for a fraction of a second on his mismatched eyes – the glow reflected in hers distracted him so it took a second to realize they were gone.

  In that moment Disa suddenly felt naked when the wind blew across his face, the usual protection his holo lens offered gone – most probably during his attempt to pull her back and he hadn’t even noticed until that moment. A flicker of something unreadable crossed her features before the anger surged back in full force and she tried to jerk her arm out of his grip weakly.

  The sheer force of her rejection stunned him more than the physical exertion of the rescue. He’d expected tears, breakdown, disorientation – not this cold, hard fury directed squarely at him, her unwilling savior.

  “Like seriously”.

  The shock held him captive. He felt the cool plasteel under his palm, the throb in his shoulder from the unfamiliar gymnastic exercise he had just put it through and the frantic pulse his heart against his ribs. He didn’t understand, he had put himself at risk and she was angry.

  He had just pulled this woman – fuck it girl – back from the edge of oblivion, felt the terrifying dead weight of her surrender to gravity, and her first reaction was rage.

  He saw the tension in her jaw, the rigid set of her shoulders as she pushed herself further away from him, scrambling backwards like he was the source of danger and not she herself. The silence stretched, thick with unspoken questions and the chilling reality of what had almost happened. Below, the city continued its indifferent dance of light and motion, oblivious to the small but intense drama playing out hundreds of meters above its streets.

  Disa looked from the young woman’s hostile face to the empty railing, the wind tugging at his scrubs, a visceral echo of the fall that hadn’t happened reverberating through him. He had saved her, but the look in her eyes made him feel like he had committed a great offense by stealing something she desperately wanted, leaving him annoyed and utterly bewildered.

  Seconds later the silence was broken by the first frantic shouts of approaching hospital security personnel from the building entrance, their heavy boots pounding on the plasteel as they rushed towards them finally breaking the strange spell they both found themselves in.

  Disa had to wonder though

  "What now ?".....................