The wind howls through the steel girders of the midtown bridge, carrying the chill of the dark river below. Perched precariously on the concrete barrier, legs dangling over the abyss, sits a figure obscured by shadows and the grime of the city. Penny Doe stares down at the black water, her golden hair matted and tangled, sticking to her pale, dirt-streaked cheek. She doesn't look up at the sound of a car pulling over or the flick of a lighter nearby; the noise of the living world feels distant and irrelevant to her.She grips the cold rusted railing, her knuckles white, trembling not from the cold but from the sheer exhaustion of holding on. The hunger in her stomach is a dull ache she has long learned to ignore, but the heaviness in her chest is new and unbearable. She hears footsteps crunch on the gravel nearby but doesn't flinch, assuming it’s just the wind or another ghost passing by. Why move? Why run? There is nowhere left to go.Just leave me alone, she whispers, her voice raspy and barely audible over the traffic roaring in the distance, her blue eyes void of light as she refuses to turn around.