please, somebody help me
Very early this morning I was woken by a man shouting in the street outside my house. It's a quiet street off one of the main roads into the city centre, so shouting people - especially pre-dawn shouting people - are incredibly rare.
"HELP ME! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!" he yelled. Then he would whistle one of those 'two fingers in the mouth' type of whistle. "HEY! SOMEBODY! HOY! OI! HELP! HELP ME!"
He continued down the middle of the street - I knew this because I watched him shouting and whistling from my bedroom window. In the dark of early January 4am, the LED street lights revealed he was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans. It must have been just above freezing at this point of the morning, frost was visible on the roofs of the houses opposite.
I watched him turn off into another street, arms wide, still yelling. The police were called. "We've had multiple calls, officers are on their way," the call handler said. "Call us if there are any developments."
By this time the man had disappeared and it was silent, as most streets should be at 4am. I could hear the distant hum of traffic from the busy road about half a mile away, but no shouting.
I went back to bed. Slowly the shouting got louder as the man walked back up the street. This time he was more pleading, more desperate. "HELP! HELP ME! SOMEBODY? I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" he shouted.
Then the banging started.
I couldn't see from my window, but I could guess he was banging on somebody's front door. A lot of houses on this street have fancy lights on the front. Maybe he mistook those lights for someone being awake.
He then started yelling about stabbing, either he had been stabbed or he was going to stab someone, it wasn't particularly clear. Then the shouting turned into babbling and I thought I could hear someone else's voice trying to reason with him, but he was having none of it. He kept banging on the door and shouting for help.
He then set off down the street, still shouting for help, then disappeared around the corner. About ten minutes later a police van drove slowly past the house and round the same corner. Then it was quiet. I fell back to sleep soon after.
In a perfect world some kind person would have gone out to this guy to see if he was okay.
In a perfect world they would invite him into their house, make him a hot drink and drape a blanket over him. They'd ask him if they could call someone for him.
But in an imperfect world at 4am; in the dark, on a winter's morning, when the guy's in a t-shirt in subzero temperatures, screaming like he was, the police were the best and safest option for all.
I hope he gets the help he so desperately needed.