Falling

• Shannon Eccles, Grade ye
• Short Story
• 2011

It was necessary to become popular. You are on the edge. It looks like a long drop. You can’t back out. You lean over and a bout of vertigo hits you like a steam train. You calm yourself. It is not that high you say to yourself. Toes over. Fingers out. Arms out stretched. Your arms immediately go numb. The freezing wind biting into your arms, the sheer magnitude of the drop scares you. You are about to turn around. You look over once more. Then something hits you in the back.
You start falling. You manage to look up. The last thing you see is an eagle flying off into the distance. The feeling that you are flying. The feeling of momentary weightlessness, it was pure joy. This is why you came. You came to feel the wind flicking hair into your face. No sound in your ears except for the rush of the wind. It was over too soon. You see it come toward you like a barrier that is unbreakable. You flap your arms in an attempt to gain height, but you can’t. You keep plummeting down. It is too late to do anything. It hits you like a bus whose brakes don’t work. It feels like a thousand darts thrown into your body. Then all you see is dark. You see fragments of light shine above you. The swirl and Eddies of the currents buffets you along. You think, too fast. You see a black object looming in front of you. This time there is danger. You hit the rock face at full pelt. Above you there is a faint light flashing on and off. This is where it ends, alone and unidentified. You let go. There is no point to hang on any longer. Then you see your vision fading in and out your whole body going numb. You can’t feel a thing. Then something grabs you and pulls. Up, or down, you didn’t know. You didn’t care. You start to see the light from the sun. You feel the pressure slowly unleash its hold from your lungs. You break hold of the embrace of the water. The sun is a welcome friend, leeching the cold from your body. You can see familiar faces. Your mum comes up and stands next to you. You say, “It was only for fun”. Then you pass out.
Shannon Eccles Year 8