Falling

• Hannah Tay, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2015

The old storyteller sat down before us.

"The wind whistles past my ears as I hurtle towards the sea below. I have given up any hope of stopping my fall by now. This is what I went through as I fell.

At first, I felt a strange calmness. I should have been screaming, trying to keep my balance but I just let myself go. Time slowed down and I could see every detail. The cracks in the cliff below, the hairs whipping around my face. The feeling is impossible to describe.

But then I realised what was happening. For what felt like forever, I was screaming, flailing my arms about, kicking my legs and absolutely freaking out. My mouth opened and screams pierced the silence. My wide eyes searched around me frantically for a way out of this hell I was experiencing.

Then all of a sudden, I was still. My arms and legs were paralysed, but my mind was in turmoil. Crazy thoughts raged in my head, like a hurricane. I couldn't do anything. My brain was too engaged in the storm to pay attention to anything else. My consciousness battled and fought with the storm that threatened to take over my body. Then, just as suddenly as it came, the storm stopped. And everything was quiet.

One minute passed.

Then I was overwhelmed with an amazing feeling. I realised how much I had wasted my life, by throwing away perfectly good chances, by not loving every moment. But now that I was going to leave the earth through death, I remembered all the things that I had procrastinated in life. A great sorrow settled on me and I closed my eyes.....only to open them again. I had felt a whisper of touch along my arm.

A voice spoke out of nowhere - 'Serve me, and you shall have all you desire.' I kept silent. 'Bow down to me, and I will give you whatever you want.' I put my hands over my ears, but how do you block out a sound that is inside your head? 'Or-,' the voice whispered, and then I saw a vision of myself falling to my death from a cliff. I gasped involuntarily. But then, the voice showed me a vision of myself lying safe in bed. 'If you just take my hand -'

It was so tempting. But I knew I couldn't just do the will of the devil. So I screamed. But something pressed against my mind, trying to break in and control me. But I put my hands over my ears, and screamed again. The pressure stopped abruptly. Then in its place came a new feeling. I instinctively blocked it out, but it came again. My arms reached out suddenly, and my legs followed. And slowly, my descent slowed down. But then everything went dark, as if someone had blown the sun out, like a candle on a birthday cake. "

The storyteller sat back. "And that's the end of the story."