Free writing

[chrisy_m_uk]

And so I looked out into the abyss and contemplated what it would mean to end everything and after all why not. Life seemed bleak but then it always had done, tentatively I took a step forward until I was at the edge, the grey sand spilling into the void. I looked down and was faced with nothing, endless blackness below. I looked up to see more of

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[jordax]

She was adrift, falling in the endless blackness. The light had long since receeded, lost on the distant ledge far above with the tiresome grey sands. Only the occasional brush of dust on her face brought any memory of where she had been, invisible hints falling in the air beside her. After a time, the music player stuttered, faded and died, batteries exhausted in the fall, leaving just silence around her.

She had expected the fear as she fell - the terrifying prospect that suddenly she would meet the ground and the quiet darkness of the fall would be destroyed by bright flashes of pain and sharp crunching of bone, and maybe the very smallest and briefest of her own screams. She had expected it, but was surprised not to feel it - for with no landmarks and no ground visibly rushing towards her, there was nothing to be scared of. Instead, she fell silently and calmly, peace washing over her with just a faint rush of air to mark her passage.

But the darkness brings its own fear. As she wiped sand from her cheek, she felt the fear growing. How long had she been falling? How long would she fall? What if there was no end? What if this truly was a bottomless chasm? Panic grew in her. What if she fell forever, trapped and alone in the darkness? What if she died, not swiftly at the bottom, but slowly in the air, killed by thirst or hunger or the madness of being in such total solitude?

Her mind choked and crawled, and she scrabbled at the air, finding nothing but the distant memory of rocks. There was nothing to find and no control to exert. She could be lost, forever, with no hope.

Through panic, her mind rationalised, clutching at what hope it could find. She faced the rushing air, eyes closed, arms spread wide, and hoped to embrace the ground.