Eversweet ♥

Chapter 8 ♥

 When I was eight I went to this amusement park with my dad. He used to be one of those huge rollercoaster junkies that went on everything and anything. I, to be completely honest, was petrified of them. The thought of just falling and falling and the only thing you have to protect you is a bar and a flimsy seatbelt made me squeamish, but my Dad loved them and so I learned to suck it up. We were at this huge park built originally for teenagers, not children, and my dad took me on this ride called “The Death Drop.” Classy, eh? But it didn’t seem so bad from where we were standing so I decided I could stomach it, for my dad. How wrong I was still to this day makes me laugh. The ride’s line was deserted with a few straggling riders. We went on the first turn and the ride was enough to make me fall back on my knees and sob just thinking about it. It shoots straight up in the air faster than the rockets launch into space and the air is forced out of your lungs choking you of any oxygen. It making you heave up the contents of you stomach right then and there. Then if that isn’t enough, it just drops you. Your stomach convulses and twists and turns in on itself while you are gagging from loss of air and in the end the ride is absolutely horrible.

            That’s how the portal feels but six hundred times worse.

            Scratch that—I change my mind. It feels seven hundred times worse.

            Jesse was right; it does feel like you’re literally dying. It feels like my precious life is being snatched away from me along with every ounce of oxygen from my lungs. My limbs spasm in pain as if someone were pulling them and stretching them until they snapped into strands of spaghetti. While all the while I am falling. Falling off a cliff or a building onto cold pavement. Yes your mind knows you won’t but your body is screaming at your mind that you’re going to crash and die. Despair loads my bones but I can’t scream because I have no air to scream with. Black and blue spots dot my vision as I feel like myself pass in and out of consciousness. The pain is too much to bear as my insides scream from rebellion. If I could breathe I would sob. If I could sob I would scream. I would scream from this horrible pain and agony that is killing me slowly. Second by second my life is shattered into more and more pieces. Then just when I feel like I’ve had enough; I’d rather die than stay in it any longer and go through such excruciating, agonizing pain, it’s over.

            When I my feet on the ground I immediately drop to my knees and heave up my empty stomach. I cough and sputter all over until my vision has returned to normal. I’m so shaken and scared of the two seconds I spent in that horrible, horrible portal that I’m almost at a point of tears. They threaten to tumble down my cheeks in waves. I still can’t see anything but my hands and the foggy figure of somebody next to me rubbing my back. Jesse. “I-I, Jesse. You didn’t tell me it would be th-that bad,” I somehow choke out through my sobs. He brings my face to his chest where I sob harsh, unyielding tears that warp my face into some scary horror.

            “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “The first time is always the hardest.” He says while stroking my back.

            Slowly my weeping subsides and I look into the worried face of Jesse Garland. As soon as I look into his eyes he starts giggling like a pre-schooler. “What?” I snap as I wipe away the last few trailing tears. “What is so funny?”

            He laughs out loud this time falling on his back gasping for breath. “Scarlett, how have you not noticed. You’ve lived your whole life you’ve never seen? I mean it’s not that noticeable and I’m not surprised nobody else has ever said anything, but you? I’d think you’d notice. Come on you really don’t know?!” My blank stare answers that. Exasperated, he throws up his hands.“You’re glowing for God’s sake, Scarlett!”