The Fall (Revised)

Chapter Two

Ms.Goldberg leads us all through the door to the courtyard. I snuggle a bit further into Fallon's chest as we all walk to a huge rickety tower. The sky, as usual, has its grey, lifeless hue so that's nothing to see. But, the old rotten wooden tower is a sight to quiver in your socks at. Ms.Goldberg makes no sign of distress as she leads us to the stairs to go up the tower. Fallon clutches me tighter as he senses my fear. It's weird how he knows when my mood changes. Ever since we met he has been able to sense it. I asked him once and he just said he feels a wave of whatever emotion I am feeling, but he just somehow knows it isn't his emotion. That he somehow knows it's mine.

Bailey calls him physic.

Snapping me out of my thoughts Ms.Goldberg slams open the door that leads to the tower, it reveals a set of stairs. I gulp audibly as she starts to ascend them and beckons us to follow her. We all hesitantly follow her, too afraid to not and feel her wrath for it. Each movement we make causes the tower to squeak and everyone but Ms.Goldberg let out a scream in terror. Bailey closes her eyes as she continues upwards slowly, she always has been afraid of heights. Well, heights and public speaking- she once passed out when our teacher asked her to read a paragraph from the document we were reading on our tablets. I had to take her to the healers, but at least we got to miss a day of class.

With everyone's screeches of terror, my eyes widen as I remember the rule about no noise outside. Well, when The Leaders catch a whiff of this we will surely be punished.

The only thing keeping me sane as we climb the rickety building is Fallon's arm around my waist. It may sound cliche, but I really do feel safe with him.  It felt as if he was protecting me- but from what? (hehehehehe) 

We finally get to the top after what seems like forever. We all crowd together in the middle of the roof of the building, no one daring to get too close to the side of the roof.   I swallow my pride and I ask Fallon to lift me up a bit (I'm quite short) so I can see over the barriers on the side of the roof. After a little bit of teasing about how short I am,he obliges. He puts his hands on my hips and lifts me just enough so I could see above the barrier blocks. The entire society we live in ( which is named Tatheu, which means "safety" in an old language now forgotten,) is fenced in. We have a large stone wall surrounding our city so we can never see what lays beyond the walls. Well, we know it is called The Beyond, but that is it. What I see shocks me till I am completely speechless. Behind the walls lays many brown or black cylinders on the ground that remind me of our chairs without the backings.  I search my memory till I come to the conclusion that they are called tree stumps. We have none in Tatheu, we were told though that they used to be everywhere where the trees were. We have trees, but no stumps. The history pages on our tablets never told us how tree stumps came to be. 

Under the stumps, black grass litter the ground. My eyes fill with tears as I imagine what had happened to make the land so dead. Before I could analyse The Beyond anymore Ms.Goldbreg snaps at Fallon, "Mr.Hugh put down Ms.Mallore." I tilt my head just in time to see Fallon smile sheepishly. He puts me down gently and I feel as if I lost something when I can't see The Beyond anymore. 

Ms.Goldberg starts talking, "When all of you go to Fall you will be taken to the Temple. You all know how the Temple is on a hill right?" We all nod as she treats us like kindergarteners. "There is a place on the hill where it seems almost like a cliff. You will be taken there and you will well, fall. Somehow you will become unconscious and when you wake you will have the mark on your left shoulder. The mark of your future. The mark placed by our Goddess Irky." She points to her mark which a pile of books with an apple on top which symbolises Teacher. I think back to my parents and sisters marks. My sister has a picture of two arms shaking each other's hands to symbolise Business.  My mother has a flower on her shoulder to symbolise Gardener (all she really does is help keep out plants alive), and my father has a speech bubble to symbolise Public Speaker.

Fallon has one of his what I call "moments" and asks, "We actually fall to Fall?" His head is tilted to the side (which he does whenever he is really confused) and his lips are pursed in thought.

I put a hand on his chest as my cheeks heat up with embarrassment for him. As much as I love his confused face- it's really cute- I know that face will only attract more girls. And the jealous side of me won't let that happen. Plus he just asked a question with a really obvious answer.

"Yes, you do," smirks Ms.Goldberg. "You will be pushed off a cliff."

Fallon pulls me impossibly closer to him and his face pales. I can only imagine the images that he is going through where Ms.Goldberg pushes him off a cliff. Well, I assume that's what he's thinking about, I really have no idea. I'm not physic like him. Roman chuckles and I look over in time to see Bailey hit him upside the head and whispering loudly for him to be quiet.

Oh, Bailey.

"How high will the drop be?" asks a guy in my class. I'm horrible at memorizing names, I'm afraid I'll never remember his name unless he gives me a huge reason to. Like he steals my shoe or becomes a close friend.

I actually met Fallon because he had stolen my shoe, but that's a story for another day.

"This height, that's why we're up here. Go on to the side, you should see the height." Ms.Goldberg answers the kid's question.

We all hesitantly go to the edge. All of a sudden the tower shakes and we all start to plummet to the ground. The tower couldn't hold our weight and it collapsed with all of us on the rooftop. Stupid rickety, old tower trying to kill me. Being the selfish person I am I look around to see everyone falling with me. We all are falling towards the ground together. Well, at least I won't die alone.

Second revised chapter is now done!

Anyone who has come from the original can now see that it follows the same plot. I just fixed some plot holes and made the characters seem a bit more realistic.

Well, I tried to anyways.

Can I just say I want myself a Fallon?

I don't even know if it's sad anymore that I fall for book guys and not real ones. Not to mention this guy is a figment of my imagination. Whatever, it's not like I have a love life irl...

Until next time,
~Ny

Ps. "I still find the day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." -John Burroughs