The Fall (Revised)

Chapter Three

 I let out a scream in terror and my eyes flutter shut. Dying is not something I want to do anytime soon, and is definitely not on my "To Do List".  

I could feel my survival instincts trying to take over, telling me to open my eyes so I could assess the drop; but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Even with all the adrenaline pumping through my veins, my mind is frozen, unable to process that death was racing towards me at this very moment and I could do nothing to stop it. After what felt like hours, but was probably just a second, I'm able to let my survival instincts take over and my eyes open.

The ground seems to be inching toward me at an agonizing pace. It is almost as if time is slowed. Every second felt as if it was dragging on till forever. I start to wonder if I will ever really hit the ground and parish. In my last agonizing seconds, all I could think about is what I will never get to do. That I'll never grow old, never get to see who Bailey ends up with, never see my family again. And even I'll never get assigned my stupid job from The Fall. 

Just as my face is about to come into contact with the ground all emotion is wiped from my mind and all of a sudden I am no longer in the air. I am no longer falling to my death. Instead, I am sitting in a metal chair, strapped to it so I can't move. When I look around, expecting to see a concrete room, my eyes pick up something utterly unsual. My eyes widen as they see where- what the chair is standing on. White puffs slither around my chair, and a fog surrounds me so I can't see more than a meter in front of me.  Creepy...  

As I open my mouth to scream for help a person appears in a white toga-like outfit and golden hair. Her eyes (a purple hue) scrutinize me and she snarkily snorts in my direction. "I was expecting to look... I don't know- more me, more grown up... but, you will have to do."

"What are you talking about?" I ask her as my wrists struggle against their bindings. 

She smiles sarcastically, "You are my 'carrier', my 'host'. Oh, that movie 'The Host' was great."

I stare at her quizzically, still wiggling in my bindings, struggling to break free. "Movie?"

She just sighs and says, "You make me feel so old. Okay, enough small talk, we have a job to do, Shelbey. Time is running out because I rambled too much." She rolls her eyes as if annoyed, "All you need to know is that everything is about to change."

With that, she disperses along with the restraints and the chair. I fall to the ground with a groan when the chair disappears from under me. Before I know it the world starts to spin and the fog vanishes and is replaced with a rather gruesome scene.

WARNING!! GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD WITH LOTS OF DEATH. IF YOU ARE EASILY DISGUSTED, TRIGGERED, OR CREEPED OUT, SKIP TILL NEXT BOLDED PRINT. WARNING!!

I peer around only to gasp in horror at the sight. All the students are scattered around me laying in puddles of their own blood. My eyes look down to see that I too have blood coating my clothing and skin. The only person who isn't absolutely coated with blood is Ms. Goldberg. She has a frantic, almost desperate look on her face as she runs from student to student in heels, looking for a pulse.

I look at her and I question shakily, "What happened?" It comes out just above a whisper it's enough.

Her head snaps to me as she hears my question and she lets out a sob. Her usual composed self now crumbling before my very eyes, "The tower fell as everyone went to go and look at the height of it. The tower crumbled and I was able to grab onto a support, so I wouldn't fall immediatly. The students weren't so lucky. The drop was so high it seems everyone-" she sniffles- "has died on impact... Except you. But, the only way someone can survive a drop this high is if they Fall..." She stops babbling and she hurries toward me and when I ask her what she is doing, she just shushes me. Her cold, boney hands grab my chin and the forces my neck to tilt so she can see the left side of it.