Creepy Pasta stories

Heaven's Fall

The laughter stopped, and silence shivered throughout the theme park. A crowd gathered around the scene, and the painted faces of smiling families were turned to horror as they stood and stared. Sirens echoed in the summer air, and ashen staff tried desperately to calm the public.

At the time, the papers were calling it the worst disaster to have ever occurred on a theme park ride, and I dare not question the truth of that statement. For although six years have now passed since the day, no explanation has been uncovered for what caused eight people to fall to their deaths. Instead, a series of strange legends have built themselves around the ride, and as such the truth of whatever happened will likely never be properly known.The ride in question was 'Heaven's Fall', a monstrous drop tower piercing the sky above the World of Adventures theme park. Built upon dark religious imagery, the ride was said to resemble the fall of an angel cast out from heaven above. Riders were slowly lifted skyward, then after an uncomfortable pause at the summit, were dropped back to earth at the mercy of gravity. The ride was painted in a deep, glistening black, and was adorned with sculptures of dying angels, their wings broken and their arms reaching forever to heaven.

Today, Heaven's Fall is rusting and silent, still standing amid busy rides and attractions, but cordoned off from the rest of the park. It has become but a steel, gruesome memorial to those who lost their lives on it's opening day. To some, it's appearance in the park is akin to a graveyard obelisk, and the carven angels which decorate it are thus reaching to the sky in mournful remembrance.

I will admit that I have something of an obsession with Heaven's Fall. I was not aware of it at the time of the accident, but when I first saw it's rusted remains peering at me when I went to the park, that hideous ride infected my mind. There is something about it, how it stands apart from the other attractions, how it speaks of dark and unsolved things, how it inspires such fear and fascination in all who know of it's terrible accident.

Since I discovered Heaven's Fall, I have collected everything that I can find surrounding it's history and it's accident. I have access to countless newspaper cuttings, have purchased maps and unused souvenirs of the ride, and even own a rare promotional poster, showing a Lucifer-esque angel, falling to earth against a silhouette of the park.

Yet what fascinates me most about Heaven's Fall are the strange stories that are told of the ride. After all, we each put our trust in amusement rides. We strap ourselves in and challenge them to scare us, longing for greater and bigger thrills whilst safe in the knowledge it is only a ride. But when something goes wrong, that illusion of safety is immediately shattered. Colourful paint and buoyant effects can no longer hide the grey, cold machinery beneath.

Most of the stories about the ride are nothing but the creation of idle minds, but it is not such legends which interest me. Instead, I have found a number of persistent beliefs which all seem to be based on a few distinctive tales.

The first of these is the most common. Before the attraction had reached completion, a range of promotional advertisements were released to spread awareness of the ride. Within days, fundamentalist groups had spoken against what they deemed as objectionable imagery for the new attraction. To them, the representation of falling angels was essentially diabolic in nature, and many campaigned for the theme to be changed. Some even went as far as to claim that such a ride was evil, and urged the populace not to visit the park. Further to this, fanatics had previously been arrested for breaching the walls of the closed theme park, and attempting to hang banners on the ride.

As such, the first legend of Heaven's Fall was formed in the minds of a public craving answers. Some believed that the ride had been tampered with, and that the accident was in fact orchestrated by madmen blind on religious fury. This belief was later strengthened by the family of one of the deceased riders. They trusted not in the doctrine of those who called the ride and it's theme evil, and publicly affirmed their own belief that "the bastards probably made it go wrong themselves".