The Inevitable Fall

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We avoid them. We are brought up to do so. To stay away from the bottomless pits that overpower our village. Away from the bottomless chasms that control our world. There are hundreds of them littered around our world, fenced off, hidden away. But it's inevitable. People are drawn in, people of different age, wealth and wellbeing. The world watches in horror as victims make their way to the pits, finding a way past the fences, overpowering guards with weapons. Nothing can stop them, they are possessed. No one knows why, though some have theories. Some say people who get sucked in need to go to hell and be punished, but that's just a theory. The worst part is watching people throw themselves off the edge into the gaping holes beneath them, with a calm and serene look on their faces. But it's widely accepted that there's nothing to do to stop it. The only thing we can do is try not to let it happen to us and our families and to live our lives cautiously.

Everyone had been fully educated about the holes and about staying away from them. The short history of our planet, Vespasian, the geography of Vespasian, English and even mathematics all focus on the pits. Educating people helps a little, but it's hard to teach something when the real cause is unknown. Even though our ancestors were highly technological, we seem to have gone back in time, and now electricity is scarce and the iPhone is just a fairytale.

Our little village was famous for its mines, which supplied power to most of Vespasian. Most of the men in the town worked there, including my brother. The biggest of the pits was next to the mine, and a lot of the higher ranking men at the mines were sucked in.

***

One day I came home from the school run by the local church and my brother bounded in the door after me.

"Mama, Adelaide! I've got some good news!" I leapt up from my homework and ran to living room, where my brother and my mother were in a tight hug.

"What is it? What is it?" I asked excitedly, hopping from one foot to the other. They pulled apart and my mother laughed at my childish impatience.

"I've been promoted!" my brother, Liam said, almost shouting. My eyes widened.

"Does that mean we get the electricity tonight?" I shouted.

My brother laughed and ran to the fuse box. He flicked some switches and the house roared to life, the heating instantly warming us. We laughed and sang and danced, our mother playing her guitar. My brother and mother even told me stories about my father who left when I was born.

In the early morning, after much dancing and singing, the electricity was turned off, and we all went our separate ways to our bedrooms.

The next day was a Saturday, our day of rest. I was woken with a scream, and I looked at the ancient clock on my wall. It read 5:30. What on earth could be going on now? I jumped up from my bed and found my mother crying in the doorway, her huddled figure a silhouette against the early morning sun.

"Mama? Mama what is it?" I looked past her and saw my brother walking slowly towards the chasm next to the mine.

"Oh God Mama...oh no!" I shouted before running towards my brother.

"Liam! Liam, can you hear me? Liam! You don't need to do this!" I screamed at him, panic coursing through my body. I knew it was no use, but I kept trying. I punched him as hard as I could in the chest, trying to get his attention, but he just shoved me out of the way, making his way to the pit. The tears streamed down my face, but my brother was already at the fence surrounding the chasm. My mother came up behind me and pulled me away.

"Adelaide! You don't need to watch it! It's too late!" My mind knew it was true, but my body refused to believe it. I kept screaming at Liam, shoving him, doing anything to wake him up from his trance, but nothing helped.

Mama eventually dragged me back to the house. We didn't talk, we just wept and cried and tried our best to comfort each other. I knew my mother was taking this particularly hard, considering she'd also lost her husband, and now we had no financial support.

The next few days passed in a blur. The church gave us some money for food, but we both knew it was time for me to leave to join the church. I had to stop school, and take some strain off my mother. I left quietly, with few words passing between Mama and me. I felt bad, but I knew that it was just too heavy a weight for my mother to bear.

I joined the church as a nun. I lived a simple life. I yearned for my family, my brother, my mother and even my long lost father. As the years passed, the pain of the loss of my brother lessened and the curiosity grew. I became angry, wanting a reason for the death of my brother. I asked every person I knew within the church. I even turned to strangers who visited the church for their opinion on why these deadly chasms were scattered around our world. I got different responses, but many said it was God's doing, that they were here for a reason. I wasn't religious, but as time went on, I felt that that was the answer.

The most interesting answer I had ever heard, however, was from an ancient scientist named Chester, who now worked as the church's gardener. We became friends as I often wondered the church yards. He said,

"It's our doing, these treacherous holes, they're our fault. Have you ever heard of Earth?" I nodded meekly, remembering the short lessons we had on it.

"We wrecked that planet, with our dangerous chemicals killing Earth's atmosphere, and our mines and electricity causing greenhouse gasses to destroy it slowly. Nobody thought that we were doing that much damage, until scientists gave predictions of the lifespan of Earth halving. People thought that we could get away from the destruction we caused on Earth by making a new start in a new galaxy, but that's not going so well is it? Well, Earth didn't really have a defence mechanism to protect itself, but Vespasian does. It's Vespasian's way of defending itself, by killing the people who are doing the most damage."

Even though to me the answer sounded incredulous, I considered it and tucked it away in my mind for future use.

The years passed, and I still didn't have a reason for the loss of my brother. It was my 20th birthday, and I hadn't spoken to my mother since I had left home. It was on my birthday, that our local mine suddenly collapsed, causing the biggest chasm on Vespasian. Everyone from town ran to watch the mine collapse, watching workers fall to their deaths. We heard news that power lines in some local towns nearby had also collapsed, creating more pits. Soon the same thing had happened to most of the powerlines on Vespasian. And every factory that used heavy machinery had folded in on itself.

The whole planet began to be covered in never ending holes and the death toll was rising rapidly. I noticed a pattern, and in that moment everything clicked. Chester the gardener was right, and we were ruining the planet. The damage was being done to the things causing the most harm to Vespasian's environment. My brother had gone because we had used electricity the night before. Tears of realisation fell down my cheeks.

I told people about my theory and the word was spread. Local scientists were testing the theory. But no one ever proved it wrong or right, because before anyone had time, Vespasian was deemed unsafe and everyone was relocated to the next planet. As we left, we saw what Vespasian really looked like. It was full of holes, with barely any land left. As I looked upon the ungodly sight, I wondered: Did we and will we ever really learn our lesson?

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⏰ Last updated: Jun 12, 2012 ⏰

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