The brisk autumn air blew through the leaves of trees and between buildings. Cars honked and roared in the distance. The setting sun cast an amber glow over the streets, recently repaved.

I strode quickly, eager to be home. It had been a long day, after all. My sneakers squeaked as they rubbed against the asphalt. I sped up my pace. It had been an entire 9 hours since I’d left my house earlier this morning, and I was nearing the end of my tolerance for the outside world.

I wasn’t a complete shut in. I had a job, shitty as it was, and I could interact with people outside my own little bubble. I just preferred solitude to them. There was something about being alone, away from the pressing concerns of the outside world, that just spoke to me. It’s not like I hadn’t tried to be more social when I was younger. I had gone out of all sorts of sports and activities. Track, Judo, Fencing, Soccer, Tennis, you name it, I had probably tried it at least once. I could simply never get it to click with me. I wasn’t ever the worst player on the team, mind you, but I was often far from the best. Add that to the fact that I struggled to work in teams, and suddenly my ability to contribute often drastically dropped.

Truly active lifestyles worked great for some people, but for me, they just weren’t the right fit. I rounded a bend, my apartment coming into view, a few blocks down the street. I put my foot forwards for the next step, only for it to never meet ground. I was

Falling

Falling

Falling

Down and down.

It took me a second to realize what was happening. Funny thing, isn’t it? You can be experiencing something right now, in real time, all your senses saying the same thing, feel the wind rushing past your skin and through your hair, your stomach shriveling up as you start to descend faster and faster, your arms windmilling crazily in the air, trying to find something to hold onto.

Yet despite all of that, I didn’t really comprehend what was happening until my mind finally caught up with my body.

Once caught up, however, I had settled on an action I would still hold to be quite reasonable: I screamed.

Boy did I scream. I screamed harder than I ever had before. Louder, more forceful and urgent than even the most intoxicated, belligerent fan after his team wins it big.

The sound that came out of my mouth was almost inhuman. It ripped from my throat with a mind of its own.

I don’t think, even if were of the mind too, that I could have stopped it.

Something you don’t think about is how pushing your body like that feels. It was just yelling, contracting my lungs to force out air. But it hurt. It hurt a lot.

Stolen story; please report.

I kept falling, my throat burning, wheezing as my lungs ran out of air, only to gasp in an impossibly deep breath and resume my banshee like wail.

I’ve heard people say that an adverse event they had experienced felt like it lasted forever. Fights, car crashes, etc. Falling, of course.

This fall lasted forever. Not in that metaphorical perception warped way (although my perception was very likely warped).

No, in a much more literal sense. The only thing I could time with was my repeated expressions of terror. You’d think, in an average fall, you’d have time to scream once, maybe twice.

Not this one. Not even close. It wasn’t just once, twice, or three times. Those measly numbers didn’t come close. I screamed 11 times before I stopped, calming down enough to quiet the little part of my brain that told me I was heading towards my imminent death. It was right, but not helpful enough to give it full reign over my actions. I shoved it down as much as I could, fighting back panic just enough to think, a little bit.

The first thing I realized was that I had been falling for a long time. A long, long time. It was also dark. Very dark. So dark I couldn’t see my hands if they were extended away from my face. I also couldn’t see any sort of walls.

Had I not been plummeting for the last 5 minutes, I almost could have thought that the street had crumbled under my feet, allowing me to fall into a chasm under the road, some sort of sinkhole or something. I did seriously consider it. You try thinking well when your body is telling you that you’re falling to your early death.

I continued to ponder. It probably couldn’t be something earthly. I know they drilled miles into the ground, but those holes weren’t even big enough for me to stick my hand into.

Maybe it was some sort of government experiment, and they had drugged me and dropped me without me noticing. That was about as likely as it being a sinkhole. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got kidnapped and experimented on, but the government wasn’t competent enough to do so without me noticing.

Plus, the construction of a miles long hole in the ground seems like it would be something people knew about.

Could it be-

Ow

Really ow

My pondering was interrupted by a splitting, intense headache, worse than I had ever had. I wasn’t person who had frequent migraines, but I've had had a few of them.

This was worse. Far, far worse.

My vision went blinding white, eyes stinging. My body locked up, muscles seizing.

If had to guess what I looked like in that moment, it would probably be like someone with lockjaw, curled up, bleeding out of their eyes and ears.

It faded, quickly, probably, but it sure didn’t feel like it.

The spots slowly faded from my vision, as my body uncurled. I blinked and looked around, not able to start processing what just happened.

I thought that the air felt … different, then before, that creeping suspicion that something had changed, but I was far too out of it to fully understand or confirm if that was true.

Looking down, I saw a pinprick of white light. It was small, so small I thought I was imagining it, or that it was a leftover effect of my mega migraine from a few minutes ago.

But it kept getting bigger. And Bigger. Bigger. Bigger.

Bigger.

Until it was a roaring, screaming white vortex, larger than anything I had ever seen, as if I was falling into a sea of white, turbulent energy.

It was blinding. So bright, in fact, that even after I shut my eyes it shone through my eyelids, burning itself into my retinas. I should have been concerned about permanent damage.

I was close now, I think. I couldn’t be sure, but the light had gotten more blinding than before. If you had asked me a minute ago, I would have told you that was impossible, but here we are.

I hit it. I couldn't describe how it felt with words. I don’t believe any human could.

The bright light vanished. Still keeping my eyes shut, I managed to croak out

“Maybe I won’t die after all?”.

Hope filled my heart. Maybe I had a chance to live. Maybe I was going to be one of those lucky few people who survived horrible accidents or diseases, things nobody thought that they would be able to get through.

I was alive! I had fallen through misfortune and had come out the other side, certainly not unscathed but alive! I would go back to my life, no longer a loser, but a newly baptised survi-

Crunch.