"Falling" by JoC

Competition 3 Winner

My mother always told me that someday I would find the person to fall in love with. Someone would take care of me like no other man had ever, someone I’d throw away everything for. A person who I would die for.

For me, that person was Daryl Parker. He was My Prince Charming, my Knight in Shining Armour, my world. I soon realized that I would gladly run away and throw away my entire life to be with him. He was the sunlight in my rainy days, my candle in the darkness to light my path. Giving my life to save his was an immediate yes. I jumped at every chance I could… literally.

My body has been in the same position for days, months, maybe years. I'm not sure anymore. In the beginning, I tried to move, open my eyes, twitch my foot, just do something. Nothing worked.

There would be voices, soft whispers murmured into my left ear. I would get parts of a sentence here and there but it was never enough for me to truly understand what they were trying to say. Other times, I am left alone in the silence.

Today is one of the silent days. There is only the soft sound of a beep from something beside me. It's quiet and slow, matching the rhythmic thump of my own heartbeat.

I had started to drift off when I heard the beeping next to me pick up. The noise suddenly sounded shrill and piercing, almost panicked. The beeping picks up speed, thrumming a beat in my heart.

The voices that I had thought to normally be quiet whispers turn to loud booms, tearing away my peaceful silence. The noises rip holes in the darkness. I feel like I’m falling, spinning, slipping through space and time, spiraling into the unknown, dropping into nothingness.

The voices fade out and are replaced by a small bright light. It’s blinding and I immediately grasp onto it, trying to free myself from the endless dark void I feel I’m getting sucked into. But the light is dying away, my fingers slipping. It takes a second before my fingers give out and I’m plummeting into the darkness, swallowing me whole.

“NO!” The darkness vanishes, and I find myself in a tunnel of light. I think of a time where my life was simple, where I would wake up to smile that could light up the darkest rooms and blue eyes that held the depth of all the oceans and seas I could think of. A voice sounds in my head, calling me to the end of the tunnel. I feel myself shifting towards the voice, my chest expanding breath by breath. Open your eyes...

My eyes snap open as the tunnel fades away. My head moves upward to see the very same blue eyes that I so longed to see.

“Oh my God.”