Fear threatened to turn my legs into noodles as I heard the unholy creaking the bridge made. My fingers and toes began to tingle as adrenaline fludded my body. The sound of the bridge ripping apart reminded me of screams.
SCREEK. SCREEKKKK.
I dropped my phone then scrambled away from the broken ledge just as it gave way. Unable to turn my head away from the horrible sight, I stared as rubble hit the water below. Two thoughts filled my mind.
'That could have been me. It still could be me.'
I let out a desperate cry for help just as the bridge began to fall apart around me.
I barely dodged bricks as large as my head as I ran toward safer ground.
'Please let me make it in time. PLEASE.'
I couldn't stop myself from begging to whatever force might hear me hoping that it would be enough.
Some long-forgotten survival instincts overcame me as I ran, jumping and dodging the falling debris. But it wasn't enough. The bridge kept cracking under my feet.
No. No. No!
I was so close. I was so close. I knew it would slow me down but I had to risk a glance behind me.
My stomach fell to my feet. Behind me, the entire bridge began to cave away into the icy water 50 feet below. The tons of falling rubble turned the calm waters into a tempest as it made impact. The once clear image of the beautiful sunrise disappeared under the chaotic waters. With that image I somehow found it in myself to go even faster than a flat-out sprint.
The other side was getting closer and closer.
I had to make it.
'I was going to make it.'
But just as the thought came to me the bridge gave way under my feet.
The morning air was filled with my screams as I fell for what felt like forever. But suddenly the sound of my screams died away. The sounds of a city just beginning to wake up quieted. Birds stopped chirping and the cars stopped honking their horns. It was as if the morning stood still. Or maybe my brain was trying to spread out the precious last moments of my life.
I was falling. Falling. Falling. Then even that stopped.
Hanging in the air with my arms stuck in their flailed positionings, I started at the water below me. It was frozen in an image of chaos. The world had settled into a complete stillness.
It felt like the moment had lasted for hours but it must have only been a second or two.
Right?
Or maybe everything HAD stopped. I felt a strange presence surround my mind and body, enveloping me entirely.
"Would you like a second chance?" A voice crooned into the nothingness. I didn't say anything for fear of ruining the moment. But my answer was obvious and clear.
Yes.
"Well. You'll have it, but don't think it will be easy," I grimaced as I heard the smile in its voice. "After all what fun can come from an easy life?"
As soon as its final words rang out the strange calm shattered. My whole body jerked as the momentum of my fall suddenly collided into me.
At that moment I realized I had never stopped screaming.
Sounds continued around me and the city continued through its morning routine. But I kept falling. And falling. And falling. Until…Impact. Only then was l consumed into complete nothingness.
Coming back to the room I stopped my advance forward. Looking down I try to collect myself. That must have been only moments ago, at least it feels like it was. How could those moments feel so real and recent when only seconds later I was transported here?
More questions flooded my mind as I tryed to make sense of the situation.
"I need answers," I say to the empty room. Except the room wasn't empty.
looking back up, I risk a balance at the lump in the corner.
'For answers.'
Steeling myself I charged forward. Dropping to my knees, I knelt beside the lump. Still, I hesitated before turning it over.
"I'm so far away from home," I said thinking of mom, "I'm not going home, am I?"
With that thought I gathered my courage then positioned myself to move the body. Curling my hand around the wet mass I turned it over.
The face was smashed in. Blood and flesh mixed together. As if someone had stuck his face into a blend-.
Turning away I heaved up the contents of my stomach. Coughing and choking I tried to erase the image that would stay etched into my mind for ever.
NO, you must look.
I faced it again and began to dry heave.
You have to know what brought you here, Elizabeth.
I could only look at the body after I had nothing left to vomit. When I could finally stand to look down at it I used my hands to search the mass and made a mental tally of what I found.
A note book in an illegible language.
A delicate necklace with centerpiece made to look light a rose.
And finally what looked like a strange official looking piece of paper, again in an indecipherable language. It had a very official looking seal designed to look like a heart shot with two crisscrossed arrows.
Nothing revealed itself as I searched the body some more. I don't know if this was worth losing my breakfast over. I placed all the items I found in my pockets just as another thought struck me. What time was it?
And after I thought about it a further, why had no one heard me as I screamed for help.
But all I could really think about was getting out of this room. I made to stand but before I could rise, I stopped. Although I couldn't even look at the body without feeling sick, I began to feel remorse. I pinched the man's sleeves between my fingers, straitening the body up as best as I could.
"Ummm?"
Still not feeling that was enough, I tried to mumble a quick prayer but was at a loss for words.
"Rest in peace?" I frowned then gave a shrug.
I quickly rose up then stumbled from rising too swiftly. I groaned wishing my body would stop making this horrific experience worse for me.
I stumbled to the only door in the room then wondered with dread what would lie behind it.
Thinking about the body behind me, I wondered if this whole fiasco had set some kind of tone.
"Well," I said trying to ignore the gore and smell of death and sick all around me, "It can only get better from here."
Of course I was dead wrong. Way to jinx yourself Elisabeth.