Chapter 10: A Fatal Jump
He was so full of loss at her departure.
he felt like he had a moment to undo some things, figure some things out…
nonetheless, he know what he had to do. he turned around, away from the darkness, and looked across the gritty vastness that just so happened to appear upon completing his 180 degree turn.
the sky was grey, and it affected everything under its jurisdiction. it was beautiful, but it felt tragic. it felt abandoned and lost. he saw varied topography, dated and beautiful buildings, rustic streetlamps, and greenery adorning everything.
it was ithaca, almost to a T. every tree, every building, every clock - all of it was in place.
but, it felt different. it felt eerie. dull. stagnant. still.
”2009…”
He muttered this to himself as he came to the realization that the ithaca he was looking at felt frozen because it -was- frozen. it was stuck in time.
”in a gorge rests a tome, representative of our home…”
he knew where he had to go, so he started trudging his way in the direction he knew was correct.
there was a treacherous gorge right by her dorm. he knew exactly which one she was talking about, but that made him worried. he couldn’t possibly imagine navigating that gorge - it was more like a canyon. there were no rails, no trails - nothing that even evidenced the possibility of getting to the bottom of it conventionally or safely.
he shouldered his peacoat and tugged a bit on the collar of it - while simultaneously realizing that he underwent a sudden wardrobe change that came with this new setting. this curiosity led him to scratch his chin, which also made him realize he had some scruff.
”how long have i been here…?”
after trekking for an indiscernible amount of time, he approached the gorge in question. he realized there was something fairly striking about it. in his recollection, there were tall fences installed along the edge of the gorge, meant to mitigate any accidents.
he toed the edge of fence-less gorge.
”if you make your way down…”
…he looked down.
”…with nary an injury found…”
he tried to see what she told him to find at the bottom of the gorge, but it was so far down that no visual details could be made out when looking towards the bottom.
”you’ll finally find all your peace.”
he felt himself lean forward a little bit more.
”totally forget about me.”
…and then gravity pulled him in. he let it happen.
he started falling, and at first it felt slow. it felt kinda fun. he was optimistic. he thought that maybe this is what needed to happen.
the force of gravity pulled him faster, and he went limp, falling backwards. he watched as the edges of the gorge grew further and further away from him, towering above him more and more with each second of his descent.
he gazed up at the grey sky which was getting darker as he fell.
surely the bottom was right behind him by now. he was ready to find out how this ends…
…at the last second of his fall, he begins to hear an ambulance ringing along, its warbly doppler-esque siren echoing through the gorge.
suddenly a panic washes over him and he realizes what he’s committed to. he tenses up and thrashes about, twisting himself around to see that the ground was coming up fast.
the siren grows louder. he screams.