I Was Falling

The first thing my mind registered was the rush of air against my skin, the brush of cold spilling around me, everywhere. Then there was a high pitched noise which filled my head, deafening me. There was no thud, no hard impact which I expected, only the ease of the wind. That was the slight indication that my surroundings had changed.

It smelt bad, like sewage and rats, as if there was poison in every breath I took. That was the first thing I sensed. The stench rushed at me, blocking my nose, overpowering my lungs, choking me. As I opened my eyes, realization dawned that the smell was a person, a very ugly, very real, very dead person. This was when I realised that I must be dreaming, because surely this thing in front of me was not who I thought it was, surely this thing wasn’t Death. What a nightmare I found myself in.

“Take your time, newbie,” It said, but I didn’t see its mouth move, in fact, I didn’t see any mouth, or a face.


There was no sound, just an awareness of that information, those words, in my mind - absolutely no hint that it originated from the figure in front of me. The creature in front of me wore a cloak, a black ragged and savaged cloth, but a cloak none the less. It was tall, taller than me, and had its whitened face visible, except, there wasn’t a face. It was what I assumed to be skin, covering its head like a sheet, with thin dents in all the right places. (A crook where a nose should be, a hollow dip where the eyes should be etc.) One thing I never noticed about this thing standing in front of me was that it didn’t have a shadow.


“Am I being pranked?” Were the first words my mouth formed as a newly dead being. Not my finest moment.

It chuckled, deep and low, but it sounded empty, sadistic, “No.”

I withheld the numbing fear which crept along my spine, “Where am I?”

“Take your pick,” It replied, “Purgatory, The in-between, buried, they’re all the same to me.”

Now would be a good time to point out that I had a very low IQ, “Are you implying I’m dead?”

“Is that what you humans call it nowadays?”

My mouth was ajar. This was definitely a dream, I was thinking. This was about the time when I decided I was going to be brave about the situation and repress my mind-numbing fear, which was crawling its way across the tiny hairs on my arms.

“Well now what?” I asked, and in spite of myself, my voice trembled.

The being in front of me sighed, “Now, we try and bring you back to life.”

“Excuse you?”

It chuckled again, “I’m not a bad guy, you know. I can give people second chances.”

“Why should I get a second chance?” Not that I was complaining, because I wasn’t. This situation was just too surreal. The thing, he, did not answer me, and instead, bowed his head and began walking away. I stood there, nervously rubbing my arm until he turned around.

“Hurry up,” He said. So I did.

Before I could catch a breath, we were thrust into unfamiliar surroundings. We were in a meadow, and it was breath-taking. There were miles of flowers existing in harmony with a burning sun painted onto the edges of the sky. The clouds were knotted together, or sliding behind the free playing birds. The trees lived a distance away from where I was standing and housed birds’ nests. Most of my vision was ambushed with different colours of green, all represented equally, almost peacefully.

He spoke, interrupting my awe-full trance, “This place is called ‘The Isle of the Sun’, and it is considered the founding place of earth, the beginning of the universe, where all beings were first introduced. It is a sacred place, named by many as ‘The Source’. There are different names for it, but that is most popular, if you will.”

I willed myself to speak, “Why are we here?” It seemed I was full of questions.

For the first time, he seemed to smile, the faceless mask crinkled. It was an unusual vision.

“Come,” He said, walked forward, to which I followed.

“I give second chances to those special few who my heart begs for. You are among the rare few. This type of thing is not allowed but I am, you know, Death. And without me, the universe would be in chaos. So you could say the rules are bent for me.”

I remained silent this time, but my confusion seemed to speak for me, as he answered a question I was dying to ask, quite literally, apparently.

He spoke, “Do you remember how you died?”

I shook my head. Come to think of it, I didn’t. I just remembered falling.

“You see,” He started, “Some people are taken before their time, and there is only one thing, one action, one event, which could cause this. If all goes right, you will find out what. Anyway, I am here to fix said event. What happened wasn’t planned, although it is happening more frequently now, the universe is becoming out of balance. When you are brought back, you will have these memories, to tell people that the universe needs to be fixed. What you did, what others are doing, is causing untold problems.”

“So, how do I go back?” He did the weird smiling thing again, and held up a drink. A liquid I failed to notice before.

“Drink it,” He ordered. I held the strange substance to my lips and I felt it slide down my throat. Minutes later, my mind went blank.

Then, I opened my eyes. Doctors were spilling around me, frantically screaming things like, “She’s awake”. I coughed, confused and disorientated. Where was I?

One lone lady walked towards me, “Do you know what happened?” She asked.

I shook my head. I faintly remembered a faceless mask. But my mind was still fogged, undecipherable.

Yet her next words still made it through to me, “Miss, you jumped off a bridge, you tried to kill yourself.”

Immediately, words echoed inside my head, familiar yet foreign,

Some people are taken before their time, and there is only one thing, one action, one event, which could cause this.