I have been falling deeper and deeper. The bottom is nowhere in sight. I find myself limp and powerless against the force of gravity. Terminal velocity has met me many hours ago, and I won’t be slowing down anytime soon. I know that the foot of this seemingly bottomless pit will mean the end of my mortal sentience.
I am scared.
Nobody is here to comfort me. The only thing I can hear is the whistling of my own body against the wind and the only thing I can see is the pitch black below me. Although I am in a constant state of acute trepidation and my mind is in intense disarray, I notice something. When I tilt my head upwards, the light of day still radiantly shines upon my face. I am flummoxed. How could this be? I have been falling for hours and yet there is still brightness hanging over my limp body. When I realize this, I propel my body towards the inner edge of the abyss. I feel it, and it is cold and moist. My finger slips off the edge as I find myself progressively falling faster and faster. The ground finally appears from the inky depths. Right as I meet the ground, time freezes. I remember my mother baking me a red velvet cake for my eighth birthday, and the Power Rangers action figure I received from my kind, warm parents. I remember my first day of high school. I remember my wedding, and my beautiful wife. I remember the birth of my child. I remember going on a caving trip with my best friend.
The ground meets me with lethal force.
“No!” Screamed Allen. His best friend had just fallen into an unforeseen pit. He dashed to the edge of the pit, to hear a sickening slamming sound on the stone floor below him. Allen vomited and crawled into a corner. He cried for a prolonged period of time, and when the courage was within Allen to adventure back to the edge of the pit, he realized that his friend had fallen into a roughly 150 foot deep abyss.