Extra Darling

Chapter 3: Lucky Catch

The moment my foot slipped off that rooftop, I knew my life was over. Well, I guess I could say my 'life' ended a few months ago when all the drama with my siblings started, but now I mean my actual life. As in there is absolutely no way out of this. I'm done. Caput. The end. About to be squished like a pancake.

I knew it was foolish to be climbing on the roof and yet I did it anyway. Curse my stubborn desire to find new places to hide! That's all I've been doing these last few months --hiding from my problems. It took this long for me to finally confront Wendy. Maybe if I had done it sooner, things would have been different. Maybe we would be friends again, and maybe I wouldn't be falling off this roof. It's too late now to fix anything. I just hope Wendy knows that no matter what hell she's put me through, I still love her.

My throat burned from screaming, but I could hardly pay any attention to that. The ground was rushing up to meet me and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer -- I couldn't bare to watch. I threw my arms over my head, the air whizzing past my ears and whipping my hair all over the place, as if that would be any help. And then I felt my body tense, preparing for impact.

My lungs still expelling a scream, I began to realize that this was a longer drop than I expected. I definitely should have hit the pavement by now. Dying must happen in slow motion or something, because this was taking forever, and the anticipation was worse than the fear of hitting the ground.

Since I had the time to process this thought (surprisingly), I decided to peek an eye open. My arms slowly lowering themselves from my face, I opened my eyes, and instead of being greeted by the cold pavement as I guessed I would, I saw something much different. Instead of seeing the ground get closer and closer, I was watching it get farther and farther away. I stopped screaming and gasped. I felt all the blood rushing to my head and knew I was upside down, but somehow I was still alive. My arms fell above my head, victim to gravity, and I tried to look around at what raced passed me.

The cobblestone of my street was now far far away, and I was rushing passed tall office buildings down town. Everything was dark, save for the few street lights and the lights from houses. I saw Mothers putting their children to bed through nursery windows. I saw a pair of lovers kissing goodnight on a front door step. I saw an old man sitting on the edge of a building as I somehow rose higher in the air, and from the old man I saw a puff of smoke leave his mouth -- the tobacco following in the breeze.

Things flew by on my left and right. I rose above entire buildings, and then dipped down so that I was in the tree tops of lonely clusters on driveways. I watched in amazement as a flock of nightingales took flight from a tree I passed and soared up around me. I felt myself lift a little higher in the air, the trees and houses shrinking even more below me. I let out a startled yelp, reaching with my hands for something to grab and only feeling open air. The birds chattered around me, all upside of course since I could not seem to right myself, and quickly scattered once again.

I saw my hair in the corners of my eyes, falling around my face. Not only was I utterly clueless as to how I was still alive, but I was extremely bothered by the fact that I was viewing the world from an opposite angle. I tried as hard as I could, but I could not kick my legs down below me. The hair falling in my face prevented me from seeing anything, and I was startled each time my head just managed to skim over a chimney, or beside a building. Something had to be done. As I was focusing on getting my blonde locks out of my way, I barely noticed the giant monument I was approaching.

Everything was happening so fast. One second I was falling to my death and now I'm gliding over the city? How was this possible? Perhaps I am already dead. This is all just some time of illusion that my brain created to keep me from being frightened. It would explain a lot -- especially the reason why I wasn't knocking into anything.