//------------------------------//
// Departure: 01 
// Story: The Fall 
// by Kentavritsa 
//------------------------------//

The room is rather small, but that is fine by me.  I'm not going to stick around.  I'm standing on a high stool, the light is already out, as I kick the stool out from under me.  There is a crack, and it is all over, quiet.

There is a sound of a familiar voice, echoing.  It is my daughter.

“Where did you go?  Why did you leave us?” she demands, quite insistently.

The echo continues, for what seems to be a minute or it could be two.

When the echo starts to die, another voice takes its place.  My son's voice.

“Of course, they did not understand?  Or, they did not know what happened!” I ponder.

Unless, of course; I am either imagining, or hearing things.  Then again, I am already dead.  I should be, after all.

The echoing voices persist, only to be replaced by one voice after the other.

My wife, my brother, my sister.  My father, and finally my mother.

Only my parents are dead.  It is why I am here, in the first place.

“Where are you?  We miss you!” my children continue.

The echoes slowly die down.   Then silence inserts itself in a blinding flash.

It is still dark, but now the silence is deafening.

I expect a disconcerting discontinuity.  A break between a reality I thought I knew and loved.  The world I so abruptly escaped.  A sharp border and a dull nothing.

I am, but still not.  Where am I?  Or, am I at all?  Is it even me?  Who, or what am I?

No voice, and no sound.  A deafening sound of nothing, quiet.

There is dark; and through it comes a light, brighter than light.

There is light; and through it comes a darkness, darker than black.

In the light, there are angels.  In the dark, there are daemons.

“Where are you coming from, where are you going?”

“What are you fleeing, what are you seeking?”

My mind is melting, I turn into a hum.  What I was, is evaporating as I am changing.

Who am I?  What am I?  I do not know, but I am about to know.  There is no escape.

There is an instant snap, as from a neck breaking.  Everything is dark.  So very dark, and cold.