I try to right myself, but I’m struck by another rock. The air yanks at my clothes and my hair. I’ve jumped from planes, cliffs, bridges, but never has falling felt like this. The air whooshes through my ears, making me deaf to everything but its roar. My chest hurts, my teeth grit, my muscles tense. I’m about to hit.
I understand physics. I know that when falling from a great height, water doesn’t give. In fact, it hurts when you hit. You can break a leg. Or a neck. I know exactly what to expect.
It’s likely that in seconds I’ll be gone.
All I can think is—
I’m sorry Will.
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry Lacey. I wish I could’ve been better.
I’m sorry Jessie.
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry Will.
I slam into the water. The river doesn’t give. No. I hit the surface and it’s like hitting a concrete floor. Then the water cracks and swallows me. The cold is an electric shock. It only takes a second to realize I made it, I’m still alive.
I kick at the churning water, struggling for the surface, my lungs burning.
I’m alive.
I’m…
A boulder stabs the water, and shoots toward me. I kick my feet and jerk to the side. But I’m too slow. The boulder glances off my head. Starbursts of pain explode through my skull. The world is a riot of churning panic and pain. Another rock slams into me and I spin in the water, sucked down the raging river, kept under, away from the air I desperately need.
I claw at the water. Kick. Fight.
I spin in the current. Slam into a rock. Spin around again.
The world grows fuzzier.
The fear vanishes as quickly as it arrived.
The water rushes past me, a clear brown maelstrom, full of frothing rapids. I blink, the water stinging my eyes, and I look up through the murky water at the azure blue sky.
My limbs stop working, my lungs stop begging, my clothes weigh me down, and I start to sink in the deep, cold river. I’m back. I’m back in the pond. Somehow, I made it back to the pond.
I smile as the current pulls me deeper.
Then, I hit another rock. My head cracks against it. I hear the sound of my skull hitting stone, even under water. And strangely, I don’t see the water anymore, I can only see a million pieces of shattered blue glass.
Then even that fades and the world descends into nothingness.