The Fall

Sarah blinked herself awake after beginning to nod off. She’s trying to make it through the last few minutes of seventh grade math class. It didn’t help that this was the absolute most boring class in the entire school. No - the world. Maybe even the universe. Her friend wasn’t there to save her from boredom, and Mr. Glass was a snore. He was nice enough but kids didn’t stand a chance against his lectures, especially when he began droning on and on about his cats. The upcoming test should be about the grooming habits of short haired tabbies instead of linear equations.

“Ah, Sarah,” Mr. Glass always chose the sleepiest students to answer his questions. “What is x in this equation?”

Glancing at the board, she works the problem out within seconds in her head. She might be chronically tired, but she was a math genius. She felt that she had to get answers wrong on purpose sometimes so she wouldn’t stand out too much. She began to say she didn’t know the answer when she noticed that something was wrong. Her lips were moving, but she couldn’t hear any sound coming out.

Mr. Glass posed another question, “Won’t you tell us,” he said, this time sneering, “what is your biggest fear?”

Her classmates all turned to stare, judgement blanketing their faces over an answer she hadn’t even yet expressed. Still, she couldn’t physically speak. She tried screaming for help, to tell them all that something wasn’t right.

Mr. Glass taunted her further and said, “If you don’t answer the question you will receive an F for the class, and have to repeat my class again…and again…and again…”

Another year with this buzzkill? No way. She stood up and ran for the door and it swung wide open. As she attempted to step into the hallway, her feet gave way to nothing. Shit. She found herself free-falling into an abyss scattered with glimmers of shattered glass and pieces of mirrors. All she could see was glimpses of herself in reflections and all she could hear was the cruel laughter of her teacher and classmates.

She fell for what felt like forever. Suddenly breaking her fall was a large underground body of water, deep in the earth. The water stung on impact, but the coolness of it felt strangely refreshing. She swam up to the surface, gasping for air. The world above her could no longer be seen or heard. Something else she realized was that her eyes had adjusted to the dark. What she thought was shattered glass and mirrors earlier actually seemed to be black obsidian. A solid wall of rock kept the volcanic glass embedded throughout itself. The obsidian reminded Sarah of the night sky. Which she would apparently never see again.

As she swam toward the dry cave floor, her thoughts started spinning. She’s going to die down here. Alone. In a dark, miserable, and impossible place. How could this have happened? She supposes that at least she’ll never have to take another math test.

Just as she was climbing out of the cave lake, she heard something move behind one of the many stalagmites that must have formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Alright then. Death by murder in an ancient cave instead of starvation. Great. Her clothes were soaking wet, she couldn’t talk, and now she was going to be eaten by something living in this underground hellscape. Curiously though, the thing that came out behind the stalagmite wasn’t a thing at all. He was someone she never expected to see again.

A year ago, a county-wide search took place for her missing best friend, Nathan. He disappeared with no signs or clues as to what happened or where he might have gone. No one knew if he was kidnapped or if he ran away, joined the circus or was dead in a ditch somewhere. The last person to see him was Sarah. They had been walking home from school together one day and he never made it home.

Nathan? She heard herself say his name out loud. “Oh thank God. I can talk again. Nathan, is that you?” She was in disbelief. “What’s going on? What is this place?”

Nathan looked at Sarah, bewildered at first. Then he broke out into a shoulder-heaving sob, relieved to see her familiar face. They embraced in a hug for a moment and briefly, everything felt okay. “You’re getting your tears all over me, jerk,” Sarah said as she discreetly wiped her own wet eyes. He was always the sensitive, timid one in their friendship while she was the outgoing and thick-skinned friend. A perfect balance. They were both outcasts in school and first met over this shared identity. Each of them was ‘too extreme’ on either side of the personality spectrum and they didn’t fit the typical stereotype of a rough and tumble boy or a sensitive and caring girl.

“I thought I was going to die down here with nothing but these stupid rocks to keep me company,” Nathan starts, “if this lake didn’t break my fall, I’d be down here with my bones all broken,” he starts getting teary-eyed thinking about it. Sarah notices the tally marks on the wall, the way Nathan was keeping track of the days.

He asks how long it’s been. She says it’s been a year, and took her time explaining to him what happened after he disappeared, about the big search, and how everyone, with the exception of his family and her, eventually moved on with their lives.

Nathan nods in understanding and suddenly, clear eyed and steady, gives her a small piece of obsidian, the volcanic glass cold and smooth in her hand. “Take this back to the ones who play with fire.”

“What? Who? What do you mean take it-” A loud ringing starts so loud that the cave shakes, pieces of rock tumble and fall from the ceiling. Nathan just repeats himself over and over again. The sound became so loud that it gave Sarah a splitting headache. She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears.

The ringing stopped abruptly, and Sarah opened her eyes. Instead of looking back at Nathan, she was looking at a classroom wall, her face covered in drool. Math class. Seventh period. Mr. Glass. She looked around to see all the desks were empty except for Mr. Glass at the front of the room. He was grading homework. The ringing - it must have been the final bell. The lake, the cave, Nathan, it was all a dream. She was relieved, but she also felt a profound sense of sadness.

“You know Sarah, you might not pass the seventh grade if you keep falling asleep in my class,” Mr. Glass warns.

Ignoring him completely, Sarah hurriedly gathered her books and things and got up to leave. That dream was the worst she’d ever had and it left her wildly uneasy. She hesitated as she went to walk through the classroom doorway, looking around cautiously, before finally stepping onto the hallway tile.

“Oh you left something–” Mr. Glass began, but Sarah was already down the hall and out the door. Mr. Glass picked up the smooth item, which had fallen to the floor without Sarah noticing. He looked at it quizzically before deciding that it was just a rock. He tossed this thing, shiny and black as the night sky, in the trash as the janitor came by.