The Fall

By Sumiyyah Farhat Shiraj

Winter this year was in full swing. All the trees lost it's leaves. The roads, the rooftops, and the backyards, everything was covered in snow. It would be a headache for the grown ups, but for kids like us, it was the best time. From skiing to ice skating, from snowball fights to building weird snowmen, it was all lively for us. Well, as lively as we can get. Me and my friends enjoyed winter, especially the snow. It was the best time of the year and this year was no exception...Until that one fateful day.

You see, ours was a small town, so typically we knew each other, well most of each other. We have festivals and celebrations, when everyone would gather in the town hall. This Christmas was also going to be big. As kids we were always upto something and being part in setting everything up was a great fun.

Oh I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Jake Miller and I'm an eighth grader. Some people say I'm a menace but I'll say I'm creative. See, I painted old Miss Yardley's wall with a splash of different colors. I was being creative, I mean white walls are boring right and the old lady definitely needed some color in her life. Anyway long story short, she told my parents and they made me repaint the whole wall white again.

Now where were we, aah yes, the decorations and celebration. So like every year the chores were split among us this year too. Me and two of my friends were given card duties, to present them to each house in our neighborhood. 

A few days before celebrations, we set out with our task. Delivering cards was an easy job, but walking in the snow, was not so easy. 

By noon, we had covered more than half of our side. We took a short break, had some cookies and lemonade, then set out again. We only had quite a few more homes before we reached at the edge of the ravine. The ravine was a small deep valley with steep sides. There used to be a wire fence that prevented people from falling over but it got blown away a couple years ago in a hail storm. And since no one lives near the ravine, (not close enough for anyone to topple over) nobody bothered to put up the fence again. 

We reached the last house on this lane, gave the card to the old couple who lives there and was about to return back when I had the most craziest idea. 

"Hey guys, why don't we just take a look at the ravine. We won't have to go far, just a couple of steps behind and we can see what it looks like at winter." 

"Oh I don't know about that," said Daisy " Mom always told it's dangerous to go near the ravine"  

"Come on," I urged " Just a look and we'll go back. It's not like anyone's going to know we're here anyway." 

Finally after some persuasion, I headed to the ravine and they followed me somewhat hesitantly. And when we reached before the edge, I couldn't believe it. It was nothing like I've seen before. The steeps covered in snow like a blanket with the sunlight hitting off making it feel like shimmering glass. It was truly a magnificent sight. Words lost, we all stared in awe. My friends too agreed it was a beautiful view indeed. 

Suddenly Lucas pointed out "Hey look, Is that lights I'm seeing on the other side?" The ravine was narrow so we could see the other side. Not too clearly, but we could still see. 

I looked and sure enough there were some lights across the ravine. In the distance I could see some trees looming, but that's all I could make out. I've never known that anyone ever lived across the ravine, not that we went looking. Now, naturally a teenager like myself would be curious. Curiosity kills the cat, said the voice in my head. But as usual I never paid any attention to my head. I did what my heart wanted. 

"How about we see what's with the lights on the other side" I said, 

"Really? And how exactly are you going to do that" asked Lucas skeptically. 

"Oh, I don't know, Maybe we could jump across the ravine. It seems quite narrow and..." 

"WHAT! Are you out of your mind" screamed Daisy, "you and your crazy ideas. That's it. We're leaving this instance. Come on, let's go. " And she started walking back as fast as she could.  Nodding, Lucas followed her without a word. 

I was feeling torn between wanting to go with them and finding out what's on the other side. Seeing my friends getting farther, I started treading back slowly. I was only a few steps behind them when curiosity got the better of me. 

Without a word, I spun around on my heels, and took off straight towards the Ravine. I heard  Lucas and Daisy shouting my name, but I didn't focus on anything except making that jump across the other side. 

I reached the edge and took a mighty leap with all my strength. I soared through the air and was just about to reach the other side, when to my horror, I realized the Ravine was not as narrow as I thought. I desperately tried to grab onto 

something, anything, but there was nothing and I started falling down, deeper and deeper. Then everything went black...

I woke to the sun on my face. I opened my eyes and sat up feeling dizzy. I had a pounding headache. I looked around, and to my surprise I was sitting at the edge of the ravine on the other side. I looked behind me squinting to see if I  could find my friends across, but they were nowhere in sight. Maybe they ran off to tell someone about me.

Anyways, I was so happy I made the jump and I slowly got up and started to walk where I assume we saw those lights earlier. After walking a short distance, I could hear voices. I kept walking untill I find out the reason for the lights. It was a small winter carnival nestled between the woods. There were glowing lights strung on to the leaf less trees. Apparently this was the shimmering that we saw from across.

I walked up to the entrance and found a dozen or more kids playing inside, running and laughing, some even having a snowball fight. The parents were straying here and there watching the kids have fun. A group of teenagers were huddled close to a shooting stand. I went to gate and asked the man standing there watching his phone to let me in. He didn't hear me, so I asked again. Again he didn't hear me nor saw me, so I walked up to him and tapped on his shoulder, when suddenly I let out a yelp and took a step back. My hand seemed to pass through the man when I touched him. I looked at my hands. They looked pretty solid to me. Then I watched the man carefully, he also seemed fine and he hadn't even noticed, so what just happened? Did I hit my head pretty hard when I jumped across? I turned to call the man again when I saw a young couple walking out towards me. I was about to ask him one more time, when suddenly the couple passed me, we'll actually passed through me! And they didn't even see me. It was like I was not even there.

Now I realized that something had gone really bad, I shouted at the top of my lungs but nobody heard me. Starting to panic, I looked around and decided to head back to the Ravine. I ran all the way back and was just about to jump across when I saw a small group on the other side. I halted and peered closely. They were standing at the edge across and pointing deep down into the Ravine. I shouted out, waved my hands and jumped up and down to get their attention, but they did not see me. 

Finally I looked down to see what they were all staring at. I let out a blood curdling scream..

"NOOOOOO......"

Because there, lying at the bottom of the Ravine motionless, was my body.

By Sumiyyah Farhat Shiraj