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Do you know that feeling when you jump? There’s a moment, and it’s only a moment, that you find yourself suspended. And you know you’re not really flying, but you know your feet have left the ground. And you ask yourself, what had been holding me down all this time? 


Then gravity catches up to you, and suddenly you’re not jumping anymore. 


You’re falling.




Who knew that’s what death would feel like?



     

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It’s not that hard, just do it.


I stared through my translucent shoes and to the platform below, the ribbed metal covered in years of grime and loose debris. I sat on top of an old wooden horse frozen in mid-leap on a broken down carousel. Although, I wasn’t really sitting, more like hovering just centimeters above the surface. I didn’t like to touch things… haven’t ever since I “woke up” here one day. It’s a truly hollow feeling to pass through what should be a solid object.


Which brings me back to the platform. I refocused all of my attention on it, memorizing every scuff, candy wrapper, and soda can. It was real. It was solid. And so am I.


I closed my nonexistent eyes.


I jumped off, mimicking gravity as best I could. I imagined the wind in my hair, the rustling of my clothes, the firmness of the ground beneath my feet…


I opened my eyes, though I didn’t have to. I felt the familiar icy sensation hollowing me out, replacing optimism with despair. I looked down. The metal was up to my knees, my feet just stopped short of the ground below andI clutched the empty space that had once been my stomach. 


Still falling, I thought. I moved back up to the horse and pretended to lean against it. It’s open mouth laughing at me.


“You’re one to make fun, I don’t see you going anywhere.” The beast just stared at me through chipped paint and graffiti. “It’s like, I took a bad step one day and I never got around to hitting the ground, you know?” I looked out over the abandoned grounds. “I’m just waiting for it to happen, but I don’t really know if I want it to…” I leaned over the edge and looked at a tuft of grass dancing in a breeze I couldn’t feel. 


“What if I just fall through?” 

A bit darker and more vague, so let me know what you think. This was for a prompt called "Haunted Amusement Park", and I thought I'd come at it from a different angle than what everyone else was doing. These three prompts was an experiment in eliciting different emotions. 
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