30 Minute Story #20 - A Never Ending Fall

Hey hey, we made it to post number 20! I didn't know if this writing experiment was going to catch on, but it clearly did, and I've been writing almost consistently. I haven't published a story every single day I planned to, but life happens, just gotta keep writing. This has been successful. I feel like I'm getting better bit by bit and learning a ton! Let's move on to this week's topic. We are going back to random generation this time around. Going to write something simple, to get away from the complex story I came up with when doing The Entire Life of Brooke. That was definitely a big undertaking, even if it didn't seem like it.

Now, one thing I can't figure out for the life of me, is what the heck is a seasonal genre? I guess I'll write about Christmas!

https://thestoryshack.com/tools/writing-prompt-generator/
Genre: Seasonal
Character: A struggling musician
Material: A saxophone
Sentence: "It was her!"
Bonus: Your character is hated by everyone.

A Never Ending Fall

Tomas was plummeting down towards the iced over river, getting closer and closer every moment. He heard that right before you die, your whole life is supposed to flash before your eyes, but he experienced nothing of the sort. If he had the time to think, I'm sure Tomas would be grateful, anyway. There wasn't really anything worth remembering. All he ever wanted, was to play his beloved saxophone for a living, and have a quaint little family. Instead, he got fired from the local pub, and his girlfriend left him the same night. What made it infinitely worse, it was Christmas Eve. The man's poor little heart couldn't take it. His married neighbors were having quality family time in their warm, cozy homes, while he was all alone in his cold dark home, with no money to spear on candles, or even firewood. That was the moment he decided to end it. He put on the coat, picked up his saxophone and walked to the tallest bridge in town to play his last song.

It only took a couple of seconds to reach the bottom. Tomas instinctively brace for impact, but it never came. Instead, right before hitting the ground, the man saw a bright flash of light, like someone taking a photograph in the night, followed by an odd sensation of warmth. That was the last thing he remembered.

As Tomas opened his eyes, he found himself in a thick, bright, milky fog. It seemed as if the fog itself was illuminating the space. As he slowly got up, things got even more disorienting. He took a few steps forward, but didn't seem to make any progress, or at least that's what it felt like. Was this the afterlife? Is this all there was to it, just pure white infinite nothing? 

The man began to panic, he didn't want to be here. As soon as he had the thought, three bright slashes pierced the air in front of him, like three small bolts of lightning, startling Tomas immensely. They began to slowly grow, getting thicker and thicker. As the slashes grew bigger, the very middle, where they first struck, began to glow less and less intensely, as if cooling down. As the center cooled down, it revealed something that was not there before, a short, shifting corridor leading to an entirely different space.

Each of the slashes, which have now stopped growing, lead to a corridor which ended in something different. Inside the first slash was a solid sheet of ice - the surface of the river Tomas was falling towards what felt like moments ago. The man instinctively flinched as soon as he saw this image. Dying seemed like such a silly, far away idea to him now. Inside the second slash was the pub where he played saxophone. It was filled with the usual customers, and he could just barely hear them chatting away through the slash. Tomas made a face filled with disgust. He knew why he was fired, the people there simply did not appreciate his music, in fact, they hated him there. He was hired to attract customers, but instead lost the owner some regulars. Inside the third slash was his girlfriend, packing her things, in the process of leaving the man.

Nothing made sense. This seemed like a cruel joke. All three of the slashes were showing a specific moment in time, the culmination of which lead him here. What was he supposed to do? As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the corridors began slowly shrinking. What was he supposed to do?! It felt like the place was reading his thoughts, and clearly wanted him to do something, to make a choice. Out of pure desperation, Tomas ran towards the third slash. As soon as he reached the corridor between now and then, it felt as if his whole being was yanked forward, and an instant later, with a small thud, his feet landed on the the floor of his own home.

TIME UP

Well that's as far as I got today. I went through a ton of ideas as I was writing this. I knew he wasn't going to just straight out die when reaching the ice, but I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Maybe I went too mythical. It could have been cooler if time stopped and someone walked up to him, as he was frozen there, right before the impact. Anyway, it is what it is, thanks for reading guys!

See you next time!