Evan Burl and the Falling, Vol. 1-2

by Justin Blaney

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  My body felt weightless.

  This is how the dream always begins.

  If I keep my eyes shut, can I stay here?

  Can I make my father come for me?

  Can I become someone else?

  My eyes snapped open. Emptiness surrounded me.

  Pure sky.

  Stretching without blemish from one side of the big round earth to the other, the blue blanket was perfect but for a single dreary speck.

  How can so much space feel so suffocating?

  For what felt like hours, the whole world seemed frozen below me. Jagged, snow-capped mountains rose on my left. Endless jungles stretched toward the horizon on my right. And cutting across both, a bleached-leather belt of sand holding back the sparkling ocean. Somewhere, out on that big ocean, my father sailed. That's how I always imagined him. Sailing.

  Except for a cool breeze, the world was silent. It seemed as if I could stay up there forever, like I was flying.

  First, the mountains and hills lumbered toward me like big bullies begging for a fight.

  Then houses and barns popped out of the ground, clumped together into towns and cities. And directly below me, a castle. My castle. Towers and walls, reaching out to me like hands from a grave.

  Ten seconds later, what seemed like a bit of lint stuck to my eyelash transformed into a living human. Then more. Dozens, hundreds of servants. Working, eating, anything but looking up to see me swooping through the sky like a hawk.

  Another ten seconds—far too soon—and the whole world rushed up at a speed that turned my stomach.

  What happens after the falling?

  Will I wake up as someone new?

  I've never been able to watch all the way to the end. I tried to keep my eyes open, but right before I hit the ground I clenched them shut.