City of the Fallen

| three

"Can anything even happen to us?" I ask in a panic.

"You guys need to jump!" Tanner shouts from below, "You'll get stuck up there!"

Without hesitating, Brooke leaps off of the cloud and lands gracefully on the ground many feet under us, where everybody else is.

She grunts when she meets the ground, and a few others down below help her up.

Thanks for leaving me.

"Julia, jump!" Brooke commands. I freeze in place, my anxiety starting to take over my mind. Stepping a few feet back to jump, I struggle to find the bravery to do it.

What's wrong with me? Just jump.

"Jump, I'll catch you!" Tanner shouts, "Hurry!" The cloud is only getting higher and transforming into a deep gray. I can actually get struck by lightning right now. Would that even hurt? I'm dead.

I told myself that I wouldn't be surprised by anything anymore, but I stand corrected. I didn't expect clouds to be dangerous.

I close my eyes to block out the negative thoughts preventing me from taking this leap. I back up several steps this time and get a running start, then leap off of the cloud, my arms flailing around as I fall. My stomach feels like it flew up to my chest and I hold my breath, not being able to bear the anticipation of hitting the ground.

Our cloud has drifted several feet from the edge of stage one, and I didn't realize that until now. It's far too late to do anything about it, so I hope that I jumped far enough to hit the edge and not the endless field of clouds beyond stage one.

I reach my hands out to grab the very end of the cliff— the end of the entirety of stage one— but I didn't jump far enough to get my entire body onto the ground safely.

I feel the hard dirt collide against my hands and I grab on as hard as I can, but the momentum I gained while falling loosens my grip.

I feel a hand grab my arm and help me up. I crawl onto the safe ground and lie on my back, breathing hard from the adrenaline. Tanner hovers over me with wide eyes.

"That was so sick!" Tanner's friend shouts, giving me a high five. I smile weakly, barely catching my breath.

"Are you okay?" Tanner inquires, still holding my arm.

"I'm fine, thank you." I reply. His eyes are even more blue up close. They sparkle when I look at him, like when I look at everybody.

He was definitely in the sun a lot when he was alive, he's tan and muscular and has blonde hair; he perfectly fits the stereotype.

"You had some nerve to do that, I wasn't entirely sure you were going to make it." He says and helps me up, then examines my wrist, holding it in his hand.

His eyebrows narrow into a knot; they're thin and don't have much of a shape to them. His eyelashes are long, I can see them from where I'm standing.

"Died in a fire, huh?" he asks. I realize he's looking at my scars.

"How did you know?" I question. There's no way he could figure out how my scars formed just by looking at them.

"The little mark you have on your hand. It looks like a ball of fire." He observes, "everyone has one."

I examine my hand, finding a small engraving that I've never noticed before. It could've been tattooed, it's that perfect.

My fingers rub along the mark; it's not hard to find, but my other patches of scars are distracting. "I never knew we had those. What's yours?" I ask. He shows me his wrist. It's an ocean wave.