The fall was eternal.
Anya felt the world spin around her, a nightmare of stone, shadow and screaming wind.
Debris pelted her from all sides: chunks of wood, shattered glass, twisted metal from the hospital framework.
Mika's arms were wrapped around her so tightly she could barely breathe, his small body shielding hers as they tumbled through the abyss.
"Mika!" She screamed, but her voice was swallowed by the roar of collapsing earth.
"Hold on!" He shouted back, and she felt him shift, trying to angle them away from a massive slab of concrete that plummeted past, close enough to graze her cheek.
They had been falling for what felt like hours. Minutes. Seconds.
Time had lost all meaning in this vertical nightmare.
The only constant was the rush of air, the sensation of terminal velocity, and the growing certainty that this was the end.
Anya thought of her mother. Of her sisters. Of the yellow house with blue shutters she had been dreaming about just moments before.
