Chapter 1: The Fall

Marcus walked through the busy city roads with a bag and sketch book in hand. Seeing the 1990s style skyscrapers forming the city skyline he felt a bit sad in his heart.

Several decades ago this place used to be filled buildings of uniform heights reminiscent of gothic and roman architecture.

But all of that was lost in the fire caused by bombing raids during the war. Now all of it is part of history.

Following the war humanity had embraced minimalism. Gone where the days where people would consider beauty the standard.

Everything now is just plain concrete and steel. Rather than beauty people now compared how high their building could reach touching the heavens.

While the rich and fortunate are able to touch the heavens above, the rugged plastic tents represents the polar opposites.

The slums build the foundation for the stairs that reach the heaven. This is now the reality of our beauty.

It was 9am and Marcus had to reach his destination in 15 minutes. He gave the scene one last glance before moving on.

Reaching his working place he recieved the greetings of his colleagues. It was construction site and that too of a very ambitious project.

A new skyscraper that would become the highest building in the country. But it had not reached its full height right now. Currently everyone is in happy mood since the 10th floor is complete.

A small accomplishment in the big scheme of things but a accomplishment none the less.

Soon he was greeted by Sarah one of his former classmate and the one who would be joining him on his work.

"Good morning.~"

"Yes good morning."

"We will be testing the elevators today and check the if our new design on the wind load reduction."

Both of them quickly got to work. After making some more concept drawing and calculating the cost of further construction then entered the elevator.

Everything worked smoothly till the 5th floor.Suddenly the elevator jerked, sending tremors through the metallic framework. Marcus gripped the handrail, his heart pounding against his ribs. As an architect, he was accustomed to the occasional hiccup in construction, but this felt different. He exchanged a wary glance with his colleague, Sarah, who mirrored his concern.

"It shouldn't be doing that", Sarah remarked, her voice tinged with unease.

Marcus nodded, he furrowed his brows as he scrutinized the elevator's blueprint. He had spent months working alongside the civil engineers, meticulously planning and testing the details of the building's infrastructure. Yet, despite their efforts, something felt off about this particular elevator.

"Its just my gut feeling, probably," Marcus reassured himself more than Sarah. But before he could delve further into his thougths, a deafening crack split the air, followed by a sickening lurch.

The elevator plummeted.

Marcus's stomach churned as gravity seized hold of him, plummeting him downward in a chaotic freefall. Panic surged through his veins, his mind racing to comprehend the nightmare unfolding around him. In a blur of motion, he reached out, grasping desperately for anything to anchor himself.

And then, impact.

The elevator crashed to a jolting halt, metal shrieking in protest as it buckled under the force. Marcus was flung forward, his body slamming against the elevator floor with bone-jarring force. Pain exploded through every part of his body unlike anything he had felt before.

When Marcus regained his senses, he found himself sprawled amidst a tangle of twisted wreckage. The acrid stench of burning insulation filled the air, mingling with the coppery tang of blood. He groaned, pushing himself upright, his limbs protesting the movement. Beside him, Sarah lay motionless, her face was pale and blood flowed down from her head showcasing her injury.

Fear clenched Marcus's heart as he scrambled to her side, his fingers trembling as he searched for a pulse. He only felt refief when he felt the faint throb beneath her skin. She was alive, but unconscious and in a terrible state.

As Marcus struggled to gather his wits, the gravity of their situation pressed down upon him like a dreadful weight. They were trapped, injured, and alone in the reckage of a crashed elevator. Panic threatened to consume him, but he forced himself to remain calm, to think rationally amidst the chaos.

With his blood red trembling hands, Marcus reached for his phone, hoping to get help as soon as possible. But as he fumbled through his pockets, he felt dread in the pits of his stomach. The screen lay shattered, rendering the device useless. His blody fingures onlt felt red fingure prints as he desperately tried to open it.

Trapped in darkness, with no means of communication, Marcus's mind began to flood eith thoughts of misfortune. Would they be rescued? How long would they have to wait? The questions swirled around him, taunting him with their uncertainty.

"Damn iii-", even talking was painful for him. He coughed out blood on his shirt.

Who knows how long passed by in this agonizing silence, broken only by the occasional creak of the damaged elevator and his and Sarah's groans. Marcus's injuries throbbed with every heartbeat, his sight became blurry with every second. But despite the pain, despite the fear gnawing at his insides, Marcus refused to succumb to despair.

He had worked too hard, sacrificed too much, to let it all end like this.

As the hours stretched into eternity, Marcus found himself drifting in and out of consciousness, his thoughts drifting to memories of a life before the accident. He remembered the excitement of starting out as an novice architech, the thrill of being chosen to work on such a prestigious project.

But beneath the surface, there lingered a sense of dissatisfaction, a longing for something more. Marcus had always harbored dreams of greatness, of leaving his mark upon the world in a way that transcended mere blueprints and steel beams, and unvail the true meaning of beauty.

And now, as he lay trapped in the darkness, those dreams seemed farther out of reach than ever before.

But just as despair started to consume him, a glimmer of hope pierced the darkness. In the depths of his despair, Marcus heard a faint whisper, a voice calling out to him from the recesses of his mind.

It spoke of a world beyond his own, a world of magic and mystery, where anything was possible for those with the courage to seek it. And though Marcus could scarcely believe what he was hearing, maybe this is what a person goes through before dying.

The last thing he wished for was to die alone and not drag Sarah into this mess. It was his fault that Sarah would die in a place like this and he won't be able to forgive himself for this.