The Fall

Lin Fan was walking home while listening to music through his headphones, a western song by one of his favourite bands, even though he wasn't well versed in English, his understanding was still on a fundamental level and could understand most of the words.

Lin Fan's home was located a bit far from the main road, after getting off the bus he had to walk through a mountain pass to get there.

While immersed in his own world, he suddenly felt the wind blowing by his side and his phone was snatched from his hand.

A man riding a bicycle went past him and in his hand was what appeared to be Lin Fan's phone!

"MY PHONE!" Lin Fan was startled for a second then he started running after the bicycle.

The mountain pass was currently empty, rarely any cars pass here, therefore, there wasn't anyone to help him.

He knew if he lost his phone, his mother would surely berate him, their family's situation wasn't that well of now to buy him a new one.

His mother had to work overtime to get some extra cash after his father was fired.

Even though his father tried applying for other jobs, unfortunately, he wasn't accepted in any until now.

The mountain pass had a rigged surface so it was difficult for the man to cycle quickly, this gave Lin Fan a chance at catching him.

"F*** off kid"

The man suddenly lifted one of his legs off the pedals and kicked Lin Fan who was running behind him, Lin Fan had quick reflexes and was able to dodge the leg which was flying at him, but he tripped over a rock and fell, the mountain ridge was steep which resulted in him starting to roll downwards, suddenly Lin Fan found himself in mid-air, air was passing by his body at a tremendous speed.

Shock and fear filled Lin Fan's heart as he realised, he was falling.

Lin Fan screamed as fear engulfed his heart, the thought of death caused Lin Fan to despair.

He was only turning eighteen this year, was he just going to die like this before doing anything meaningful in life?

If he knew this would have happened, he wouldn't have chased after the thief, a mere phone wasn't worth the price of his life, nor was his mother's berating.

tears started falling from his eyes, as the gale carried them.

The man riding the bicycle was looking in shock, as the kid who he had stolen his phone was falling down to his death, he never would have imagined that things would escalate like this, he was just kicking the kid to push him away, but not to the direction of the ridge, the kid dodged and fell to his death.

"I- I wasn't the reason of his death! he dodged, yes yes, that must be it, he killed himself!" the man mumbled to himself in a crazed manner, he never wanted to kill anyone, he just wanted some cash to pay his debts.

The man took off quickly with his bicycle before anyone arrives.

As for Lin Fan...death was slowly embracing him.

Lin Fan closed his eyes in fear, waiting for that moment of impact that would end his life.

and finally, the impact came, but it didn't end his life, he was being bounced by one tree to another, leaves and branches hitting his face from everywhere, it felt awful, he suddenly heard a 'pop' sound and after it, an intense pain engulfed his shoulder, It was dislocated.

After a few seconds, he hit the ground.

He opened his eyes and what greeted him was an endless expanse of trees.

He was in intense pain, but he couldn't believe his eyes...survived! he had survived!.

Tears were pouring off his face but it wasn't only tears of pain but also of elation, it was quite the weird feeling.

Lin Fan tried to get off the ground with his fine arm, after a few attempts he succeeded.

While enduring the pain Lin Fan looked around him and noticed that he was what appeared to be a forest.

"Now, what to do?" thought Lin Fan to himself while looking around him, he couldn't make sense of directions, all that met his eyes in any direction he faced were trees everywhere.

"I guess I will just keep walking until I found someone".

The chances of finding someone in such a dense forest were slim, but there weren't any other alternatives.

Lin Fan started to worry, his parents would surely worry about him.

He took a deep breath and started walking in a staggering manner while nearly stumbling every now and then.