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An indescribable emptiness came over me as I looked down from the tenth floor. Vertigo gripped me in a matter of seconds. I began to fall into a dark abyss, my stomach contracted into a knot as the wind whistled in my ears.
In that endless fall, my entire life paraded before my eyes in fleeting flashes. The smiling faces of my young children, the endless afternoons of play and laughter. Then a deep sadness came over me at the thought that they would be left alone, orphaned by an absurd decision.
The newspaper headlines screamed in my mind ‘Man commits suicide by throwing himself from a hotel’. My relatives shattered by the painful news, unable to understand what dark force drove me to such madness.
Suddenly, a raw shock shook me violently. I opened my eyes with a start as I sat up in the gloom of the room. I touched the carpet in a cold sweat. It had been just a horrible nightmare, an atrocious fantasy of my subconscious.
I staggered to my feet and went to the balcony. A cool breeze caressed my face as I gazed out at the city lights. Clinging to life, grateful for this new opportunity, I made a silent promise never to abandon those I love.