A Long Fall Down

Angel Falls, Venezuela

The river rushed over the edge of the falls like a skydiver out of a plane, falling down, turning to mist at points and crashing into the water 3,000 feet below. The roar could be heard all the way at the top. Felix stood just foots from the edge, hands and feet bound. He looked about with a terrified contentment in his brown eyes. His sweat and bloodstained clothes brushed against his chafed skin in a cool, what would have been pleasurable breeze, if it were not for his impending doom. He looked over his right shoulder: three men, two of them bearded, were standing talking. One wore a three-pointed leather hat, and the other two wore bandannas. White shirts, brown or black pants with belts of rope and leather boots. One laughed a deep laugh as the other two jested. He looked ahead of him again and recalled what had happened.

He remembered he was on a merchant ship many weeks ago, flying the Union Jack when he saw the Jolly Roger waving to him in the distance. Felix had drawn his old rusty sword, as the pirates came up beside the merchant vessel. They dropped boarding planks, and Felix and his only friend fended them off by kicking away the boarding planks as they came down. But the captain of the pirates drew and aimed a flintlock pistol at his friend and pulled the trigger, striking his friend in the temple. Felix rushed across the next boarding plank and lunged into the group of pirates that had congested around it. He slashed and stabbed and must have cut down six, but he heard the captain shout something, and then everything was black. He awoke the next morning in the brig of the pirate ship heading for Venezuela. At first there were seven captives, but two had died from sickness and four had already been pushed off. There were now five pirates atop the falls where there had been six. Felix grinned at this; he had pushed off a pirate while he was pushing off the captives. He had taken pride in hearing the man's screams swallowed by the roar of the beast, known as Angel Falls.

Felix looked over his left shoulder, saw the captain and his first mate look at him. He looked forward quickly again, into the open nothingness of the clear blue sky. The captain walked over to his side, and he could smell alcohol on his breath. Felix did not change his gaze; he stared straight out as the captain began to talk about how he became captain - all lies. While aboard the ship he had discovered that the captain had letters of pardon from the British Empire, to clear any man of all and any previous conviction. He went on for some minutes as Felix looked around him, pretending not to notice. He was surrounded by dense jungle, and knee-high grass with many small bugs crawling and creeping around his feet. He was brought back to reality with a hard kick to the back of his knee. He stumbled but did not fall. He stood erect, looked at the captain. The captain's thin lips curled into a smile, displaying two wooden teeth, the rest yellow and crooked. He let out a deep throaty laugh as he swayed back and forth towards Felix - he was drunk. He shoved Felix to the edge. Felix had his back to the open air, looking at the laughing captain. Felix smiled, the captain stopped laughing as Felix lifted hid bound hands and showed the letter of pardon, bound in leather, yellowing pages crumbling. He saw the captain lunge forward as Felix spun round and jumped. The mist swallowed him and he could hear the captains screams not far behind him the whole way down.