Chapter One: There was nothing at all preventing Will from jumping off the cliff to his certain demise apart from the fact that he was the main character and he was only three pages in from the beginning of chapter one. I mean, there had been books written about people who were dead and the aftermath of it and everything; that book by Jacqueline Wilson, Vicky Angel, that was about a dead girl… but she wasn’t the main character. No. The lead simply could not kill himself. Especially if he was called Will. That was a BIIIIIG no-no. If he was called Will he was going to be heroic, and strong. Like the Will in His Dark Materials, or in God Isn’t Dead Just Sleeping. Yeah, he had his fault in that one, but he was strong and intelligent nonetheless. And in both cases they got the girl.
Will wished he’d got the girl. She was at school, and he was besotted with her. She hated him though. Every time he handed his homework in late or was talking in class, she’d make him go and stand in the naughty corner until he could behave again. Oh if only she could see how good he really was…
Will stepped closer to the edge. Hey, he thought, it would at least be an interesting story twist.
He took another step. Closer and closer to the edge he crept, until he was standing with his feet teetering over the sheer face of the rock beneath him. He looked down at the crashing waves and the sharp rocks that would break him, if not his fall. He took a deep breath and stood there staring out into the vast ocean. It was a grey and miserable evening, and the deep blue sea smashed into itself and pummelled the rocks beneath him.
Will took another look around. The day was so beautiful. The lightning hit the sea and sent forked fractals frantically shooting in to the depths. It was a magnificent sight, and Will realised that if there was going to be a beautiful world, he wasn’t meant to be in it.
He jumped.
He felt good.
He fell.
He didn’t die.
|
Chapter Two: Will looked around him. He was in hospital, a busy ward with people rushing around him. He remembered the jump. How had he survived? How had this happened? What was going on? Well, he said to himself, I suppose I’m just destined not to die. He tried to get up, but he couldn’t move from the chest down.
He was paralysed.
"Help me! Someone! ”
“What, what’s wrong?” cried a nurse as she ran over to him.
“I… I can’t move my body!”
“Oh god… Doctor! Doctor! Come over here immediately!”
“What? What is it?”
“The boy’s paralysed… He can’t move.”
It was a twist in the plot. He didn’t die, but the action scene at the start set him up for the rest of the book.
“Shit! Why wouldn’t he just let me die?”
“Sorry?” said the nurse.
“Nothing.”
Suddenly he started looking around for ways to kill himself. There was nothing. Even if he tried, he’d only wake up in even more excruciating pain in the next chapter. All he could do was sit there, and wait for whatever it was to take its course.
|
