Once you've reached the apex, the only way is down.
Do you blame yourself for climbing so high, killing your hopes for a brighter future?
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The Summit
— by @CryptoSharonA long time had passed since the rain stopped and Carlos kept walking, drenched in water, dried by the sun. The cold wind froze the fingers on his hands. The rocks he misstepped on ate away the skin protecting the bones of his toes. His lungs burnt with fatigue, but his legs still found a way to move. His motivation energized his body. It was human nature, he guessed, to throw away the pain when it had lasted for so long.
After hours of climbing, when the last strands of his energy leaked away from his every pore, he stepped on a tall rock to gauge how long the way ahead was. His sight could not reach anything leading upward. The peak of the tallest tree, a hundred meters away from him, was now a few feet below him. He looked around. No more summits could be seen, no higher points, just an endless horizon.
Tears of joy jumped to the corners of his eyes and he almost closed them, but he could not. He stared in awe while the tears fell. The trees saluted him from afar. The rocks he stepped on on his way up welcomed his rise in glory. The dusk sun, signalling the end of the day, shined upon the clouds beyond the cliff. They joined together like the final red carpet welcoming the emperor of the world.
He stepped toward the cliff, sniffed and tried to clean his eyes with his dirty arms. Then, he took a last step forward and jumped to the clouds. The only way was down anyway. The only color was red.
He gone!
He disappeared in the red fog!
He said bye and walked away with a smile on his face.
Amazing story Sharon. The writing style is very captivating! First it felt like there was a glimpse of hope, but that jump in the end surprised me.
Why did he jump?
Did all the failures take his hopes down or did he feel like he wasn't worth the brighter future?
This was really an awakening story. Thanks for sharing!
Hi,@ladolcemusica, thank you for reading my post. :) It's a story to be interpreted by the reader. I mixed in a lot of symbolical references to push certain possibilities, like the clouds are his carpet, so his walking on them is he taking the emperor's road. But also you can't walk on clouds and you'll go below them anyway, but he did step on them before his ultimate death.
Don't worry. Many people think authors have the answers to the questions they create on the readers, but this time I don't, so you can safely create your own answer and it'll be right for you. :P
Did he died?
Lovely writing. Highlights for me:
Lots of evocative stuff.
Cheers
Anj x
Ye, he done died. :P
:) I'm glad that you enjoyed those bits. I made them with love.
you can tell. It's gorgeous :)
You need to learn to forgive yourself...
I always forgive myself :D
very well written Sharon!
I wonder what happened to him though, did he fell? Hahahah I'm just curious... ^^
Yup-yup, that's why it says "the only color was red", it's a double-entendre :D
Love it! Thankies.
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Interesante! No me imaginaba ese final, y me crea muchas dudas con respecto al personaje. Buen trabajo! :D
Jajaja, sip sip. Me alegra que sea de tu agrado. Gracias por mostrar tu aprecio, me motiva bastante. Me gustan los cuentos de final inesperado.
What, you mean he didn't transcend upwards into the clouds? Into the red sunset...
There's always a larger hill to climb.
But the clouds were under his feet! And the Sun was below him too. And yeah, he didn't ascend, but he did trascend.
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Beautiful! Sad, but beautiful. I loved it. Seems like Carlos had quite the peaceful end. Thanks :)
incredible work, I'll always be here reading your stories!!! =)