For this assignment I wrote two endings for the same story. TW: Suicide.
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Each day is harder as time passes. Your room feels dreary and grey as the warm tones of December have faded. You feel death lurking at every step. You’ve realized by now that no matter what, you won’t be able to do it all. You’ve started a family, met your grandkids, and found temporary joy. You wish you could go back and do more. If you hadn’t slept you could’ve lived a little more. But it’s too late now. You’re bones creek with as the AC clicks on. You question if it’s still important to keep going. Each day you feel worse and worse. But of course, what would the grandkids think. You have to stay alive for them and for your kids, no matter how grueling it is. You stand up, and get out of bed.
You walking slowly and sag with each step. You can smell the gruel they’ve prepared for you. Your contemporaries smile as if its exciting, but your face can’t stand up today. You opt to skip breakfast today and walk around the home instead. You pace around the lobby, and try enjoy the cold garden outside. You’re breath falls with each exhale. Your back cracks as you attempt to look up and enjoy the morning suns embrace, the only intimacy you have left. You notice the vantage point of the roof and its frigid solitude. You head back inside to the elevators to reach the top floor.
You step out of the elevator and slowly walk up the stairs to reach the roof. The air is crisper here. The sun is so bright that you fall step back a little. You think about your life and everything you haven’t done. You wish you could go back, but you know there’s no reason to think about that. You sit for a while and contemplate. The sun rises higher and higher. Until you hear a knock. A concerned caretaker rushes to your aid with concern. You berate him for treating you so delicately. He calmly helps you back downstairs.
You wake up again in the bleak room, the color has drained from the walls. But today you feel differently. You are only gifted so much time in the world. You decide to live your life to it's final breath.
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You step out of the elevator and creep up the stairs to reach the roof. The air is crisper here. The sun is so bright that you step back a little. You reflect on your life and your various regrets. You wish you could go back, but you know there’s no reason to think about that. You sit for a while and contemplate. The sun rises higher and higher, until it finally reaches the center of the sky. The January sun scolds your back, and your bones creak with the cold weather. You stand up slowly using a nearby air conditioning unit. It blasts your face with cold air, but it doesn’t bother you. You’re close to the end now. You slowly lurk to the side of the building and stare. You stare at the town you love. You know you’ll miss it. You carefully step up to the wall’s edge and let the breeze gently lift you to the skies. The clouds consume you as you rise. You hear your daughter weeping, and anguish creeps into your soul. But it’s too late now, there’s nothing to do. You touch the ground for the last time.
A scream shatters the silent scene as a caretaker rushes to your corpse. Tears flood her eyes as she shifts around your body chaoticly. She sits by your side for a split second before rushing to an experienced care taker. Your distorted body haunts her. Other’s rush to your aid as she crys through a telephone. Moments pass before you are consumed by a thin, black bag, but you don’t feel suffocated. You instead feel buried by a waves of shame. You keep sinking deeper and deeper into the ground. You wish you could return. Anything is better than the feeling of pure remorse that strangles you. You fear that the anger wil surround you eternally. Suddenly, you hear a loud bang, your daughter falls to the floor and lays on your casket. Her tears sink through the hollow box and leech into your skin. On her knees she pleads for an answer, but no matter how loudly you scream she’ll never hear you again. No one will.