Falling: Prologue

My hairs fly backwards and sway as if they seek to detach themselves to seek protection. The breeze blow into my eyes with so much force that I have to shut them halfway in order to regulate the inflow.

I look down and gaze at the several people watching me as I spear towards the ground, to my demise. 0.24 seconds ago I had jumped off the rooftop of the Royce Penton 41 storey hotel building.

Businessmen and women paused their journeys to yell in horror as they are about to witness an unavoidable event. I say unavoidable because 10 seconds ago my decision to jump off was avoidable. This outcome was just one out of the plethora of possibilities that could have effectuated while I was still on the roof.

My name is Professor Von Wilder, and my body is currently adhering to the law of gravity.

0.39 seconds and I'm still air-borne. My patience diminishes by the millisecond. I have often heard the statement 'at the sight of death your whole life flashes before your eyes', yet I wonder why no flash has crept into my mind. Perhaps I should voluntarily actuate an episode of reminiscences before my brain splatters and releases the memories into the sewers below.

My thought abruptly wanders to the phenomenon of having all these thoughts in two seconds. The brain is an amazing element of life. An element whose capabilities a majority of humans know very little about. The speed at which I have trained my brain to compute data would cause me to receive accolades from the greatest institutions of the scientific academia.

It is for this reason that I possess the preternatural ability to think a lot quicker than the average human.

I must be forgiven if my narration switches to the third person; it is a product of my great predilection for the theatre.This is my story, and within it are the events which led to this aerial outcome.

The Adventures of Maynard Ray

A crude excerpt from the novel I'm writing
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"That is impossible."
"Dear boy, from what this world has revealed to me I no more think of the possibility of impossibility existing."

"Surely you do not affirm that folklore and fairytales have elements of truth in them?"
"Most are true."

"By Jove, you're mad!"
"If knowledge is madness then I refuse therapy."

"Professor Maynard I implore you to reconsider your statement."
"Why reconsider something rigid?"

"Perhaps you could make it more plausible."
"Plausibility is a subject which contexts itself in mere fabrications; my statement is no fabrication."

"You do realize that you would definitely face the gallows if this paper containing your statement is given to the court."
"I would rather die than live on a testimony without veracity."

"Professor Maynard please consider your reputaion in the scientific academia, consider the indelible dent which your name will suffer for many years."
"What is social reputaion compared to my vast knowledge of the unknown?"

"Consider your family."
"They can travel out of the country."

"Consider your professional achievements."
"They are but dust compared to my achievements in the realm of the supernatural."

"Very well Mr Maynard, you have obstinately made your decision, yet I will do well to intercede for you as best as I can."
"Boy, do what you may but I know that my death awaits me."

Inspector Charles took one last gaze at the old man. He never imagined that Professor Maynard Ray - a man who broke grounds in the scientific world, the owner of hundreds of patents - would be in this state.