You can feel the clicking. The chugging. And it’s louder than you can comprehend. The excitement is bubbling up within you as well as everyone around. The closer you get to the climax the tenser you get. Energy gets feverish, as if you have no control. But with every click, with every chug gravity weighs heavier. It wants to pull you backwards. The machine won’t let it. It’s coming but you haven’t gotten to that peak of mania quite yet. And you’re up there at the top. You’re finally sitting still. You can see everything there is to see. But you know what comes next. Your gut can sense it before the cart even begins its rapid descent. You knew it was coming and you waited for that downward swing to pull you. You knew and the anxiety still pools at your core. You sit in that inescapable stress. It is so much stronger than you remember. You are very suddenly powerless to the direction this ride wants to take you. It is going so fast that you can hardly register what is going on. Your eyes tear up and they want to squeeze shut but you can’t let them. You can’t. The overwhelming nausea that comes from closing your eyes is worse than the burning and stinging you are already subject to. As tense as your body is you have no control over it. You are being whipped in the direction these tracks have determined. And it’s rough. Why would you put yourself through this? You forgot about the fall when you were goin up, up, up. When everything was exciting and had you on the edge of your seat. Was it worth it? As if you had a choice. Your stomach hurts, your body is wound into a ball of nerves. You feel as if you’ve been dragged through a field of fear and thorns. And just like that everything slows again. The tracks level out. The ride gets smoother. You look around and no one seems to be as affected as you are. But it’s over. And you can breathe for now.
Sam Pursues 