Hi everyone! This is my entry for @steemfluencer's challenge task #3. If you want to know more about it click here, basically we had to choose a news article and write a detailed narrated story based on it. This is the article I chose :)
For the last year, Jean-Pierre had wanted to die. After losing his wife of forty years, life ceased to matter. Minutes blurred into hours, hours turned into days and so on; the bed felt empty, there was no one to share the mornings with anymore. Most of the time he would find himself staring into nothing with tear stained cheeks and a vague memory of remembering his wife. Her death was sudden and unexpected; sometimes he wondered if that was better than having the time to prepare himself. One minute she was there and the next she wasn't anymore.
They had planned a trip to Austria during the winter, she had always wanted to visit the Tyrolean Alps. The tickets were bought and the reservations made; in an effort to feel closer to her he decided to come by his lonesome. So far everything had run smoothly, he enjoyed the sights and the clear air. Wherever he went he'd think about what Marie would say. As an historian, curious facts always left her mouth, one of her quirks he enjoyed the most. There was only a week left of this vacation. He was riding in a bus through the alps with several other people. A family of four, a young couple, a group of friends and the rest were by themselves ranging from 20 to 80 years old.
Jean-Pierre had observed the driver since they left the station. Something made him worry, the man seemed sick; even though it was cold he was sweating buckets, his eyes were bloodshot and his was breathing with difficulty. Like with his wife, he turned to look out the window and when he turned back the man was no longer upright. His heartbeat accelerated and the panic was quick to come. For a moment he hesitated, was this his death? Would he finally be granted his wish? The passengers' cries woke him up though, he couldn't let them die; with a strength and velocity he didn't know he still possessed he ran to the steering wheel and bombed the break so that the tires wouldn't lock. For a moment he feared he was too late, the cliff was fast approaching and the bus wasn't slowing accordingly; bracing himself for impact he grabbed onto the driver's seat.
The impact shook his bones and he smacked his head with the seat; when he could look up, the abyss greeted him. His heart leaped out of his chest and panic overwhelmed him. Would they fall down to their deaths? Instead of cries all that could be heard was silence, everyone was in shock. When the scare wore off Jean saw that only a small part of the bus was suspended in the air. A breath of relief left him and he turned back to the other passengers. Some were bleeding and seemed injured but nothing fatal; they would all be okay. Marie was looking out for him, for if he wasn't looking at the driver so closely then they would've fallen down. A breeze went by and he swore he could hear it whisper "It isn't your time yet".