freefall

Author's name: Hossam Mustafa Ibrahim

A “free fall” occurs when a person is stripped of their security: the security of the body, memory, identity, and choice. Here, the collapse doesn't happen all at once, but gradually, logically, and with a terrifying calm. The world isn't destroyed by bombs alone, but by routine, obedience, fear, and the desire for individual survival. People become accustomed to the stench, accustomed to living inside their shells, accustomed to being buried alive, to having their past erased, their consciousness manipulated, and to being reduced to mere “units.” Power doesn't always require direct cruelty; it's enough to convince people that “nothing better is possible.” And a person isn't defeated because they are weak, but because they consent… and then conceal from themselves that they consented. The endings aren't so much shocking as they are revealing: the world doesn't fall suddenly… but falls in freefall, and humanity grows accustomed to falling with it without even crying out.