The four of them had been catching up together as they hadn’t seen each other since college, more than four years ago. M was now in a new study program, excited to begin his new chapter in life. He had recently been depressed because of his loss of direction in his life. He had blocked out many of his friends at that time. This was the first time they had caught up since then. He was feeling a lot better now that he was accepted into this new program.

They gathered in the kitchen area of the employee lounge, ready to cook a meal together and celebrate while catching up. The kitchen area was dimly lit and quite small. There was hardwood flooring throughout the kitchen with speckled countertops lining the dividing wall on the left. Just on the other side of the dividing wall was the dining area of the employee lounge. Although they weren’t currently working, they used the area to commune as it was a place they all had in common at once point and still freely had access to. It was similar to having a kitchen and dining area in a dorm.

Just as they were putting their food down and hugging and greeting each other with free arms for the first time, there was a commotion several floors above them. The kitchen area was just below a cascade of floors above them. They heard shouting and screaming, but couldn’t figure out what the commotion was or which floor it was coming from.

All of a sudden, it happened. Glass shattered in every direction from one of the floors above them and a patient flew out in the midst of the glass. The patient fell, his body turning in the air as it descended down. The patient was falling towards them. They all shielded their eyes from the glass as look tried to look up at what was happening. The patient crashed into M, knocking M down flat on his back. The sound of their crash together alerted us and we all looked up towards M. The patient was definitely deceased, with a large shard of glass stuck in his back, bleeding from several sources on his body. We all rushed over to him. M looked up, his eyes teary, his breath raspy. “I…I don’t think I’m going to be okay…” He said through strained breaths. We all began tearing up. Within seconds, he was being wheeled off by a team of doctors in an attempt to save his life.

We looked in disbelief as he left, unsure of what just happened. We were just about to have a good time.