Adrenaline flowed throughout every part of my body as I braced myself for the possibility of death. The wind swept my choppy, uneven black hair all over the place, making it hard to see. My stomach and chest felt weightless, my clothes being pulled up by the force of the wind. I was screaming. Struggling to turn my head, I looked up to see that Aria and Jacob had jumped too. For some reason,  they had grins on their faces. 

"Alright, a newbie!" Jacob yelled. 

"I thought he wouldn't jump then," Aria replied, chuckling. 

"What?" I yelled back. My brain was in turmoil. 

"It was a test, you dummy," Jacob said, laughing. "To see if you had the guts and determination to jump." 

"And to see if you had the stupidity too," Aria added, her grin widening. "It's been a while since we had a new recruit."

"Hey I'm not stu—!" I started, then thought about it and conceded that what I did was, in fact, pretty stupid. "Well, ok, maybe I am but..."  

"Don't worry, Lucas," Aria said. "In a way, we're all pretty stupid. That's kinda what you need to join this organization. We both chose to jump too." 

Their enthusiasm was contagious, and suddenly, I found myself grinning too. I had made it into the organization. 

"Oh god, I was freaking terrified!" Jacob laughed. "My recruiters—"

Jacob didn't get to finish his sentence. We were nearing the bottom of the hole. My eyes widened, and I tried to ask Aria and Jacob what was going to happen, and how we were going to survive the fall. But words escaped me, and I came crashing into the ground. 

It didn't feel like expected. My whole body slammed into the ground at the same time, and I felt as if I was sinking in water. I kept sinking, feeling as if I was engulfed in jell-o. I opened my eyes, and they stung. I could only make out the green, thick liquid that surrounded me. I couldn't breath and when I tried, the liquid got into my nose, burning. I gasped, flailing around in panic. But it was no use. I just kept sinking and sinking until finally, I was falling again. I sucked in a breath, and breathed a sigh of relief. I wiped the green liquid from my eyes and opened them just in time to come in contact with cold, hard floor.