Falling

I wrote this for a Language Arts class a while ago. The assignment was to use long and short sentences to create palpable tension. I know it's rather dark, but I liked it. Here it is:

Aching. Running. I can feel my pulse hammering through my body, hear my thoughts extinguished by the exhaustion that overwhelms my senses.

There it is again. That sound, that terrible sound, worse than anything I’ve ever heard before.

Silence. Crushing, penetrating silence. And then it comes again, that piercing, wrenching scream, tearing me away from everything I’ve ever known.

With a start, I realize that I am the one screaming. I listen, so helplessly listen, and my weight becomes too much of a burden. I fall to the cold, forest floor.

Darkness, blacker than ink surrounds me. I am falling.