When staring death in the face, people change. You cannot come near to death and stay the same; it is not mentally possible. The change that occurs when staring death in the face may be a heroic action for the coward or a cowardly action for the hero. For Jonathan Marcus it was neither. Jonathan Marcus’s death was completely and utterly devastating, but he was neither a coward nor a hero; the change in Jonathan was that he finally felt fear. Your average, every day teenager, Jonathan had a false feeling of security thinking that he was invincible and owned the world. He also had a poor sense of judgment and was quick to trust as most teenagers are. All would ultimately lead to his demise.

Jonathan and his friends had done a lot of things in the short amount of time they had been alive; cliff jumping, 48-hour non-stop movie marathons, parties, even short trips out of town. The one thing that Jonathan hadn’t had a chance to try was sky diving. Of course he hadn’t given much thought to it, his age always had a way of interfering; but he had turned 18 recently and, being a newly graduated student, wanted to spend his first days of freedom in style. Imagine the appreciation and praise he’d receive from his friends when he told them what he had done lately: sky diving! Making up his mind he asked his older brother and father to come along. Both were hesitant about the height and safety issues, but Jonathan couldn’t be swayed, what were the chances of a parachute not opening or their plane crashing? People went sky diving all the time and came out alive, sometimes even laughing!

Finding a company that offered sky diving was a lot easier than Jonathan had thought it would be, the internet was full of great places to call. Jonathan was wary of scams but finally picked a company that had a reasonable price and seemed safe, fun, and was even near-bye. Calling the number on the website he set up dates and got the needed information and details. When he finally hung up the phone, Jonathan felt as excited as a teenager can be.

The days following were of course the longest days of Jonathan’s life. He was constantly thinking of the great time they would have on the trip. The distraction got so bad his mother had to scream his name multiple times to get his attention, getting very frustrated when it took him all day to do one thing. Everything Jonathan did seemed to make him think of jumping out of a plane. Whether it be feeling the wind in his face when he walked out into the cold winter, or his breathing choked when driving with the windows down on the highway, he could not get the airplane out of his head.

When the day finally came Jonathan had enough energy for both his brother and father put together. Once surviving the safety lessons, the three of them prepared to board the plane. The trip up went smoothly in airplane standards, and their pilot seemed to be enjoying himself, telling them his life story and how he came to fly planes.
“Growing up I always wanted to fly, I used to sit and watch the birds out my window for hours. It wasn’t until recently though that my wish came true. For years I went airline to airline trying to get hired just so I could have my dream. To fly with the birds, to be free of the world and all the people that make life unbearable.” the pilot went on explaining that his parents had been very strict and sometimes abusive when it came to raising him. Jonathan had to admit the pilot was a little weird, the way he talked about how destructive and evil people were, you’d think that he wanted everyone dead; but Jonathan couldn’t judge him too harshly, he had had a pretty tough life. When Jonathan made the comment that not all people are bad and evil he got was a death glare from the pilot.
“Haven’t you been listening kid? People don’t care about no one but themselves. They don’t worry about stupid little things like a small kid afraid of the dark.” Jonathan realized that the pilot was unconsciously talking about himself. His parents not only neglected him but taught him that fear was weakness. Jonathan stopped talking but the pilot kept looking back at him and glaring as if Jonathan were one of the people the pilot had mentioned. Dismissing it as nothing important Jonathan tried to focus on the flight and what he had been taught in the safety lessons.
Once up to the proper level, Jonathan’s father, who was jumping first, got his gear on. Each of them would be jumping at different times with five minutes between each jumper. Jonathan’s father jumped with a scream that was cut short by the loud engine of the plane and rush of air flying inside from the opening. Five minutes later Jonathan’s brother geared up and got ready to jump. Screaming louder and seemingly longer than their father, he rocketed out. Adrenaline pumping, Jonathan was waiting his five minutes when the plane started to uncontrollably shake and Jonathan felt as if his feet were dropping out from under him. Making his way to the cockpit to ask the pilot what was happening, Jonathan got the shock of his life: the pilot was missing, the cockpit empty and the plane descending quicker and quicker. Spinning around and not knowing what to think or where to look Jonathan got a small glimpse of the pilot as he jumped out of the plane leaving a clueless and dumbstruck Jonathan behind. Realization hit Jonathan: while trying to avoid scams, Jonathan had come across the most convincing and dangerous scam available. The pilot had ranted so much about making people disappear Jonathan should have picked up the clues, unfortunately he hadn’t and was now the victim of a serial killing scam. Not wondering why the pilot had only wanted to kill him instead of his brother and father also never even went through Jonathan’s mind as he tried to assess his situation further. The pilot had gone far enough so that when the plane came crashing down it would miss him and hit the side of a far away hill. Jonathan tried to think of what to do; the pilot had taken the last of the parachuting gear and Jonathan’s only hope was to somehow land the plane. This plan would have been great but the only thing he knew about airplanes was that they flew. He had no idea about the radio or even how to steer. He grabbed what he hoped was the steering device and pulled. Nothing happened, in fact the thing wouldn’t even budge. Wondering if he had the wrong idea he looked for something else that could possibly steer the plane. Unknown to Jonathan, the pilot had put the plane in auto pilot and locked the yoke so it wouldn’t budge. Jonathan grew desperate and slammed his hands on the dashboard pushing all the buttons at once to no avail. Eventually Jonathan’s mind entered the point where a breakdown occurs. Jonathan was going through the changes resulting from staring death in the face. His mind was speedily becoming a jumbled, incomprehensible mess and all that he could think about was his mother and how she had hated the idea of him jumping out of a plane thousands of feet in the air. As the ground neared faster and faster, more thoughts came and just before the plane hit, Jonathan Marcus’s last thoughts were of how much he wished he could be a kid again, innocently making snow angels with his older brother.

Authorities on the site of the now cool plane crash were baffled. It seemed that the only passenger left on the plane was a teenager. A call had come in hours ago of a frantic man at the scene of a plane crash. The site was unapproachable due to the heat until moments ago and the forensics had only just given a quick assessment of the charred remains and determined them male, and between the ages 15-19. The call had come from the father of the boy, he and the older brother were giving their statements. They had seen the whole thing from above but were helpless. As soon as he landed the father had run for the plane the brother soon following. Both had thought that the victim had jumped with them and expected him to follow. The pilot, renowned serial killer Adam Jacobs, took off soon as he hit the ground… authorities were still searching for him. When the father and brother had arrived there was no way to know that it was Jonathan, not the pilot, in the plane, but when Jonathan never showed at the scene with them they feared the worst. Their fears only confirmed by the forensics put both of them in shock.

Jacobs was soon caught and sentenced for multiple charges including serial killing of 7+ people and kidnapping of 2 young girls found in the basement of his home. The charred remains of Jonathan were released to the family once a complete examination had been done. Justice had been served but that didn’t change the sorrow of the friends and family of Jonathan. The funeral was a solemn proceeding full of tears and heartache. Pictures of all Jonathan’s adventures were propped on a table, along with pictures of Jonathan and his brother making snow angels and playing as children. All the different smiling faces of Jonathan brought comfort to his loved ones as the casket was lowered into the frozen hole in the ground. Snow fell silently around the weeping friends and family covering the earth with a blanket of white.