Fall 2022

Your decisions shape the limits of grief and survival. A year after your husband’s death, you’re offered one final climb—a chance to scatter his ashes and reclaim your life. But when the ladder breaks, you’re trapped 2,000 feet above the ground, with no way down and a past that won’t let go.

Fall 2022

Your decisions shape the limits of grief and survival. A year after your husband’s death, you’re offered one final climb—a chance to scatter his ashes and reclaim your life. But when the ladder breaks, you’re trapped 2,000 feet above the ground, with no way down and a past that won’t let go.

It’s been a year since Dan fell. I still see it—the way his foot slipped, the silence after the scream. I haven’t been the same. I barely leave the house. My dad says I’m punishing myself, that Dan wouldn’t have mourned me like this. Maybe he’s right.

Then Hunter called. Said we should go back. To the tower. To scatter Dan’s ashes from the top. 'For closure,' she said. I almost said no. But something in me needed to climb.

Now we’re here, 2,000 feet up, wind howling through the steel bones of this dead tower. We scattered the ashes. I felt nothing at first. Then the ladder broke. We’re stuck. No signal. No water. Just the sun, the metal, and the silence.

Hunter’s trying to stay calm. But I can see it in her eyes—she’s scared. And when I looked at her ankle earlier… I saw the tattoo. 1-4-3. Dan’s code. I love you.

She knew. She was with him. Before us.

And now we might die up here together.