James Levitt spent years of his life training rigorously to achieve just one goal, summiting Mt. Everest. After years of training, the moment finally arrived where he stepped foot on the summit of Mr. Everest. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to just get home. He had reached a level of exhaustion that was so ruthless that he didn’t have enough energy to put a water bottle to his lips, even in extreme thirst.
He despised himself for wasting such valuable years of his life training for something that took the life of half of the people on the trip, two of which were his best friends. Tears rolled down his face as he began the dreadful journey back down Mr. Everest. He used the last bit of his energy to try and look for the bodies of his friends on the way down. Every few minutes it would hit him like a ton of bricks, his best friends, his brothers, were gone.
James had grown up in an orphanage; he had no one to call his own but his two best friends, Kyle and Jack. They were his family, and they were the reason he was alive. Kyle and Jack came from an extremely wealthy family. They came to volunteer at James’s orphanage, and that is where they both met James. From the minute they met, all three of them were inseparable. Kyle and Jack always considered James their brother. In Kyle and Jacks friendship, James flourished as a person. They made him into a better and less broken person. As they grew up together they did everything together. When James said he wanted to summit Mt. Everest, there was no way that Kyle and Jack would not go.
As James and the rest of the team reached the camp on the bottom of Mr. Everest he made up his mind. He was not going to leave without his best friends. He had a lingering shred of hope that perhaps they were still alive. He was ready to go back up Everest again, but after a warm meal he felt paralyzed and slipped into a deep sleep. James woke up in a panic, he looked around and everyone was still sleeping. He glanced outside through the hole in their tent and saw the biggest and brightest full moon he had ever seen.
He went to grab his backpack so he can start his journey back up the mountain, when his hand slipped right through his bag. James quickly looked at where he had been sleeping and saw his body lay there lifeless. A wave of anger hit him, as he mourned over the day he decided to take this trip. He swore to himself that he would not let this mountain take another life. Ever since then, James has haunted Mt. Everest and scares anyone that tries to step foot on that mountain.People refer to him as “Insane James.” He has dragged even the most fearless of people down the mountain. Legend has it, that every full moon you can hear James crying near the tree where his tent once was.
(Amrinder Kaur)