#A-Z: Death By... Falling

Who or what event is portrayed in this story?

Hannes spun Elsa around five times and she started to laughed. She had such a beautiful laugh; her large round eyes twinkled in the banquet room lights. They took advantage of a rare night off shooting their movie, Rich Girl, to gather at Elsa’s hotel to dance and drink.
 

“What would your fiance say if he finds out we danced together?” he asked her when the song had ended. “You’re in the papers a lot now. He’s going to find out.”

She reached for a tall glass of white wine from atop the bar and waved him off with her hand. “I tell him that I have to make the other actors happy. He understands.” She leaned in and touched his nose with hers. “I want to see the roof. I hear there’s an amazing view.”

“I don’t think we should leave the party. What if they need us?”

“They won’t need us,” she said and grabbed Hannes’ hand. 

She led him to the stairs and up to the door marked Roof. The July night air was refreshingly cool. As soon as she stepped out onto the roof, she twirled and almost fell over. Hannes reached out to prevent her from falling.

“There,” she said and pointed to a tall tower, reachable with a ladder attached to the side.

“It’s too tall,” he whined. “You’ll never make it to the top, especially in the dark. Please, let’s return to the party.”

She ignored him and started up the ladder. When she reached halfway, she let go of one hand and yelled down to him, “You have to come up, it’s so beautiful.”

Elsa grabbed hold again and continued up. Hannes wanted to follow but the heights scared him. “Please be careful,” he whispered.

At the top, she called down, “There’s a landing here. Come on up.” She climbed over the ledge and jumped onto the landing. A loud cry echoed from the top. It seemed to go on forever, but it stopped in seconds.

He quickly scrambled to the top but he couldn’t see her. He looked down at the landing but soon realised it wasn’t a landing at all but a hole, a large black hole.

“Elsa, Elsa, Elsa,” he screamed.

Who or what event is portrayed in this story?

The previous Death By … story is based on:

Philitas of Cos was a scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. He was thin and frail, and may have suffered and died from a wasting disease. He seems to have died in Cos sometime in the 280s BC. The 3rd century AD Roman author Aelian skeptically passed along a story that Philitas was so thin that he put lead weights in the soles of his shoes to avoid being blown away by a stiff wind. A 2nd century AD Greek author, Athenaeus of Naucratis, wrote that Philitas studied false arguments and erroneous word-usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philitas_of_Cos
• http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/422370?uid=3738664&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=55972033913
• http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=Q91vNDy4jX4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Konstantinos+Spanoudakis%22&hl=es-419&sa=X&ei=CB12T4d1iKODB_S-7YkP&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=inauthor%3A%22Konstantinos%20Spanoudakis%22&f=false