I woke with a groan. My head was pounding and my mouth felt as if I had eaten a tablespoon of sand. I knew that I had a pretty heavy drinking session on Saturday, but to still be feeling the pain of it on Monday morning ant that it must have been truly ridiculous. I let my eyes flutter open, wincing against the harshness of sunlight as it stread through my window. The world around ca into focus and I froze in my bed.
Well, I froze in the bed, because it certainly wasn't mine. Neither was the room for that matter. My bedroom was small. It was a part of a tiny flat that I owned in London, cramped and with a floor covered in dirty washing that I had yet to get washed up. There was a single dim light that flickered when the tube hurtled past, and it always slt of damp no matter how much I kept the windows open. It was certainly not a wide and expansive room with tallic looking walls and a dark wooden floor. My room did not have two strips of high tech looking lights lining its ceiling, nor did it have futuristic looking doors with no handles and a large window that looked out into the inky blackness of space.
My mories returned slowly as the initial panic subsided. The little girl, the van, the creature in the void, The Maw. The creature had promised to send to another dinsion, one where I could reach my full potential and live a worthwhile life. I couldn't help but feel a little jolt of joy, of sheer childish excitent. I had travelled to an entirely new universe, apparently one where I lived on so sort of star ship and travelled through space. It was like all my childhood dreams had coalesced into one reality. Sure I'd died to pull it off, and sure I knew the terrible truth that my soul was basically just being harvested to feed so interdinsional god. But at the mont things were cool, and I wanted a mont to enjoy it all. I felt like a kid again.
I decided to try sothing. "Comp" I began to say, before noticing that my voice appeared to be deeper than I rembered it, and my mouth felt strangely different in general. I ran my tongue over my teeth. "New teeth, new voice that's weird."
I swung my legs out of bed and onto the wooden floor, which I imagine must have cost an unimaginable amount of money to get made considering this were a spaceship, and got out of bed. There was no mirror in the room, so I decided to try sothing that I had seen on a science fiction show before my ti on Earth had ended.
"Computer, activate mirror," I ordered, trying to make my voice as clear as possible.
"Activating mirror," the computer system, which had a strange lack of the tallic twang voice activated AI's had back on Earth. It almost sounded human.
A hologram flickered into life about a foot in front of , and stared straight back into my own eyes. I had been expecting to see my slightly portly self staring right back at , but instead I saw a rugged and handso man. Handso in all the ways that a man should be handso, too. The holo-man had deep green eyes that seed to pierce right through , even though he were a hologram they sparkled with intelligence, life and determination. His dark hair was cut short on the sides but there was still a slight fringe. His arms and stomach showed a light amount of toning, not too much to make him look like a total beefcake but just enough to show there was a level of definition and strength beneath his skin. To be honest, if I weren't straight, I would probably jump him there and then.
"Computer, I said activate a mirror not show the stereotypically attractive lead of an action movie," I snarked at the machine, not really expecting a response to such an obscure sentence.
"But sir," the computer responded, "The holo-mirror functions are working at one hundred percent efficiency, you look just as strange as you did when you stumbled in here last night!"
I swallowed, and watched the adam's apple of the attractive man bob in synch with my own. The computer told no lies. That demonic wraith of the veil had done more than just sent to my childhood dream. It had taken away the remnants of acne that had plagued since puberty, it had reduced my fat levels and toned my muscles, it had made grow a good half a foot and changed my hair and eye colour to be a striking combination. Not only had it sent to a universe where I could do well, it had sent made look good while doing it. That would take so getting used to.
Now to address the multiple elephants in the room. I needed to find out so pretty core things about this universe I found myself in. I needed to find out where I was, if the universe had the sa star systems and constellations as the one that I had left, what my purpose in this universe was, and how much cash I had to my na. I would start with the most pressing of issues.
I turned away from the holo-mirror and strolled over to the wide window that took up the majority of one of the walls in the room. When I saw what lay outside the bounds of whatever ship or station I was in I felt my knees go weak, and had to steady myself against the wall. For a start there was the space. Of course when you are on a planet you know that space is infinite. Or at least that space was as close to infinite as a human being could ever comprehend. But when you're standing on the surface of a world you are, in a sense, separate from that infinity. The world around you keeps you grounded, no matter the infinite space above and below. When you are actually in space things beco a different matter altogether. There's nothing to ground you anymore.
I looked out of the window into the ceaseless expanse of space. It stretched out for light-years below , light years above , light years to the sides. Far out there were the tiny twinkles of other star systems, glimring prettily like like diamonds on a jewelry shelf. It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, and it was making my head spin. A well of panic was bubbling away deep in my gut, whatever calming effect the Void had on was relinquishing its hold. My heart raced, my palms beca sweaty and clammy. Looking out into the depths of forever I was terrified.
That was when it started to hit , really started to hit . I staggered back a few steps and collapsed onto the bed. In just a few monts I had lost everything. My family, my job, my life. It was locked away in a universe that I myself was now separate from. I let my head fall into my hands and let out a harsh sob, tears flowing freely from the corners of my eyes. Damn that reaper, or whatever it was, and damn the void. Though I hadn't realised it at the ti the entire space of the void had sapped of my will, and though I had asked the reaper so pretty important questions I hadn't been able to feel my fear. If I had I probably would have made a run for it. But then, how could an ordinary human run away from such an imnse and powerful being in its own domain? I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath, steadying myself before standing once more. This was my life now, and although I was more scared than I had ever been before I had to make do and get on with it. There was no use moping around for the things I had lost, even if they would scar my heart for a long ti to co. I had been sent to this world for a reason, I had left my Earth incomplete. I needed to lead a long and fulfilled life so that balance in the universe would be maintained, and though that didn't sound too bad in principle, I couldn't help but feel a heavy presence settle over my mind.
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