Member-only story
The Call of the Void
A strange world awaits // #60 of the 100 Story Challenge
Looking down out of the window made me want to jump out and fall. Like every time. Apparently this is a thing — the “call of the void.” So I was extra cautious to never open the window wider than my head. Except last Tuesday.
Now Tuesdays aren’t important anymore. Days are 48 hours long and numbered, they don’t have names. I have to nap four hours after every sixteen to stay functional in this gravity. Plus, everything is monochrome. The food…Oops, I was about to infodump details you don’t need right now.
The most useful tip I can give you is to close your eyes and breathe. Breathe in short, breathe out long. You gotta reset that parasympathetic system. This isn’t forever. Remember that. There is a way out. Literally. Just hang in there. It will open.
Yeah, this place smells like burnt popcorn all the time. It literally clashes with all the foods I’ve tried. It makes that deep breath advice seem masochistic. Sorry.
The lack of color is disturbing, too, but I pretend I’m seeing through raccoon eyes. I’m tired most of the time so I have raccoon eyes anyway. If I rub my closed eyes, I can still see sparks of color. Probably not ophthalmologist-recommended advice.
