My Short Story Page 7

They were still watching the house and Alan turned to see what it was that they were staring at.  The entire house had disappeared and the darkness was creeping slowly towards them.  The men didn’t show the fear that he felt in fact it seemed to him that they didn’t appear to be showing any emotion.  It was as if they were not concerned by the creeping eerie blackness.

‘Hey why are you just standing there? 

The three men either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore him and as he looked across the street he could see that the houses were disappearing there too.  He looked up and down the street and everything was vanishing, houses, cars, trees, everything.  The dark was moving in on him and he realised that there was nowhere left to go.  He looked around in panic but the dark was cutting of all avenues of escape.  He looked back at the men and saw that they were still standing in the same position.  He approached them and reached out a hand towards the closest one.  His hand passed straight through the man like he was a ghost.  He tried on the other two and got the same result.  He stood in front of them and put his face close to theirs.  They weren’t breathing.  There was no sign that they were alive.  Or maybe he was the dead one.  He looked down and saw that the ground around the men’s feet was different.  It appeared to be emanating a low blue pulsing light.  It was four or five feet square and he stepped onto it and watched the dark creep up and cover everything.  There was still a couple of feet of lawn and flowers but these were soon devoured.  He stood and waited for the inevitable and his mind reeled with ifs, maybe’s and why’s?

                As he watched the darkness seemed to stop at the edge of the platform and solidify.  He turned around and it was the same on all four sides.  The blue pulsing light seemed to intensify and a low thrumming vibrated beneath his feet.  There was a blinding flash and in that time he saw images, blurred representations of the events of his life.  His various birthdays surrounded by family and friends alike, school trips and day trips, weddings and funerals.  He saw him holding his baby sister when she was just a few hours old.  He even saw the morning’s events, from waking up right to the moment he went upstairs.   Then the flash receded and he was standing on a platform with lots of activity all around him.  Creatures were going back and forwards, touching screens, warbling strange languages, appearing to write, but in a language that he didn’t recognise.  He tried to move his arms but found out he was powerless. 

‘Interview no5 is a success, essence retrieved’

He heard the words as clearly as if they had been spoken but no one was near him.

‘Welcome back, we lost you there, almost had to terminate’

The voice was low and metallic and seemed to resonate in his skull.  He felt a sharp pain with each word and it felt directed and deliberate.  As he looked the creatures shapes changed.  They changed so rapidly that he felt dizzy watching the various features.  Was that an eye?  Were those legs?  All these questions and a thousand more invaded his mind and he felt the privacy of his thoughts violated. 

‘Wait no5, It will settle in a few minutes and then you will be one with us again’

What did it mean one with us?  Where was he?  He knew who he was.  He was Al……  He couldn’t remember who he was.  In fact he couldn’t remember anything and he tried to shake his head, except there was nothing to shake.  He had no form.  What was going on?