The Strange and Unknown

Human Being Coming Soon

Flash Fiction

I strapped the belt around my waist and tightened it until I couldn’t move. The earth’s size grew at a slow pace. Curiosity filled my mind. The planet showed no lights. My ship broke through the atmosphere and sped toward the surface. My body sank into the cushion of my chair. The reddish-orange glow of fire spread across the front window. My ship rushed toward the Earth’s surface, but it was not the Earth I remembered from the day I launched.

Scorched buildings and flattened rubble as far as the eye could see. The landing pad I launched from now looked like the focal point of a bomb. I pressed a few buttons on my control pad to activate the thrusters. The ship slowed to a crawl. My stomach performed flips inside my body from the change in gravity. The reddish-orange glow cleared from the window. Black smoke billowed from several spots across the horizon.

My ship trembled as it touched down on the surface. I walked to the exit, stripped off my suit, and pushed the orange button next to the door. Air hissed, and the metal door slid open. Thick, humid air wafted inside my ship. The stench of smoke and burnt hair penetrated my nostrils. I eased down the ramp onto the desolate surface. A mound of concrete, rebar, and skeletons replaced the spot where the space station stood.

I walked around, filled with hope that I would find someone. Not a single living creature was in sight.

“Hello! Is anyone out there?” I shouted.

No response. Glass and bones snapped and crunched under my boots. Slabs of concrete covered anything I could have recognized from inside the station. One thought swirled in my head: welcome to hell. I dropped to my knees and clenched my fists until my knuckles turned white. A fire flared inside my chest. I thrashed my head back and let out a blood-curdling scream.

It pierced the thick silence around me. My throat felt like I had swallowed a torch. The scream echoed across the desolate landscape and faded into the distance. I slinked up from the ground and leaned against a slab of concrete. The joy of returning to my home shattered. Clouds of smoke collected overhead. My mind flooded with the sounds I had left behind.3

Seagulls flew overhead and squawked at us on the ground. The operators talked me through the mission. My wife’s sweet words of encouragement and assurance that she would be back when I returned. I didn’t appreciate it as I should have, but I never thought I would return to a decimation of what I once knew. Thoughts spiraled. The ground rumbled beneath me. The vibrations flowed through my body like crashing waves.

The clouds of smoke above me flickered like a TV screen. Small lights appeared, and the sky flickered until it disappeared. The clouds of smoke turned into an all-black spaceship the size of Texas. My hands trembled. The ship drifted closer to the ground. A circular port creaked open. My legs felt magnetized to the ground.

A bright blue light blasted down from the port. It encompassed every part of me. Weightlessness spread through my body. I rose from the ground toward the ship. My eyes were wide and at a loss for words. The closer to the ship I got, the more I could see the different panels that made up its surface. It looked like a million small television screens put together.

The light shone with such intensity that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The last thing I saw was the humanoid silhouettes that peered down from the port. My consciousness slipped away soon after.

…

I launched from my bed like a cannonball from a cannon. Sweat drenched my sheets and skin. I wiped away the sweat from my face and took long, deep breaths. Static buzzed on the television from across the room.

“Fucking nightmare,” I muttered under my breath.

The air felt cool against my soaked skin. A breeze from the A/C unit slipped through my boxers and cooled every part of my body. I sat up on the side of my bed and slipped on my light brown house shoes. The sunlight peeked through the dark purple curtains on my bedroom window. On my nightstand was a lamp, a digital alarm clock, and my silver watch. I flipped through my blanket to look for my phone. Nothing was under my blanket but my sheets and sweat.

I grabbed my watch, slid it around my wrist, and walked toward the TV stand. On some nights, I would set my phone behind the television before I crashed for the night. I looked, but there wasn’t any luck there either. I checked my watch, but it wasn’t working. The hands stayed at four twenty-seven. The second hand flicked forward, but it would go back to its original position every time. I rushed to my bedroom door and gripped the knob. It turned with a creak, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“What the hell?”

I clamped down on the knob with both hands and planted my right foot against the wall. The knob turned, but the door remained in its fixed position. I yanked on the knob until a fire of pain flared through my arms and shoulders. My hands slipped from the knob, and I stumbled back onto the floor. Pain thumped throughout my tailbone. The carpeting took most of the force of my fall. I lay back, closed my eyes, and took long, slow breaths.

“In for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four.”

I repeated it in my mind. The pain in my ass continued to throb. I pressed my hands against the floor and picked myself up. All was silent except for my breaths and my ticking watch. The light from behind my curtains flickered like a malfunctioning bulb. I walked to my window and ripped them open. The light blasted me in the face.

I threw one hand over my eyes and peered through to the other side. My vision cleared and what I saw was that my nightmare never ended. An artificial light shone down onto my window from a giant chrome ceiling. A golden plaque sat outside on the corner of the window, but I couldn’t read anything it said. My window was hundreds of stories up. Below was a metallic hallway over three football fields wide. I saw a metallic wall with different windows scattered across it on the other side. Each one had its own plaque, but I couldn’t make out the language.

They had an array of lines, circles, dots, and other symbols put together. I tried to look around for any other clues of where I was, but my view became blocked. A giant eyeball larger than the window peered inside at me. The sclera was a pale yellow. The iris was pitch black, like looking into space with no stars, but the pupil was a deep purple. It dilated and stared at me. I felt a chill burst through my body.

It felt like whatever creature that eye belonged to had stared into my soul. I gripped each curtain, yanked them shut, and haven’t opened them since. I’m not sure how long it has been. The light from the other side of the curtains never turns off. It could have been weeks, months, or even years. I found this journal in the nightstand drawer. I decided to record my experiences for anyone who may be stuck in the same position. It doesn’t look like I will be leaving anytime soon. This faux bedroom has been my cage and will be my coffin. If you’re reading this, you’re trapped like I am.

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Abigail

Film Review #24

Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and released in 2024, is about a group of criminals hired to kidnap the twelve-year-old daughter of a major crime boss. As they wait to receive the ransom money, the true nature of the kidnapping is revealed. First off, I have to say the acting was great in this film. They assembled a great cast for this film, one of the few things that helped it. The kills in the movie were not too original for this film style. They were exciting to watch; practical effects were used tremendously. Through the runtime, I grew to care about some characters if they died or were close to death. Some characters I would love to watch fall from a skyscraper and splatter across the ground. The thing that ruined this film for me was the trailers they released. Each one revealed seventy-five percent of the plot and plot twists they had. This is not a great film, but I think it is an entertaining film. You will enjoy it a lot more if you never watch the trailers.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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