Floating in the Void - Short Story (Part 2)

Hey everyone, here’s the second half of my short story, Floating in the Void! Check out the blog if you missed part 1.

Floating in the Void (Part 2):

The days passed slowly. We began to find ways to fill the time, however we could. Around day three I tore up some of the notebooks and made a deck of impromptu cards with which to play. Winston would sing his songs, or write lyrics on the whiteboard. We avoided any touchy subjects like politics, we’d learned our lesson from the first couple of days. We stuck mostly to small talk. I learned he was from New Mexico, which I already knew. He told me about his career in music, TV, and movies in America. I told him about my days at university and the police. He politely nodded and smiled, abstaining from sharing his views. That was a small kindness at least. 

It was around three weeks in. “My brother.” He started. We had been sitting in silence, as we were prone to do. “I was kinda like his guardian. Dad didn’t come back from France, so it was just me and ma raising him.”

“Yeah?”

“He was a nervous kid. But smart. Real smart. He looked up to me too, God knows why. I was a shit kid. Always running away, smoking, drinking. But to him I was always his cool big brother. The coolest guy he’d ever met.” He stared into the distance, a nostalgic smile on his face. “But then Vietnam came. And you know me, I was against it.”
“I’m aware.” 

He laughed at that. “My draft got pulled. But I ran. I was never gonna fight in some war half way around the world. So me and my friends jumped in our van and took off, ran away to start a band. But my brother…” He shook his head. “He said that I’d ‘abandoned my country’, called me a coward. He thought that since I wouldn’t go it was his duty to fight.” He spat the word duty as if it were a curse. “Never even touched the ground in Vietnam. His helicopter got shot out of the air on approach. Of course that’s not what the letter home said.” He scoffed. “But I tracked down some of his old buddies. They told me the truth.” Tears had begun to form in the corners of the old man’s eyes.

“Do you mind if I ask a question?” I asked carefully. He nodded. “What was his name?”

The old man laughed nervously through his tears. “James. But most people called him Jimmy.” My own words echoed through my head. We both sat back, laughing as the endless void pressed in around us.

More time passed. We’d taken to tallying the days, months, and years on the whiteboard. As time dragged forward it became harder and harder to keep track. It was our best guess, but by then we’d stopped caring about such a small thing as Time. Soon we stopped trying altogether.

“You said you thought this was Hell.” I said, after a year of dead silence. 

“I’m still not convinced it isn’t.”

“That means there’s a God? And the Devil? And they’re holding us here?”

“Maybe… Maybe it’s not so personal as that.”
“How’d you mean?”
“Maybe it’s just what happens. Like gravity or light or sound-waves. Maybe God didn’t choose this, it’s just where we go.”
“I don’t think this is where we go. I think this is some accident. Some fluke or experiment or… I don’t know what but this doesn’t happen to everyone.”
“That’s good. That’s…” He paused for a moment. “Comforting. To think Jimmy isn’t rotting away in an endless void. That everyone doesn’t have to suffer this.”

“What about time?” Now that we were talking again the thoughts began to flow out.

“Time?” He asked.

“How much time do you think’s passed on Earth? I mean we’ve been here at least a decade, probably way longer.”

“Doesn’t really matter if we never get back, does it?” He said.

“My son.” I took a deep, airless breath. “Would he think I abandoned him? Or disappeared? Or died? What if we’ve been here for centuries? Millennia? Is he even still alive?”

“I doubt it.” His hard eyes bore into me. “I’m starting to doubt everything.”

“What’s there to doubt?”
“Before. Everything before. I’m not convinced anything ever existed outside this room. We’ve always been here, and we’ve just gone mad and made up an entire universe outside of this.”
“Fuck off.” I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. It makes no damned sense. If everything was fabricated how do we have consistent ideas? We both know who the Queen is, we both know about Earth and the Universe and History. If we’d made it up wouldn’t we have different stories?”
He considered this a moment. “What if we’re the same person? The only thing in existence, creating hallucinations to talk to. To pass the time. To pass eternity.”
“If I were to invent a companion I would’ve conjured someone I actually liked.” I spat back.

“Would you? I wouldn’t’ve. I’d conjure you. Someone I hate. Someone to argue with, not just sit and smile and agree with.”

“You’re a fucking idiot.” I said, dryly.

“Yeah, probably.”

This went on and on, as ceaselessly as you can imagine. Until one uneventful time, though one time was the same as any other. I lay on one of the tables, counting to infinity. He sat on the ledge that teetered out into the abyss. He jumped up suddenly. Since nothing had moved for what I guessed was over six hundred years, this caught my attention. “The star.” He said, pointing frantically out. “Our star’s gone out!” He rushed over, dragging me to my feet. I lurched forward in his grip and looked out over the edge. He was right. 

Our one, tiny celestial flashlight had stopped pulsing in the endless sky. “B-but…” He spluttered. “What happened to it? I-I was watching it. I was looking right at it. One moment it was spinning, then it was just…” He looked at me. “Do you think it hit something?”

“I don’t know.” I just stared out at the spot in the sky where the flashlight had been. 

“Maybe it got out!”

“What?”

“Maybe… There’s an edge?” He wanted me to tell him he was right. “Maybe it hit the edge and fell out! Into the real world! Back to Earth!” 

“I thought you said you thought Earth was made up.”

“Oh shut up! It’s clear as day! It’s right there! That’s our way out!” 

“That flashlight’s been flying for centuries. Even if you threw yourself into the void how many hundreds of years would it take for you to get out? That’s assuming you’re even right! It’s probably just too far for us to see it! You’re a moron. If you want to throw yourself into the eternal void, fill your fucking boots mate!”

“Fuck you! Always lording it over me, acting so fucking superior. You wanna know what? All your theories, all your certainty, how come we’re still here, huh?! If you have such a firm grasp on the situation, how come you haven’t gotten us out of this fucking hellhole?!” 

“Fine!” I rushed forward, grabbed the older man hard by the collar, dragging him screaming over to the edge. I held him aloft, his body floating weightlessly in space. “You wanna go out there, huh?!” I raged. “You want me to let go?!” To my shock, he showed not a hint of emotion. No shock, no fear.

“Yes.” His shaky voice whispered in my ear. I didn’t know what to do, I stood in shock. 

But what happened next, I need whomever might find this to know, I did not intend, nor did I want. The older man grabbed my arms, wrenching himself free and pushing off the floor beneath me. His body floated away slowly, his blank expression staring back as I screamed and cried out. I tried to find a rope, some fabric, anything I could throw to him. But I’d been in this room for thousands of years. I knew every atom of the place, and I knew that there was nothing I could use to reach him. I watched helplessly as the man I had grown to hate escaped into the darkness, and there was nothing I could do to save him. 

He disappeared quickly. Unlike our flashlight I couldn’t see him sparkling in the sky for years and years as he drifted, aimless in the dark. I don’t know if he can still see me, white speck in the distance. There’s light here, so maybe I’ll become his lonely star in the sky. 

That isn’t the end, however. One last thing has happened. I don’t know how long he’d been gone for. Maybe a week, maybe twenty. It was becoming impossible to tell. But not long after he drifted away I saw it. The words that describe the dread and fear that filled my soul when I saw it have not yet been invented. I looked into the sky and saw, flashing in the distance, our solitary star. Exactly where it had been, completely the same. My flashlight was still flying, still spinning towards infinity in the abyss. Something had covered it. Something was out there, in the darkness, floating in front of our star. And based on how long it was covered for, something big. Something Winston now slowly floats towards.

I write this mostly to myself. Perhaps it’s a half-hearted attempt to repent, to prove to myself that I didn’t mean it. Perhaps it’s to keep a record, so I don’t forget after another hundred thousand years of sitting here, alone, growing madder by the moment. Or perhaps it’s a faint hope. A hope that one day someone else will be here, that there’s a way out and another soul might read these words. If you are reading this, that means I am either free or floating through the abyss. Have hope, for I dare not venture out to meet the thing that lives in the darkness. 

I’m so sorry Winston. Please forgive me. 

-

That’s it for Floating in the Void, I really hope you enjoyed it. Subscribe below to receive news and updates!

Thanks for reading!