Breath With In
Chapter 3 - The Hole Way Down
Down the hole I went. Not a care in the world. Or maybe I had a care. I don't really remember. Anyway, after what felt like an eternity of falling and contemplating whether or not I left the stove on, I thought I was dead. But, being the genius I am, I decided to bite my hand. Turns out, I wasn't dead, just falling eternally in a void of darkness. Classic me.
After a while, I figured, hey, why not try something different? So I started gliding towards the walls of the hole... except there were no walls. It was just endless black nothingness, like staring into the abyss of my soul but somehow less depressing. Eventually, after what could have been years, or maybe minutes (time is weird in holes), I began talking to myself. Because that's what sane people do, right?
"Hello?" I said, hoping my voice wouldn't echo back and freak me out.
"Yes," responded an ominous voice from the void.
Oh great, now I had company. "Who is this?" I asked, suddenly regretting my life choices.
"I am fate," said the voice, and let me tell you, it wasn't the comforting kind of fate. More like the "I've-been-waiting-for-you" type.
"Fate?" I repeated, because apparently, my brain stopped working.
"Yes."
"Does that mean I'm dead?" I asked, biting my hand again for good measure.
"No," Fate replied, probably rolling its non-existent eyes.
"Then what does it mean?" I asked. Again. Because I'm persistent like that.
"It means your fate has changed."
"What?" I asked, because clearly, I was a master of deep conversation.
"YOU FUTURE NOW!" the voice shrieked with the intensity of a thousand angry pigeons.
"Ok, ok, geez," I responded, covering my ears that, mind you, weren't really helping in the void.
Then suddenly... white. Blinding, eye-searing, toothpaste-commercial white. I blinked, or at least I think I did. Hard to tell when your eyeballs are probably imaginary at this point.
Before I could even process the sheer absurdity of my situation, I found myself standing in the middle of a futuristic city. Flying cars zipped by, neon signs flashed unintelligible messages like "BUY MORE STUFF!" and "DON'T THINK TOO HARD ABOUT IT!" A robot rolled up to me and beeped aggressively.
"IDENTIFICATION PLEASE," it demanded, waving a mechanical arm at me.
"Uh... I'm from the past?" I said, because honesty is the best policy.
"UNACCEPTABLE RESPONSE. PREPARE FOR... HUG?" The robot's programming glitched, and it grabbed me in an uncomfortably tight embrace. This future was weird.
"Okay, so, uh... Fate?" I whispered, hoping the void voice was still listening. "Mind explaining what's happening?"
No response. Typical.
And that's when I realized... I was wearing socks with sandals. Truly, the future was bleak.
