EclipsedA Story by requieM what doesn't kill you will most likely try again I awake with crusty eyes, the taste of dust in my mouth is overwhelming. It takes me a few minutes to come too and sit up to realize where I am. After standing up I realize I have no idea where I have awaken. I pan the horizon and all I see is blood red sand dunes that stretch to the edge of the earth, "is this even earth" I ask myself. Also taking note that there is light here, but dim at the same time. I start to panic, I begin to sweat, my heart beat rises, and then I look up. What I see makes the panic melt away. It's an eclipse with a bright orange ring around it and it seems to close for this to be natural. From this moment on I feel peace and warmth. It's gaze watches me as I start an endless walk to no where. There is no life here just me. As I walk I think to myself how could I arrive in such a strange place. I have no memory of arriving here and I even have trouble remembering my previous life. I am simply existing in this space. Aimlessly walking so I think until I see a twinkle of something in the shifting distance. I would like to run towards it, but the gravity feels heavy here. So I continue to walk. I feel the the sand move beneath me, I freeze. The next moment large statues jolt up from the sand all aligned like theyre leading me to this glimmer. I carefully walk past these incredibly detailed representations of human emotions. As I approach the glimmer I realize it's a door. I look up again at my only friend here the eclispe. The ring around it this time is violently pulsating and is more intense to look at this time around. I put my hand on the door knob.... After holding the door knob for what seemed like an eternity I mustered up the strength to open the door. Once opened I nearly went blind by the vibrant light that was emitted into my very essence. A flashback of a former life swung into my mind, but it was to distorted to make out what it was, however I did hear a whisper, "and you threw it all away". The light subsides to a low orangish hue. I begin my descent. After walking down the steps for some time I touched the walls and what I felt startled me. They felt warm to the touch and wet as if these walls were sweating. I continue the plunge and the deeper I go the more unwell I feel. A headache suddenly strikes me like a kick in the head, I'm dizzy, and feel a sense of unrest wash over me. This corridor of endless steps begins to shake and then collapses beneath me. I fall into the abyss, but I am not startled by this nor do I care almost like I knew this was coming and underneath it all fully expected it to happen. As I continue to rapidly fall more flashbacks or maybe visions came to me except this time I could make one of them out. I was floating above what seemed to be a utopia and with eagle eyes could make out an advanced society. Endless technological wonder's, intricate high rises, aircrafts that could reach a destination in mere minutes, a human species that had endless potential at their finger tips, but the more I took it all in the more I realized this is all a mirage to what this species really is. My eyes pan to the surrounding areas and what I see is destruction and turmoil. I look in horror to see people fighting with each other, starving people, areas set a blaze, lifeless corpses and as it all began to be to much to witness I hit the bottom of my fall. As I lay there I am entranced by what I just witnessed. The sound of what seemed like a heartbeat snapped me out of my thoughts. I rose to me feet in a chamber decorated in a red fleshy material. I am engulfed in rage by this endless trip. Losing control I begin slamming my fists wildly against the fleshy walls. I begin screaming obscenities and violently threatening what ever is putting me through this. I'm interrupted by a piece of the chamber wall tearing open. I notice this and instantly bolted through it without hesitation. As I run the chamber beings to close in on itself and at the last second I jump through the opening. I begin falling yet again, but this time at mid descent I am held there suspended in time. A decrepit voice on the surface with an aftershock of a child's voice echo's through this space. It says, "and you threw it all away" I angrily shout back demanding an answer to what it means. A beam of light fires through the vast darkness and strikes me in the head and then the memories all rush back to me at once. For a split second the chains that held me there broke then regained control. A family man I was, happily married with the women of my dreams and she gave birth to two eye catching children. A boy named Todd and a girl named Ellie. Everything was perfect. I was a CEO of the top construction firm in the nation with thousands of employees under my command. Being at the top would seem like a goal anyone would like to achieve in their life, but that was not the case here. Mysterious deaths kept happening to various employees under my watch. Desperate wives would send an endless stream letters trying to reach out to demand answers in which I did not have. Me and my team tried to look into these deaths thinking we were not up to spec with safety conditions or our equipment was bad. Everthing checked out fine. It was almost like I have been cursed. A black dot started to grow inside of me that made me cold and empty. I started to become something everyone hated. With the loss of employees, I shifted the company to drive for profit and nothing else. I was dancing on the strings of pure greed. We started cutting positions and based the company on a do more with less attitude. We were really reeling in the money now, but one day while I was over looking the city from my castle that tickled the clouds. One of those desperate wives, now widow, barged into my office. I turn around and she begins screaming at me with tears in her eyes, she shouted, "you did this! you f*****g did this" and she tossed pictures of her dead husband that committed suicide onto my desk. I had nothing to say to her and casually pressed the security button underneath my desk. She was quickly dragged off the property, but the images on my desk caused me to regain a sense of emotion to what I have done and become. Hours passed by with me staring at those pictures. I snatched up a bottle of pills to try and numb the pain. They did not help and only made me more reckless. I grabbed my shotgun and told the world how I felt with the sound of its blast. Instead of trying to right my wrongs, I took the easy way out and threw it all away. I awaken back in this space. Still suspended, however this time the memories of my life started spinning around this place and I then remembered everything I threw away. The voice comes back and says, "do you remember now". I reply with a definitive, "I do". Realizing I became infected with a parasite that destroys most humans it infects, greed. "Why am I hear", I ask the being, it replies, "because unlike most others who take their own life you are different". I respond, "how so" it replies, "when you manifested here the sheer amount of regret, sadness, and the desire to change that projected from you could be felt across multiple dimensions". An agreement was made between me and the being I was told I could have a life back, but have no memory of anything that has happened. I would be reborn with a new timeline. However if I repeat the same mistakes I would then become a characterized statue just like the ones outside of the original door I ventured in. Eternally tormented by my sin, cemented in time to be a testament to anyone that fails this agreement. I accept this offer and with a loud snap everything goes black. Our main character was reborn and he did go through his whole life without repeating the same mistakes. He lived a righteous and truthful life. Instead of becoming a head of a construction company he became the head of a charity foundation that performed various positive acts around the world. One of the most impactful was providing resources and opportunity to the less fortunate and gave the people a leg up in society to get a life started. The sands of time still tell the stories of this individual that fell so deep and yet rose so high.
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1 Review  Last Updated on May 7, 2023 Tags: short story, sin, introspective |
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