Experimental Short: Nothing

Experimental Shorts are works based outside of the writer’s normal scope of genre and ideas, conceptualised and written in under twenty minutes.

His reflection in the building windows showed no relief, there was none of that expected contentedness in this. Looking down, the cement that he had come to hate quickly rose up towards him, dull grey turning to black under his shadow on approach, and then Malcolm was dead.

It is difficult for people, like you and I, to truly understand the meaning of death, of Nothingness. I capitalise to emphasize the strange, unknowable state that is Nothingness.

Where once there was ground beneath our feet, with stones under a shoe or sand between toes, in death there is none.

Wind no longer blows, water no longer flows, and the same could be said for time.

Temperature is no more, in death. There is no heat. This does not mean that there is only the cold, no, there is no cold either. Can this even be imagined by a living being? Even when deprived of outside stimuli, shut away in a box without sight and sound, there is still the chill of the air and the heat conducted through the floor or walls. Not in death.

What of light? Death could be described as stepping out of the sun and into the shade, but this is a living concept. When there is no life, there is no light, no dark; no black or white.

Everything is gone. No vision, no hearing, because there is no light and no sound. No touch, no smell, because there is no environment and no atmosphere. A person can not taste, not even their own tongue or teeth, nor their own saliva. There is no body, no form. There is nothing. This is Nothing.

When life ends, there is no God waiting. No heaven or hell. There is no new life, no reincarnation. Karma is meaningless, living within a subscribed set of rules has no bearing on the aftermath of death. Nothing contributes to the after, to the Nothingness.

There is nothing…

And Malcolm was aware of this. Even after his death, he was aware.

Reviews

[Alexandria Reece]

You presented your point well, coming from someone who holds a very different opinion of death, that's a likely a better compliment than most given out. You're very keen with your words. I wonder what your last sentence means..
'Even after his death, he was aware.'
Awareness would not be considered 'nothing', it takes a mind to be aware. I'm sorry to be confused, is it able to be explained?

Overall I really mean nice work.

[Andrew Poole]

Thank you for reading.

The last sentence is an attempt to turn the whole idea on its head. The story describes the issue of there being no afterlife, but then contradicts it so suddenly in an attempt to make the reader think otherwise. This is simply an idea, and not my own belief in the afterlife.

Forgive the weakness in the writing. I'm currently conducting an exercise where as when I have a moment of inspiration, only a small idea, I immediately commit it to paper as it was presented in my mind. It's about five or ten minutes of writing without structural or story editing. The four pieces I have uploaded right now are all of this nature.

[Kaylor Mason]

Interesting take. I don't fear death myself, because I'm saved through faith in Christ, so when I travel over the Rvier of Death I know I'll go to Heaven . . . but I must admit, I'm not too wild about the prospect of the crossing . . .

[Andrew Poole]

Keep brave, keep faith.

Thank you for commenting.