Paper Airplanes

Gateway to Nowhere

I watched my second airplane of the day disappear on the skyline with the sun inching it's way down as a background. I needed my sister back. Sure, I didn't quite get along with her at all times. And she was not my favorite person to be around. But this was not right. Her complete disappearance, physically and from memories. It's as if she was erased out of existence. I couldn't let that happen. So I simply waited for an answer.

Days went by where I would sit at my windowsill, on the watch for any flying paper, but none came. And each day I would send out a blank plane, a sign of my insanity. I was so used to the practice, but even since I had nothing to write about I just couldn't stop myself. And the planes still flew.

After a week my patience was wearing impossibly thin, just like the papers I had been folding, subject to whatever Mother Nature threw at me. I got to the point where I was so frustrated that I could simply scream away my life.

However, one morning that all came to an end.

I woke up to find another plane on my desk. It seemed to laugh at me saying Hello, been waiting long? I bet you have, and that makes me feel great. I saw you wait in frustration, in a sort of agony. And I laughed.

My head almost exploded from my internal screaming. This was not what I had wanted. I mean it is, but not lie this! I had waited for hours and hours. And it just appears out of nowhere! What is this! The window wasn't even open last night so how could it have even come in!

Pushing those thoughts aside, I snatched up the plane and opened it furiously. Why had it taken so long for it to come? Why? Why!

My eyes glazed over the text on the paper, but it felt foreign to me. Different from what K had sent me. It was written in a neat and loopy cursive, but the words just didn't make sense. There was no context, no nothing! They were just there. My mind searched for an answer but I could fathom nothing.

"My thoughts I have sent, thoughts that have slipped away, thoughts I regret, and thoughts I dream of one day. I recall thee back now; bring me to lay at your humble feet. Summon thee I pray, so that we may reunite once more." Those words. Those strange words. What could they mean? I sighed and stared out the window. The very window that had been the portal that had caused this mayhem. No, not the portal. Me. I caused this. Me, myself, and I.

Looking out to the rising sun, the Rays seemed to play a trick on my eyes and cause the glass to shimmer and shine, like a ripple on a body of water. I dismissed it quickly and turned around, no longer able to bear looking out the window.

I was met with a quiet, silencing all my thoughts. Hope had simply been lost. But just then, my ears caught a soft noise. Almost like a zipper or a rip; just behind me.

Turning back to the window a crack of brilliant turquoise light splintered along the glass, quickly catching my attention. It grew and glowed, outshining the florescent lighting that the lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling displayed. The light soon filled the frame of the window, becoming about two foot by three.

It was certainly an impressive sight. The turquoise intermingled with deeper shades of blue and even transitioning into a black in the dead center. I couldn't tear my eyes away, nor would I have wanted to. Despite displaying very little, I felt that there had been much more complexity to what I beheld. It was surely foreign, but from whence had it come, I couldn't even fathom, for it was far above anything in this world.

Tentatively stepping forward, I reached out with a single finger, and gently set it on the surface. A warm sensation crept up my arm and filled up my being. I felt invited and welcome, like this is where I was meant to be. But then a buzzing that I hadn't noticed before became less subtle and more, well, blaring in a sense. It became much more noticeable and bothersome. It brought with it a darker under layer, like something was wrong.

I retrieved my hand and held it close to my body, staring at the light. It seemed to pull at me, wanting me to come into it, to be bathed in its light, but I suddenly became fearful, unsure. Yet I was compelled nonetheless. Partly because of the pull and my own curiosity.

With help from my chair, I put my right foot on the windowsill, and pushed my self up so I was mere centimeters from the mysterious light. From here, I could feel warmth lap over me and hear a buzz that you'd expect to come from and electrical current. With a heavy intake of breath, I clenched my eyes shut and fell forward and into the light.

I soon learned that holding my breath before I entered the light was a wonderful accident. For as soon I went inside my body seemed to crush and fold into itself. Making it all extremely uncomfortable and sickening. The sensation felt as if it would never stop as time crawled by. It seemed that for hours I was being crushed by invisible forces to seep the life out of me.

But it was just then when the force and pressure suddenly just gave out. In a moment I felt myself again, my normal,  non-crushed self. However the area around me started turning a brilliant white, blinding my eyes momentarily, causing my hands to reach up in protection. Following the light, a high pitched noise erupted inside my skull. If I listened closely, it almost sounded like a cry, or scream. But from who?

The noise only ever got louder and my hands transitioned to cover my ears. Yet whatever the noise was, wherever it was coming from, was all inside of me. And I couldn't get it out.

I tried not imagining what could have caused of cry of such desperation, but the imagery of my imagination prevailed. The harder I tried to not focus, the more I saw. Then the noise suddenly popped in my ears and all was silent. Wherever I was shattered to millions of pieces, leaving me to then free fall down a black abyss.