Shards of Moonlight || A Short-story Collection

Stuck in Reverse - SciFi

Ahhhh!

I screamed as I barrelled through the air like a baseball aimed at six o'clock without warning. I wailed until the wind blew all sound from my lips as the dense forest below came into focus. How did death feel? If I had just gone home...

I would do anything for a second chance. My last thought echoed in my mind as my body embraced the pointed tree branches.

*****

Screaming I rolled over the ground.

Where did the pain of a thousand stitches go? Where did the white light and nothingness disappear to? What happened?

Overwhelming, bright lights surrounded me yet again. I opened my eyes to find my chin resting on my jeans. Spotless whale-blue jeans that had not been torn to pieces yet. "How...?", I whispered, raising my head to take in my surroundings. The kitchen where I used to run into with scratched knees after playing with the kids from around the block, greeted me in its warm familiarity. Home. Back home. As my breathing slowed two things hit me at once: the memories of the past hour and the smell of burned pizza. Shaking, I took a couple of deep breaths to stop myself from hyperventilating. No, no, this could not be. Had I gotten another chance at survival? Could I undo the mistakes that would eventually cost my life or was this all no more than a sick dream? A dream that felt more than real.

The smell of burning intensifying finally shook me out of my rocking forth and back, my arms wrapped around my knees. I stood in a split second and could not see for a moment as black spots darkened my vision. I closed my eyes for a moment before turning the electric oven off, grabbing a worn-off kitchen towel, and pulling the universe-black pizza out. Too late. Well, remembering my death had spoiled my hunger anyway. With a sigh, I let myself drop onto the couch like a wasted potato sack. It could not be true that I actually went back in time, unless-

I glanced at the clock: 23:59 o'clock. "A surprising event occurred today at the 'Teufelssee' in Grunewald in Berlin. A nude man raced after a wild boar that must have mistaken a yellow plastic bag with the victim's laptop for food. After so much dedication, the man retrieved his laptop as the wild boar lady stepped into a cardboard box that hindered her and her offspring's escape. No other casualties than the bather's innocence seemed to have taken place," I recalled the facts that the news speaker stated at around midnight. Praying, I switched on the TV, and as predicted the laughable pictures flashed on the flat screen.

00:10 o'clock. I had wasted around half an hour and being home alone seemed to be getting to me. My breathing got heavier as the walls seemingly closed in on me. All I had to do would be to stay home. But after running around the gangway like an inhabitant wanting to break out of his madhouse, never realizing that he imagined the whole thing, I grabbed my keys and left out the door. Dying from a heart attack would not do me any good either.

As I walked the familiar path, images of the 'last hour' flashed in my mind and I sharply turned the corner as if a starved lion sat on the continuation of my path of packed earth to the left. No, this time I would escape my fate.

*****

After having watched the news and seeing that the dark had finally spun it's refreshing spider's web over the small town and the bordering woods after yet another hot summer day, I decided to go for a walk. Tracing the battered metal fence out of boredom, I kept my attention limited to the little things. It took a while until I noticed the ray of toxic, luminous green light over the fields of corn. "As if aliens exist," I mumbled and pulled out my phone, hoping to record some lunatics. You could never know, maybe I could be the next one making it onto the news. Sneaking closer, I eventually got lost in endless rows of corn, making me swear under my breath. As I rounded another corner, sudden light blinded me and I breathed in sharply at the sight unfolding in front of me: a metal-clad device on the ground blinked in a rapid rhythm. Curious about the toy and not being able to spot a single soul, I closed in on it. "What a funny thing," I mumbled, holding a foot into the light for fun. Not in a million years had I envisioned that an inexplicable force would soon after suck me in. It felt like being in one of those bubbles you can try to walk in at a country fair, still only fell once you stood up. "Get out of my uterus, impertinent human!", a distorted scream boomed in my ears and I felt a pull in my stomach, only to find myself hundreds of meters above the ground. Free falling.

*****

Unintentionally I had sped up with every single memory until I stopped dead in my tracks on a forest clearing in the mysterious light of the moon. Drawn by my curiosity, I stepped onto it. All of a sudden, the sound of bestial screeching reached my ears. In fear of my life, I took to my heels, not taking into account the precarious ground below my feet. I tapped in full speed into a dent and howled in pain. A rustling, chiming, and the stomping of hooves surrounded me. As they razed my head to the ground, everything turned black. What a fitting end of a running COWard, I thought overwhelmed by pain. Too bad that I never ate that pizza after all.