06 - Chasm
Chasm
You first saw it as a child; the ground sundered and the Earth opened before you, unveiling a bottomless abyss. A steel beam caught you and there you remained suspended, staring into the abyss, afraid to move, afraid to breathe. With each passing second the abyss grew larger, deeper, and darker. You could not look away. You were destined to fall into it, you knew this, but still you clung to the steel beam. In time, you were rescued, brought back to land. The earthquake had been unexpected, but you were unharmed. All’s well that ends well.
Except, it didn’t end, not really. When you’re alone the chasm reappears, waiting for you. The doctors say you’re imagining things. The cameras disagree, until someone else sees them, at which point the recordings and pictures which so clearly captured the chasm suddenly paint you as insane. In a strange way, you consider yourself lucky; it could have been so much worse. They concluded it was some sort of leftover effect from the trauma of a near death experience and let you live a normal life. Well….’normal’. You know the chasm is real. You cannot cross it. When it appears you have no choice but to turn around, or else to wait it out, but it is a painful wait. Time seems to lose all meaning when it appears seconds turn into hours and hours into seconds. After a while reality warps. You have to remember which way gravity pulls. You have to memorize where the walls were and where the chasm appeared. Eventually you stop being able to tell if you're moving or at rest.
But you are not helpless. You’ve learned to fight it. Your weapon of choice is crowds, friends…anyone at all. You’ve surrounded yourself with people. You’ve moved to the big city. You’ve stripped yourself bare of any sense of privacy. Your room is filled with people, some strangers. It’s been three years since you were last alone, and so it has been three glorious, wonderful, freeing years without the chasm. Your privacy for your sanity, your peace of mind, what a trivial price to pay. A part of you wonders if they were right, if it was all imagined, but it is only a small part. You’re still careful, you still ensure someone else is always nearby, but you’ve finally convinced yourself that you can have a normal life.
But the chasm is not finished with you. It cannot appear when others are with you, but who is with you in your dreams?
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