Archives de Tag: ruins

A Brutal Waking Up (short story)

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Napping…. napping, the nectar of gods ! If you have never had one, had this few minutes or hours of sleep during the day, you’ll never experienced one of the most beautiful life experiences.

A nap can be risky thought. If you sleep too much, you wake up, and it feel like you’re about to finish you day with a light hangover. It passes after one or two hours. But still, it’s annoying. That’s why I’ve set a up a clock, and a habit of taking a nap at the same hour everyday.

Once you got the rhythm of it, that your body and brain is used to it, this little sleeping time is a blissful and welcomed gift you give to yourself.

I had this habit for almost two years. Never felt this good. I was better at my job (what? A napping employee is actually a more performant asset at the job? Don’t tell this to Jeff B… well, he probably doesn’t exist at this time anymore…), felt less anxiety and stress, more happy and, well, alive. Truly alive. I’ve pushed my body and mind too much for years, and now, I give them this afternoon break. Treat yourself right? Well…

Today… or… Yesterday? Or years ago? The last one seem more likely…

Listen, I’ve just taken a nap right? At the usual hour, 2 P.M. Set my alarm for 3:30 P.M. although I generally wake up before the alarm ring. That alarm is just here to avoid sleeping too much and wake up with that hangover feeling.

Well, I got woken up by the clock today… I guess I was more tired than usual, it’s rare but it happens now and then.

But as I woke up, I could smell smoke and this awful smell of rotten meat. I rose up immediately thinking that something was burning! The building? My oven (even thought I barely cook with it)? A neighbor who has gone insane et burned himself hoping to take the whole building down with him? We never know in those days…

Those thoughts appeared in a matter of second. Then I finally took the time to look around.

My flat was wrecked! Dust everywhere, filling the air, rust was all over my furnitures, weeds was growing on my floor which was cracked, as so were the wall. They were holes in them! And damn, it was cold! My windows were shattered, the celling was cracked as badly as my floor.

What the fuck right? My first thought was that a tornado just passed… while I was asleep! How?! How?!

But I got up and walked carefully to the nearest window, trying my best to avoid to step on the most damaged area of the floor.

What I saw through the window? Devastation! There was barely nothing left standing of my city, of… fucking everything! I could see the horizon, it was impossible before… everything seemed to have been leveled… the forest I used to drive through to get to work, that huge pines trees forest had disappeared. Everything… it was burned down. This was just rubbles…

I don’t know why I speak of this as something from the past… it is still the same as I share this with you.

And the most baffling, for me, is that I can’t pick up anything… I tried to go outside… my building is the only things standing, and I live on the second floor. I’m not to high up, I could jump on the rubbles and then… we’ll what I’m trying to tell you is that I pass through walls… I can’t touch anything, I don’t feel anything from my fingertips… but I’m cold… it seems like I don’t have a body anymore… But I can see it! I can touch and feel my arms…

You maybe are wondering how I’m able to write this… well, technology. Talk to write. But I can’t hear my voice, I don’t know how… but my phone can hear my voice.

I’ve just checked my phone and I have realize that even thought it still works, no date nor hour are available… nor signals…

Help me. Please. Tell me you know what happened. Tell me you can see me. Come, I beg you!

TELL ME I EXIST!

Jaskiers

Through there and here – Chapter 1

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Now, I’m not only confused, nor angry anymore. I’m just fucking done to be honest.

My name is Don Gut, and you are probably my only chance at understanding what the hell is happening to me. Maybe it happened to you, or to someone you know, or you read about it somewhere. I don’t know how much time I’ve got left. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna die or kill myself. But, I’m mean, death wouldn’t even bother, or surprise me at this point. Maybe I’m already dead… I don’t know how much time I’ve got left here. You’ll probably understand, or not, when you finish reading my story. If the space time, loophole shenanigans allow me enough time to write about it.

So it’s all started when I’ve finished my reading session. I read at a certain hour, it fluctuate, depending on my moods and spare time.

I was reading Proust’s « In the search of lost time ». Now, this is a thick ass book. This is actually multiples novels combined in one book.

I’ve loved this book, so far. I really love the way Proust goes deep into our feelings. He put words on things that we don’t really think about, or don’t pay much attention to. It’s like a psychotherapy, every feeling is dissected, it’s powerful. And I feel like the characters are my friends now. Saint-Loup’s my favorite. But anyway.

I closed the book, got up to go to my kitchen to make some tea. Well, when I finished my cup, I’ve left the the kitchen and I fucking ended up in some sort of cave. Not my cave, I don’t have any cave, I live in a flat, in a big building. I’ve never been a fan of caves.

Now, there’s nothing weird with my tea. It’s eucalyptus! I’ve been drinking this since a few months now, it helps me to sleep. At least I love to think it does.

But there I was, in a cave. I turned around because I was freaking out, no door ! No kitchen ! Just a brick wall !

The cave was just made of bricks. The cave was simply rectangular, not very large. There was wooden boxes, some scrap, old tools, paintings, littles statues of… things.

Of course, there a wooden door just in front of me. First reflex, I ran to it, bumping into boxes like a mad man on a mission.

As soon as I touch the door handle : BAM !

Some explosion near almost exploded my guts out, and my heart. Dust falling from the ceiling. And then, BAM, again ! And again ! BAM ! BAM ! BAM !

For a… I don’t know how many minutes, it could be five, ten, or even two hours, the explosions kept coming ! It was a never-ending series of explosions that were happening up there. Everything shook in that little cave of mine. Every bone in my body seemed to be on the verge of breaking. My brain was on the brinks to explode too.

I stepped back into a corner, not wanting to go out there anymore. And curled up behind boxes of children’s toys.

My ear seemed like they where about to bleed. But the worst was that I started suffocating ! The air was… they were none ! Or just a little. It felt like when I was a kid and had asthma. But men, they were nothing I could do.

The vibrations in my heads were the worst, my jaws were clenched so hard but the waves of explosions made my teeth shakes !

Then, all of a sudden, no more explosion. I was drenched in sweat it felt like I was about to melt !

Jaskiers