Skydiving to Oblivion
Gilbertine was not an adrenaline junkie. She preferred the quiet comfort of her armchair embroidering on a weekend, to the thrill of anything remotely resembling excitement. But her best friend, a whirlwind of energy and impulsiveness, had convinced her that a tandem skydive would be a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Gilbertine had envisioned the “experience” as a leisurely picnic with Bollywood movies being projected on a big screen… not plummeting towards Earth at terminal velocity.
As the plane climbed, Gilbertine’s grip on the instructor’s harness tightened. The ground, once a familiar patchwork quilt, now resembled a menacing abyss. The moment of truth arrived sooner than she’d liked. With a shove that felt like a betrayal, she was plummeting towards the ground.
The parachute didn’t open.
A scream, ripped from her throat as the wind whipped past her face. Gilbertine’s last thought, a bizarrely calm one considering her situation, was, “Well, this is going to be a really expensive funeral.”
As fear, pure and unadulterated, consumed her. It was in that moment of abject terror that an ancient, cosmic entity, bored beyond comprehension, noticed.
In the cosmic void, an ancient, bored entity was idly flipping through dimensions. Its existence was a monotonous loop of nothingness until it was drawn to the intense, raw fear emanating from Earth. Curiosity piqued, it reached out to investigate.
Before Gilbertine could even process the horror of her situation, a tendril of cosmic evil reached out. It wasn’t drawn to her physical form, but to the essence of her terror.
And then it sneezed.
Not just any sneeze. This was a cosmic sneeze, a cataclysmic event that ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. Through this breach, a slimy, tendril-like substance oozed into our world. Tiny at first, it began to grow at an alarming rate, its appetite insatiable.
And so, Gilbertine, the woman who preferred tea to turbulence, became the unwitting harbinger of cosmic doom. It was, in the grand scheme of things, a truly awful way to spend an afternoon.
Hey @gilbertine.bsky.social wrote something as a thank you for all the support ^_^ (Hope you enjoy it) #ShortStory
— The Spooky Doctor (@lucidillusions.in) Aug 4, 2024 at 7:34 PM
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