Mirage

Earth

6:36 pm, 21st October 2052.

I shook out the breadcrumbs scattered on my backpack as the charms attached to it jingled and chimed in frustration. They fell onto the clean, glistening, hard black marble floor. My feet were numb because of all the sitting, hour after hour buzzing away in a monotonous glaze of unfamiliar faces and distant whispers. I didn’t belong here, amongst these suit-clad, mask-wearing, beady-eyed scientists and overenthusiastic tourists.

A middle-aged lady popped up in front of me, her mask drawn down to her nose, “Hi there, so you’re one of the few who won the contest, hm?”, she didn’t wait for a reply, “right, so I’ll need to ask you a few questions before you board.”

I nodded excitedly. FINALLY. I would finally leave this disgraced small town and its judgemental people. This overburdened planet and its scarce resources.

“From the local Xaviers High School across the road. Grade 12. Living in a hostel?”

She finally paused after this question, waiting for me to answer.

“Oh, uh yes. I shifted out of my fosters’ a month ago. I’m 18 now.”

“Well now, that’s magnificent! I wonder why that hasn’t been mentioned. I’ll be sure to let them know right away. Thank you, dear. My colleague will come collect you in a bit, you’re ready to leave.”, she handed me a juice box and walked away.

Apparently, scientists aren’t as punctual as you’d expect them to be. You see, I needed them to get this done fast so my headmistress from school didn’t notice I was missing. I’d run out of school this afternoon after I got an email from the SciencETech saying I had won the contest, along with 12 lucky winners across the state, to embark on their latest manned spaceship to explore XR-20876, the newest dwarf planet discovered at the edge of our galaxy. It was a way for them to promote and ignite interest in Space research. Humanity stopped caring 15 years ago after we colonized the moon and found a multitude of plant species on the surface of Mars.

Earth

10:42 pm, 21st October 2052.

I smiled at the girl sitting across me. She seemed nervous as she strapped on her spacesuit and fixed the wires next to her.

“Excited?”, she asked me.

“Relieved.”, I replied.

She nodded her head solemnly and handed me a piece of soggy paper, “Open this when you’re alone.”

Space

3:07 am, 22nd October 2052.

The air in my lodging chamber was cold as I sat with a blanket spread across my shoulders. I opened the paper and saw written on it in messy uneven writing “don’t leave your room. trust me. and don’t EVER leave the craft.”

I heard muffled laughter outside my door and footsteps quickly receeding.

I jumped out of bed. This was a sick joke. I shook my head, wondering why I ever believed this could be a new beginning for me. I’d had enough. I would find this girl and show her I wouldn’t be pushed around over here.

The door opened up to a barren hallway, the overhead lights were dim and kept flickering off after intervals of 15 seconds. The ground was slippery and wet, and I could hear a distinct whirring and muffled banging far away, perhaps in the higher chambers.

“Hello?”, my voice bounced back.

I felt on-edge, where was everyone? The ship was crowded with crewmates just half an hour ago. I saw a shadow dart across the opposite wall a few feet ahead on the doorway to the cafeteria.

I ran forward, “HEY! I’m so glad I found someone. Do you know where everybody-”

I screamed in shock. The girl who had given me the paper lay in a bloodied mess on the floor. Her eyes had rolled back into her sockets and her spacesuit torn to shreds. A thick gooey slime covered her neck and ran down her stomach. Tears streamed down my face as I jumped over the barricade in front of the cafeteria screaming for help. Asking if anyone was there.

Space

3:16 am, 22nd October 2052.

“P-please.”, I croaked as I dragged myself up to the captain’s deck. There had been a power failure and a siren blared above me, emitting bursts of red light.

I stood in awe. The glass- deck showed me in clarity the beauty of what I was missing. Millions of twinkling colours spread out across miles and miles of cold, dark space. An entirety in nothingness.

Suddenly, a shape wriggled out of a couch, he seemed so familiar!

“What are you doing here? You should be in bed, it takes a while getting used to space, kid.”, he grunted putting on his goggles and motioning me out of the room.

“Sir. SIR! I need you to listen. I found a body. A girl. Someone attacked her outside the cafeteria.”

He shook his head and clucked, “Someone? Dear god, there’s no one here-”

“Excuse me?”

“No no, I only meant there’s no one out of their beds at this time except you. See, here look at the monitoring screen. All the subjects sleeping away in their lodgings. Now, go on.”, he moved the computer screen away from me and beckoned to the door.

I unwillingly left and as I walked down the corridors, there was a sharp searing pain in my head and all of a sudden, I knew who he was. I gaped in shock as the missing pieces of the puzzle fit themselves. The captain’s door creaked open, almost as if he had heard my thoughts. I jumped into the first aid locker next to me and promptly bolted the door. There was a cracked mirror in the locker and some lousy-smelling supplies. Through a crack in the metal I could see the captain step out. Except it wasn’t him, he had shrunk in size and had shed his spacesuit. It was her, it was the girl I saw outside the cafeteria! Her head bent at an angle, and sticky liquid pouring down whenever she took a step in my direction. I closed my eyes and put my hands on my mouth to conceal my frantic sobs.

When I peeked out again, my eyes wet and sore in pain, she had changed back to the Captain. Except it wasn’t the Captain.

It was...my father?

I had only seen him once when Uncle Jay showed me an old wedding photo album of my parents. He had had a serious face and a burly black mustache.

“Mr. and Mrs. Stein, in our loving memories and our daily prayers. Gone too soon: March 29th, 2047”

The Captain reached the first aid locker, but didn’t try to open it. He flipped out his phone and shook his head in anger.

“Reboot Number 1 again. She woke up and saw Experiment B12. How was I supposed to know, I’m busy for god’s sake! Take her away to the higher chambers for a lobotomy or I’m throwing her out of the ship. She’s woken up far too many times. It’s over.”

The last thing I heard was the Captain’s voice saying, “Shouldn’t have left your room.”

#fanasty #space #horror #sciencefiction #ethereal #malevolent