It was a dark, beautiful night. The stars twinkled brightly overhead, unobscured by the grey clouds, and the full moon hung majestically in the night sky, streaming down soft moonlight onto the Earth.
The air was cold and almost pure, refreshing my lungs as the leaves on the trees and the corn around me whistled with the wind. It was peaceful, and it would've been perfect if it wasn't for what I saw.
There was a large scorched crater below me, with white smoke trailing from its edges into the sky. Right at the centre of this crater was this... thing.
It wasn't a meteor, asteroid, or any sort of celestial body that had crash-landed on Earth as I—or anyone else—would have expected from a crater this big. No, it was something else, something much more.
It was a tall and wide, unnatural structure that looked as though it was made up of five triangles interconnected seamlessly in a way that made parts of it seemingly appear and disappear in and out of reality at the same time.
It was made of a dark, deep red substance, almost like magnetite, releasing brief rhythmic pulses that caused the crater and everything around it to glow an ominous red.
It was almost as if it were breathing, with each pulse signalling an exhale or an inhale, like a living organism. I was speechless, wide-eyed, and awestruck watching this, so much so that I was almost afraid to breathe.
I should've been afraid, amazed, horrified, or even excited seeing this thing that was clearly of alien design. I should've bolted out of there, ran straight to the authorities, and let someone, anyone else, deal with this.
But I couldn't. The moment my eyes fell on it, all my worries, fears, troubles, and anxieties melted away, leaving me with this eerie calm. It was the kind of calm you'd feel as a baby tucked safely within your mother's arms.
As it pulsed gently, a low humming vibrating in the air as the red light flashed and washed over my face every now and then, I felt myself inexplicably drawn to it.
Before I realized it, my feet had started moving on their own, and I found myself sliding down the slope of the crater, ignoring the heat that licked at my skin.
The moment I came within a few meters of it, the thing rose and hovered a few inches above the ground, pulsing with a much greater intensity, the red light now washing over me in rhythmic waves, bathing me in it's warmth, each time it flashed.
It felt...alive, like it was patiently watching and waiting. The humming increased, and instantly, the hairs on my skin stood up as the temperature dropped drastically, goosebumps popping up all over my body.
My breath came out in ragged gasps, a thin cloud of vapour in the freezing air. My body shivered incessantly, but it wasn't from the cold.
No, it was from fear. Fear—pure, unadulterated terror— that sent shivers down my spine and nearly forced my heart to stop beating. I could feel its presence—or its nature—now. It was, for lack of a better word, wrong.
My instincts screamed at me, yelling at the top of their lungs, telling me to stay the hell away from it. My entire body rejected its presence, trying desperately to back away from the thing, the creature, but no matter how hard it tried, I just kept inching toward it.
Fear consumed me, drenching me in its suffocating grasp until my teeth chattered, my legs buckled, and my entire body trembled uncontrollably.
Tears and snot streamed down my face in an unrelenting flood, stripping away any semblance of composure. Every ounce of willpower I had left was focused on holding control over my bowels, but even that fragile thread was fraying, threatening to snap at any moment.
I screamed, yelled, begged, and cried like a child as loud as I could with each passing second, calling for help as I gradually drew closer to it.
The terror became so intense that I could even taste it in my mouth as I eventually reached it, sweat soaking my thick clothing and my trembling body beneath it, as its hums rang in my ears, drowning out all other sounds.
Like a puppet whose strings had been pulled, my left hand extended itself, and my fingers brushed against its surface. It was warm, impossibly smooth, and dense, like glass yet softer.
With fear-stricken eyes blurry with tears, I watched as my hand sank or phased into it, defying all the natural laws of physics I had grown up learning and understanding.
Instantly, the pulsation grew, and the red light that flashed intermittently from it became constant, glowing so brightly that it superseded all other forms of color, filling my vision with a sea of dark, terrifying red that made my head and eyes hurt.
I didn't know how, but I knew I was about to die. It was a certainty, a fact, like me being a man or the sun being in space.
A part of me wanted to disagree, to fight against this unexplainable feeling, to assure myself that I'd survive this—just like I'd survived all these years with my condition—that I'd come out on top and be even stronger because of it.
But that part of me faded away in a second, leaving me with nothing but my uncontrollable terror and the surety of my death.
Ever since I was old enough and smart enough to understand my condition, I'd made it a point not to fear death but to accept and embrace it.
That it would come sooner or later and that I couldn't escape it no matter how hard I tried—not with how I was born. Despite living longer than I was supposed to, surviving against all odds, I never deluded myself into thinking that maybe I'd live as long as regular people did.
That I'd grow old enough to have kids, watch them grow into adults, grow old with my wife, and die peacefully of natural causes like a large majority of people did in this world.
I knew I'd die young, in a hospital bed somewhere, alone and forgotten. I never in my wildest dreams pictured myself dying like this, but I accepted it nonetheless and forced my eyes closed, waiting patiently for the death that was to come.
...But apparently, that wasn't part of the plan. I felt something seep into my hand, and instantly, I felt a tingle, like tongues of electricity spreading from my left hand like wires to envelop every inch of my body.
Nothing could have prepared me for what came next.
Pain—unimaginable, unexplainable pain—shot throughout my body like a tidal wave. It was as if billions of hot needles buried themselves into my skin at the same time, piercing through flesh and bone to target my nerves, tissues, cells, and even my atoms.
It was as if hot molten iron was being poured into my veins, coursing through every fibre of my being. My body convulsed, muscles seizing in violent spams as the pain burned deeper.
There was nothing I could do but try to scream and howl in agony, but no sound came out. There was nothing left of my voice.
I wanted so desperately to claw my brains out with my fingers to end the torment, but my body wouldn't respond. It wasn't long before I felt my body coming apart. My left hand, the one inside the 'thing', was the first to go, disintegrating into nothingness.
I began losing all feeling as the sensation spread, devouring me piece by piece, but the pain never diminished. It only grew as I felt my mind twisting under the onslaught, somehow tearing itself at the seams and reconstructing itself back together continuously.
It didn't take long until I lost everything—my body, my senses, my feelings, and even my pain—yet somehow I remained conscious. The pain gave way to numbness, and the numbness gave way to stillness.
I floated in an infinite void of crimson light, devoid of sound and sensation. For the first time, in what seemed like an eternity, I was at peace. After a while, even that came to an end as I felt my consciousness fading, my thoughts and memories dissolving into nothingness.
Eventually, I finally felt the true end near, as only a shred of my consciousness remained, and just as I completely faded away, I couldn't help but think bitterly about how everything would've been better if I had never been born.
...Then, there was nothing.