Jake had been trying to prepare for the fall this time, he didn’t know when exactly it was coming but he wanted to be ready for it. Despite this, when he felt the ground giving way under him and found himself falling, he was unable to catch himself with his legs still tightly bound together. Felling himself falling forward, he managed to catch himself on one of his palms, landing somewhat smoothly on the flattened rock below.
Looking around from his stomach, Jake was met with the sight of dead, crackling trees and smooth flat rock as far as his eyes could see. At that exact moment, however, he couldn’t see very much since he was still bound and stuck on the floor. Flipping over onto his butt and drawing his legs close to himself, Jake tried to unknot the rough hemp rope still binding his legs together but found himself unable to loosen the rope or pull his legs free.
The longer he spent wrestling with the rope binding his legs, the less he found himself caring about freeing himself. At that exact moment, he couldn’t remember a time he’d ever felt worse in his life. His every muscle felt stiff and sore, and he felt like his head would burst soon. His every breath felt labored, it was feeling difficult to muster the energy to keep breathing let alone try and continue wrestling with the ropes binding him.
Giving up on the ropes, he practically threw himself back eager to give in to his exhaustion and hopefully find some temporary peace. A clattering sound next to him, however, proved a distraction and drew the attention of his exhausted eye. Laying next to him, having slipped from his pocket as he fell backward was his phone.
The screen was dimmed intentionally to try and save the failing battery life, but Jake could still make out the time clearly as being seven fifty-six in the morning. He hadn’t checked the exact time it had been when he had fallen to where he was now, but not much time had passed. This was a close time to when he could next expect to fall somewhere new.
With heavy arms, he reached over and fumbled with the phone for a bit before setting an alarm to go off in twenty-three hours. As far as he could tell, he’d landed somewhere safe for the time being. That might not, and probably wouldn’t be, the case next time. He’d need to prepare.
That was it. That was all he had strength left to do. He was left unable to move properly now, sprawled out across the smooth stone he’d landed on. It wasn’t jagged nor did it dig into back at awkward angles like one might expect from lying on rock. It wasn’t horribly uncomfortable, and after a while, Jake managed to even draw comfort from the coolness of stone beneath his skin. But he still hated it.
He hated all of it. He hated the endless copper desert and the lush forests with bitter-tasting apples and the tribesman he couldn’t talk to no matter how hard he tried and now this. He hated this stupid rock he was stuck on for no reason other than its mere existence. He wished he could destroy this stupid rock, grind it to dust along with everything else he came across wherever the hell he’d fallen. But he was stuck lying there, too tired to move too tired to rant and scream like he wanted. Stuck lying there wishing he was home.
Tears leaked from bleary eyes as he gazed into the sky, wishing more than anything that it was over. That tomorrow he’d fall back home, safe and sound, landing in his bed and that last four days could be a horrid nightmare he would forget. But he doubted that would happen. He wasn’t so lucky. He would probably keep falling into the unknown, struggling forever for no reason till he died. Alone and forgotten. If that was the case, why even bother anymore?
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Jake was running now. Faster than he’d ever been able to run in his entire life. His body felt disproportionate, his legs and arms felt like they had been stretched like taffy and he struggled to balance himself as he ran. Still, he carried himself forward with fervent desperation ignoring each shacky step which threatened to send him tumbling to the ground.
Every house he ran past looked wrong, warped and twisted or overlengthened. Some looked like they were melting while overs looked like they were made of sharp, jagged edges like razor blades. Outside of the house glitching and monstrous blobs resembling human shape were appearing, trying to reach out for Jake. They gripped at his ankles and tried to form roadblocks with their stretched-out flesh, trying to slow and trip his unsteady stride. He paid them no mind; they didn’t matter right now.
All that mattered was what lay ahead. Sitting in pristine, perfect condition was his house. It sat in pristine condition amidst the distorted abominations of the neighborhood, not a speck of paint out of place. He could see vague shadows moving between the windows as he drew closer. He counted three, two upstairs and one downstairs. His sister where up and about, roaming the upstairs hall and his mother was busying herself downstairs. Or maybe Dad hadn’t gone to work today? He didn’t care who the shadows belonged to; he wanted to see any of them more than anything right now.
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His clothes were ripped apart and he felt light lacerations scratch his body as his horrid neighbors tried ever harder to draw him back, but no pain came. He was too focused on his goal, and with a guttural shout, he managed to slip the hands gnawing at him and reach the driveway of his home. Not pausing a moment to revel in the emotions welling up inside him for fear of being dragged away, he tore up the drive and reached for the handle to the front door.
All at once he was falling. It wasn’t the short half second falls he had begrudgingly grown somewhat used to the past week; no, he was falling for what felt an eternity. Nothing, true absolute oblivion surrounded him as he fell into the abyss. He tried to scream yet no sound would escape his throat, he was left falling into oblivion in silence.
Then it was over, he had landed. The nothingness continued to surround him, but he had landed on something which his eyes could not make out. It was gritty and rough between his hands, and slowly he felt like he was sinking into it whatever it may be. With a panicked cry which died in his throat he sprung to his feet, throwing hurried glances around the horizon for anything that might disrupt the emptiness.
There it was an infinity away a light shining in the darkness. He struggled forward, body heavy as lead his feet sinking quicker and quicker, trying desperately to reach the light shining lazily upon his body. It felt like with each step forward the light drifted further and further away at a pace he couldn’t possibly keep up with. As despair at the ever-retreating light filled his soul, all-encompassing darkness surrounded him as he felt more and more an inviting desire to simply stop walking, to sink away quickly.
But he refused, fighting not only the sinking of the earth around him but his own desires now. He remembered it clearly, the sight of his home sitting there just out of reach, his family living a peaceful life one door away. It had been so close. He had been so close. He refuses to give up now. As every step became harder and more painful to accomplish, he pulled himself forward through the dark expansive nothingness, chasing the retreating comfort the light brought.
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Jake awoke with a scream. He wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep but the sun in the sky looked close to setting in a few hours as the once clear blue sky had now turned a clear shade of orange above him. He lay there, panting, struggling to catch his breath. The details of his dream faded away quickly as he tried to hang on to them, leaving behind only the feelings of despair and terror they had invoked. But one detail remained clear in his head.
He remembered his home, his family, sitting there. Pristine and just out of reach. With shaky breath, he took out his phone and read the last message he’d sent to them: “Sorry about the alarm. See you in a bit.” At the bottom of the text, he could see it had changed from “delivered” to “read”. Before he’d fallen out of cellular service, it looked like his family had received his message. It hurt to read back, there was so much more he wished he had said. Not even a simple “Love You”, just a stupid message about an alarm.
He set the phone to his side and sat up, struggling for a minute before he was reminded of the rope binding his leg. Searching around the flat top of the rock, having to inchworm a bit to move farther than his immediate arm length could reach, Jake was able to find a substantially sharp rock and cut the rope away. Rubbing the area the rope had been carefully, red rope burns were left in its place, and it felt like the circulation in his legs had been cut off somewhat. They felt stiff and hard to move.
With unstable balance, Jake forced himself upright. He was still sore, but his earlier exhaustion felt like it had improved. While the muscles in his legs still felt like they were going to explode with every slight movement, especially around where the rope had been, he found he was able to breathe without pain again.
Jake began stretching, focusing a lot of his effort on his sore legs, to try and hasten their somewhat stunted recovery. He had never been big into stretching or Yoga, so all he knew were the basics. Even the bare bone basics felt painful for his legs to endure, but by the end of it they felt somewhat looser and though he had to be careful to maintain his balance he felt he could start walking again.
Jake bent over and picked up the scattered items that had fallen from his pocket when he first arrived. He’d been too tired to notice anything except the phone which landed with a clear, loud noise on the stone below, but now he found his wallet and keys had also been launched from his pocket while he was flailing on the ground with the rope. Finally, he bent over and retrieved his phone.
Jake paused one more time looking at the family text chat before turning the phone off and pocketing it, determined to draw the battery life out as long as possible. He’d need it. He didn’t know where he would fall next. He didn’t know how or why he was falling either, but at this exact moment, Jake found he didn’t care much anymore.
In Jakes mind how, why, or where he would fall next where not important anymore. He didn’t ask for this to happen to him and he didn’t know how to stop it. What he did know was that, seemingly, it was going to keep happening and he found he didn’t have it in himself to care about it anymore. It was too depressing to think about, and there were more important matters to focus on.
Like his survival. Or going home. Because He was going to get home. He didn’t know how or when yet, but he was going home. He’d made a promise to his family before he disappeared and he didn’t care how long it took or how hard it was to keep it, he was going to see them again.