It's the year 2197, on an average Wednesday morning. There is a small drizzle outside my apartment, and I woke up to the sound of my alarm blaring to life. As it tore me from my blissful sleep and drug me into the monotony of my life as a 23 year old named Adam smith with a job as the lead in a robotics and technology development department.
I wake up at 6:15, take a shower, brush my teeth, and as I walk away from my mirror I notice a slight glowing on the left side of the small of my back. 'Weird' I think, It looks as if small particles of light are rising like smoke from the radiating glow on my back. As I begin to inspect the area I panic slightly after noticing a small hole the size of a thumb where the glowing is taking place. It looks as if someone simply took out a lump of my skin, however, there is no bleeding, nor is there any pain. I run my hand over the spot and it feels like any other part of my body, if a little softer than my usual skin.
I take out my phone and snap a pic of the area so I can get a better look at the area, however, when I look at the photo, there's nothing there. No glowing hole, no light particles, hell, I'm not even in the image at all, my back simply isn't there. I check to see if I forgot to flip the camera to face me, but no, the door behind me, which would be impossible for the camera to capture due to my body being in the way, is fully visible, almost as if I don't exist.
By now I feel nauseous from what is happening, I'm on the verge of a panic attack but I force myself to calm down. 'I need to think logically for a second, the glowing, the part of my body that's literally gone, and not appearing on the camera could all be hallucinations caused by stress or something.' but as I look at the mirror once again to see if the glowing is happening anywhere else, I notice, to my growing horror, that I'm also not appearing on the slightly steamy glass from my earlier shower. Now my brain is working overtime to come up with a reason as to why all of this is happening. 'Maybe this is all a dream?' However, with the combination of this being so realistic and the prospect that I've never even had dreams, that's quickly ruled out. I also rule out the possibility of hallucinations, while I have been stressed recently, I do enjoy my job and don't think I've been stressed enough to hallucinate. 'Drugs maybe? No, I don't take any kind of pills or psychedelics. Maybe some kind of elaborate prank? No, not only do I live alone, I've never told anyone where I live, so with the mirror being the way it is, that's impossible as well. That only leaves one reason I can think of…'
"This is real…"
'But even so, what does this mean? It's not exactly easy to explain the glowing, seeming absence of flesh, and the disappearance of my reflection. Maybe I died and my spirit is fading into whatever afterlife there is? I'm not exactly religious but I know a decent amount about various afterlife's, and while it's not probable, it is possible. So that's one possibility, another could be that this is some kind of illness causing this? That, however, could also lead back to the possibility of hallucinations, and I don't feel any different, so I'm just going to ignore the possibility of a illness being the cause of this. I did recently get hit by a new type of gamma ray while testing how plasma reacts to various things, but that was almost a week ago and that wasn't even the first time, so that's doubtful.' I look down to my hands to see if anything has changed in the time it took to think and notice a small glow out of the corner of my eye near my shoulder. I quickly notice it had began to disappear as well.
"HOLY SHIT!!"
'Ok calm down, I need to see if I'm a ghost or some kind of spirit, even if it's doubtful since I can feel stuff like water and even touch nobs and stuff, I need to see if I can feel pain.' I run to my room, which has my collection of knives, swords, rifles, and other weapons, and grab a small combat knife sitting on my dresser for self defense if someone were to break in and poke the tip of my pointer finger, which quickly begins to trickle blood. 'Ok, so I'm definitely not dead, maybe I'm in a coma or something and this is the way my mind is waking me up? It's doubtful but not unfeasable, but even then-' my train of thought is quickly derailed as my mind comes to a screeching hault when a sudden and harsh pains shoots thought my head, making me my mind swirl and eyes begin to bleed. I can't think, hear, see, or even breath as the pain in my mind begins to spread down to my neck, past my shoulders, and follow my spine causing and unbearable, fiery pain like nothing I've ever felt. I want to pass out but my mind is keeping me from doing so as I drop to the floor on my knees, I grab my head in a desperate attempt to ward off the pain coursing through what is now my whole body, making every nerve scream and some of the blood vessels in my body pop, causing even more excruciating pain and making my skin look red form the intense amount of internal bleeding caused by my newly ruptured blood vessels. I can feel as my arteries burst, my bones begin to crack and my skin begin to peel, finally, I'm able to inhale, and scream. I scream and scream and scream until my voice is hoarse and my throat is bloody, I cough up fresh blood and breathe in, filling my lungs with the warm crimson liquid, causing me to suffocate on my own blood.
Then as soon as the pain came, it stopped, leaving only the still very fresh memory of the ever excruciating pain. When I began to notice the pain had stopped, not knowing how long the agony went on, I look around only to notice… nothing, it's as if the very world I was just on, completely vanished. Leaving only pitch black, there were no stars, there was no sun or moon, no ground, or sky, only a empty, desolate void of nothingness.
'Where am I? What was that…? It felt like my entire body was ripped apart from the inside out... Did I die? The last thing I remember was my lungs filling with blood and me not being able to breathe… was I killed by suffocation…? maybe I'm in the afterlife? I can't feel my body, so maybe I'm in the cycle of rebirth or something? It probably isn't heaven or hell since I can't feel complete torture and this definitely isn't my version of paradise, so maybe this is the Hindu afterlife? Or Buddhism? Or maybe something close but not quite?' My mind is spinning trying to think of the implications of my very, very likely death and what comes after, when suddenly, I feel my mind spin, and feel as if I was getting ripped through something. 'Oh god, I feel like I'm going to be sick, I feel so dizzy, did I just get pulled through something? It felt almost wet, so maybe time since it flows? Or space? I know time isn't linear exactly, that was proven about fifteen years ago, so maybe that's it? I can also feel my body, though it feels like I'm trapped in something crammed, and it's dark. I'm so tired all the sudden… I think… I'll just sleep for now…'