Abyss...

“This is crazy.” I thought to myself as I watched the world I once knew disappear right in front of me. I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Hayley. I am 21 years old and up until 2 days ago, I was a 4th year college student studying Media. This was NOT how I pictured life to be. In my head I was supposed to be working closely with the CEO of Google by the age of 25 and now I'm not even sure I'll make it to see that age. I used to have friends, family, a boyfriend but now I guess that doesn’t matter because I can’t find anyone, it's just me here… “This must be a sick joke, I thought that pranking show.. What is it called again? Right! Punk’D was cancelled decades ago.” I say to myself again. I have to find signs of life. Not only a sign of life but my family, friends and my boyfriend. My boyfriend... I sigh heavily thinking about Alex. I’ve known Alex since I was 6 and practically grew up together and didn’t realize how opposite we are. He challenges me to be better, do better and continue to keep my head up. I’m not afraid to speak my mind because of all the debates I've had with him. Just as much as we are opposite we are also the same and I just thank God for him. I have tears in my eyes as I look down at the heart shaped locket he gave me when we first started dating; we were 19. Inside is a picture of us making silly faces. The point of that was if we were ever to get angry at each other I would look inside the locket and laugh at the faces we made. But now all it does is make me want to cry.

I have to find a way out of here. As I took in my surrounding of debris, my favorite donut shop on fire, burning cars, empty houses, I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I start heading west towards the donut shop. As I enter, I am met with silence. I can’t help but remember all the laughs I’ve shared with my friends here. I continue to walk looking for… I don’t even know what I'm looking for. “What if a zombie just jumps out and starts growling like in all the 5 billion zombie movies made? At that point I’ll know for a fact that I am being secretly recorded and this is all a hoax.” As I start laughing to myself from my recent thought a glint catches my eye. I walk closer to the counter and see a magnifying glass. “Was this always there?” I decide not to psych myself out and put the magnifying glass in my bag. I leave the donut shop and continue my journey. I walk for about 15 minutes and see my parents house. “Was their house always this close?” I thought. “Definitely not 15 minute of walking close… This is getting weird.” This is my parents house except it has a darker feel to it, maybe it’s the missing roof. I go inside and just like the donut shop I ransack everywhere to see if I could find anything, a clue maybe but all I found was air. As I was about to leave I catch another glint near the fireplace. This time I am certain that that was not there. I walk towards it and i see a hand held mirror. “Okay?” I couldn’t help but say out loud. I put the mirror in my bag and ran out of the house as fast as I could because I was starting to get scared with things turning up around me.

My lungs are burning and so are my legs but I have to keep running; I don’t want to be here alone. I’m scared and no amount of humor is making me feel any better. I just want to go back to how my life was with my parents, Alex and my friends. I stop running “WHY?!” I yell out loud “What is this all supposed to mean? I'm looking for signs of life and all I found, or what found me is a magnifying glass and a mirror?! HELP ME!” I can’t help the tears falling from my eyes as I kneel to the ground. I continue crying until I can’t anymore then I notice where I am. It’s the park where Alex and I told each other we loved one another. Except this looks… dead. Just gray and dead. The green trees were gone, the grass burnt. I almost start crying again until I notice the drawing we did to commemorate our love; our initials in a heart on the pavement. I smile at the memory of us begging the construction workers that day to let us do that while the cement was still wet. As I continue to look at our initials , the only thing that’s remained the same in all of this, I feel a burn on my chest. “Ow!” Did my locket just burn me? “Ow! What?” Yes it did so I took it off swiftly only for it to be cool in my hands so I tried to put it back on and it burned me again but was cold in my hands. I look at it in a confused way. “Okay what is going on this is all I have left of Alex and I refuse to leave it behind.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, my bag practically levitated to me. It took everything in me not to run. I grabbed the first thing I saw in there which was the magnifying glass. I start to inspect the necklace and I notice the smallest writing. “For when we’re apart and you want me near.” How am I just noticing this? Has it always been here? All these questions and no one to answer them. I put the magnifying glass down and pick up the mirror. I look inside the mirror and instead of my reflection I see a different place with my friends, family and Alex living happily. I start to yell their names but no one is answering me. I continue yelling and crying hoping someone in the mirror would notice me. “Please! please! Where are you? I need to find you! Don’t leave me here by myself PLEASE!” No one ever noticed me. The necklace in my hand starts to vibrate and starts getting hot again to the point where I have no choice but to drop it. As it falls to the ground the ground swallows it up and it's gone just like that. This causes me to break down and the only words coming out from my mouth are “no, no, no.” The mirror universe is still joyous and happy while I feel like I am dying. I give up. What is the point of going forward if forward is still backwards? So I just lay there on the ground near our initials.

Some moments later the ground starts vibrating but I don't care to move until the floor literally starts glowing. I sit up and out from the ground comes my locket except it's as big as a 3 story house. I am very confused. The locket opens up but no pictures, just a bright yellow light. I want to go in there but I can’t help but stay put. “Stay with me Hayley please I’m here, we are all here.” It sounds like Alex’s voice. I look around no Alex. Then I hear it again. “Please Hales come back to me.” Is his voice coming from the light? As I start inching closer to the light it gets brighter and brighter. I go inside the blinding light with my eyes closed and when they open back up everything is blurry. I start blinking rapidly trying to clear the fog from my eyesight. The first face that comes into view is my mom. I wanted to say her name but I couldn't speak. “How could I not be speaking when I was just screaming my lungs out?” I hear an unrecognizable voice. “Hey Hayley, it’s your doctor don’t try to talk okay? You’re breathing through a tube right now.” I wanted to scream “A TUBE?!” but all I could manage were my eyes widening. I start to panic. It was then I notice the beeping which made me panic even more. That's when I see Alex, I feel his hand in mine… his warm hands. I feel calmness wash over me as I look into his eyes. “Hales, it's okay you’re just at the hospital.” “Hospital?” I thought to myself. “ Why am I in the hospital?” It’s as if my mind was being read because Alex then follows up with the answer. Turns out I was walking back from my favorite donut shop when a stray bullet hit me in my chest. The doctors were able to get the bullet out but this was my first time opening my eyes in two days. I couldn’t believe my ears. The abyss of a universe I was in was all a dream and as crazy as it sounds I couldn’t be happier knowing I was not alone.