It was dark under the tree, smoke from the machine had insects falling like critter hail, pitter-pattering onto the jungle floor. The Amazon was the first place my team went in search of new species of insects. Big Pharma is insatiable when it comes to new medicine and I wanted to provide it for them.
My team quickly collected the insects before they flew or skittered away back to safety. As they were loading up the specimen jars and equipment I noticed a shimmer coming from the base of the tree. I sauntered to where I saw it coming from, knelt, and started brushing away some debris when kabam, it felt like I was hit by a truck. I looked down at what should have been my hands, but they were gone, punched off by a tiny Mike Tyson that had been hiding under the leaves. However, even in my shocked state, I felt my hands still existed, even though they were now inconceivably missing. I went to pick up a leaf but it instantly disappeared and my hands were once again visible.
Stunned I stumbled backward onto the ground dropping the leaf.
Am I hallucinating? Did I just get hit with some crazy bug drug and now I'm tripping balls? The team noticed my distress and came running, but I yelled a frantic, "Stay back, don't touch me". Thinking quickly and uncertainly, I said shakily, "Question" while raising my hands "Do you see this too"?
I brought my hand to the tree we had been working under and touched it. The whole tree vanished. The initial shock was a stone-cold silence that burnt in my ears. None of us could believe what we had witnessed.
No one spoke, as we all needed to determine what we should do next.
About the Creator
Megan Alicia Ireland
Sentences are for prisoners. And I'm being held captive by this paragraphs last chance at a Sundance. I'm looking down the barrel of a new dimensional curse. Leaving now, I probably shoulda took the back seat in the hearse.
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Step One: Lose a child. Not what anyone wants to happen and nothing you can do to change it, but you can go through steps to becoming happy again. You can go through steps to loving again. You can go through steps to become a new you because after losing a child you will never be the same person you once were.
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By Natalie Grayabout 18 hours ago in Fiction
Comments (2)
I love this! Even in such a short piece, you manage to sow a few red herrings as to where the story is headed, and I can't wait to read more!
Very imaginative. Great work!