Fragmented Reality

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky.

Gerald watched them emerge just as they always did, and he casually took a sip of his coffee. It was the same thing every night, but he had become so accustomed to it that the very sight of it had lost its luster. He was immune to its draw and instead, he found himself counting down the days until he could return home again.

It was always the same thing; the faint light in the distance would appear and then it would remain for a couple hours as the clouds began to surround its magnetic draw. And for years, they had studied it, but could find no explanation for its presence.

Gerald hated the desert. And as far he was concerned, the mere presence of some strange light and its pull on the clouds around it did little to satiate his contempt for the barren landscape around him.

The first time It occurred, everyone scrambled to unravel the mystery behind it, but when nobody could find an answer, they erected the outpost to monitor the strange phenomenon.

At first, he was excited by the prospect of it all. He just knew that he’d be the one to watch it happen. Whatever it was. But when it didn’t, he found that contempt had eventually taken the place of his once naïve enthusiasm.

But there he remained. Despite his good sense, he found himself returning to that place each month to monitor its presence. And every night, he’d watched the light emerge, followed by its entourage of stratus roadies and then it’d disappear. Tonight, was no different.

As he watched it fade against the blackened veil of the night, Gerald took another sip from his cup and turned to walk back into the building once more. But before he could shut the door behind him, the ground began to tremble. It started low, then the faint rumbling beneath his feet suddenly shifted into a violent tremor forcing him to drop his cup so that he could grab ahold of something sturdier nearby.

He cursed aloud and waited for it to finally subside, then sighed with relief as it finally did. He’d been through a few earthquakes before, but it did little to calm his nerves whenever they came. The Mojave Desert was no stranger to them, seeing as how the great San Andreas fault lay smack dab in the middle of it.

But they came without warning, and Gerald was a man who found comfort in monotony. Although he’d never admit to it, maintaining a concrete schedule was something he strived for every day. It was for him, the one thing he found easiest to control in life and so, the more he adhered to one, the better off he felt about it.

But with the unexpected arrival of this rather cumbersome inconvenience, the rest of his night would undoubtedly be wasted on cleaning up the mess it left behind.

So, when the tremors finally came to a gradual end, he sighed sharply with relief and tugged at the hem of his shirt to straighten it out.

“Finally,” he said aloud and pulled the loosened lock of dark brown hair from his eyes.

After he scanned the room to assess the damage he cursed again and reached first for the mug which he had dropped onto the ground. But just as he lifted it along with the shattered fragments of its handle, the room went dark and the soft hum from the electrical appliances nearby fell silent.

He was trapped within the deafening quiet of the night, and he hesitated for a moment before taking a step within the darkness. But just as he began to feel his way along the wall beside him, the power came back to life once more and he froze in place for a moment until he was content with the satisfaction of its indefinite return.

After steadying himself again, he got to work and began collecting the numerous objects which had fallen to the floor. From one item to the next, he slowly made his way through the small outpost, eventually returning the place to its former glory, so to speak. And after he had finished, he made his way toward the computer hoping to glean some information regarding the recent occurrence from the outside world.

But as he placed his hands over the keyboard a muffled thump came from across the way in the room at the end of the hall. He paused, wondering if what he heard was merely a trick played against his own mind, but he finally relented to the pressing curiosity which rose within him.

It must’ve been something which teetered on the edge of a shelf or something trivial. At least, that was what he’d hoped. But as he rounded the corner and stood at the entrance he stopped in his tracks.

His jaw dropped, and he stood aghast by the sight of a naked woman lying in the center of the floor. She curled herself deep into a fetal position and shivered uncontrollably as she pressed her eyelids tightly together. Her skin was pale, and her amber hair lay loosely on the floor beside her.

As he took a cautious step toward her, he suddenly noticed that the floor around her had been blackened and charred as though it had been burned. The woman was entrapped within a circle that had been etched around her body. And to further his horror, the sound of his name escaped from behind her quivering lips.