Space Buoy #Omega-68529

"Oh, Jesus, a space buoy - nowhere left to run. How far have I gone? What did I do? What do I do..."

At the edge of the universe is the edge of reality. Only the deathly desperate reach this place. To close an eye is to die. Space scavengers patrol in ceaseless pursuit of prey, vampires with no life of their own who must subsist on the lives of others found. Expect no quarter, no reason, no hesitation in their hungry hate. And who is there to speak out against them? Their victims are too dead and the fools who follow them speak well of their wicked ways.

What can I do to survive here? Can anyone survive here? How long can I avoid the patrols? My heart can't stop racing. What will they do? They'll find me, hunt me down, tear me to pieces. What else can they do? Start a rock slide or maybe surrender. No, that was a movie. No happy endings in real life. I'm cornered. I ran too far. Is there a way back at all? Is there no way to make amends?

DOW-DOIZ
     dow-doiz
          DOW-DOIZ
               dow-doiz

That alternating signal noise is the heartbeat of insanity. Floater fragments drift through my mind's eye.

And thus she came with heart aflame to tear apart the sky.

Demons birthed from mother earth screech, "Now's the time to die!"

Souls of killing holes flee from land to shrinking land.

But the tide that terrifies finally takes her by the hand.

DOW-DOIZ
          dow-doiz
          DOW-DOIZ
dow-doiz

You only get away with this once. Now what do I do?

Beyond the buoy is the curvature of the universe, warping existence like a funhouse mirror. To step past is to become a penny on a railroad track stretched beyond repair. But we the Unworthy cannot enter the time dimensions lest we destroy them. No way out. Truly, the beast does sit upon the throne.

I have seen the beast and it fears I may speak its name. It knows its time is short but many are those who are planning futures as if it will rule forever. Their lives will be swept out with the tide. Who can bargain with the ocean? That's the fool's bet the beast wishes the blind to play. That and to be driven to the edge of a space buoy...

                    DOW-DOIZ
     dow-doiz
          DOW-DOIZ
               dow-doiz

How long has that buoy been bleating that signal? I have to obey the boundary it marks. Who hasn't seen the corpses of those who step beyond? Hideous, mangled bodies testifying to last moments of irrationality. That's the real battle, isn't it? Between the rational and irrational. Forsake fortune for fire to "prove" your poisonous perfidy pure. To step beyond is to take illusion to its logical conclusion.

I can't stay here. Even as that infernal signal is driving me mad, blood drops of life drip from me in ticking decay. Only next to the curvature of the universe can you hear the space winds. Once a soul-stealing sound like that is heard, life is never the same. The winds block the daily musings and chatter from reaching here. All you hear is the terrifying black silence that swallows words from your lips in cruel abortion.

When I tell people this is not sustainable they claim
I'm either "crying wolf" or being "negative". I really,
really, really don't want to live with you.

With nothing left, I hold onto the buoy and step beyond. Like a body holding onto a tree in a high wind my body stretches out as I slip into the curve. What I see when beyond the buoy is not supposed to be seen. I can see a billion dying suns setting on the horizon of our dimension into impenetrable black, above them another horizon of infinite color. That must be the borders to the time dimensions. I have the final ultimate proof of this dimension's sinking doom. But soon I will let go of the buoy like the morons before me who stepped past, my mangled body drifting back to be mocked and desecrated, horrifying children.

This vision dies with me in stillborn tears, my life pointless to the end.