The Other Life

A short story I wrote, based around Winter. Eery and chilling. Make of it what you may ...

Silence.

A gentle fall. Life’s pause button has been pressed. Put on hold.

Please try again later.

Standing on the street, the last soul on earth. It is calm, quiet.

My breath is carried through Winter’s frost tickled air. My footsteps carve holes in its carefully laid blanket. The crunch of feet left to be buried.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

 I stop.

In another world, someone walks by. A stranger. A wanderer with a shield of scarves and gloves.

‘Hello?’ I call out, just for a moment. But we live in two worlds. Our voices are muted by a thin sheet of ice.

Then, in the blink of an eye, he is gone.

Winter’s blessing. Winter’s curse.

Who was that man? Am I not the last living creature to walk this icy planet? My thoughts swirl in my head as the gentle fall dances to the ground. He looked human and dressed human.

But if he really was human, then who was he?

Where did he go?

I follow his tracks, filling the holes he left on this earth. One by one, my feet echo his. Journeying down the street, the sky grows whiter and brighter; blending into the ground until I can’t tell which way is up. But still I venture on. The wandering soul is in my eyes and I can’t stop. I tell myself to go back. Leave, while you can. But I can’t be the only human left on this earth. If there were someone else, I would find him.

 

I tell that to myself over and over, my feet step on over and over, until the tracks stop. They have vanished into the bright white of the sky, ground, surrounding atmosphere.

‘Hello?’ I call again. ‘I know you’re there.’ Just for luck.

My ears strain where my eyes cannot see. I convince myself I will hear a response. I pray to myself that someone, that man, will emerge from the dazzling glare and tell me that he is lost too in the bright white, and wandering the icy earth alone.

But there is nothing.

Looking around me, I see nothing. No trees, no houses, no animals rushing for shelter, nothing. I panic, spinning faster and faster with every swirl of the wind, caught up in this great void and knowing there is something beyond because there is, I had been there, I had walked that path and breathed that air and my voice has carried a tune across that land.

There. I see it.

Small, almost reduced to a pinprick, but I see the way out. It’s my chance of escape.

The only question remains is, do I take it? Do I turn back, or do I go on?

I can risk everything to end this solitude, or run back into the safety of the lonely world I know so well.

I close my eyes and turn one last time.

Let’s let fate decide.

There’s no going back now. I’ve made my decision.

I walk on.

Silence.