Oblivion

• Lilly Walsh, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

I had to strain my eyes to adjust to the luminous forest surrounding me. It was pelting down rain, so I held onto the closest branch I could find as if it were a lifeline. The warm droplets falling into the grasp of my skin was astonishing. My surroundings made my past life seem incredulous. It took me a minute to figure out that I was on the edge of a cliff. I looked down, and it was a very, very long way to the bottom. But then, I couldn’t hold on any longer. My body forced me to let go of the lifeline, and I was falling down at the speed of light. It seemed like an eternity before I realised that there was no end to this fall. I looked down, and, sure enough, nothing. I felt oblivion consuming the entirety of my body. I just fell, and fell, and fell. The eternity when I fell ended when I landed; The rules of gravity, I guess. I landed with a soft thud on some more nothing. It was very frightening. Just sitting there… On a bunch of black nothing… Yeah, it’s nauseating. I looked around, there was a single chair floating on… on… I still can’t describe it. I guess just a bit more nothing. I never pictured what oblivion would look like, but now it seemed so… real. I decided to look straight ahead, not look down, left, right, or behind, just forward. I walked over to the chair and sat in it. A small, old-time looking T.V appeared in front of me. It turned on the millisecond I noticed it. Faces. They were faces I could have sworn I knew, but I couldn’t quiet distinguish them. One caught my eye the second I was seriously considering getting up and walking away. A baby girl, with my topaz eyes and my chocolate hair. She was waving at me, and that’s when the picture started getting pixelated. “Someone help me!” I yelled, but no one was there. I looked back at the T.V and there was a man with brown stubble on his chin. He reached out to me. I cupped my hand over my mouth and ran away. I tried to control my senses that were working overtime to improve themselves, but it didn’t work. I looked down, into the oblivion, and the baby’s face was there. I squeezed my eyes shut and tucked my chin into my knees. “Sarah.” someone said. I opened my eyes again, and the male face was there. “Huh?” I asked, my voice breaking. “It’s ok, Shelby’s here too.” he said. He picked up a baby from a pink cot, and gave her to me. “Shelby?” I asked, puzzled. The familiar face had to be my daughter, the other was seemingly my husband. “What happened?” I asked, caressing the newborn on the head. “It’s ok, Sarah. You did it. We did it. You gave birth to Shelby.”