Have you wondered what it’s like in a black hole? Stop thinking about it because it’s not that. There is no magic wormhole that jets you across space in an instant. There is no infinite power. There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing to gain at the center of a black hole. Just a whole lot of things we are better off not knowing. But that’s not why you’re here right? You want to know don’t you? Well fine then have it your way. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is the uncensored truth, as best as my mind can make of it anyway.
I worked for NASA. Well a special branch of NASA that you’re not supposed to know about. In fact I’d wager after this is posted I’ll probably disappear mysteriously. I’ll be thankful for that. Anyway this branch has been researching black holes, dark matter, aliens and whatever else you can think of for a while now. Some speculation was done and it was theoretically safe to travel into a black hole. There was one made with a particle accelerator and it was large and stable enough to pass a human sized object through. You just had to be strong enough to withstand the g forces exerted during spaghettification. Yeah that’s the word for that. No human was going to ever be able to withstand that kind of force on their own of course so this was also a test for a special suit that would help with that.
I was chosen due to my training and high resistance to such forces and let me be the first to say, I was excited. The first human to teleport? With man made black holes? Count me in this could be revolutionary. I couldn’t tell you what I was expecting, or what went through my head as I stepped into that thing, warping the light around it, consuming all it could get its hungering maw around. It was hot for a split second. Not a heat like any on earth though, this felt like the cold was sucked right out of me. Immediately after there was a painful sensation just above my hips. Then, all at once, I was there. Not on the other side. I was somewhere, I don’t know where exactly but I was there.
It seemed like space at first. All I could hear was my breathing in my space helmet. God it was the loudest noise I have ever heard. The silence around was like nothing else and my breath pierced my eardrums. Then, right there in front of me, I saw it. Like looking into a mirror. A black, shiny, perfect mirror. It felt like I could reach out, touch the person that was standing there if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to. I heard them breathing too, ragged and scared, exactly the same as me. They looked like me but I knew it wasn’t me. It couldn’t have been, right?
They were standing just beyond this thin dark veil. I didn’t want to reach out, but it seems like they did. I stood there, focused by my own breathing as a hand, my hand, reached out and touched me. It was cold but oddly calming. The breathing I was convinced was not mine became louder and louder but calmer with each breath. I couldn’t tell you how long I was standing there but when my oxygen ran out, I began to panic.
I pulled my hand away from, me, and in an instant the only blackness around me shattered into a million pieces. Whispers surrounded me and even though I covered my ears they stabbed at my psyche until there was nothing left. The next thing I knew I was on the floor, my helmet shattered and I was in the fetal position. The higher ups tell me I was inconsolable for days after, and that I couldn’t even properly form words for weeks. Even know I can’t look outside at night. Sometimes if it’s too dark I see him, I see me there looking right back through that helmet. I know he’s there. It’s not just a reflection.