On September 2nd 2017, my entire reality was shattered.
I was a junior in High School, and I had been invited to a routine Saturday night bonfire at my friend Jakes house. We lived across town from each other, but our small Midwest town had a population of 900 people so the walk only took a few minutes. My route was the same every time. I walked to the end of my street, took a left onto a side road that led me along a cornfield at the edge of town for about a quarter mile, and Jakes house was off to the right. I walked down the dead-end gravel road to his house and joined my friends for our usual case of Grain Belt and passed around a couple hippie cigars.
I don’t remember much about the actual bonfire, but I remember so vividly everything that happened after I left. It was around 1am by the time I began my walk home. I listened to the swaying of the corn field, as well as the crickets and the occasional drone of a car driving somewhere nearby. I was about halfway down the side road when suddenly all the ambient noise just shut off. It was like I was placed in a sensory deprivation chamber. There was no sound, only the ringing in my ears that you get when you can’t hear anything else. I couldn’t even feel the wind on my face, and the temperature shifted to where it was almost devoid of any stimulus. I can’t explain the feeling, it’s almost as if even the temperature disappeared.
I stopped alongside the road, standing on the gravel shoulder furthest from the cornfield when I began to feel the vibrations from above. I could feel it in my muscle fibers as the sensation traveled all the way down to my bones. I was terrified, frozen in place. I don’t know how much time passed as I stood there on the side of the road, feeling like I was being electrocuted without the pain. Again, there are not a lot words in any human language to describe some of the feelings, or things that I saw, but I will do my best to draw an accurate account of what happened.
That’s when I started to gently rise from the ground. I was being held perfectly still as I floated upward, unable to move my head in any direction. I couldn’t even scream or fight. I was 10 feet, then 50 feet, then I might as well have been 1000 feet off the ground, as the dark of night made it incredibly difficult to see the earth beneath me. My heart felt like it was going to explode, and I began to feel like I was going to pass out from the sheer terror I had in the moment. My vision started fading around my periphery and just like that, I was out.
I don’t know how long I was out for but when I awoke, I found myself laying on a cold, metal-like floor. I would say it was stainless steel, but stainless steel doesn’t glow as you apply pressure to it. The room was completely full of electronics, and things were labeled with a language that I didn’t recognize. It made my head hurt just looking at it. There was a bubble window in the corner of the room that pressed outwards, but all I could see outside was black.
As soon as I got my bearings and began to stand up, a strange being appeared in front of me. I don’t even know if I can call it a being, as it didn’t seem to be made of physical matter, but it had a vague humanoid shape. This being was situated approximately 6 feet away from me, between myself and the window. It seemed to be emitting some form of energy that was hardly perceptible and was indescribable in color. I had never seen this color before and I’m certain it wasn’t something humans could naturally perceive.
Be calm, young man. I am not here to harm you.
The voice echoed inside my head. At this point I fully thought I had been dreaming, and desperately wanted to wake up.
I will not be able to communicate with you in any of my native tongues. You would not understand. I hope you understand why I need to speak to you in this manner.
“Where am I, and who are you?” I asked nervously, my voice shaking.
You are far from your home, but do not worry, I intend to bring you back as soon as you learn the truth of everything that is.
“Why did you choose me? I’m just a kid. I don’t know what’s going on, and you still haven’t told me who you are.” I demanded. I was now fully convinced I was dreaming, and that gave me the confidence to assert myself.
There is no singular reason for us to have chosen you. You were the closest human to us when we initiated the ship. When we need to run tests, or borrow samples of DNA from a human, we take them indiscriminately. In exchange for us borrowing some of your cells for our private studies, we give you information that your kind would otherwise take hundreds of thousands of years to learn yourselves. I am from this place, but I am not of your time. This may come as a surprise to you, but Earth is the sole incubator of all life in the universe. My kind originated on your planet nearly 27.5 million years ago. Although we were not the first. We were the 4th advanced civilization that was born here, and after a few million years we’d mastered dark matter, as you call it, and gravity propulsion as well as space-time manipulation. Then, naturally, we left.
This was way too much for me to handle. My head was spinning, and my mind was racing a million miles an hour. I stared at the energy being for what felt like 10 minutes, unsure of what to say, or what I wanted to ask. The ominous voice inside my head rung out again.
This time is different though, I’m afraid we will not return to this planet, and soon enough, this planet will cease to exist. I would like to show you the birthplace of the universe, because without seeing for yourself, you will not comprehend. Do not worry about time, as we are in what I like to call a time dilation loop. I will bring you right back to the moment you existed in as soon as we are finished.
“Earth will cease to exist? Are you going to destroy us?” I asked, suddenly spiraling into a panic attack. My chest was tight and my breathing was shallow. The feeling of losing consciousness was coming back.
Do not worry, soon everything will make sense. My kind does not wish to harm you. We are of the same mother. The place I wish to bring you is where reality as we know it began. The Pillars of Creation.
The ship, or whatever you want to call it, roughly jerked forward. It felt as if we were in a car that was full throttle for ten feet then suddenly stopped.
“What just happened?” I asked the being.
We’ve just traveled 6,500 light years. We did not travel through space, in the conventional sense. We traveled through a small pocket we have created in the fabric of time. There are no words in your language for this means of transportation. Look out the window, if you wish. Observe where all of reality began.
The being moved to the side, and allowed me to cautiously walk to the window. I peered out of the bubble shaped window and what I saw was incredible. No, it was breathtaking. I stared at the massive pillars of multi-colored gas and space dust. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the largest of them all, as it seemed to glimmer so brightly that I had tears rolling down my face. The reverberating voice in my cranium snapped me out of my daze.
This is where all matter was created. The big bang, as is the current model of understanding for this generation of humans, occurred here. The singularity formed somewhere in that cluster of gas. Though, even my species does not know what existed before the singularity formed, or why. Some things are unknowable. We are unable to travel to the time before the rapid cooling of the universe.
“Is there a god?” I wondered aloud. My brain struggled to comprehend what I was hearing and I began to dissociate myself from my surroundings. The being spoke again.
Not in the sense of Christianity, or any other religions that the current iteration of humans believe in. There is only the universe, though one might think of the universe as god. It is living, breathing, and can observe itself. This is the problem. The universe was never meant to observe itself. What we are currently experiencing is the rapid collapse of the entire observable universe. We are quickly traveling across space to the Great Attractor, as it is known to your kind. This location is beyond the zone of avoidance, and current humans are unable to see it for what it is. It is where the universe ends. It is where reality seizes to exist, and within it are no dimensions such as time, space, or š̵͚̫̼̻̪͉̮̹̰̊t̵͖͍̓̀͂͗́̒͂͋̈́̃́̉͐̉̕͠ŗ̸̢̮̗̳͈̺̜̽͆̔̀́̑̀̽̏̈́͜ͅi̸̧̛̫̻̘̽͋̾͊̆̑̀͐͆́̅͊̀̍͋͜͝ň̶̙̲̣̟̘͈̟̥̰͙̣̳̥̮̈̎̃̚̚ͅg̶̖̲̩̩̹̺͍͖̲̩̠̩̥̓͛̍̀̅̅̽̆̒̇̿̒̎̋̆̈0̴̡̢̦͉̰̖̻̻̙̠͖̼̝̱͔̩̩̀̿̎̈́͌͂͝͠ͅ3̸̧̛̭̜̜͚̰͓̞̩̳̟̀̏͋̄́̕͜ͅ1̷̙̠͔͔͕̭̖͓̘̈͠ͅ4̴̡̠̹̩̫̝͖͎̥͇͉͎̉̏͛͐̎͑͗̌̒͂̌̈́͘͘͝͝͝.
I felt lightning from my head down to my toes when the being said the last word, and momentarily my vision was filled with static. My ability to speak was gone, and it was evident that I was now at the complete mercy of this strange being. I could no longer feel fear, and I felt that I was running on pure adrenaline.
Now, I would like to explain to you the current state of your world. Our mother Earth. It was never supposed to exist. The universe does not want to be observed, it does not want to be a host of life. Our theory is that the universe is not only conscious, but it is also a sentient being. It is tired of endlessly observing and existing. The collapse began approximately 15 million years ago, and is exponentially gaining speed. We have detected anomalies over the last few centuries that even we cannot explain. Entire galaxies, gone from existence. Black holes appearing out of thin air. The time has come for us to attempt to save our universe, although that does not mean a happy ending for any living being in existence. My civilization included.
After a long while, I mustered up the ability to speak once again.
“How could saving the universe be a bad thing for anyone? Doesn’t that mean we have a chance at survival?” I spoke hoarsely.
The being turned towards the bubble window, and stared at it momentarily before responding.
Unfortunately, if our plan succeeds, it will mean the exact opposite. I told you earlier that we do not plan to cause harm to your kind, but that does not mean you will survive. What I meant was, you will not feel any pain. Your civilization will cease to exist, as will mine. Earth will be removed from reality entirely. Using our 1̴̛̲̒̇͋1̸̣̖̔̏̂̓̏̈́͜5̸͎͖͒̿̾́̉̚p̸̢̙͇̙̄͗̚r̸͍̤̘͚̭͛̚ͅo̷͙̎̑̇̌̽͘p̵̱̦̗̩̪̄u̴̡̙̤̗̩̫̇̀̑͌͛̇l̶̢̡̢̬͒̑̿̑̂̐ş̸̭̘͆̐̔̓̀̄ͅő̸̟r̷̢̫̈́̔y̵̟̦̮̰̖̎͆̈̈́̾, we intend to rapidly transport earth to the edge of the Great Attractor. Once there, the earth will immediately cease to exist. It will not be destroyed, it will simply be removed from reality. It will be as if someone flipped a switch and turned all sentient life in the universe “off”. We will then fly ourselves into the Great Attractor.
“What is the point of saving the universe if there will be no life within it to live anyways? Who cares if the universe continues to exist if we are all going to die anyways?” I screamed at the being.
All I could see was a hue of red, and tears were flowing from my eyes. I didn’t want to believe a word he said. This had to be a dream. None of this was real. It couldn’t be. It felt like it had been an hour since I was smoking blunts with my friends. It had only been an hour. Now I was in a spaceship with a fucking freak made of light that was telling me he was going to shut the universe off. The voice rang out in my head once again, louder than it had been before.
This is not something you are evolutionarily equipped to understand yet. You are still in the egotistical stage of your evolution. We worship the universe. It is everything, and we owe everything to it. Whether we exist or not, we must do everything in our power to save it. I hope you understand what I am telling you. By human years, you still have some time. Our current estimates are that we will be able to begin the thrust into the Great Attractor by 3,689,094,123 AOE, or 2024 in recorded current human years. To prove to you that you are not in a fit of delusion, I will give you something physical to ensure you that this really occurred. When you awake, you will be safely in your home, with a small laceration in the bottom of your foot.
And just like that, I woke up in my bedroom. The sun shone through the cracks in my blinds and I could smell the bacon my mom was frying downstairs. Sounds of her music echoed throughout the halls of our home and my head felt like it was set to explode any minute. Remembering the vivid dream I had the night before, and what the energy being said about leaving a cut on my foot, I decided to humor myself and sat up and quickly inspected the bottom of my foot. Then I saw it, a small purple scar on the ball of my foot that had never been there before, and it was fully healed.
That brings us to today. I’ve since completed high school, then college, and now work as an HR Data Analyst. I’d mostly put that night into the back of my mind, only seldom remembering my experience. But over the last few weeks I keep having the strangest recurring dream. It always starts the same. In the dream I am floating in a dark, empty space. I cannot hear anything and time does not seem to pass. Then, I begin to see a massive void in the distance. It is approaching me at breakneck speeds and I cannot move or get away. Once this void reaches me I awake in a panic.
I truly don’t know if what I experienced was real, or if I just had the craziest dream of all time and my subconscious informed me of a scar I didn’t know that I had. I do know that 2024 is approaching, and if what the energy being told me was true, at least we won’t feel any pain.