Existence and the lack of it

[Mushy-pea]

Hi. I haven't posted here for some time but I'm still a big fan. Anyway, I had an interesting dream last night and it inspired me to write a short story based on it. I hope no one minds if I post the first part of it here for your (possible) entertainment.

Existence and the lack of it (part 1)

Jane Paters worked in the London office of a small commercial relocation company. Their business centred around helping other companies move their operations from one office to another, quickly and with a minimum of down time involved. Jane was a secretary and receptionist who had become a dependable and well liked character in the office. It was Monday morning and she was just returning to her desk after a tea break when Mr Johnston the site director walked in carrying a large computer monitor with a crack right across the screen. It was evidently quite heavy from the concentrated look on his face and he was soon struggling to open the door to the store room while supporting it's weight.

“Can I give you a hand there Johnston?” asked Jane in her Yorkshire accent, already walking over to help. For some reason Mr Johnston preferred people to use his second name as if it were his first. “Oh, thanks Jane. If you could just hold the door open from the inside that'd be great.”. She duly obliged and soon they were both inside with the monitor on the table, both looking at the open closet door on the other side of the room. Jane noticed pretty quickly there was something slightly odd about this closet; it was like looking into a black hole. Despite there being plenty of light in the store room, nothing was visible in the closet whatsoever. She then noticed that Johnston seemed to have gone a little pale and was suddenly looking very anxious.

“Are you OK?” she asked. “Be very careful with that closet. It's dangerous.” he said, walking over and closing the door. “Dangerous? What do you mean? It looks a bit funny, like there's nothing in it and the walls are painted black.”. Johnston paused for a long moment and then spoke. “Jane. I had hoped you would never be in this situation. What you are about to learn may be the most awesome and horrendous knowledge any human will ever know.”. “Johnston, it's a closet.” she said flatly. “Watch.”, he said. Johnston picked up the broken monitor and placed it just inside the closet door, leaving it open. “It's from the CPL Ltd. job, that thing. One of our removals guys dropped it by accident while they were unloading, but the client didn't notice at the time so I brought it here. Can you see it on the transport manifest there?”. Jane picked up the clipboard from the table and scanned through it until she found the reference to a 30 inch NEC monitor. “It's the only one that big on this job.” she said.

“It won't be for much longer.”. He closed the closet door and Jane had a feeling she could only describe as like something becoming nothing. When he opened it a couple of seconds later, the monitor was gone.

To be continued....tomorrow

Steven

[iamthwee]

Good stuff. And pretty tightly written up as well.

[Mushy-pea]

Thanks. I'm an English teacher so standards must be kept high :) . As promised, here's the rest of it.

Part 2

Jane stared curiously at the empty closet for a few seconds in silence while a cold sweat seeped through the skin of her face, feeling her pulse quicken and a sense of unreality set in. Something intuitive within her said clearly that this was no magic trick or prank. “Before you ask more about it,” said Johnston just stalling a question on her lips, “look at the transport manifest again.”. She looked and found that the 30 inch monitor had disappeared from the list of transported items. “It has not only been removed from existence in the present moment but from every moment in which it ever existed.” Johnston explained. “The only evidence left that it ever existed are the memories we have of it, because we saw it put into the closet. That's how the machine works. It's come in quite useful over the last year or so when one of our guys has broken a clients item. As long as I could get the damaged thing here the problem was as good as forgotten. Literally.”.

“So it's a machine of some kind. I won't pretend to have the mind to understand how it works. How did you find out about it though? Where did it come from and how the hell did it get into the office?”. Jane had composed herself again and was back to her good efficient self; asking the most important questions first, getting to the bottom of a matter as quickly as she could. “It was built by an ancient alien race that have now left this plane of existence. They got bored with this universe when they realised they could manipulate it in virtually any fashion they chose, so they went off to find another one to explore. A few pieces of their hideously powerful technology are all the evidence that's left of them. Then there's me. My father is a super powerful alien who married my human mother and then persuaded her to follow him to the next universe. I chose to stay. Now I must go myself, though.”. Before Jane had got her head round all this Johnston had stepped into the closet and taken hold of the inside door knob. “Johnston, what are you doing? You'll be killed!”.

“There's a glitch in the machine; if two people see the closet open simultaneously then one of them has to disappear in it....or the universe gets destroyed 23 minutes later.” said Johnston stolidly. “I must have forgotten to close and lock the door last night. Remember me, Jane.”. He closed the closet door and ceased to exist. In that moment, although she didn't know how it came to pass, Jane learned a secret of the universe: the precise difference between life and death, existence and the lack of it. Before she knew what was happening the machine had communicated this knowledge to her, giving Johnston as an example just at the moment he was forgotten by all others. “I will remember you.” said Jane quietly a few minutes later, wiping a single tear from her face. Then she locked the closet with the key she found on the table and left the store room.

The end

[liquidroof]

Great post i have ever read but i enjoyed the 2nd part a lot as compare to 1st.

[Arbolito]

Huh. Must have been quite the interesting dream ;)

A good read, too. Thanks for sharing that with us!

[diafol]

Entertaining. Does the third part end with Johnston climbing back up the dumb waiter shaft and laughing his socks off as Jane picks up the pen with vanishing ink?

[ultimatebuster]

Entertaining. Does the third part end with Johnston climbing back up the dumb waiter shaft and laughing his socks off as Jane picks up the pen with vanishing ink?

and then after that Jane wakes up and realize that it was all a dream? :)

Good story anyhow.

[characteredu]

Interesting, i am sure it will take one more interesting turn. :D

[Mushy-pea]

and then after that Jane wakes up and realize that it was all a dream? :)

Good story anyhow.

I'm afraid there's no happy ending this time. Although, an act of selfless heroism such as Johnston's could been seen as a positive thing in itself. After all, he could have just shoved Jane into the closet and got rid of her to save himself. In the dream I had I ran into the closet, closed the door and disappeared as a woman chased and tried to stop me. Then I took the role of some other spirit and went into the woman's brain, telling her "I will show you the meaning of nothingness," as she helplessly tried to keep this terrible knowledge at bay. Needless to say, it was a lot darker than the story.

Steven

[monkyman184]

Sorry for the quality of this, and the fact that it might make absolutely no sense.

hi im 15 and i have this idea that could be imposible to directly describe with english. its basicly the concept of the absence of existance. the reason this could be useful is because it is a state of absolute limitless. it is a state where you can study raw concepts and plenty of other things that are imposible in reaity. the reason that its so difficult or imposible to explain in english is because evry word in english is limited to its exact meaning. so using words anchored to meaning wich is why desccribing absence of existance is posibly imposible. even the word existance is limited to its defenition. the reason trying to describe the absence of existance with words is so difficult/imposible is because a word is just specific meaning. words are limited to what they mean. and trying to describe raw limitlesness is imposible to describe with limited comunication.

i am curently writing a complete explanation of this comcept on my computer that is verry long. if you are intrested in this, and you dont think this is a completely stupid idea, than you can emale me and ill show it to you when its finished.

and if you would like to help me develope this concept,or anything like that, or if you have anything else to tell me, please email me. dont hesitate to tell me if this idea is not as good as i think it is.

[e-mail]

[Bordeaux0113]

An English teacher that says "supporting *it's* weight."
Yikes!!! :P
Just teasing...even English teachers can make random mistakes :P

[Bordeaux0113]

that was cool hehe

[soccerjerseys]

You have written very well, i am happy to read this out, i think it will be good for you if you take writing as a profession, i am sure you can write very well.