Destination: 404: “I Miss The Way The World Used to Be”

“I Miss The Way The World Used to Be” Day 3 9:00 AM . “Dear Diary,

The world instantly changed

And suddenly I was on a high balcony, although I don’t recall ever going upstairs. The pool room was only one level, as far as I could tell, but now I was on a balcony as high as the birds fly.

But there were no birds here.

Or anything else. No furniture, no windows. Not even color was here.

The floor beneath me, the ceiling above me, the wall in front of me and the one to the left; all blank white. I quickly turned around and found that the door I had just gone through was now gone too, replaced with another blank white wall.

I would have felt completely suffocated, if it were not for the entirely missing right wall. There was nothing there, not even a guard rail to prevent you from falling off. Just the edge of this now high-rise room. Looking at it, I felt both terrified, yet undeniably attracted to sitting at its edge.

Carefully, I placed my snacks down and sat, gently letting my feet dangle off its sharp 90° angle.

The view was fantastic, and I soon felt momentarily at ease, especially after having my simple snack of barbecue chips and water. However, the reality soon hit, that I had no idea how to escape. The door back to the break room was gone, and there were no signs of any doors or windows on any of the other walls.

I did the only thing I could; think, and just sit there for a while, staring out at the city below.

‘I miss the way the world used to be... Back when things made sense.’ I sighed.

‘Maybe… I’m supposed to jump?’ I suddenly thought to myself.

There didn’t seem to be any other choice, and this world didn’t seem to obey any logic, so it might be a proper idea.

Before making any drastic decisions to jump, I decided I should test the gravity. I grabbed my small paper cup, drank the last bit of water, and gently tossed it over the edge. It spiraled and spun downwards for a few yards, until the wind suddenly picked up and blew it outward, out of sight.

I felt like that didn’t answer my question.

So I opened the bag of cool ranch Doritos, took out a chip and again, tossed it over the edge. I’m not quite sure what I had expected, but the chip fell and fell until, again, it was out of sight. If it had hit the ground, there was no way my vision could see something that small, that far below.

I groaned, upset that I would have to waste the whole bag, but then dropped the full bag of cool ranch chips off the edge, squinted my eyes, and watched carefully as it fell straight down, down, and down.

A moment later, barely visible, as if it were a single pixel on a 4K screen, I could make out the tiny blue bag spilled on the sidewalk, far, far below.

‘Well… looks like gravity works, so I guess jumping isn’t the answer’ I spoke out loud.

At that point, I had no idea what to do. I felt frustrated, yet somehow comfortable.

Comfortable enough to be sleepy.

Comfortable enough to take a nap.

So that’s exactly what I did.” -Harold