BLOOM – #flashfictionmagic
When the earth bloomed, spread its petals far and wide like the flower it was, the world was changed.
No longer a sphere.
New York spread beside Hong Kong, Australia tucked next to the United Kingdom.
Something new came out of the center. We called it the Circle, and within it, strange creatures came to life. Beautiful, perfect things that we could not look away from. They did something to us with their minds, and soon only we on the fringes remained to fight their control.
We lost.
And now it is only us, a dozen children born after the bloom, the ones who stayed behind. We have hidden at the edges as the Circle creatures came ever closer. Today there is nowhere to go but in the shadows at the end of our world.
We wear all the cold weather gear we can find, walk to the wall of blackness, and begin to descend off the sharp edge. We climb carefully, using ice picks, but leave no safety lines behind.
The edges grow sharper and colder. My fingers slip. I grab for another hold, but cannot keep it. Then I am sliding, tumbling free. My companions watch me go with wide eyes, but silent lips. I fall into blackness, but soon even that fades. Light is growing. The bone-deep cold is swallowed by pleasant heat.
I think I am in heaven.
But then, spinning in the light blue air, I glimpse a tree with fern like leaves. The world rights itself and I am falling down again. I land hard on thick moss.
A world of brilliant color, fruit trees, rolling hills, a bird singing near my ear. I hardly let myself blink as my companions fall out of the blackness and land beside me. Above is, a soft sun glows. It’s huge, and though it’s far too close for a sun to be, I feel it healing my body. My hair turns silky, my skin softens.
All this time, we’ve been on the wrong side of the blossom.
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