Falling into Darkness

It was a nice bright day, with the bright sun being lightly covered by clouds, diffusing the heat coming from it. There was a nice breeze blowing out, preventing what could feel a rather warm day, making the temperature feel very comfortable. It was a perfect day, that nothing could go wrong.

However for some people, even on a perfect day, things would go wrong for them. John was one of those people.

His day started off normally. After a nice and relaxing night of sleep, he woke up to his normal routine, of brewing some coffee and, with it being the weekend, he had the time to enjoy it at his leisure. With the aroma wafting through his apartment, as he ever anticipated the first sip of his, non-alcoholic, beverage of the gods, his phone started ringing.

As part of his habit, John was normally up around 6:00am in the morning. Nobody ever called him that early in the morning. Not even fifteen minutes had passed since he had awoken from his slumber, so a phone call out of the blue was jarring. Looking at the number that was calling him, and while not truly awake yet, not seeing a name coming up, he ignored the phone call.

A minute or so later, his phone alerted him of a waiting voicemail.

The heck with it, ignore it for now, and when he was more alert, he would listen to it.

And so, he did just that. Embracing his nice and warm beverage, and relaxing before he was going to do anything productive. There was nothing pressing for him to do today, so why should he be in any hurry to actively find something to do. For John, it was going to be a nice day to laze about, and worry about nothing.

***

And hour or so had passed since he woke up, and with John being fully alert, unwanted though it may be, he finally chose to listen to his voicemail, at least to just clear it out of his inbox. It was probably just some telemarketer, with some generic robotic voice. That or some scammer trying get some personal information from him.

"John Pascal, this is the Riverside County Hospital. I am calling to inform you that your father, Peter has passed away…"

While not that close with his dad, he lived hours away from him, John still cared about him. Even after his mom had died several years early, John only spoke to his dad every few months. It was not that he had any grudge against his dad, it was just the inability to have productive conversations with him. John and his father were very much alike in that they were men of few words.

He had listened to the whole of the message, but did not believe it, maybe he did in all truth, but he had to confirm to himself that it was the truth. So, with shaking hands, he called his dad's house phone. And there was no answer. Thinking his dad might have been out of the house, he rang up his dad's cell number. And again no answer.

Even though the hospital gave a number for him to call, with his skeptic mind, he looked up the phone number to the hospital, and gave them a call. After going through a round of phone tag, to connect to the right person, his worry was confirmed. His dad had died.

***

A force had sucked John forward into something, while he was waiting for his car to fill with gas. It was pulling him into something dark. Even though this was happening to him, and he was surrounded by other people at the gas station, nobody recognized this happening to him.

The day had already been a miserable one for him, not only had his dad died, he now needed to go to the hospital, in a state of sadness and shock, to handle some paperwork, because of the situation. He was frustrated even further because of having to drive such a distance. And now something completely out of expectations had robbed him of his own agency.

Drawing ever closer to the darkness, John started to struggle. Alas, it had no change in his situation. Finally he met the, whatever it was, and in fear, passed out.

***

Groggily, John came to. Looking all around him, and with some cognizance realizing he had passed out, tried to ascertain where he was and how much time had passed. There was no asphalt that he was lying on, nor was it some bed, be it in an ambulance or hospital. Instead he was in a place with no artificial construction.

All around John, were overgrown grasses, and trees for as far as he could see. The only thing around him, were colors of browns, greens, and a picturesque blue sky. If not for his bewildered, and shocked, confused, and frightened situation, he would be in an idealized natural scene.

There would be no person, ever, that would be able to adapt to such a juxtaposition from what was to what he now facing, that they could remain calm. Ignore everything else that had happened to John that day, and he rightfully broke down. Devoid of any rational thought, John's thoughts had stopped as a foggy haze stormed over his mind.

And like that, he remained.