The Longest Road

Time moved differently in space.

There was no sunrise. No sunset. No ticking clocks or changing landscapes to mark the passage of hours.

There was only the hum of the spacecraft.

Only the vast emptiness outside my window.

Only me.

Day 1: The Silence

The launch had been perfect. Textbook.

The force of the ascent pressed me deep into my seat, my body straining against the immense acceleration. I had expected it, trained for it, but expectation and reality were two different things. Every muscle in my body locked into place, my bones felt like they were compressing under the unrelenting force, and my lungs had to fight for breath against the crushing weight pinning me down.

The roar of the rocket engines was deafening, a violent, all-consuming thunder that rattled the very air inside the cockpit. It wasn't just noise—it was power, raw and untamed. A sound older than civilization itself, the sound of defiance against gravity, against the planet that had birthed me.

I had felt it in my bones, in my chest, vibrating through every fiber of my being as I was propelled beyond the atmosphere.

And then—

Silence.

A sudden, eerie stillness as the engines cut off.

The shift was instantaneous, like being thrown from a hurricane into a void. One second, my body was being crushed into the seat, my vision tunneled by sheer G-force. The next, the weight disappeared.

Everything became weightless.

I floated.

I knew it would happen. I had experienced weightlessness before, during parabolic flights, in training simulators, but this was different. This was real. There was no return to normal gravity after a few seconds. No plane diving to simulate the experience. This was it.

The moment I breached Earth's gravity, the world fell away.

No sound. No weight.

Just me and the stars.

It was surreal.

I had trained for this. I had prepared for this. And yet, nothing could truly capture the feeling of floating in the abyss, surrounded by the infinite.

I let out a slow breath, my voice echoing inside my helmet.

I turned my head slightly, the movement awkward in the bulky suit, and looked out the window.

There it was.

Earth.

A blue marble against a sea of black. Spinning slowly, wrapped in wisps of white cloud, so far and yet so impossibly close.

I had seen images before. Everyone had. But this… this was different.

It didn't feel like a planet. It felt like an idea, something so fragile, so distant, so utterly beautiful that I found myself unable to look away.

I could see the curvature, the vast oceans, the landmasses that had once seemed endless to me. Now, from here, they were small. Finite.

I felt something tighten in my chest.

Not fear. Not regret.

Just understanding.

This was it.

I had left it all behind.

Day 12: The Mask

I had to keep my mask on during the journey. It was never uncomfortable, not really. It was designed for practicality, crafted to fit seamlessly with the astronaut suit. But for the first time in my life, I hated it.

On Earth, it had been easy. Playing the part, maintaining the illusion—it had come naturally. Every gesture, every word, every glance was calculated to maintain a certain persona. A story. I was Mr. Angel, the enigmatic, untouchable figure. The one who could do no wrong. The one who inspired both admiration and fear in equal measure.

But here, in the isolation of space, the mask felt… heavier.

There was no one to fool up here. No audience. No eyes watching my every move, no cameras capturing my every expression. In space, there was only silence, only the vast nothingness surrounding me.

And yet, the mask remained.

I told myself it was necessary. For the broadcasts. For the cameras. Every moment of this mission was being recorded and transmitted back to Earth, in intervals, like clockwork. A constant stream of data, of live feeds, of updates. The world was watching. It would never stop watching.

If I removed the mask, even for a second, even in the solitude of the spacecraft, the illusion of Mr. Angel would be shattered. And I couldn't afford that.

I had built this image carefully, meticulously. The world didn't know the truth. The world didn't know me. They only knew what they had been shown. Mr. Angel.

But with every passing day, I could feel it.

The weight of it. The tightness around my face. The constant pressure, the reminder of who I was pretending to be.

No. Not pretending.

Who was I pretending to be?

I exhaled slowly, my breath fogging the inside of my visor. My fingers hovered over it, pressing gently against the glass. My hand felt cold against the sleek surface, the small pressure point of my touch the only thing connecting me to myself, to reality.

I had worn many faces in my life. Many names. Many identities. Mr. Fox, Mr. Dust, Mr. Angel. Each one had a purpose, a role to fill. They had been shields, masks to protect the parts of me I didn't want anyone to see. But up here, in the silence of space, I felt… untethered.

Without the noise of the world, without the demands of the persona, I could hear my own thoughts more clearly. And they weren't pretty.

Who was I really?

Was I still Reynard? Or had Mr. Angel become the only truth?

A part of me wanted to rip the mask off, to feel the freedom of breathing without the glass between us. But another part, a darker part, hesitated.

What if, without the mask, I was no longer me? What if the mask had already become too much a part of me?

I closed my eyes, and for a moment, I was alone in the dark. The weightlessness of space felt like a distant memory. My fingers brushed against the helmet again, the coldness beneath my touch almost comforting.

I had always believed I could control everything. My image, my actions, my fate. But in the silence of space, where no one could see me, I was left with just one question:

Who was I, really?

Day 37: The Messages

They saved me.

The isolation was suffocating, stretching endlessly in every direction. The mission logs were clear—no direct communication was possible. Radio signals took too long to reach me, and every response I sent would take just as long to return.

I was alone.

Except for the messages.

Every day, a new audio or video log was sent from headquarters. Sometimes from Mark, sometimes from mission control, but the ones that mattered—the ones that kept me sane—came from them.

Sienna. Camille.

They had reached out, convincing NASA to send personal recordings.

They spoke to me.

Not in real time. Not in the way I wanted. But their voices filled the ship, filling the silence that threatened to consume me.

Camille, rolling her eyes as she muttered, "If you die, I'm haunting you first."

Sienna, her voice softer, "I miss you."

I leaned back, floating in the middle of the cabin as their words played over the speakers.

I closed my eyes.

I remembered why I was here.

Day 89: The Routine

The human body wasn't built for space.

Muscles atrophied. Bones weakened. A few weeks without proper exercise, and I would land on Mars with a body too weak to function.

Unacceptable.

Every morning, I forced myself through the routine. Resistance bands. Bodyweight workouts. Anything to maintain strength.

The food was bland, vacuum-sealed and flavorless, but it kept me alive.

I floated through the corridors, adjusting systems, checking diagnostics. The ship was holding steady.

Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

I found myself talking aloud more often.

Not to anyone. Not really.

Just… to fill the silence.

Day 134: The Weight of Nothing

There was a moment, sometime after the 19 week, when I stopped feeling human.

The weightlessness did something to me.

I drifted. Slept. Woke. Ate.

Repeated.

Time blurred, my sense of self growing hazy.

I caught my reflection in the darkened window, the glow of the control panel casting strange shadows across my mask.

Mr. Angel.

The golden-lined enigma.

And yet—was there even a man beneath it anymore?

I stared at my own reflection for a long time.

Then, I turned away.

Day 150: The Dreams

They had started a few days prior.

Vivid. Intense.

The dreams were always the same—dreams of Earth, of walking through familiar streets, of hearing the hum of life all around me. The warmth of sunlight filtering through the trees, the breeze carrying the scent of freshly bloomed flowers. I could feel the ground beneath my feet, the soft crunch of gravel on the paths I used to walk. I could taste the cool, crisp air filling my lungs.

But always—always—I wore the mask.

In every single dream, it was there, perched on my face, its sleek, reflective surface staring back at me like an unblinking eye. The weight of it was always the same: pressing against my skin, around my features, a constant reminder of the role I played. Even as I moved through those familiar, comforting places, the mask never faltered.

And that terrified me more than anything.

I had spent months as this persona, this perfect image of Mr. Angel—the untouchable, the iconic. It had been a shield, a layer between who I was and who the world needed me to be. But in those moments when I slept, when my mind drifted into the realm of dreams, I thought I could escape. I thought I could be free, even for just a few hours.

But no.

Even in the deep recesses of my subconscious, I was still bound to the mask. It was part of me. And I was afraid that it had already become too much a part of me. That the lines between Reynard and Mr. Angel were blurring beyond recognition.

I woke up with the same sense of unease that had plagued me since the moment I stepped into the spacecraft. I had been awake for hours now, floating in the quiet expanse of my capsule, and yet the unease still lingered, like a fog in the back of my mind.

My fingers pressed gently against the smooth surface of the helmet, feeling its familiar contours. It was like a second skin now, one I couldn't seem to shed.

I stared at my reflection in the visor—no, not my reflection. That wasn't me.

I was Reynard. I was Reynard.

But then why did I feel so distant from him?

Day 182: The Red Horizon

I woke up to an alarm.

The steady beeping filled the cabin, pulling me from restless sleep.

I blinked, groggy, weightless, before my eyes finally focused on the screen before me.

A notification. A proximity alert.

I turned my head, slowly, towards the window.

And there—bathed in the glow of the distant sun—was Mars.

My breath hitched.

For a long moment, I simply stared.

The red planet stretched out before me, vast and endless, its dusty surface waiting in eerie silence.

This was it.

The journey was almost over.

I was approximately an hour from landing.

I exhaled, long and slow, before turning towards the control panel.

There was one last thing to do.

The live broadcast.

I reached for the switch.

And then—

I sent out the signal.