The Other Side: Part I

THE OTHER SIDE

I don’t know where the other side is. I don’t know what the other side is. But I do know how to get there, and how to get back. Well…the getting back part took a while to figure out. Exactly how long, I’m not sure. Time, in the other side, seems neither fast nor slow. It seems to not exist at all. One thing is certain though, when I come back from that place, little or no time at all seems to have passed here. Like time, not much else seems to exist there either. The things in this world are gone, for the most part, and it’s too dark to see anything, even my own body.
But the other side is not a void. It’s full of energy that creates a slightly uncomfortable warmth that hugs my entire body so close until I can feel it pushing out from inside as well. The boundary between myself, and the infinite space around, seems to disappear completely. The first time I went there the sensation was so alarming I was sure my body was expanding, trying to fill the impossible void.
Recently, I’ve been working on controlling the sensation, Expanding and contracting myself voluntarily. But every time I come close to breaking the threshold, of completely filling the void, I lose control and am violently ripped apart in a million different directions. My consciousness is also subject to the same fate, and when I finally come to, I’m back in this world, at the same place and time as when I had left. This is good, considering I’m not dead, and that also no one seems to have noticed I was gone. Each time I come back I check to make sure I’ve been reassembled properly, just for good measure. Discreetly I start with my toes and fingers, and then quietly feel my face disguising my actions as a sleepy person rubbing their exhausted expression back to life.
So far I’ve had no accidents, but there’s always first time for everything, right?