Every now and then, I find myself falling through an empty black void. I’m not sure how or when it happens, I’ll just be walking along, and then suddenly I fall through the ground, and then there I am. The fall isn’t fast or anything, just a relaxed, slow descent; kinda like how it feels to sink in water. The void always starts off empty, and then eventually, I land on a reflective, almost water-like surface. It doesn’t feel wet, and it makes no sound as I step on it, but it does ripple with every step. Eventually, the ripples begin to go out further and begin to shape the void into a new environment. Sometimes I recognize them, other times they’re just generic or so strange that I can’t even imagine them existing in the real world. Eventually, the created environment will start to fade away, and then I’ll sink into the watery surface, and then I’ll resurface in the real world with seemingly no time having passed. The first couple of times this happened, I figured it was just a freak dream, but then no time would have passed afterwards, and it would just keep happening. I tried having someone walk with me to prove I wasn’t crazy, but of course, it never happens when I’m with someone. At first, I was terrified; no one could make sense of what I was experiencing. Everyone always thinks it’s dreams, but that can’t be the case because, again, no time passes in the real world while I’m there. I also know that I can never recall my dreams, but when it comes to the void, I can recall the entire encounter in great detail. I’ve decided that I would start to keep a record of these encounters so that I could have something to point to when I try to explain it to people. **The Familiar Orchard** As I walked on, I started to feel something strange happening across my body, it was like my senses were activating one at a time. First, I could feel a light breeze blow across my face and the ground began to feel like grass, though it still had that black fluid-like appearance. Then, I could smell the grass as if it had been freshly cut. I could also smell trees and apples all around me like I was in an orchard. Next came the sounds of children laughing and yelling at each other, their parents’ frustrated pleas for them not to stray too far felt weirdly familiar. That’s when it all started to become clear. Each ripple seemed to reveal more of the environment around me. First, it was the grass below my feet, and then they started to go upwards and reveal the trees and all the apples that had fallen off and now lay around their base. It wasn’t all at once either, mind you, each one added detail to what the previous one revealed. What started as silhouettes then had texture, then color, then shadows from the sun that had only now taken form. Everything seemed like your average orchard. In fact, I recognized this one as my family and I would go here every autumn, but then when the children rejoined with their parents, I could make out their details … and it was us. The smallest boy was wearing that same green shirt with the elephant on the chest pocket that I would always wear, the taller one had that ruffled hairstyle that my brother had, and the parents had that same smile they would have on whenever we came here. It had been so long since I had seen their faces, even longer since I’d been back to this orchard. I grabbed an apple from one of the trees and took a bite from it, and it tasted just as good as I remembered. … This is the first world I ever experienced. I was simply walking around in my home when the ground beneath me became unstable and I fell through. I didn’t really know what to think or feel. I definitely felt scared, but when the void took the form of such a familiar setting, I figured I had just started to have a really vivid daydream. This one only lasted a couple of minutes, but when the world started to turn back to that black void and I woke up right where I had “left”, I was shocked to find that not a single second had passed. I checked every clock in the house, but everything was in sync. I decided to disregard this as just a freak dream, but I still decided to write it down as I thought it was still a sweet memory that I didn’t want to forget. I never mentioned this to anyone as it didn’t seem that remarkable at the time and I didn’t want any of my friends to think I was narcoleptic or something, so I just kept to myself and went about my day. My job at the time wasn’t anything to write home about, just your average office job that was so mundane, even though you didn’t really know what you were doing, you just went through the motions and got paid for it. I had a couple of people that I would hang out with outside the office, but we pretty much only ever hung out in the bar after work, so they weren’t the closest of friends. I did, however, have a few people from my college days that still lived in the same area as me, so we would hang out all the time back then. One of them was really into astrology and dreams and that sort of thing, so I mentioned the weird daydream I had about the orchard, thinking they might be able to point to some deeper meaning or something, but they said it just sounded like your average memory dream. These are typically just memories that our mind plays back to us when we sleep, but we perceive it like we would any other dream. When I asked about the void part, they seemed interested by it, but said unless it keeps appearing, it probably isn’t much if note. A couple of months passed before it happened again. This time, I was just out for a walk around the city. I was going past the central park when I fell through the sidewalk, and then the void took its form once again. **The Garden** I found myself in an extravagant garden. The stone walkways that went throughout the gardens were made up of this intricate and beautiful pattern with no cracks, weeds, or markings to take away from it; clearly someone has gone to great lengths to maintain the beauty of this place. As I walked along, there were trees and flowers from all sorts of regions of the globe, some of which were known to not work well in this sort of environment, and yet, they thrived here. As I went past this big lake, I could see a small hut that sat on top of a hill overlooking a small pond. This was the only building I came across, so naturally I had to check it out. As I got closer, I could see this older looking man sitting upon a small wooden bench inside the hut. The man was looking out on to the lake with this peaceful smile on his face, and while he never looked away from it, he tapped his hand on the bench motioning for me to join him. When I sat down, he remained quiet for a moment, and then asked me, “Beautiful, is it not?” I looked at where he pointed and there was a group of kids hanging out around the lake. A couple of them were running around chasing each other, another pair were putting different leaves and petals from the nearby cherry blossom into the water as if to see which would float best. The longer I looked, however, the children seemed to have this strange haze about them, almost as if I could see through them slightly. “Aren’t they adorable? I built this garden a long time ago for my grandchildren and they would play in it every day, and now, they bring their own children to play in it just as they did.” One of the kids ran up to the hut carrying a pile of petals from the cherry blossom and laid them on the bench next to the old man. They then looked up at the wall and said, “Here you go, great grandpa, I gathered them just for you!” Then they ran back down to rejoin the other kids. The old man picked up a petal and laid it on my lap, “I always loved the way you collected these.” … This time, it was a couple of hours before the void returned me to the real world. Once again, time had not passed in this world, but I felt like I had experienced that in real time. The fear that, if these keep happening, they might get progressively longer, was starting to dawn on me, but I just wrote down what I experienced and tried not to think about it too hard. Unlike last time, where I just kept going about my day as if nothing had happened, I felt a lot more disoriented this time. It’s hard to explain the feeling of gaining hours to your day, but I can at the very least tell you that it feels really weird. I called up a friend of mine from work who was really into astrology to tell them that it happened again, and they asked me to come by their place so we could talk about it. I’ve never really given much thought about these sorts of things, but I’d heard them use it to explain what dreams mean, so I felt like they might be able to make sense of all this. They lived in this apartment building not too far from the park, but when I got there, I was surprised by how big it was. It wasn’t like a penthouse or anything, but it was a lot bigger than I thought someone at our office would be able to afford. Regardless, they made some green tea, we sat down on their couch, and I walked them through what happened. Once I had finished, they suggested that I was experiencing what they called “void-walking.” I gave them a confused look before they told me they just made it up. They explained that what I was experiencing was not only unprecedented, but also seemed to be extremely personalized. While the last one was a memory, this one seemed to be about someone unrelated to me. Not only that, but the old man within the “void realm” as they called it talked directly to me. This means that I’m not just an observer in these worlds, at least not always. They said I should be careful not to get myself into any serious trouble as there’s no knowing what could happen if I were to die or get myself stuck somewhere. There have apparently been stories of people who fell into comas with seemingly no reason and just never woke up. They aren’t sure if that’s connected or not, but to be on the safe side, it’s better to assume they are. \*\*\* A year has now passed, and the void walks have been fairly sporadic, only experiencing around four or five, each of which lasting anywhere from a few hours to even a few days, with each one dropping me off as if nothing had happened. The astrologist and I started to keep more detailed notes of these occurrences to try and establish some sort of connection, but we have yet to find anything substantial. The only thing we’ve noticed is that each world seems to draw from something I’m experiencing or am close to at the time of entry. We have figured out that the longer I am in these worlds, the more I can interact with them. After a day or so, it seems like I am treated as if I’ve always been there. The astrologist has noted that my behavior seems to change a fair bit after each experience. They said it’s like when you’ve been binging a show where all the characters speak a certain way and then you find yourself mimicking that speech, but turned up to eleven. This has led to some strange interactions with my coworkers, but they don’t really concern me too much as I don’t see them that often. The next one happened once again at the park (this seemed to be the place where it would happen the most frequently), but this time, it was while I was sitting on a bench. I was looking out at the pond when a couple of ducks came over to me. I grabbed some duck feed from a dispenser the park had set up near the pond and as I gave it to the ducks, I started to fall once again. **Avian Society** I spent most of my time wandering throughout the streets of the city. I wasn’t looking for anything or expecting something to happen; I just liked the peace it brought to me. I saw a lot of things during these walks, most of which people wouldn’t even pay much attention to, but they interested me. I’ve seen people try to navigate through the crowds with their family or friends, animals gathered in the alleyways, heck, I’ve even seen some celebrities that were trying to get past all the people in the classic Marvel-style disguise of baseball cap and sunglasses (it works more often than you’d think), though that doesn’t happen too much. Despite all this, the thing that I remember the most vividly is this ad that played on one of those big electric billboards near the city center, and while you see this ad everywhere now, this was the first time I had ever seen it. The ad was very simple; just a light blue background with a plastic duck on it and big white text that said “YOUR NEW PERSONAL COMPANION THAT CAN SOLVE ANY PROBLEM! BUY YOURS TODAY!” I didn’t think much of it at the time, but within a few days, I was seeing them all over the place. People started walking around with these ducks all the time. Some just carried them in their hands, others put them in their pocket, I even saw a couple of people with a little harness for them. You could wear it around your waist, over your shoulder, or on your chest like one of those baby carriers. Now, months have passed, and they have grown to an enormous population. They seem to have gained sentience and have now started to run for local offices. It started as someone doing it as a joke, but then it began to gain a large following, and it ended up winning. It then selected its owner as its second in command to act as a bridge between the ducks and humankind. There were lawsuits, of course, but they argued that there was nothing stating that an elected official had to be human, and if the public could elect a deceased person into office, then there shouldn’t be anything wrong with a duck, especially one as sentient as Gertrud. After their initial term as mayor, they then wanted to go big and ran for president. At first, no one thought that they could win, but in the 4 years they were mayor, their following had spread massively across the whole country, leading to them winning by a landslide. Now, the ducks have taken control of most facets of the country. Every store, government agency, and service was almost entirely run by the ducks. No one thought it could get this bad; they all treated it like a joke and brushed it off, but the harsh reality only settled in when it was already too late. … This was the first time it had lasted more than a month or two. I had to essentially start over with my life as I had no idea when it would collapse and take me back. I had gotten a job, a new apartment, and I even made some new friends in this world which I had never really bothered with before. I lived every day wondering when it would all go away, but it never did. This went on for years; I stopped counting eventually as I had just accepted that this was my life now. That may seem strange, but at that point, it not only feels hopeless to keep wishing, but you also start to forget that this isn’t your world. You spend enough time somewhere and it will start to feel more like home than your real one. The day it finally collapsed was one of the most terrifying days of my life. I was walking with a couple friends, chatting about the latest episode of *Ducktective*, but then suddenly I felt the ground shake. I asked my friend if they had felt that, but they had no clue what I was talking about. The shaking continued to happen, not constantly, mind you, this was in pulses, almost like waves running across an ocean. I then saw all the buildings start to lose detail, each wave taking more away. I turned to my friend for comfort, but they had already lost most of their details and weren’t much more than a silhouette. I could still understand them, but it sounded muffled, like my ears were filled with water. Eventually, it all sank into the ground, and the park took shape around me, with the ducks sitting in front of me. I didn’t know what to think. My mind was racing with all sorts of possibilities as to what this meant. Questions flooded my mind, never once having an answer. *Was any of that real?* *Were we really in the void for that long?* *Why does this keep happening to me and me alone?* I found myself in tears before I could even comprehend that the ducks had been pecking away at my hand, trying to eat what little duck food I hadn’t dropped yet. I took a lot of time to myself after that. I never went back to the astrologist as I couldn’t even remember their name or anything about them other than their job. I tried to go to my old office, but none of it felt familiar anymore. I had worked a completely different job in that world for so long, and now I was expected to just go back to this as if no time had passed? For them, it truly was no time at all, but for me, I had just lived a lifetime, and lost it all without any warning. How could anyone live like this? How was *I* supposed to live like this? \*\*\* I’ve since taken a lot of time to myself, and even after all of this, I can’t even begin to explain how weird it feels to come back from these lives. Some of them only last for a few hours, maybe a day or two at most, but every now and then, one will last for years. I practically live an entire lifetime and then return to the real world as if no time had passed at all. I’m back in a body that feels foreign to me, and yet, I remember everything from that other life. Relationships that had formed now only exist in my head; friends in the “real” world now feel like strangers or work colleagues I haven’t spoken to in years. I can’t form any sort of meaningful relationship anymore because the person they come to know could go away at any moment with no discernable reason, and no matter how hard I try to explain it, they never believe me. I’ve since taken these records of my experiences and turned them into full-length novels. They have now gone on to be bestsellers and have sold millions of copies worldwide. People always describe them as “lifelike” or “really fleshed out,” and when they ask me where the ideas come from, all I can tell them is that they just come to me. I can’t try to explain the truth anymore, for that would make me seem crazy and could ruin everything. This is actually the first time that I’ve tried to write out what I’ve been going through. I initially feared that someone would find it and have me taken to a mental hospital, but now, I think they would only see it as another story. It’s kind of sad, really. My life has become so fantastical that everyone treats it as just another story. I’ve been on talk shows and radio shows, done live readings, and even had a couple of them adapted into films, but none of them have ever quite captured the whole picture. I don’t care if you believe me or ridicule me; I just want it to be out there. Maybe some day you’ll fall into your own void and live out your own fantasies and nightmares. Perhaps then, you’ll understand. Until then, I’ll see you in the next one.