The Voice in the Cold Distance

If you wait long enough, they will come

Gibberish: Flash Fiction Friday - Cold Stars

March 21, 2025

Scoot’s Assignment: Write a short story about stargazing, including the cold distance, a character who has given up, and the sentence, “Today, of all days.”

Highlighted in FFF (March 28, 2025) 🤗

Photo by Chris Leggat on Unsplash

The Voice in the Cold Distance

Every night I go outside to stare up at the stars, searching the cold distance above my head, trying to see the Others. On a long ago starry night, the Voice first spoke to me, warning me of the changes coming to the world, telling me what I could do about it, and finally ordering me to stand by and wait for further instructions. That was fifty years ago, but the Voice hadn’t spoken inside my head since that fateful night. I’d given up hoping to hear it again, but still... every midnight I went outside, an addictive habit I was unable to break. Every night, even when the stars hid behind the clouds,  to stargaze and despair.

I live alone now. Nobody else could hear the Voice, so they all thought I was crazy. One by one, they left me: My brothers, my sister, my parents, my friends, my husband, my kids, all leaving me alone in my lunacy. Until today, of all days, for the Voice has finally returned to rumble through my brain. It is finally time to prepare for the coming of the Others. I will teach the Others about my world, showing them the good things to eat, helping them to build shelters, keeping them safe. The Voice gets stronger every day. The Others will soon come, and then I'll never be be alone again.

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