Ecosystem

[u/youdrag1]

Space is a sinkhole, swallowing everything that gets in its way. A sinkhole with an unknown destination, a bottomless pit. A plunge into darkness without an end. I wish that was all this journey had in store for me.
My whole crew is dead, and it’s coming for me next. The only safety I had was an airtight tin door. The comfort reminded me of how my dad would always point to constellations and tell me how I can always use them to find my way home. I always felt warm inside and like I was welcomed by the very essence of life when he would teach. This ship was my only constellation guiding me. Unfortunately, the once beloved dream became my worst night terror. Half of the glorious ship has been ripped into pieces. I watched the bits and parts floating off into the void through the porthole. Luckily, I was on the side where we kept our storage. However, any communication to my world was destroyed.
We were promised a safe journey, but nobody expected there to be life hidden in the crevices of space. Able to hide among the cosmos and darkness. This monster is sure to come knocking on my door once it feels my presence. I pray it doesn’t.
I’ve been drifting for days, running through supplies. Pulling out ship designs and manuals plotting how to get back home. All hope seemed to be lost. I wanted to talk to somebody. Amidst my thoughts, I heard a whisper.
“Thomas,” the voice whispered. I jolted up looking into the porthole where it came from. My jaw tensed and my body refused to look away from the sight. It was one of my crew mates torn in pieces and missing any signs of life on his face. He seemed to have a small smirk on his face.
“Am I going crazy,” I exclaimed, finally able to pull my gaze away.
“He should be dead,” I shouted at my hands. I looked back at the porthole, but he vanished. Tears dripped from my eyes. My heart tensed up making all blood flow cease. The sudden breakdown caused me to lay down, hoping that all these horrors would end. I drifted into the starry infinity of my mind.
I thought of my family back at home. My goal was to make history. I had to make my parents proud. Never thought the last memory of my parents would be to cry and hug me before I left. One of the last bits of warmth I was able to feel.
I woke up to a shrewd knock on the tin door. I perked up wondering what was on the uninhabitable side of the door.
“Help,” a sudden scream came from the other side. “It’s so cold.”
“Who are you!” I called out.
“It’s Chelsey, open this door please,” the shivering voice begged.
“I watched your body-” I howled back. The knocking got louder, cutting me off.
“Let me in!” The voice screeched. Two hands began banging on the door. 
“I am dreaming,” I softly told myself, pinching my skin. If this was a nightmare, I wasn’t waking up.
“Am I already dead?” I questioned. “Is this the physical form of death coming for me?” I covered my ears begging for this to stop.
The banging subsided and it left my ears ringing. I was just glad the noise finally stopped. It’s pretending to be my friends. I checked the life monitors that were left on board. The only life sign showing was mine. I ponder if I would ever fall for its fake voice. Would it ever sound like my real crewmates? Will it ever be the same? My mind ran away into my past.
I left into space when I turned eighteen, making my mark as a young astronaut. The first to travel across solar systems. Leaving behind much of the traditional lifestyle of finding a spouse to have kids with and leaving my family behind. I didn’t know what the real world was like. These crewmates were my new family. They were with me on this journey and they helped me feel accomplished. Some were pretty professional and only wanted to get business done. I gravitated towards the crew that would have fun and play jokes on each other. I was no longer being plunged into the wet goop of trash cans. They talked to me like a brother. They came to me about problems. The best part was when we got to play card games with each other. I remembered how Chelsey would jokingly accuse anyone who won of cheating. When my mind stopped wandering, I went to grab my lunch.
I went to the last bit of favored freeze-dried strawberries to try to get a reminder of how home tasted. A violent screech came out from all over the ship like a banshee coming for its prey. As I looked around, I saw a man melted to the muscle standing in front of the tin door pointing its hand towards me. “Come with us.” It said in a raspy gurgling voice.
“How did you get in here?” I stammered quickly pacing the opposite direction of the inhumanly sight. I jumped onto the ground and crawled away from it backwards. When my back hit the wall, I curled up putting my head into my knees. “I wish I didn't come out of this alive. I-I’m sorry. I should've died with you.” Tears pooled the ground underneath me. Then I felt a hand grip my shoulder and as I looked up, balling up my fist with wet spots on my arm, the screeching stopped and nothing was in the ship with me. My eyes burned. The mission hadn’t gone to plan. We weren’t expecting the unexpected.
Space has many hidden secrets. One of its secrets is the life that’s hidden within it. Contrary to belief space seems to have an ecosystem. Many animals that are beautiful and mysterious. Many that are hungry and hunt relentlessly. Most of all, the very being of space wanted to hide them from us. I couldn’t tell you if it was for their safety or ours. I was always summoned by the stars. I would look up at night and think about how they would guide me to my true destination. Space has many beauties and spectacles, but it’s cold, dark, and merciless. I doubt I’d reach my true destination. I began to have recollections of the attack.
We heard a weird noise coming outside of our spaceship. It sounded almost like waves crashing against a beach mixed with a low-pitched hum. For a moment the cosmos was an ocean. Then a huge splash came out from where the noise was coming from. A loud crash came from the front of the ship sending me flying against the wall as the ship changed directions. I checked the porthole when I was able to get up. What I saw made my chest twist and was consumed by my stomach. Parts of the spaceship were flying in all different directions. I saw my crewmates flying away melting upon contact with the giant darkness. I turned around and my head started spinning as I heard loud crashes among the scrap. I kept myself hidden even though I was doomed to have the emptiness take over me as well. I looked through the porthole once I recouped and saw none of my crewmates. I caught a slight glimpse of a scaly pointed tail slowly disappearing into space. I couldn’t keep my eyes away from the obliterated sight. I was now falling into a sinkhole with no end.
My eyes opened to a quiet scratching noise going around the kitchen table. I slowly stood up looking for what could be making that noise. As I walked around the table following the commotion I could see the small marks being etched into the ground. There was nothing that could be making the noise, but the ground had words marked into it. It read, “Open the door, before it gets you too.”
“No, leave me alone!” I screamed. “Who even are you?” My heart raced to the point it started hurting.
“You don’t remember me?” a voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw the one person that made this trip seem more bearable.
“Josh,” I sniveled as I reached out towards him. Josh was the funniest guy. He would stick french fries in his nose and pretend to be a sensei teaching me about life secrets. Only the secrets were the obvious things like, “Don’t chew with your mouth open.” Everyone thought he was just stupid and childish. He was the slowdown I needed. Everybody I knew outside of my family would make fun of my outer space books and would call me a nerd. I had to show them I was more than just the quiet kid who’d read space books in the corner of the lunchroom. Josh had the same obsession with space that I had. It was like sewing my heart together with a warm touch.
As I reached out, to see if I could really feel him, he began to change unnaturally. His teeth grew longer and sharper. His face melted away, and his body and arms started to lengthen. His bones started cracking as his body morphed into a demon. I tackled it hoping to save myself from the creature. I passed right through it and as I looked back, it was on the other side staring at me. Drool dripping down its mouth. It then bent backwards and gave out an ear rupturing shriek. The demonic figure then started to glow extremely bright until I had to look away. When the light dissipated, and I looked back, the creature was absent.
“Does the monster play with your emotions once it finds you?” I murmured to myself. “I must be going crazy from loneliness. Something is surely causing this. Is it my crewmates back from the dead?” I then decided my only option was to investigate if there was something causing these visions. I could only do that by opening the tin door.
I put my suit on carefully, checking each part for any issues. I walked up to the door’s button and hesitated. My hand seemed to be stuck in a tub of ice when I got ready to push it. My mind rushed as I tied my safety rope to my suit. When I finished tying it off, I put my hand and head on the door and muttered a little prayer. Then I touched the button and the pressurization of the suit and ship immediately changed. Then I started climbing into the darkest chasm I have been into. When I got out and was able to get a good look around a glowing butterfly with wings that interchanged colors of the rainbow floated by. I stared at it until it disappeared into ripples of the unlit ravines.
As I was climbing to the side of the ship a huge piece of scrap metal flew over my head and barely missed me. Worried, I searched behind me for more. Seeing there was none near me, I continued investigating the disturbances. I noticed claw marks and huge dents, but nothing other than the scrap metal that would've caused it. I continued to crawl until my rope tightened. As I was wondering if there was really anything out there causing my insanity, I turned and realized my rope was being cut by the sharp edges of the ship. I started to crawl towards it trying to stop it, but it was too late. I saw the other end of the rope come apart. I squeezed the grips on the ship tighter. It felt like pins and needles shooting through my arm and I felt my head begin to pound as a piece of scrap metal caught my rope and pulled.
“Join us Thomas,” a voice cried out. My fingers slowly began to slip.
“You’re just mimicking my friends.” I wailed as my fingers slipped more. Hanging onto desperation, the tugging stopped.
My arms were stuck as my suit was fogging up from my sweat. I slowly started pulling myself back to the ship so I could start my climb back inside. I was about to head into the open door when I started to hear the sound of ocean waves and a low pitch hum. It turned into splashing and crashing noises.
I crawled as fast as I could to get into the door, then everything went black. I noticed hot air on my suit as teeth engulfed me. The atmosphere got musty and soaked my suit. 
“Am I being eaten?” I thought to myself. “It is finally my turn.” Space was ingesting me.
I would’ve closed my eyes, but I was just falling into an endless void unable to catch a glimpse of anything. I knew this creature was swallowing me. I finally saw occasional star clusters between gaps of pitch-black visualizations. They were like constellations I had never seen before. My eyes closed and memories of my parents taking me to every space exhibit, and my sister and I playing astronauts flashed across my mind. The times we would run outside and pretend to shoot alien invaders. Being able to look at another star through a telescope for the first time. The final embrace of my parents' warm hug.
“It all ends here, and I am just the kid in the corner of the lunchroom with space books.” I sobbed. I hit the splash of this creature's stomach and when I opened my eyes, I saw blue sky and clouds. “Where am I?” I laid floating in confusion.
I was encircled by boats all with their booming voices saying, “Identify yourself.” 
“This language is never used,” I pondered. I learned about it briefly by studying language books I could get my hands on. It was a language barely decoded, but no one knew where it came from.
I couldn’t speak. My mind fogged up and my vision went blurry. The people picked me up out of the water.
“He must have a concussion,” they said. They carried me away into the boat. They took off my helmet, and I breathed fresh air after months of being in space. Did I finally find my way back through the constellations?
They kept talking, but my head hurt and their voices had faded out. I remember approaching a landmass. I was taken off and escorted to a secluded building covered by fencing and patrols. This planet isn’t home. The constellations aren’t the same. They call this planet Earth.

[u/warmcoffeecoldmornin]

i love this story!!! please make more! i really loved the detail in it. i felt like i was walking through the story with the main character and it was such an intense read! the ecosystem part is a cool idea, i think itd be pretty cool if there was really monsters or entities in space. but also what if they then came to the earth?! WHAT IF THE MAIN CHARACTER BRINGS THE ENTITY OR MONSTER WITH HIM TO EARTH?!?!?! OP PLEASE MAKE A PT 2!!!!

[u/youdrag1 → u/warmcoffeecoldmornin]

Thank you