World changing wave
You plopped down in front of the TV, and slowly wipe your palm over your face. Even though the day had only begun, you felt tired and haggard like an old man.
You figured that you would be one of the people they fire first; management had been on your ass all month for failing to fill quotas, and when the bossman wants to get rid of you he'll usually start looking for an excuse to can your ass, usually for arbitrary rule breaking.
And given your new unemployed status it seems like they finally found one.
Fuckers.
At least you had the luxury of some entertainment the sooth the angry welts of your woes. At least they couldn't take that away from you.
You sigh as you pick up the remote and switch the TV onto your channel of choice, then lean back into the couch.

There's a commercial for some kind of degenerative nerve condition, something that only a few unlucky people are born with. You chuckle at the absurdity of the juxtaposition of the happy picnicking people with the announcer listing off potentially harmful side effects, then change the channel to see if something else is on.
Your life might be going down the crapper, but at least you don't have it as bad as those guys
You come across an animal documentary about wildlife in the savannah and settle in for an hour of of nature-y goodness, but not before grabbing a bag of popcorn from the kitchen.
You spend twenty minutes watching the documentary, shoving your face with buttery salty puffed corn, not realizing that the light streaming in from the window was beginning to waver like heat rising from asphalt.

You similarly failed to notice the static subtly building on the edges of the TV display, or the ripple effect in the reflection of your phone.
Just as a group of hunting lioness took down a weakened gazelle and began tearing into it's flesh the TV suddenly switched off.
You growled and pointed the remote, repeatedly jamming you thumb into the power button before angrily you got up to your feet.
You point a finger accusingly at the blank screen and snarled, "Grah! Why can't you--"

You barely get a few words out before all hell breaks loose. A sound like a huge explosion pounded in your drums and forced you to the ground with your ears covered.
Reality itself seems to bend and warp as a massive nearly invisible wave passes through your apartment interior, temporarily turning everything it touches into jello.
The reality warping wave seemed to linger for a moment, rippling in smaller and smaller peaks until the room settled back into it's proper shape.

You slowly rose to your feet, unsteadily at first; you had to whirl and flap your arms to keep balance.
What was that? What the actual hell was that? Were you the only one who felt that? Surely you aren't going crazy. An earthquake of that magnitude, would be enough to get everyone's attention; at the very least they would put it on the morning news, right?

You wildly looked all around your living room to assess the damage, but a cursory examination revealed that nothing had been disturbed by the shaking or even moved out of place.
It's like the earthquake never even happened…
You held out your hands and stared down at your upturned palms dazed, dismayed, and confused.

None of this made any sense.

Suddenly...
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June 2, 2023