Chapter 3 – The world is upside down… literally
Michael didn’t even intend to shout. After all, everyone else was still asleep right now. Well, whether he woke anyone up or not, was unimportant right. What was more important instead, was what he saw after waking up. Even before he started looking for his clock to shut off the alarm, he had already noticed that he wasn’t lying inside his bed anymore. Well, he probably fell out of his bed after he had such an extreme dream. Or was it a dream? Michael wasn’t so sure, since it felt way too real, for it to be a dream. After all, in what kind of dream would you feel like you were going insane from pain, only to be comfortable with your body expanding into all directions afterwards?
Anyway, he started to look around and soon, he found his clock. It was above him. No, to be more precise, he was above it, and the clock was just beneath him, standing where it always stood. It was just that Michael, somehow ended up on the wrong end of his room. Instead of lying down in his bed, which, from his perspective, seemed to be above him, he was lying down on the ceiling of his room. Well wasn’t this just a great start into the day? Waking up and finding out that his world was literally upside down?
Michael tried to wrap his head around the situation. Just what the hell should he do now? Just how would he be able to get back onto the ground? He was frantically trying to think up a solution to all this. How would he even be able to do anything like this? He couldn’t even turn his damned alarm off. It was simply out of reach for him, down there on his desk. He couldn’t really get ready for work either like this. Even if he did somehow manage to get out of the house, wouldn’t he just fly… fall into the sky? Since that’s where he was right now. He was by now sitting on his ceiling, the sky outside the house beneath his butt.
…wait. Work? After successfully managing to read his clock while upside-down, Michael’s eyes went wide with shock. Shit. He was almost too late for his job. Again he asked himself what he should do now. Going to work like this simply wasn’t an option. And he couldn’t really call them and tell them that he couldn’t come to work because he was stuck on the ceiling of his room. They wouldn’t believe it. How could anybody believe that if they were ever told something like that?
Desperately, he tried to think of something that could help him out of this situation he was in, when suddenly someone barged into his room. It was his identical twin brother Mark. He looked around him for a bit and finally his gaze landed on Michael. But instead of being shocked or confused at the situation Michael was in, Mark simply had an exasperated look on his face and mumbled to himself “How many times was this now?”.
Looking away from Michael, Mark’s eyes focused on the clock. He went to it and shut off the alarm and afterwards, he turned to his brother. “So, I take it, that you have zero clue on how to get down from there right?”
“Uhh… yeah. You’re right… but don’t you seem a little too… unfazed by this? I mean even I am shocked at this and would just love to get back down again. But you look at me as if you’ve seen this before already?”
Mark sighed and simply said “You have no idea Michael… you have no idea…”
“Anyway Mark... the way you asked me right now makes it seem like you have an idea about how I could get down again… right?!” Michael was giving his brother a look full of expectations. He really hoped that his brother would be able to help him out here. He really hoped that Mark knew of a way to fix this. Otherwise he had no clue about how to go about his life. He really didn’t want to imagine being stuck like this for the rest of his life.
“Hah, as if! How could I possibly know how to bring someone, who is stuck on the ceiling back to the ground again. It’s not like that ever happened before and I don’t think I can find an answer on the internet either!” Mark had a mocking smile on his face. “…I mean… you can try to look for it online, if you want.”
“Well if you don’t know, then why did you even come into my room in the first place huh?” Michael got a bit annoyed by his brother’s answer. He really didn’t have the time to joke around right now. “Say Mark, what time do we have right now?” He wanted to know.
“It’s a few minutes before eight… Oh damn, you have to be at work now! Well… we better try to get you down fast then!”
“That’s the first good thing that came out of your mouth today dear brother!” Michael couldn’t help, but to be sarcastic, since he somehow had to distract himself. Still it was a weird experience for him, to simply sit where he was and when he looked at his brother, it looked like he was glued to the ceiling. Only that it was Michael instead that was stuck there and the two of them only had to think of a way to get him down from there.
“Well maybe we should figure out how that whole… gravity-reversing? Works. Does it only affect you and the clothes your wearing, or does it affect everything you’re touching as well? Maybe it even affects things in a certain area around you as well?” Mark switched to being serious and started thinking about a solution to all this for real.
Michael was a bit startled by the sudden change in the tone Mark was talking in. Sure, he wanted to get over with this too, but he didn’t expect his brother to get so serious so suddenly. Sitting a bit more upright, he started thinking about what his brother had just told him. His question didn’t sound stupid at all; it was a justified question. Looking down at himself, Michael quickly came to the conclusion that the things he touched definitely were affected by his gravitational change as well. His clothes didn’t try to get back down to the ground after all. Michael was still in the clothes he wore when he was asleep, which was a good thing, since Michael had no desire to sit here naked.
“Well it seems like it definitely affects things I am touching. Else my clothes would try to escape from me, but for the area around me thing, we will have to test it. Could you please give me something from down there?” He asked Mark.
Mark looked around for a bit, before reaching for something on Michaels bed. Michael had a hunch about what it was, that his brother wanted to give him and it seemed like that hunch was right. His brother had looked for Michael’s smartphone to give it to him. Michael grimaced. Now that area theory had to be right, else he would risk destroying his smartphone, which he really didn’t want to do.
“You’re an ass you know that Mark? Did you really have to get me my smartphone? What if it only affects me and not things around me?”
“Well then you have just to live with a broken smartphone!” Mark simply shrugged his shoulders. “No seriously. Stop worrying about that stuff. Even if it does happen to fall down, won’t it just fall down onto your bed? Just how is it supposed to break then? It isn’t that fragile.”
After Mark said those words, Michael couldn’t help but agree with them. What he had said was the truth. It wouldn’t just break, because it fell onto his bed. After hesitating for a bit, Michael grabbed the Smartphone that his brother was holding up to him and put it beside him, his hand still on the device. He paused for a while, but took his hand off it anyway. To his surprise, the smartphone didn’t fall down, but simply stayed where it was.
Michael couldn’t help but exclaim “Wow it really stays at my side! You’re right Mark! There is an area around me where the gravity is reversed!”
“You don’t seem to get what that means, do you?” Mark said with an exasperated voice to his brother. “This means that we now have a starting point on how to get you down from there!”
Michael gasped. With wide eyes he realized that his brother was right! They were now a step closer to getting him down from the ceiling! With an excited voice he asked Mark “And what do you have in mind Mark?! Please tell me!”
“Sure, sure. Calm down Michael!” Mark started laughing a bit. “If you’re not quiet you could wake our parents up. Anyways, what I had in mind was, that if we assume that you are the centre of the reversed gravity around you, if it comes from inside you, then maybe you can also recall it. Like, it starts from inside you so you should also be able to call it back inside and… whoosh gravity returns to normal. Sounds like an idea no?”
Michael thought a bit about it. It sounded like it was worth a shot it. Well he was willing to try everything he could if it could get him back down again. Now he just had to think on how to go about recalling the gravity field. Maybe he simply had to imagine it going inside him? Thinking that, Michael quickly tried to imagine the field coming back inside him. After a minute went by and nothing happened, he was certain that he had made a mistake. Either that, or he didn’t imagine it good enough.
“Okay, imagining, it coming back to me didn’t work. Maybe there is another way to recall it...” Michael started contemplating. He really wanted to get back down. Even more so, now that a way to do so was so close at hand. “What should I do then? Hmm… AHHH! I have an idea! Yes! That has to be the key to all of this!” He couldn’t help but to shout this out aloud.
While thinking about the way he found himself in this situation, he remembered the dream he had last night. What if it really was more than just a dream? What if it affected him for real? Maybe it was the cause for the predicament he found himself in right now! He tried to think about what to do next. He was so close to solving this that he shut out anything else and went deep into thought.
After a while he was broken out of his thoughts by Mark, who was just silently watching him all this time “So it seems like you found a way to come back down again?” He asked his brother curiously.
“Yes! I found a way… I think. Wait let me try it!” With these words, Michael completely turned his focus towards himself. He imagined the scene he saw inside his dream. The vast nothingness, as well as the sheer endless number of starry nebulas around him. The next thing he thought about, was to have all of the nebulas come back inside of him again. He started imagining the nebulas starting to move in a vortex, with him at the centre. It was like he was sucking them in, all of the nebulas came inside him, in a speed so fast, that Michael couldn’t even differentiate them.
After a while all of the nebulas were inside of him and suddenly he felt himself falling, followed by a painful sensation in his neck area. It seemed like it had worked! He was finally back on his bed again! He was so overjoyed at this, that it out shadowed the pain he was feeling because he landed neck first on his bed.
“I did it Mark! I really did it! I am finally back down again! Finally, I am not stuck on the ceiling anymore! Thanks Mark! Really! Thank you! I wouldn’t have gotten down without your help!”
“Haha, congrats Michael!” Mark seemed to be satisfied by this outcome, as he had a smug grin on his face. “…But I don’t think that you really have the time to be happy about being back down again. Did you take a look at the clock? It’s 8:30… You had to be at work by 8 no?”
Shocked, Michael quickly looked at the time. “Shit! Fuck! You’re right! I’m way too late! Damn! What do I tell them now?” He quickly calmed down at this situation. His joy was quickly dissipating. He had no time to be happy. He looked around him for his smartphone. After he found it, he dialled the number of his workplace. After the other side accepted the call it was his turn to speak “Hello there, this is Michael. I will be arriving later today. I kinda overslept and only got up just now.” This was the best excuse that Michael could think of. And while it was still a bad excuse, it was better than just telling the truth that nobody would believe anyway.
Quickly he shooed his Brother out of his room, but not without thanking him again. Afterwards he tried to get ready for work as fast as possible. Once again Michael was sure, that this wasn’t going to be his day.
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Btw is another chap coming today?? Or is it going to be a once a week thing from now on (not to rush you or anything just curious)
I originally planned on releasing another one today... well that was until i was reminded that i still had to do an assignment for class thats due tomorrow. Well i will release it as soon as its finished! I promise!
@Liam thanks ! glad you like it!
@Liam aaand.... you might want to refresh the chapter page in a few minutes