
16 Feb A Cracked Life
âA Cracked Lifeâ
Written by Tobias Wade Edited by Craig Groshek Thumbnail Art by Craig Groshek Narrated by N/ACopyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on CreepypastaStories.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed, adapted to film, television or audio mediums, republished in a print or electronic book, reposted on any other website, blog, or online platform, or otherwise monetized without the express written consent of its author(s).
đ§ Available Audio Adaptations: None Available
â° ESTIMATED READING TIME â 7 minutes
I was sixteen when I saw the first crack. A jagged line, almost four feet long but less than an inch wide. I found it by the sidewalk behind my house. Not on the sidewalkâthe crack was in the air, visible from every direction as I circled around it. Harmlessly suspended, and nothing more.
I couldnât touch it. My hand passed through the crack as though it wasnât there, leaving me white and numb with cold by the time I reached the other side. I wouldnât walk close to it. Something about the emptiness just rubbed me the wrong way. Iâve walked around caves, stared down holes, even used a telescope to look at the space between starsâthis crack wasnât like that. It felt less like something was missing and more like something extra that shouldnât be there.
My family moved shortly after the discovery, and I forgot all about it for a while. Time moved steadily forward, except maybe for a few months after college when it stopped to let me admire my future wife. Her smile hinted at a secret, and if I had a guess, Iâd say it was the secret to being happy. I would have given anything to explore every hidden crevice of her mind, knowing her as she knew herself. Then we could start making secrets of our own.
It was about a week after we met at work, when we both had to stay late to clean up after an office party. I asked her to come sit on the roof and look at the sky with me. There we were: side-by-side, the space between our hands burning like fire, the shape of her mouth illuminated by the backdrop of endless stars. They gleamed like millions of envious eyes wishing they could sit where I was.
I didnât know anything could make me feel so weak. My legs trembled, and I kept switching positions so she wouldnât notice. I didnât trust the words in my mouth or the thoughts in my brain. I didnât trust any other part of me, which was soon blurred out of existence to make room for my appreciation of everything that she was.
Thatâs when I saw the crack again, and I was reminded how powerful weakness really could be. It was larger now, running along the side of an external AC unit. Not quite alongsideâif I really looked, I could see the empty air between the metal box and the crack. I could just make out the little streaks of light where the surrounding stars bled into the hole to be lost forever. It was a cookie-cutter gap in reality that the world forgot to fill in.
âYou can leave whenever you want,â sheâd said.
I guess she noticed I was distracted. I shook my head, prompting her fingers to trace their way up my hand. I turned to her, her breath warm against my mouth, and suddenly that was the only thing in the world.
Six months later and we were engaged.
Another year and we were married.
Neither of us stayed long at the office, and I never went back to that roof. The crack didnât matter. Bad dreams canât hurt you once youâve woken up, and beside her grace, I was awake for the very first time.
Things went well for us, but we were so in love that I donât think we would have noticed if they hadnât. I got an investment banking job and climbed the corporate ladder. I started seeing more cracks, but no one else noticed, so I didnât mention them. Sometimes theyâd align perfectly to an existing object, but I could feel their emptiness pulling at me.
I knew what they really were.
There was a big one above the conference table at work, but I had a future here and wouldnât let something ethereal as that get in the way of my success. My diligence paid off when my boss finally told me that he was getting older and wanted to make me a partner for the firm. He was standing right on the other side of the crack when he spoke, and it was difficult to maintain eye contact with him.
âUnless you donât want to be partner,â my boss had said, misreading my silence. âOf course, you can leave whenever you want.â
The same words spoken to me before, but I hadnât recognized the significance yet. I just smiled and shook his hand, careful to reach underneath the crack hanging between us. It was another dream come true, and I was king of the world.
My wife and I moved into a big house and we had a baby girl. I watched her grow, and watched the cracks grow with her. Hairline fractures splintered the sky, mapping a web throughout the air. I had to be careful where I was walking. There could be a dozen of them in my path within a given day.
I passed through a big one once in my car. I was changing lanes and didnât notice in time. The crack went straight through my windshield without disturbing the glass, passing through my heart and out the other side. Cold doesnât begin to describe it. The line erased my body as it passed through me, displacing skin and organs, leaving a sucking vacuous wound for the briefest instant before it was gone. I lurched at the wheel and spun off the road into the guardrail. My hands kept racing over my chest, fists pounding against solid skin to reassure myself I was whole.
I started working from home after that. The one bathroom didnât have any cracks in it, and I spent most of my time in there.
Iâd seen my wife and daughter walk straight through the cracks without the slightest notice. I couldnât explain to them what I saw or felt because I knew theyâd think I was crazy. And maybe I was, but that didnât change anything. Iâd sit in the bathroom for hours, working on my laptop or reading a book, loath to leave where I might stumble through what wasnât there.
My wife begged me to go outside. Sometimes Iâd open the door just to walk around the house or sit with her in the living room, but I couldnât leave anymore. There were too many cracksâmore every day, it seemed.
The world around me had shattered, and I was the only one who noticed. I knew it hurt her, but in time my wife accepted that this was how our life had to be. She made the best of it, always inviting friends or family here and making excuses when I was expected somewhere. She took cooking classes and learned how to make all my favorite meals, even getting a small table and television installed in the bathroom I was confined to.
My daughter was a different story. Eight years old, and no amount of explaining could make her understand how much I loved her, even if I wasnât always there. I didnât know how embarrassed she was of me until a teacher called to let me know sheâd been telling all her friends that I was dead. I sat with her in the kitchen and asked why she did that, but all sheâd said was that I might as well have been.
And she was right.
I wasnât taking care of my family anymore. They had enough money put away that they didnât need me to work. I was just a burden, and just like the cracks, the burden was growing every day. Some nights I wouldnât leave the bathroom to go to bed, and I could hear my wife crying through the wall between us.
I tried pushing myself harder, willing myself through the emptiness, but it wasnât any good. The cracks cut through me like a knife, freezing me to my core, shredding bone and sinew, and then stitching me back together so seamlessly that there was nothing but the memory of that pain to remind me of my torment.
I was ready for this to be over. I just didnât know it until I heard the words from my daughterâs mouth as she pressed against the other side of the bathroom door:
âYou can leave whenever you want.â
âYes,â I told her. âIâm ready.â
âAll youâve got to do is throw yourself into a big one. Then youâre out.â
She knew about the cracks? I jumped up and flung open the door. She wasnât there.
I raced down the hall, shouting her name, forcing myself through each searing darkness that severed my mind and body, heart and soul.
I found her outside, standing next to the biggest abyss I had ever seen. A wall of darkness, ten feet across and ripping through the air above like a skyscraper. I could feel the call of that emptiness, whispering to me, beckoning me, a promise of freedom and release that a lifetime of memories could not dissuade.
âJust do it already. Youâve been here long enough,â my daughter said.
But I was afraid. Even this far away from the blackness, I could imagine how those dark talons would feel as they rend my body. Would there be anything left of me to come out the other side? It was big enough that I didnât have to come out at all. I could step in and be gone. Itâs what my daughter wanted. So did my wife, if only she had the courage to admit it. And maybe itâs what I wanted to.
But on my knees before all of creation and its antithesis, I was afraid.
âItâs easy. Just follow me.â
I tried to stop her. Air dragging through my lungs, feet stumbling and twisting, I made a desperate lunging grabâI tried to stop my daughter from entering that blackness. But she was gone, and there was no choice but to follow.
Into the looming void I plunged, screaming without sound, bleeding without woundsâdisintegrating into nothingâŚ
⌠And then I opened my eyes. I was reclining in a padded chair like they have at the dentistâs office. Three men were standing over me. A plethora of beeping machines, IV lines, and heart-rate monitors cluttered the room.
âWell?â one of the men asked. âHow was it?â
âYou were out for almost an hour,â added another.
I couldnât answer. There was nothing left of me to answer.
âWe kept sending signals telling you it was okay to leave,â the third man said. âDidnât you get them?â
I closed my eyes and took a long breath. Life 2.0 still had some bugs, but they told me they figured out how to fix most of the cracks if I wanted to go again. Itâs going to be ready for the market soon, theyâd said. People are going to love it, theyâd said.
âDid you notice anything else that needs fixing?â one asked me.
âJust in this world,â I replied.
đ§ Available Audio Adaptations: None Available
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Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on CreepypastaStories.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed, adapted to film, television or audio mediums, republished in a print or electronic book, reposted on any other website, blog, or online platform, or otherwise monetized without the express written consent of its author(s).