This universe is vast, and complicated beyond what our mortal minds can comprehend. I have seen it… There is a reason why black holes and wormholes are so elusive. Our imaginations stretch the explanations for these to their very limits, but… What we imagine is tame compared to what truly lies beyond…
I was a lab hand to a relatively unknown scientist for the federal government and a hidden division of NASA’s studies into space. He was also an odd-thinking theorist that, for the sake of privacy, was named Dr. Smith. As previously stated, this man was smart. He had a doctorate, but wanted to pursue reality itself. He shared with his lab hands, including me, his theories of reality and of tears into the universe’s fabric: black holes and wormholes. Countless lab experiments experimenting with ‘supercondensing’ matter, all leading to failure and electrical shortages.
But one day was different. One day, Dr. Smith came into the lab with a plain crazy smile on his face. He was late, which he often was, but… He was more late than usual.
“Let’s get to work, fellas! I have a new plan!” he announced, speaking in his usually bolstrous tone. “What is it this time?” Chris, a fellow lab hand and a nice guy, asked him in a jocular manner. “Are we going to nuke something in a microwave again?” he continued to joke. “Ohoho, I think not!” he exclaimed. “Because now I know how to tear open a wormhole…”
The others looked at him with anticipation and excitement. Dr. Smith was the type of guy to always say ‘I think I–insert knowledge or skill here’, but never has he been this bold and confident. In the back of my mind, I pondered on how Dr. Smith got his stroke of genius, but I never questioned it. Now, I wish I did…
The following days were of assembling the equipment necessary for tearing open the wormhole, which was surprisingly simple. Though, the most odd piece of this contraption being built was a… Glowing orb he said was merely made of glass, and that it only seemed to glow. But it looked damn convincing… I had never seen anything like it. All of the machinery was designed to shoot electricity at the orb for… Some unknown purpose, in my mind. Dr. Smith failed to inform us and guide us through processes like he usually did…
The construction took a few days and nights, but it was nearly complete by the fourth day. We poured so much time into it… Dr. Smith needed us to come in late one night, but I was the only one to show up. As I walked down the hall, Dr. Smith poked out from the door with a smile on his face that seemed impossibly wide. Almost… Manic…
“Jackson!” he whispered excitedly. “Hurry up! It’s done!”
Done? It wasn’t done last I had seen it, at this point. But my hurried pace taking me into the room allowed my eyes to submit to my awe at the machine… It was simple, but it fired steady beams of electricity at the orb. It looked so… Magnificent. Dr. Smith looked proud. Very much so.
“Where are the others?” he asked quickly, seeming beyond excited. “I-I don’t know,” I stammered, feeling somewhat uneasy in Dr. Smith’s presence. “Well…” he began, his voice soft and quiet. “Ah, who cares?” he said with his recently-found eccentric attitude. “Let’s rip this thing open!” “Wait, Dr. Smith-”
My words came too late. He was already headed for the recently attached switch, flipping it hastily. The electricity intensified, the orb humming dangerously. Dr. Smith ducked behind his desk, and I did the same, but with a lab table. The damn orb EXPLODED, bursting a hole in the very fabric of reality to allow for the creation of a wormhole… I remember staring into the wormhole and feeling sheer terror. Dr. Smith showed glee. Careless glee. He was usually all about safety. What was happening?
Dr. Smith went up to the new wormhole gleefully and… Leapt inside… My heart dropped as I realized what I had to do, my eyes wide as the sight of him gleefully jumping into the wormhole replayed in my mind again and again. But fear gripped me like iron shackles. I couldn’t move. That wormhole seemed… Malevolent. I didn’t want anywhere near it.
I finally gathered the courage to get up after a good minute or so. I stared into the inky black of the wormhole, and it changed right before my eyes. I saw what was on the other side…
Blood. So much blood. And decaying rot, whether plant or animal. Crimson oozed from trees and from fresh remains of terrible and horrifying creatures, their bodies lanky and malnourished, their eyes, terrifyingly human, staring directly at me. They all stared. Then, I saw Dr. Smith, a smile of pure insanity on his face as he outstretched a hand to me.
“We can go to salvation together, Jackson… Come with me…”
There was so much insanity in his eyes and in his voice… I put a hand on the lever, and Dr. Smith began to change. His limbs stretched, turning a deathly grey as his eyes bulged from his skull, his mouth hanging agape wider and wider.
“JAAAACKSONNNN,” he howled, his outstretched hand shifting into a claw.
I flipped the switch. The wormhole sucked itself shut. Now there was silence, and my breathing was hastened. I turned around and vomited on the floor, kneeling to the ground and falling over. I think I layed there sobbing until daybreak. Other scientists found me laying on the ground crying, my eyes red and puffy with tears. I could feel how puffy they were… I was traumatized.
The federal government denied that the event ever happened, that I was just delusional. That Dr. Smith just vanished in the night. But I couldn’t forget about Dr. Smith. An honorable man brought to madness by… Well, not even the government was sure. Books–no, tomes were found in his home upon investigation. Said investigation was closed after the trail ran cold, but I knew exactly what happened. I saw it with my own eyes. I will never forget that smile of pure, unbridled madness on Dr. Smith’s face, nor will I ever forget what I saw through that twist in reality. It will haunt me for the rest of my days…