The Alienator: A Short Story

Everything began on that gloomy Sunday afternoon. I remember all the little details about that day like it was yesterday. I was late to my part-time job at The Alienator, a small, alien themed fast food joint on the corner of 2nd and Main Street. With coffee stains on my shirt, my hair a ruffled mess and my shoes on the wrong feet, I sprinted down the sidewalk, rushing to work. Breathing heavily, I was so focused on dodging and slipping past people, that I didn’t realize what was happening to my feet. As I ran into my usual shortcut, a quiet and dark alley, my feet slowly began to get higher and higher off of the ground. It wasn’t until I was 3 feet over the sidewalk that I glanced down at my shoes and realized that I was running in the air. Am I flying?! In the moment, I
Suddenly, I began rising, the distance between my shoes and the sidewalk greatly increasing. I was floating upward, like a balloon. It almost felt like the sky was a giant magnet, pulling me towards it. Looking down at the small sidewalk, my head grew dizzy and I began to panic. Did I mention I have a fear of heights? Oh god, I thought, I have a fear of heights and I can somehow fly? Tightly shutting my eyes, I willed for this experience to just be a dream. I slowly opened my eyes, and immediately filled with dread. I was still floating, but it took me a second to realize that I wasn’t floating upwards, anymore, I was floating back down. I sighed with relief and glanced around the alley to make sure no one else had witnessed the incident. It wasn’t until I was about 15 feet off the ground that I stopped moving completely and then I suddenly dropped to the sidewalk, gravity at work. I fell with a thud and took a few moments to collect my thoughts. Slowly getting to my feet, I remained in complete denial of what just previously occurred. I continued on my way to work, remembering how late I