This flash fiction was originally published in my book “In a Flash” available on Amazon. It is a collection of flash fiction in a variety of genres… though my favorites to write in are (as you may have noticed) are scifi and weird/horror/urban. This particular flash fiction was inspired by an image challenge for flash fiction writers – two images were given with the challenge to weave them into a story. Enjoy!
Out of a dream ridden haze I see a bridge and a light. I am slightly disoriented, but I recall my conditioning training and head toward it.
It grows brighter and brighter a flaming ball of orange and yellow and red.
The light feels like fire on my retinas, hot and stinging, even though I feel my lids are shut tight. Still I move toward the light as instructed. Parts of the training are coming back to me now, and I can remember the crisply suited youthful woman standing at the front of the conference room, pointing to the screen illustrations as she spoke.
“When transferring your consciousness into your cloned body, you will experience birth in a controlled way. We will be conditioning you to certain trigger images that will assist in rebooting your autonomic responses in concert with your exit body. This may be slightly disorienting, and I won’t sugarcoat it – we’ve had reports of minor discomfort. But imagine if you had to experience this process in a host body- squeezing through a narrow birth canal…so there is that advantage in this process.” She smiles as though this is an amazing perk.
I’ve reached the final “conditioned” image – a magnificent waterfall into an endless ocean. My heartbeat thunders like the falls against the rocks. The strain of giving birth to myself is nearly done.
I open my eyes, knowing they are indeed my eyes, and flex my fingers. Elation fills me as I recognize my hands as they were when I was 16. I scan down my body and a shiver of pleasure passes through me. I am young again. Ready to continue my life where I left off. I look to my left at the shell of my old body – shrunken and wrinkled at 107 years of age.
If all goes well, this body will last another 100 years. A small drop in the ocean of eternity.
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