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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Morris_Widdler on 2024-10-27 15:35:47+00:00.

The night I drove alone was alike any other, I was on my way home after visiting my girlfriend just a few nights ago, we had to move separately from one another recently and she now lives over an hour and a half away.

We have been semi-long distance in our relationship for a few months at this point. Since we both had newly upgraded jobs that we were becoming accustomed to, along with her schoolwork further burdening our schedules, I accepted the role of the commuter if we wanted to see each other and I became very used to it.

When our schedules just barely align, if the cosmos deems it fit, I’ll be able to see her before a workday. However, that also entails having to drive home the very same night once we’re satisfied with the amount of time we spent together. It’s a long commute just to see your partner for a short visit, but we’ve made it work without complaints.

It was around 1:22 in the morning on the lonely four-lane road in the middle of the desert, and I was well into my journey by this point. It had been dark for hours; there wasn’t a streetlamp or guiding light in sight. My headlights and the moon nestled high above were my only assistance in partially illuminating the road, while my only companions were a stray car along the highway every so often, joined only by the distant stars in the endless night sky.

Passing a nearby mile marker and judging by the information offered by my GPS, I should arrive home no later than 2:15 this night. After making a regular commute like this I’ve noticed that my eyes and mind will wander to fill the empty space when thoughts, music and podcasts are no longer sufficient to occupy my time.

To the soft opening guitar of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” I began to further dissociate while I was gazing through my windshield upward at the stars. It’s incredible just how many you miss by living in a city with light pollution; similarly, it’s amazing how many there are in general. However, I began to notice there were only a few very bright stars apparent tonight; the rest must have been far too distant or the moon too full, overshadowing the rest.

One of these stars in particular was far brighter than the others, resting steadily in the middle of a faint blanket that hung directly overhead. A planet? I pondered longingly as I continued to observe, while trying to decipher some hidden picture or constellation it may have possibly comprised.

Strangely and without any warning, the very same final, brightest star I was directly focusing my eyes on moved and began to fall.

It had broken my trance, it was seeming to drop right out of the sky north of me, in a slight curve disappearing behind the mountains. How odd- I thought, It was a little jarring to say the least. Of the few visible stars out this night, the one I was actively watching suddenly started to move and then rapidly descend right in front of my eyes?

I’m miles from civilization, did I witness a shooting star? Possibly, my thoughts even went as far as to ponder it being a real live UFO.

Thousands of stars… Hiding a thousand million others behind vast Emptiness. it’s a strange feeling when you begin to think about just how small You are among them.

It didn’t make sense, but I dissuaded it. Maybe I had somehow witnessed the birth of a shooting star if that were possible? I should’ve made a wish.

Something strange began to happen moments later. The horizon beyond the mountains began to brighten in a red glow, which was steady, and rapidly growing. The color was vast, so vast that it made the environment around me wash over with a faint red tint, its beauty was lessened by the terror it ensued, as well as the imminent danger I then began to feel as I could now see even more of the darkened valley.

My head was on a constant swivel, I looked curiously in awe out of every window in my car. I was now certain what I had seen was a single great meteor that must have struck down, the terminal velocity followed by the massive impact caused the fire-like luminescence of the valley. The only problem however was that the red glow did not waver nor dissipate, and it had set in long after when I anticipated the impact should’ve been.

I could still hear my music playing, but it felt distorted and wrong. The lyrics seemed to come sooner, and sometimes later than I remembered in the song, even the volume raised and lowered as if it was traveling around me, both nearer, and further away, the verse even repeated itself halfway through. Simultaneously, my car began to change as well, it felt like I had lost what gear I was in and began changing acceleration without any alteration from the pedal.

Yet, nothing was actually different to my knowledge, aside from the constant dimming and brightening of the lights. My speedometer never changed, the time on my songs never differed, it was almost as if -I- was what had been out of sync with reality.

Suddenly the engine cut-out and my car slowed to a crawl as I tried my best to pull off the road onto the shoulder. Not even seconds later I felt a strange feeling, it was like a blink, not with my eyes but with… my mind. It was as if one moment shifted to the next in a blur and I was absent to all stimuli in between.

It is difficult to describe, but blinking is the closest description I can grasp as a tangible explanation. It felt closer to being locked in a small room with someone who had turned on an antique light switch that took a moment to power on, and when it did, suddenly everything was different.

I was now pulled over to the side of the road further up than I remembered. I was standing outside of my car with the door ajar, staring upward at the stars. I blinked rapidly while trying to take in my surroundings, the few headlights I could observe behind and in front of me seemed to have come to a halt as well.

I was mystified, but I still knew I had to get back in the car and make it home.

Why did my car fail, and why was I outside? How did I not remember?

I tried to start the ignition, after a few attempts ever slowly and sluggishly the engine finally turned over and roared to life, I quickly began to drive again, resuming my journey despite all was still not normal, my clock read 2:30 AM. My delirium and de-synchronization from my surroundings furthered.

I felt the world blink again not long after. I could see my hands on the wheel and the interior of my car, but the road and everything outside was now gone, the stars were all I could see. I could feel the rumbling vibration from the old road beneath me, yet it was no longer there. I was traveling through the air itself, there were no mountains, no road, no trees, or anything. It was as if I was driving a slow-moving plane through the enormous red-tinted night sky unbound.

I was equally terrified and bewildered. Had I fallen asleep and began to dream of the journey set before me? Surely I wasn’t stuck in the sky, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the inside of my car felt more like a cage than ever before.

This lasted for what felt like multiple minutes, but with another blink, I was suddenly returned to solid ground. I was standing upright and outside on the road again. I had been joined by multiple others closer by, as I now could see numerous vehicles paused on the shoulder, their cars running but vacant, the driver looming still as stone, gazing at the stars.

As we watched, more stars began to fall. Not just one like the first, I counted 3, then 5, then there were so many that I could no longer keep track. All of the stars were falling from the blood-red sky, all of them.

They were falling in different directions unlike the first, as if they were miniscule lightbulbs held on by strings that were cut, rapidly beginning descent in the distance beyond the mountains. The color of the sky had deeply saturated everything a crimson hue, I was convinced I now wore contacts with a blood-red filter.

I began to feel empty and more… Alone than I ever was before in the vast absence of space. Reality as I know it was wrong. Everything was fading. the sky was black.

The blink came and I was driving again, but I did not recognize where I was. Every light in my dashboard console was on, warning lights and all. There was an alarm bell sounding as if the door had been left open, or my seatbelt unfastened. Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” was playing still, softly repeating the line “How I wish, how I wish you were here” I could barely focus, my vision blurred. I felt as if I had recently polished a 6 pack.

There were fewer headlights on the road now, spread much farther apart. The beams they emit appeared as red spotlights casting a long silhouette of a lone driver gazing upward, the dim hue appeared as if they were shadow figures, standing alone unmoving, persevering through the night still as a stone guardian to await my arrival in joining their endless dreamscape.

“How I wish, how I wish you were here”

The road was repeating, the familiar drive I was so accustomed to was completely wrong. I had sworn I already passed the right leaning turn around the mountain before the immediate leftward curve straight into the plains a few miles from home twice before, yet now it twisted in an illogical pattern. I had no idea my speed, but I was steadily increasing it hoping to break away from this terror.

The clock read 3:40 AM. *That can’t be right…

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