Every time she would remember that moment, there would be one thing that would stun her : there had been no sign. Nothing.

  No sound. No weird feeling. No prophecy, no foreboding, no clenched gut, no wrenching, nothing. One instant everything was normal, the next... The world was broken. The world ending ought to make a noise, right ?

  But there she was, going to work. Walking alone, in a half constructed industrial area early in the morning. She needed to get to her train and just... Go on with life ? Do what everyone does, work on a meaningless activity, tracking numbers and analyzing them to death ?

  She wasn't in a good mood. She didn't like her job. But what choice was there, really, in a hardcore capitalist society, treating citizens as expendable resources, and finite resources as opportunities to gorge themselves upon, while they lasted ?

  Head down, half asleep, she was disturbed from her dark musing by the sound of her feet on the ground. It sounded... Hollow ? Like an echo of the usual sound ? Still in the movement, she got to hear her other feet hitting the concrete. Again, it happened. Like if silence could make an echo. She faltered, her moving feet coming to rest lightly next to the other. Again, that half sound. She fixed the ground, moving a bit on it. It happened each time. Was the ground weird here ? Hollow beneath the concrete ? But... She had walked that sidewalk for months, five days a week, twice a day. She would have noticed before, no ? She bent and put a hand to the ground. It felt normal. Wasn't too warm or cold, felt like the expected texture, nothing out of the ordinary. Was it her shoes then, were they broken somehow ? It was when she straightened up again that she noticed that her clothes movement sounded weird too. Dampened, like heard in a too big space while your ears... Yes, like heard through a noise dampening headset. Rubbing her neck, she moved a little, to confirm her observation. She noticed she was hunched, stretched her neck... And froze.

  Why was the sky black in places ? Like a pure night sky, starry and cold and pretty, right next to the normal bleak blue sky of a new cloudy day in the pollution ? She just stared at the sparkling stars. Never before had she seen so many stars, except via deep space photographs.

  When she snapped out of it, woken by the sound of something falling not so far, she couldn't say how long she had been mesmerized by the view. Somehow, somewhere in there, she had found a deep peace that kept with her as she started inspecting her environment. Peace that she shouldn't feel, really. The building behind her ended brutally, like a jagged knife had cut through it. On the other side there was only the void. The cut didn't end on the building. The ground was interrupted too. The edge seemed irregular, and she walked closer, minding her steps. There, on the border with the starry void, as she was tracing the edge farther and farther, she realised it, finally. Something was wrong. Really, really wrong. She was stranded, surrounded by the deep night, alone, in a pocket of the normal world. She shivered, the surnatural calm fleeing her all at once.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  What... What was that ? Was it finally it, the moment she lost her marbles ? Was the stress getting to her, was she seeing things ? Hearing things ? Or... Was it way worse than that ? What if the problem was not her, but really with the world ? Stupid, ridiculous idea. Yet... It didn't remind her much of what she'd read about people having hallucinations. Well, substance induced hallucinations, maybe, but she'd never consumed any. But "not normal" mental health induced ones ? What she remembered pointed more to self alterations, weird body things, than coherent world spanning things registered on more than one sense. She could be wrong, though. Or have read bad info.

  Deep in her thoughts, she was staring at the edge and the clean cut. From it, small... Particles, maybe... Were floating away. They were black and sparkly, really pretty. And they felt like nothing on her skin. Wait, what was her hand doing playing with them exactly ? She was losing it. She should never have done that, they could have been dangerous ! Stupid, stupid... She shut the angry self commenting voice down. New world, new rules, and she needed to understand. Plus, no sense in yelling against yourself about something you didn't do consciously. Well, honestly, no sense yelling to yourself. Her internal dialogue was so mean, most of the time.

  She grabbed her attention back, focusing again. What did she know about her situation? She was trapped. The space inside was stable. The temperature didn't change much, the air was still breathable, the borders of the empty space didn't get closer. Not visibly in a few minutes, at least. She seemed in no immediate danger. She had some water in her backpack, and snacks. Plus, a good book, and some tea bags. All things necessary to go outside, in short ! What... What could she do ? If it was in her head, not following normal rules would put her at risk. For now, no walking in the middle of the road, for example. But if it wasn't in her head, staying put and doing nothing was a recipe for a sure death. She needed info. And as long as she didn't do outlawed or plain dangerous things, she should be OK. No breaking into buildings then, but exploration should be good. For example... What happened if she left her hand outside the cut ? She had already brushed it while touching the particles. That experience had gained her a few pieces of information : the edge seemed innocuous for her, and didn't really react to her presence. The particles were going through her hand. The movement of her hand and its wind not altering their trajectory. Probably, then, the void outside wouldn't react to her hand either. It didn't mean that her hand wouldn't react to the void, though.

  She tried to gather her courage for a while, when she realized that when she played with the particles, her hand had probably already touched the outside inadvertently. The test had probably already been made, and didn't end with her being injured.

  Tentatively, she reached for the limit... Touched it... Went past it... And clearly saw her stretched finger on the other side. So far, nothing went wrong. She retracted her hand, and it came unscathed. Normal temperature, no numbness or pain. She was just fine.

  Should she stay put, in case it was only in her head ? Should she move out, discover more, find more information ? After spacing a bit, unable to decide, she found herself once again pulled in by the view of the pretty starry sky. She felt pulled by it. At least, if she was to die because she should have waited, it would be looking closer at those sparkling stars.