The Gateway

She had no idea how long she had been falling. Time, even on her watch, had stopped. As soon as the light from the tube had been lost in the darkness, she gave up hope of ever returning to her world. All she cared for was light and companionship. She was stuck, exiled in oblivion. Nothing she knew could do any good here. She wasn't even sure if she was still falling! She could not see, smell, hear, taste or feel anything. This left time for only one thing: Thoughts. At first, all she could think about what how she would never see her friends again, or how her family would worry. Now, she occupied herself with remembering the fun times she had over the years. She found that if she could do nothing else, she might as well try to be positive. It didn't take long before she gave up on thinking and decided to use her imagination.
Elsteba had heard that imagination was the tool of the future from old, cheezy movies like Barney and Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood, but she had never tried to use it before. For the tool of the future, it's odd that no one here knows what it is. She imagined stars in the sky. She had once heard of stars. They had been visible before the great astrodome was built. She had been told that they were beautiful pinpricks of light that dotted the skies when darkness came. She had no trouble seeing darkness, but when she opened her eyes, she was amazed to find herself surrounded by billions and billions of pinpricks of light. At least I can see now. Reaching out a hand, Elsteba touched one of the pinpricks. As suddenly as they had appeared, all the stars dissapeared, swallowed up by the darkness once more. Only one remained; the one she had touched. She looked around in sadness at the void, wishing she still had the light of all the stars. She turned to face the solitary point of light, but it, too, was vanishing. In desperation, Elsteba reached out to catch the star before it died out completely, but this simple action seemed to cast the void into chaos.
Elsteba was surrounded in intense light, causing her eyes to burn and her head to throb in pain. A high-pitched ring ripped through the void, and Elsteba passed out.