I’ve always been fond of “what if” ideas and I’ve long wondered what would happen if a world altering cosmic event were to occur.One of my favorite stories along this line is “The Day the World Changed” by Morpheus and a book called “Wearing the Cape” by Marion G. Harmon. I highly recommend you try it! This is also my first attempt at story writing so please offer constructive criticism and hopefully encouragement!

Curtain Fall

Chapter One

“Say say two thousand zero zero party over, oops, out of time
So tonight I'm gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine”

Gill sat on his stool surrounded by co-workers as he watched the bar room full of partiers drinking, and and dancing; Prince’s song “1999” ringing out over the crowd. The revelers were also watching the TVs spaced around the room. He sat, drinking his draft and marveled at the moods of the people he found in the room. There were some who simply acted like this was just any day, others who’s humor and levity was seemingly forced. Yet a few more who were fearfully watching the announcers on the news programs displayed on every TV.

The atmosphere reminded him a bit of what he’d read of the “End of the World” millennialists of the 18’th and 19’th centuries. Certainly the last few months had been rife with wild speculations after it had been revealed that a strange “visual anomaly” had been seen by astronomers. That anomaly was being seen to sweep towards our galaxy from the edges of visible space. Astronomers had no clear explanation for the effect, the wave-like “ripple” they were tracking. Nor could they explain the speed of its approach.

Governments around the world repeatedly re-assured the public even as it was noted that plans were being moved into place in case the possible social unrest and panic broke out as concern was seen to grow, that there was nothing to fear; but the web was full of those who screamed otherwise. Rumors of images had cropped up (doctored according to government sources) suggesting that things “changed” where the ripple had passed; and the conspiracy buffs ate it up.

“Come on buddy! Finish your pint so we can get another!” Tom said as he gently elbowed Gill. Tom was Gill’s friend who had, along with a few others from work, joined him in an impromptu “Watch the Curtain Fall” celebration. “Yeah, yeah...”, Gill responded with an ironic grin as he quickly finished his glass. “I don’t want to miss being pissed for the big event!” Tom chuckled and turned to wave the bartender down.

As Gill sipped his latest beer he looked at the nearest newscast and saw the digital timer displaying the estimated time that the ripple would pass Earth. ‘You have to love sensationalism in media!’ He thought, only a little nervous from all the hype. Tom, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to what was coming.

Gill often wondered how he and Tom became friends as you’d not likely find two more different men. Tom, in his late twenties, was over well 6 ft. tall and lean but powerfully built with sandy blond hair and a ruggedly handsome face. If it weren’t for the stylish business suit one would think he just came from a soccer meet. He was an up and comer in management at the electronic manufacturing corporation he and Gill worked at.

His second companion, Carol, was an HR officer at work who Gill had a “frenemy” style relationship with. A sharply dressed slender blond of 5 ‘8” she possessed attractive if a bit too strong features to be considered beautiful. To most she was polite but a bit distant. Carol had a cutting wit she wasn’t afraid to use it.

Gill on the contrary was 5’10”, with thick glasses thin physique and sallow skin. He wore an inexpensive suit and jacket that mostly covered his rebellious Dock Marten boots. He was the archetype of the corporate computer nerd and often dealt with snide comments at work in spite of a sharp mind. His worries about the Curtain were just an easy target for others.

‘I’ll be damned if I let myself be painted as more of a wimp than I am already!’ Gill decided. He turned to Tom and half yelled to be heard over the crowd, “When we get to the last minute, should we start counting down? Sort of like New Years!?” Tom laughed and agreed.

“Seriously though”, Gill continued, “Any bets on what will happen?”

“What’s wrong? You scared?” The semi-sneering tone of Carol, acerbically asked. The President himself and his scientific advisors said it’s going to be nothing!”

“Lighten up Carol”, Tom frowned and responded, “It’s perfectly natural to be unsure!”

“Absolutely!” Gill answered, “I mean, what if those rumors on the internet are truthful? I saw one pic that seemed to show that a whole star cluster vanished!” He didn’t really believe the image was real but what was coming seemed pretty extraordinary. Besides, it was fun to wind Carol up a bit.

Tom grimaced hearing Gill. “You too Gill!” He admonished. Acting the peacemaker he continued, “Don’t start up again. You and your ‘Darkweb’ sites!” Gill laughed and didn’t pursue it further. Carol’s blanket acceptance of assurances by a politician was irritatingly naive to him but he chose to not antagonize her needlessly.

He looked to see that a tense hush was beginning to settle on the crowd as the projected time of the “Event” approached.

“Five, four, three, two, one...” Gill said quietly as the clock counted to zero. When the projected time arrived the crowd waited with held breaths.

The news spokesman on TV looked up at the camera with relief and a bit of puzzlement and announced, “It seems that nothing is happening!” The crowd in the bar released the collective sigh and scattered laughter broke out. Carol turned from the TV to triumphantly deride Gill.

NROL-83, a military surveillance satellite in orbit, observed that the shimmering distortion traveling into the solar system appeared to slow as it approached and passed celestial bodies visibly slowing as it approached large masses like Jupiter. The fact that the effect was observable at all showed that inside the solar system the “Curtain” moved significantly below the speed of light. As it passed Mars, the satellite recorded a deformation in the shape of the distortion as if the planet exerted a drag. Moving past it almost behaved as if Mars were a pencil point, punching a hole in a piece of paper. The hole immediately reformed and the Curtain continued on. The Martian moon Phobos vanished.

“See!?” Carol exclaimed, “Just like they said, Nothing hap-“ Carol’s crowing cut off suddenly as she saw a shimmering wall not unlike the membrane of a giant soap bubble erupt from the western side of the bar’s ceiling and move down and across the room. Gill had just a moment to register this when it moved across him.

Every sense Gill possessed suddenly exploded, his vision was overwhelmed by colors he’d never seen before. Colors that almost seemed to blur into smells. Sounds that almost felt like winds against him. Touch seemed seemed to be bitter. He felt as if his very being was pulled and blurred.

Then as Gill dropped his mug and collapsed to his knees his senses snapped back to close to normal. He could hear shrieks of pain and terror around him as he blinked through what continued to be blurry vision he realized he didn’t see Tom anywhere. What was more terrible, two tables away he watched a figure bonelessly collapse to the ground. What had been a man now seemed to be a human shaped anemone in a suit.

Carol, who had been looking at the “bubble” past Gil, turned pasty and stared at him with a mixture of stunned horror and a lack of comprehension. “Wh-Who are y-you?!?”, she choked. Gill had disappeared and in his place it seemed there was a total stranger.

Gill was in shock and looked up at Carol. “Wha- what are you talking abou...”, his response trailing off as he registered the alto tone of his voice. He didn’t sound at all like his normal voice. Gill raised his hands to his puffier feeling mouth noticing that his suit was now far too big for him. As Carol staggered back into her bar stool, Gill moved his arms away from his face to see delicate fingers with long, if jagged nails, almost be swallowed by the cuffs of his work jacket.

‘Oh my god, what’s going on?! What happened to me?’ Gill thought with a rising sense of panic. He looked desperately to Carol, “What happened to me?!?” He cried out in a quavering voice. “Carol! Help me!”

Hearing the panic in the voice of unknown figure where Gill had just been, Carol seemed to regain a little balance and she seemed to register the now ill fitting clothes. Her eyes focused and squinting she asked, “Gill??”

Gill feverishly nodded and shook something into his face. He quickly understood it to be hair, his hair! Before he could say more The power in the bar room suddenly went out and the room suddenly went dark. The cries of dismay and fear around the room suddenly increased.

Gill staggered to his feet as best he could in pants that sagged and began to slip down and reached out to Carol. Gill felt as if panic was rolling over him in waves like an ocean tide. Carol for her part saw the overwhelming fear in the stranger’s face and hesitantly reached out to grasp the slender hands.

Coming to a rapid decision, Carol grabbed Gill more firmly and began to pull the individual who’d replaced friend to the entrance. “Come on. Let’s get somewhere safer!” Shivering and stumbling due to feet now too small for the boots, Gill numbly followed Carol away from the panic and madness inside the bar. He vaguely noted it seemed much less crowded than it had been as they passed the entrance out into a darkened lot and out to her car. Apparently the bars power outage was more widespread.

Once helped into the car they drove away from the lot. Gill couldn’t focus the attention to ask where they were going. His overwhelming panic and stress diminished, however, the farther they got from the bar. He began noticing that the going was quite difficult due to the number of accidents on the road. More than once they had to backtrack and take alternate roads. All the while they’d hear sirens in the distance. Occasionally they see an emergency vehicle speeding towards what Gill suspected was a hospital. People could often be seen rushing around outside. They also heard infrequent gunfire.
He also slowly began noticing strange signals and feelings from his body. Now that the feeling of panic was leaving he began taking inventory of what he had vaguely realized was a dramatic physical transformation. As previously noted he realized he’d somehow become significantly smaller. His hands were smaller and more delicate, almost dainty. When he moved his arms in now huge coat he felt it rubbing areas of his torso that he didn’t understand. This caused him to pull his coat open and away looking down and revealing quite noticeable lumps on his chest and deforming the shape if his shirt. ‘Oh my god!’ Gill thought with shock, ‘ those look like breasts!’

With delicate (feminine) his mind now classified trembling hands, he reached up and timidly grasped the gentle slopes of his now female appearing chest. A minor gasp becoming a whimper escaped his lips.

“Don’t freak out again la-, uh Gill,” Carol spoke with only a little tremor, “let’s get to my apartment so we can fall apart more safely!” Carol drove on the road and around obstacles for another 15 minutes until arriving at her apartment high rise. As they moved she’d been unsuccessful in finding any functioning radio station. They also heard a large explosion in the distance.

While moving, Gill continued feeling through his clothes, noting his arms seemed much slimmer. His hair was now a chestnut brown and fell to his/her? waist. His face’s shape seemed to have changed and there was no sign of a beard; only softer skin. He couldn’t bring himself to reach and confirm his masculinity or lack there of.

After arriving they parked Carol and Gill rushed through a parking garage lit by the emergency lights to the elevator and discovering it nonfunctional used the emergency stairs to get to Carol’s 3’rd floor apartment. On the way up they were approached by a frantic woman in her 40’s who was desperately looking for her 12 year old son who’d vanished in front of her. “We were eating dinner and watching the news!”, she sobbed, “Then he was gone!” Unable to get help, the woman pushed past to continue down the stairway. Carol grabbed hold of Gill to pull her up the last flight of stairs and into the hall when Gill would have slid to the floor after seeing and feeling frantic loss and terror. ‘What would it be like if I lost a loved one?’, kept creeping into his unstable thoughts.

Finally the two got to Carol’s apartment door and after unlocking pushed in. Carol pushed Gill a bit more roughly into the living room than necessary as the rigid control she’d been holding over her emotions relaxed now that she was in a ‘safer’ location, then closed the door locking it and sliding the deadbolt.

As the body she thought ‘might’ contain Gill stood quivering and tightly holding what Carol now had time to observe and confirm was “herself”, Carol’s control slipped and she barked, “All right! Who are you really, and what’s happened to my friends!?!?”