Deep Breaths

Cora grabbed her umbrella and went outside, carefully winding her way down the brick path outside her home, occasionally stepping over puddles. It was scarcely dawn by the time she got to her car. Cora looked anxiously into her rearview mirror before hitting the gas.

She had been dreaming about this moment since the first time she read about her idols running away. However, she couldn’t stop thinking about what this place would be like once she disappears.

She was one of the first few people to take a commercial aircraft to space. Here she entered a new world filled with blackness, stars, and planets.

“Finally, peace and quiet, away from the chaotic and disruptive open plan office lifestyle!”, she exclaimed (using her inside voice of course). Enshrouded in the comforting embrace of darkness, she closed her eyes and started to count her breath... in for 3...2...3, out for 3...

As she finished her breathing exercises, Cora began to achieve a sense of calm. Work typically would have been a refuge but not today. The rooms felt unfamiliar, the people strange. What unsettled Cora most was a colleague who recently transferred in and sat directly behind her.

Cora could feel she was being stared at. She acted spontaneously and quickly turned around, what grabbed her colleague's attention, whose name was K.

Once outside earth's gentle atmosphere, Cora realized K was merely a dim reflection on her space shield, becoming more and more faint as Earth's light source receded.