You insert the key into the lockbox and it springs open with a fountain of light spilling out into the rest of the room. A gravitational tidal wave then hits you knocking you flat onto the ground. It is so strong you are unable to move even a single fiber of your body.
It feels like gravity itself is trying to crush you alive. It almost sounds like your bones are about to crack and pop from the pressure alone.
Your entire body as it goes colder feels like a lightning bolt it running through your system. Giving the strangest tingling sensation you have ever had. It was horrific.
Instead of your life flashing before your eyes as if you were dying in reverse where you see everything you have done. It flashes forward instead. You got to see everything that never came to be.
That promotion at work that you spent years slaving away for never happened. They ended up giving it to someone who had just been with the company for two weeks. That person would later embezzle over 2 million from the company. You however were long gone by then.
One week before Christmas one year the company fired you. They had some unexplained at the time losses and needed to make some cutbacks. You did not even get a Christmas bonus check. Your boss pocketed it for himself so his family could go on a vacation.
That woman you always wanted to ask out on a date. Well, you never dared to do so. She ended up getting married to a drunk who beat her. He ended up fathering several children with different women.
Making matters even worse a week after you got back from not even getting to enjoy the vacation you were hoping for. Your dog got off his leash in the backyard and ended up getting hit by a truck. The truck sued you for $150k worth of damages and you ended up having to pay the full amount after your lawyer failed to show up to court.
You never again went on a single vacation out of having crimpling anxiety of being lost in a forest and finding a creepy old house. You attempted many times to go on vacation but every time you never showed up wasting money you could not afford to spend.
In the end, you moved into the fourth time used trailer. It had mold issues and every time it rained it leaked. Drug use was ramped in the area and you always had to be careful to not step on a dirty drug needled the trailer park was littered with.
Once you lost your main job you drifted to whatever random work you could find. Often they did not even want to pay you minimum wage. So you ended up working under the table for far less if anything at all. Many times after working at a place for two weeks they claimed you were trespassing and would call the cops if you did not leave instead of paying you.
I wish I could say that was the worst of it. It was not. This however has gotten depressing enough.
The lockbox reversed course and the gravity and light that was spewing out of it rain back into it like a tub being drained of water. Within a few moments, you regained the ability to get back up.
There was no way you were going to let life get that bad. Seeing the future you decided you would change it. You would ask the girl out, you would get the promotion, and your dog is getting a new collar the moment you get home.
You rushed out of the room leaving the lockbox which closed by itself where it stood. You went running down the stairways. Halfway down you tripped and broke your neck. It took three days of lying there on the staircase before you died.
A few years later a stranger found themselves in question in a similar situation. They had gotten 90% off a cabin rental over the weekend. Their car had run out of gas and they found themselves looking at a strange old house.
They opened the gate into a cemetery and had a good look around. They noticed all the headstones had dates at least a decade or older ago. Out of the corner of their eye, they noticed a headstone that was almost hiding.
It was the only one that had a recent death date a couple of years ago. No, it was not black anymore it was the same color as the rest of the headstones. There was however a freshly made black headstone next to it that was blank. It was as if it just appeared hours ago.
After a while, that person entered the house and one can only guess what happened to them.
THE END
Attempt to find a different ending.