Disowned

A first-person narrator and two companions shelter from a sudden storm when a glowing, globular atmospheric phenomenon appears and detonates; the narrator’s companion is then seized by an inexplicable upward force and pinned against a tree limb. The narrator and the remaining companion struggle to restrain the body as it is drawn skyward, improvising belts and wedging it under a branch to keep it from vanishing. The narrative focuses on the disorienting physical effects of contact with a mysterious natural occurrence and the characters’ frantic, practical attempts to resist an uncanny, uncontrollable force.