Flat Earth

Levi Sleeve was a somber, serious young man. Though he knew no one can determine where they are born, Levi always felt it was a great misfortune for him to have landed on the bright side of Earth.
 

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Since Earth is flat, one side always faces the sun, while the other is always turned away. Rather than flipping end over end like a pancake in a cosmic frying pan, the planet spins around a central axis like a plate, tilted in relation to the sun at 23.5 degrees.   
The continent – only one continent exists per side – bathed in perpetual light is, as one might imagine, bright and festive. The continent residing in the earth’s shadow and covered in unending darkness is believed to be, through unsubstantiated stories, solemn and industrious – just like Levi.  Two sides of the same coin, really, yet as different as night and day.
 

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In his earliest years, Levi crafted a fiction he’d tell himself as he lay awake brooding in bed. With light spearing through the slates of his blinds, he’d imagine planet-tunneling pirates, having kidnapped him from his rightful birthplace, whisking his swaddled and crying newborn self through the center of the earth. A bounty was undoubtedly placed on the bandits. Desperate to escape justice, the heartless scourges abandoned Levi with the first family they encountered, condemning him to a life as shallow as the world itself.
 

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Each month the moon drifts counter to Earth’s plane at roughly 28.6 degrees; in other words, just under a third above the horizon. The effect provides some dim illumination during half the month for the darkened side – about as much as a nightlight inside a warehouse. The sunlit side experiences twelve regularly scheduled eclipses per year, giving the population a few hours each month to glimpse the stars. As the moon crosses the sky, Levi basks in its cooling presence, warming his heart.
 

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When he was a little boy, Levi loved listening to stories, the grander the better. Prone to sunburn, Levi sat under a shade tree - a full complement of sunscreen applied to his face and neck - as he listened to his Aunt Lydia.  She was the only member of his family he could tolerate because she’d spin tall tales about the flip side of Earth. (Levi’s mother called Aunt Lydia “a great prevaricator”, no matter.)  
Aunt Lydia described the “Land of Darkness” as a place containing fantastic wonders: buildings as tall as mountains, made to withstand the bleak cold; lights matching the sun’s brilliance shined in every color of the rainbow, creating a kaleidoscope of the vastly constructed world; bioluminescent plants and animals sprinkled across the otherwise barren terrain. 
Necessity being the mother of invention, the people also used their immense ingenuity to build tunnels under the earth’s surface and between every city, so no one ever needed to step outside. Inhabitants could go from their homes to any point on the continent in contained pods travelling faster than the speed of sound.

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Due to the centrifugal forces acting on the central landmass, great tectonic upheaval threatens anything out beyond a third of Earth’s radius. The further one travels, the greater one feels the spinning planet’s apparent push. Though land covers about 24% of the planet, only about 11% is habitable. Violent oceans roil over the remaining outer circumference. It is both a no man’s land and an adrenaline junkie’s paradise; however, even the most insane adventurers have their limits, and nobody has ever traveled beyond the border of broken islands.
Levi is not one for boundaries. 
He prepares himself for a journey to end all journeys. He first secures a sturdy, encapsulated vessel he believes capable of withstanding the churning seas. He then creates the warmest clothes he can by stitching together layered materials. Finally, he packs a couple months’ worth of non-perishable food and water.
He sets sail the morning following one last eclipse, telling the moon he will see it on the flip side. Telling his family nothing.
The initial week is slow going as he maneuvers around the continent’s detritus of rocky out-croppings. Passing the terrestrial demarcation line, however, he feels the forces forever pushing outward take over.  Over the following week, his vessel picks up speed, racing to the edge of the world. 
Then one day, Levi feels everything drop out from under his feet. Gravity recaptures him and his craft after a minute or two of being suspended in space, his inertia bleeding off. (Levi hypothesized that the ocean’s thinning at the outer margins would cause his trajectory to arc over the earth’s lip before hooking him to the other side. He is pleasantly surprised to discover he had calculated correctly.)
Levi’s first month on the dark side is simply grueling as he pushes his motor to its limits countering the same forces which had made his journey out so quick and simple. He eventually reaches the broken ice flows ringing the continent and, forced to continue over land, transfers his supplies to a sled. Finding himself nearly frozen solid after two weeks of trekking over the barren landscape, Levi reaches the first habitation.
He pounds on the hull-like door.  A bundled figure opens it. Levi asks for lodging. “No services until Monday,” the man barks. He sees small flickering lights along the walls, making the inside slightly brighter than the outside. Levi just wants shelter from the wind, so he agrees. 
An old woman snores from a ratty couch nearby as Levi pays and receives a large square key. He shuffles to the end of a very long hallway. His fingers so stiff, he can barely hold, much less, turn, the key once he reaches his door.  
Levi discovers that, in addition to no services, his room is devoid of furniture, just a sink in the corner. He slides down along the wall to the bare floor. Wrapping a blanket around his shoulders and lighting a candle to keep himself company, Levi says to the empty room, “Well, this sucks.”