“Cheektowaga, New York. Just like it says on my license.”
They exchanged a look. “Andi, do you know where you are?”
“A hospital.” I answered flatly. I didn’t mean to be surly, but my head hurt in a vague, yet persistent kind of way that made me want to smack something. It also didn’t help that the more lucid I became, the more I realized that I was missing whatever was going on back in Jyra’s dimension.
Were they fighting that last bit of Genesis? Were they having a funeral for me? Did they think that I was dead? So many questions and no answers made me even grouchier.
“Andi, you’re in Vermont.”
“Vermont!?” I repeated in shock. “Vermont!?”
“I take it that comes as a surprise.”
“Hell yeah it’s a surprise. I just, I…” I shook my head, pressing my hands to my face. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you need a break?”
“No.” I said with a sigh. “It’s fine. I’m just frustrated.”
“We understand. This is definitely a unique situation.”
If only they knew. How many of their crimes involved possession and betrayal in another dimension by a giant cat followed by unintentional transportation back to earth? “You’re telling me. So what’s the lead theory here? I was drugged in some sort of human trafficking gone wrong?”
“Your toxicology came back clean. Not a single drug in your system.”
“Huh.”
“Is there anything you can tell us? Anything you remember, no matter how small, could be useful.”
“Sorry friends,” I said with a shrug. “I’m as clueless as you are, if not more.”
“That’s alright.” He stepped forward and handed me a card. “If anything comes back to you during your treatment, give us a call. Once you’re ready, we can help you get home as well. Also, your emergency contact is blank in all of your files. Do you have someone you want us to contact?”
I opened my mouth, ready to name Jyra, Janix, or Viys’k, but I quickly realized they didn’t exactly have a local area code number. No, I was back on earth, where I had no one. Friendly acquaintances, but no close friends. Next surviving kin, but no family. “No. It’s blank for a reason.”
“Surely a pretty girl like you has to have someone in their lives.”
I gave the woman a dull look. “No.” I muttered. “There’s no one for me here.”
“Well, we’re here for you, and so are the doctors and nurses. You’re not alone in this.”
“Thanks, Officers.” I said with an insincere sort of half smile. “I’ll make sure to call you if I realize anything. But I do think I need some rest now. I’m a bit bushed.”
“Of course. We’ll see ourselves out. Rest well, Andi.”
“Thanks.”
I watched them go then let out a long, listless sigh. Vermont? The road back home, and hopefully to the portal I was praying was still sitting in my computer, had just grown a bit longer. Briefly, I wondered how expensive it would be to hail a cab all the way to New York.
Oh wait… I didn’t have a wallet. For that matter, I still didn’t know how long I had been gone. I knew I was in the hospital’s care for two weeks, but that didn’t necessarily mean I had been in the other dimension for only two weeks.
Leaning my head back against the pillows, I made a mental list of all the things I needed to find out before I was released from the medical care of Doctor Ocampo. It was a long list indeed.
I needed to get cracking.
*
It turned out there was a whole lot of paperwork and testing that came with miraculous recovery from a grievous wound. It was almost as intense as the work up I had back during my head-wound days, and I found the whole thing tedious.
Every blood test, every EKG, was an hour or two wasted that I could have been finding my way back to Jyra. My only respite was that I was able to find out all the information I needed about what I had missed.
And boy, was that a doozy.
It had been two months since I was on Earth. That was insane. It was long enough to be a terrible inconvenience, but not long enough to equate to all the time I had spent in an entirely different dimension.
Revelation one was that I had been fired for job abandonment. Not hugely surprising, but both Officers assured me that they could get me that back the moment I was ready. Apparently, there were a couple of fail safes for missing people who were spontaneously recovered, thank goodness. I’m sure that would have been a great assurance, if I cared about returning to my career at all.
I missed all my finals, which meant I had flunked out of my semester. Again, the Officers said they could contact the school and get me a second chance for that as well. That one I was more dubious about considering how much colleges liked to milk my generation out of as much money as possible, but I appreciated that it was an option.
Surprisingly, it was my landlord who had declared me a missing person. When my rent was late for the first time in two years, he sent me a letter. Then texts. Then some phone calls. After a week with no answer, he allowed himself into my place. He could have just called it abandoned and had that be that, but when he saw my dinner sitting there, only half eaten, and my computer still on, that had raised all sorts of red flags for him.
And biggest boon of all, he was still holding my place for me. Not a single item had been moved, other than an occasional dusting by his wife, and searching for any clues about who they could contact for me. If that wasn’t going above and beyond, I had no idea what was. I had never considered the fact that I might be homeless, and I was incredibly grateful that I didn’t have to deal with that on top of everything else.
So, with all that taken care of, I had to find something to occupy myself in the copious amount of downtime I had over the week. So I thought of how I would break through the divide between dimensions again and get back to my friends.
Obviously, my computer was my first bet. It was a video game that had gotten me there the first time, so maybe it would work again. But thinking about the video game, made me think about the book, which made me wonder how these accurate portrayals of another dimension existed as mass media.
Was there a Stranger here with a penchant for earth dollars? If so, wouldn’t they have said something in the Meeting Place? Wouldn’t they have included at least some hints to the Strangers in their works?
I don’t know why I always bombarded myself with so many questions. It wasn’t like I ever did anything productive with the barrage. Just a lot of thought-train chasing.
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
I looked up to Nurse Paul, who was wheeling my chair to the elevator.
“Are you kidding me? I’ve been trying to get out of here since I woke up.”
“Yes, that much has been apparent. What exactly are you in a rush for?”
“Getting on with my life.” I answered sharply. I was on good term with all of the staff, but the idea that they didn’t understand my urgency was the understatement of the year. “I don’t know if you picked up on it, but I kinda have a thing about being in control.”
“Goodness, I was never able to figure that out. Not when you snatched the sponge out Lizzie’s hand and declared you could clean yourself. Or when you started narrating the MRI procedure to the attending, and especially not when you reminded Doctor Ocampo they would need to duplicate your discharge papers for the police and your own medical file.”
“Glad you noticed a theme.”
She laughed, and pushed me into the open doors of the lift. “Type A patients are all the same. You are nowhere near my first, and will not be the last.”
“And there goes me thinking I’m something special.”
“Well, none of those patients resurrected form the dead, so you’ll have that.”
“Yes. There’s always that.”
The conversation hit a lull but I didn’t mind. My mind was already far ahead of me and in my apartment.
The elevator do
ors opened and soon she was wheeling me to the entrance. My eyes were already outside, looking for my transport to the station. I had expected to take a bus back home, but the officers weren’t having that, so I was getting a personal escort. Apparently one of them had relatives up in Buffalo and decided to take a few days off to go visit them. I wasn’t sure how true that was and how much of it was them trying to make me not feel indebted to them, but I was vastly appreciative of the gesture.
We trundled through the doors and the driver’s side of a blue car opened, a tall, lanky officer stepping out. “Miss Andi?”
“In the flesh.” I answered, slowly standing up. I was more than capable of walking myself, but my endurance had definitely taken a hit with all my time being confined to my bed.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Officer Iacabucci. I’ve been handling some of your case.”
“And doing a stellar job, of course.” Oy, I needed to cut back on the exceedingly dry sarcasm. “I really do appreciate this.”
“It’s nothing. My sister has been bugging me to see her baby for about a month now. I guess I couldn’t dodge her with such a good reason to drive up.”
“That’s me, the convenient plot device for your life.” I slowly made my way towards the passenger side door, and the young man rushed to open it for me. I flashed him a grateful smile and slid right in.”
Nurse Paul pulled Officer Iacabucci to the side, telling him what I assumed were some last-minute care instructions for our long drive. A few minutes later, he was in the car and we were on the road.
Finally, I was on my way home and hopefully, to my friends.
Chapter Three: Finding the Back Door (And Not the Fun Way)
I stared up at my apartment building, my stomach squeezing with nerves. What had once been my haven away from the hustle and bustle of constantly rushing now seemed so unfamiliar to me.
“Andi!”
I looked towards the demi-familiar voice to see my Landlord and his wife walking quickly towards me. Only fleetingly I remembered that Officer Iacabucci had called them when we were about a half an hour out to notify them we had almost arrived.
“Goodness, you’ve lost so much weight!”
I blinked and looked to the shorter woman. Had I? I hadn’t taken the time to notice, but it made sense.
“I knew they would find you.” My Landlord said, pulling me into a quick hug. “I still have your keys, let’s get you up to your place.”
“I hope you don’t mind love, but we cleaned out your fridge and replaced a lot of the supplies.”
“Geeze, you didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh it wasn’t just us, darling! We told your situation to our church -sans name and identifying details, of course- and all of it was donated by our congregation. There are even some home cooked meals in there so you don’t have to slave over an oven until you’re ready.”
“Thanks. That’s really top notch of you guys.”
“You’ve been a loyal tenant for two years. If we’re not going to look out for you while we can, what’s the point of it all?”
“Good point.”
I turned back to the Officer and offered him my hand. “Thanks again for the lift.”
He cracked a smile and shook my extended limb. “It was my pleasure. Keep an eye on your mail, you’ll have some things coming from the station and our victim charities as well.”
“Thanks man.”
“Think nothing of it. Remember not to push yourself too hard.”
“I’ll try.”
He gave me a courteous little nod then hopped back into his car and pulled off. Returning my attention back to the older couple, I let them escort me in.
There was a very distinct feeling of de ja vu as I strolled down the hall between them. The wife was keeping up a steady stream of chatter, but I was only half listening. I’m sure it was all lovely stuff and assurances that I would like, but I couldn’t get my mind to focus.
And then, finally, we were standing in front of my door. “If you don’t mind,” I demurred to the two of them. “I would like to be alone for a bit.”
“Of course! You’ve had a long trip and I’m sure a lot of rest will do you well.” The two of them gave me a hug then handed me my key. They waited until I unlocked the door and slipped in before returning back to the ancient elevator at the end of the hall. Once they were gone, I closed the door right back up and took a deep breath.
I was home.
I took one long, deep breath before dashing towards my computer. Well, dash probably wasn’t the right word, but it was a very frantic rushing.
Someone had shut it down, thank goodness, but it did try my patience that I had to boot it up again. My foot bounced as I waited for that tell-tale start up jingle, and then I was starting the game file.
…except there was no game file.
The icon that I so clearly remembered saving to my desktop wasn’t there. I checked my recycle bin, and there was nothing. Feeling my stomach drop, I hit the button to eject the installation disc. Looking at the shiny little circle, I saw that it was completely blank.
“What is going on?”
Looking around in bewilderment, I spotted the bag from the game store, and snatched it up. Fishing around, I managed to pull out the still-open case. Looking to the cover, I saw it was just something for a generic shooter.
Feeling completely insane, I snatched the receipt out and saw it was for the same franchised FPS that I was never a fan of.
“This… this cannot be happening.”
Panic was now bubbling up in full, and I turned back to my computer. A few mouse-clicks later, I was searching through the internet for anything, even a fanboy’s forum post, but came up empty.
“No.” I groaned, rubbing my eyes in frustration. “No, no, no! I didn’t make all this up. It’s real.”
But how could something that was real have absolutely no footprint in reality? I was quickly wondering if perhaps I was legitimately suffering from delusions. Just when I was growing most desperate, my mind offered one tiny sliver of hope.
“The book!”
I rushed back over to my reading spot, rooting around for the novel I had just finished. Sure enough, it was still sitting there, cover down.
My heart was pounding as I turned it towards me, and relief flooded through my system when I saw the same art that had been there the last time. So the book was real, even if I couldn’t find any evidence of the game. That was fine. I could still discover a way to continue.
I gripped the book with both my hands, turning it over and over. It felt wonderfully familiar and comforting, and my eyes landed on the woman on the back cover once more.
Her similarities to Jyra were insane, and suddenly I knew that she had to be a part of this. How else could you explain her uncanny knowledge of extra-dimensional history?
It was back to the internet, and I was searching her name. I held my breath the entire time, fearing that the engine would come up with zero results just as I had on the video game, and the actual series itself.
Against all hope, there was a single related result. It looked like some sort of fan-forum site, and I clicked on that link so fast I almost had mouse-burn.
I was greeted by an opening page that welcomed me, as well as explaining the purpose of the site. But just under that were about a dozen or so redirect buttons in the distinct shape of book covers.
I scrolled through, reading their labels as my mouse hovered over the images. There was the Inkwell Series, the Broken Ground Trilogy, the Starshine Chronicles. It went on and on until I spotted a familiar cover. The Council of Six Anthology.
That was it. That was the dimension I had run, cried and bled in. I clicked on it, and I was being shown a list of twenty-odd titles involving the universe.
I sat back, my mind whirring. If I the Council of Six books all corresponded to actual historical events from that universe, did that mean all of the series were other dimensions? If so, how was this human-Jyra wannabe abl
e to record it all down? She had to be a Stranger.
I needed to talk to her. I knew that much. But how was I supposed to find her when all I had was a meticulously organized fan site with a message board that was mediocre at best?
Well, I guessed the best way to be noticed was making a splash, right?
Quickly, I created an account, chose a user name and got started. Let’s see what a subject heading of ‘Desperately Needing to Cross Dimensional Borders’ by username ‘ActuallyaStranger’ would pull up.
As it turned out, nothing.
I stared at the little inbox icon, and stared, and stared. I spent at least an hour waiting for it to alight that someone was responding to my call in the dark.
Eventually, I grew frustrated and got up in a huff. Stomping to the kitchen, I threw the door open to see it was indeed stuffed to the brim with both groceries and already cooked meals. The clear generosity made me soften a little. Yes, things were stressful and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get myself out of this mess, but at least there were some bright points of hope in the universe.
I rooted around until I found something that I was pretty sure was enchiladas, and I happily pulled them out. Time to gain back some of the shape that I had lost in the hospital.
*
I could feel my body being pulled towards consciousness, but I didn’t want to listen. Sleep was so blissful. In my uninterrupted dreams, there were no dead friends, no lost dimensions, no mutated virus.
But I knew that every second I spent flat on my back was another second I wasn’t finding Jyra, so I groaned and rolled out of bed.
At least the floor wasn’t cold as my bare feet set down. Yawning, I stumbled to the bathroom for my morning pee, then beelined straight for my computer.
I pulled up the forum first thing. My history brought me right to my post, and of course there wasn’t a single comment.
“Dammit!” I slammed my fists on the table before heaving out an aggressive sigh. But before I could navigate away from the page, I saw a tiny little red check next to my inbox icon.
My heart about stopped, and I held my breath as I clicked on it.
The Return (Alternate Dimensions Book 5) Page 2
