HERE MARKS THE WINNING CHAPTER. I will probably never write more of this story after this point, though. I hope you have enjoyed the ride! I know I have!
“I’ll tell you the story. There was a beautiful but incredibly lonely woman named Valerie Skins. This is, of course, yours truly. She went to the bar once, hoping to meet someone whom she could learn to love, because her aching heart just couldn’t bear the loneliness for too much longer. She soon grew depressed, and when she went to the bar one day… she felt that all that sadness would simply lift away when she met the amazingly handsome and seemingly sweet Lucas Francium, the man whom she thought would be her lover.
“So she took him to her place, treated him right, and just wanted him to love her. Was that too much to ask? For another person in life? For someone to love, and to be loved by someone? Our beautiful heroine Valerie Skins did not. So she opened herself up to this one seemingly equally perfect man Lucas Francium, only to wake up the next morning to find her bed completely empty, and Lucas Francium gone without any trace.
“The beautiful and perfect Valerie Skins no longer made sadness her main emotion, but turned that sadness into anger. No, not sadness into anger. Her depression into rage. Absolutely angry and burning rage. She wanted revenge, and she wanted it badly. She wanted to cause Lucas Francium the most pain she could possibly cause him.
“But how was that possible? For Valerie Skins, our beautiful and perfect heroine of this story, knew that loneliness was the most painful thing. That getting the perfect revenge on her beloved Luke was not to go straight out and kill him, or torture him, or capture him. No, she would do nothing to kill her beloved. She could not dare to harm her beloved. She could do nothing of the sort, because truthfully, she loved him too bloody much. And she thought that the best revenge would be to kill off or severely hurt the ones he loved, the ones that if they were gone, would cause him the most pain. But he worked alone, and so there was no one of the sort to harm like that.
“And it just so happened that these beautiful creatures here wanted something, too. They wanted complete rule over all the universes, all the dimensions. Their race is superior to the human race—well, most of the human race, anyway—and I agreed. There are just some horrible people out there in the world. And I couldn’t bear to see these poor creatures not get what they deserve—which is to say, the entire enslavement of all other living creatures with moderate intelligence—because they reminded me of me, the beautiful and perfect Valerie Skins, who also did not get what she deserved.
“So our beautiful and perfect heroine, Valerie Skins, thought of a perfect deal to make with these lovely and almost as perfect as her unicorns. She said that she knew the man who took care of it all, who was the Keeper of Dimensions, and that if they helped me get my revenge on him, then they could keep you and do whatever they like with you, and by using you, get total rule over all dimensions. It really is a brilliant plan if you think about it.
“So they gave me their dimension hopping technology, and I promised them I would bring you to their home dimension, which, let’s face it, darling, was not very difficult considering you just had to follow Maurice through that forest and into our garden. You see, I decided to put my plan into action now because I noticed that you had gotten someone you didn’t just want to shag and toss aside like you did with me. You were no longer alone, and you had become vulnerable to the exact type of revenge I wanted to inflict on you.”
“How did you know about her?” Luke asked. “How did you know about Caitlin being with me?”
“My love, I saw her with you with my own eyes.”
“What?”
“In the Desert of Naharah. I was there, you see. I saved her life, I gave you the water.”
“Wait, that was you?” I exclaimed. “Luke!”
“Yes, that was me, you insufferable twit,” she said. “And then I saw you again as my band of unicorns stampeded into the floating city that reached to the skies.”
“So that’s what made the shaking so violent,” Luke thought out loud. “The whole lot of them were dimension hopping.”
“Yes, of course,” she said. “And now that I have my way, and now that I have got you right where I want you, there is no way that I will not get the revenge I have been seeking for oh, so long.”
“Wow, Valerie,” Luke said. “That is quite some story. I’m sorry, but I have to find it a little pathetic that you turned to unicorns to get your revenge on me. Also, I’ve slept with a lot of girls and left them, and none of them are as psychotic as you are to actually be hunting me down after all this time. They’ve all moved on with their lives, probably found someone else, someone better for them. Me? I would have made the worst boyfriend ever. I would have to keep going through dimensions, and I would never be around to do whatever it is boyfriends do. Say ‘I love you’ and hold you and all of that sentimental stuff. Honestly, Valerie, all you need to do is let go, move on, and I’m sure you will find someone else in your life. Someone better. Someone who would have actually taken care of your loneliness, and helped you grow as a person.”
“I am plenty grown as a person!” Valerie said.
“Yes, but there is plenty left in the world for you to learn!” Luke said. “There are so many places and people!”
“I have learned much from these beautiful creatures, Lucas. I am sure you know of their high skill in their combative ways.”
“I am familiar, yes,” Luke said.
“Well, then,” Valerie said. She reached behind the head unicorn, and pulled out a long and silver sword. “Let us reminisce about old times, shall we, love?”
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Chapter Twenty-Four
After a little while of just sitting there letting whatever little sunlight that could escape through the leaves hit our skin, making our skin feel nice, and warm, and tingly, and all together, just perfect, we decided that we should probably get on with trying to find the horse, because that is what we came here to do anyway.
Once we stood up, though, there was a pair of unsettling black eyes staring us right in the face. The little odd and funny detective hat stood on its head without falling, and its dazzling white coat made everything else around it seem dull.
We didn’t dare move. We stayed perfectly still, as to not scare it away.
And just as suddenly as this one appeared, a whole gang of perfectly beautiful white horses came from the surrounding foliage and bushes, all wearing their own silly little hat. One of them, for example, was wearing a beanie, and the other one was wearing a red hunting hat. There was one that wore a paper bag on its head, and there was even one that had a cardboard box.
“All right… what the bloody hell is going on?” Luke asked.
The horse right in the front, the one we were chasing for so long, the one with the silly and odd and funny little detective has opened its mouth, and to the giant shock of both me and Luke… it spoke.
“We have finally found you, Lucas Francium,” it said.
I looked up at look in horror, who seemed to have an expression of equal shock on his face.
“It took you long enough to come to our home dimension,” the horse spoke again.
“Okay… in all my years of research, I have never heard of a talking horse before,” Luke said.
The horse then whinnied and stuck its front legs up in the air, shaking its head back and forth to cause the silly and funny and odd little detective hat on its head to fall over.
If possible, I was even more stunned. I swore every loudly at the sight.
A cone shaped, spiraled horn stuck up perfectly from the white horse’s head.
“Ah,” Luke said. “I am so stupid. I see now.”
“Um… Luke?” I said very quietly.
“Yes, Caitlin?”
“Are those… unicorns?”
Luke nodded. “Yeah. Those are unicorns.”
“And, um… unicorns exist?”
“Yeah. They are just more intelligent and more, how do I say this?, genetically different from the average horses you see in your own dimension. But whenever I have ever come to this specific dimension, I have never seen a single unicorn around here.”
“We hide in secret, Lucas Francium,” the unicorn said again. “We are not seen until we want to be seen.”
“Oh, yeah?” Luke said. He seemd to be pretty confident, but then I realized that his voice was trembling just a little bit. “And why have you decided to show yourselves this time, huh?”
The band of unicorns began to laugh.
“You will find out soon enough, Lucas Francium.”
“Um… Luke?” I asked quietly.
“Yes, Caitlin?”
“Why are we afraid of unicorns?” I asked.
“Because, Caitlin,” Lucas said to me so quietly to make sure I was the only one who could hear him, “unicorns… are not friendly like everyone in your dimension thinks they are.”
“They aren’t? How come?”
“They just aren’t. I hate to beak all your little childhood dreams and all, but unicorns are actually very evil. They love violence, and they kill for fun.”
“They kill people?”
“Yeah. They stab them in the heart with their horn.”
“And they kill people like this for fun?” I asked.
“Yeah, pretty much. I mean, that’s what unicorns like to do. That’s how they get their food, you see. They stab their prey, and then eat the flesh.”
“I thought unicorns were vegetarian?”
“It seems like your unicorn stereotypes were wrong.”
“Well, well, isn’t this nice,” said a female voice.
A woman with long, curly dark brown hair came in front of the head unicorn. She was wearing a long, flowing red gown, and her make up seemed heavy but not over done, she seemed slender but not too skinny, her eyes were very round, but not too large. She looked like the perfect woman, which fit in perfectly in this perfect dimension. She was so perfect, that she made the perfectly perfect white unicorns look blase next to her.
Luke’s eyes widened again.
“What’s going on?”
“Well,” Luke said in a whisper again. “It seems like we’ve found our culprit.”
“Who is she?”
Lucas continued like he didn’t hear my question. “She’s been ordering the unicorns to kill. Remember we went to your brother’s funeral in that one dimension with the church?”
I nodded.
“Do you remember how he died?”
“Stabbed… in the heart… with something cone-shaped and spiral-y,” I said, only understanding the full meaning of it after I had completed the sentence.
“That is correct,” he said. “It seems… like she’s been after us for a while now.”
“Yes, but who is she?” I repeated.
“It’s so nice to see you again, Luke,” she said. “Is ignoring me and talking to your new girl any way to treat a former lover?”
“You are not my former lover,” Luke said sternly.
“Yeah, and I am not his new girl,” I said.
The woman turned to look at me. “She is absolutely lovely, Luke. Where are you taking her? Dumping her off in a river or something? Does your leaving of a woman get progressively worse the more you sleep with?”
“I have not slept with him!” I snapped.
“And quite charming, too,” the perfect woman said, turning back to Luke. “Now, baby, why don’t you just come back into my arms, and you can come back to my place. I’ll make you some of that chocolate cake that you loved. The one I made for my birthday, the one I know you still think is the best. Maybe that, a cup of tea, and we can catch up. You tell me how your… dimension thing is going, and I’ll tell you all about…” she lifted her hand up, and with two fingers, stroked the maine of the unicorn she was leaning against. “…I’ll tell you all about my new pets.”
“Oh, that is so likely, Valerie,” Luke said, the sarcasm in his voice being plainly apparent. “You have set these beasts to kill people, people I know that you hand picked to murder, and you are going to tell me why right now.”
“Now, now, love,” Valerie said, taking a few steps forward. “I wouldn’t be too hasty about matters like this. Especially since I am the one with the power right now. Honestly, dear, it’s amazing that I am still letting you talk. I should be the ones asking the questions, you see.”
“What is going on?” I asked Luke.
“Oh, your new slut wants to know what’s going on?” Valerie asked. “Well, dearie, let me tell you the story. The story of Lucas Francium: Keeper of Dimensions.”
Once we stood up, though, there was a pair of unsettling black eyes staring us right in the face. The little odd and funny detective hat stood on its head without falling, and its dazzling white coat made everything else around it seem dull.
We didn’t dare move. We stayed perfectly still, as to not scare it away.
And just as suddenly as this one appeared, a whole gang of perfectly beautiful white horses came from the surrounding foliage and bushes, all wearing their own silly little hat. One of them, for example, was wearing a beanie, and the other one was wearing a red hunting hat. There was one that wore a paper bag on its head, and there was even one that had a cardboard box.
“All right… what the bloody hell is going on?” Luke asked.
The horse right in the front, the one we were chasing for so long, the one with the silly and odd and funny little detective has opened its mouth, and to the giant shock of both me and Luke… it spoke.
“We have finally found you, Lucas Francium,” it said.
I looked up at look in horror, who seemed to have an expression of equal shock on his face.
“It took you long enough to come to our home dimension,” the horse spoke again.
“Okay… in all my years of research, I have never heard of a talking horse before,” Luke said.
The horse then whinnied and stuck its front legs up in the air, shaking its head back and forth to cause the silly and funny and odd little detective hat on its head to fall over.
If possible, I was even more stunned. I swore every loudly at the sight.
A cone shaped, spiraled horn stuck up perfectly from the white horse’s head.
“Ah,” Luke said. “I am so stupid. I see now.”
“Um… Luke?” I said very quietly.
“Yes, Caitlin?”
“Are those… unicorns?”
Luke nodded. “Yeah. Those are unicorns.”
“And, um… unicorns exist?”
“Yeah. They are just more intelligent and more, how do I say this?, genetically different from the average horses you see in your own dimension. But whenever I have ever come to this specific dimension, I have never seen a single unicorn around here.”
“We hide in secret, Lucas Francium,” the unicorn said again. “We are not seen until we want to be seen.”
“Oh, yeah?” Luke said. He seemd to be pretty confident, but then I realized that his voice was trembling just a little bit. “And why have you decided to show yourselves this time, huh?”
The band of unicorns began to laugh.
“You will find out soon enough, Lucas Francium.”
“Um… Luke?” I asked quietly.
“Yes, Caitlin?”
“Why are we afraid of unicorns?” I asked.
“Because, Caitlin,” Lucas said to me so quietly to make sure I was the only one who could hear him, “unicorns… are not friendly like everyone in your dimension thinks they are.”
“They aren’t? How come?”
“They just aren’t. I hate to beak all your little childhood dreams and all, but unicorns are actually very evil. They love violence, and they kill for fun.”
“They kill people?”
“Yeah. They stab them in the heart with their horn.”
“And they kill people like this for fun?” I asked.
“Yeah, pretty much. I mean, that’s what unicorns like to do. That’s how they get their food, you see. They stab their prey, and then eat the flesh.”
“I thought unicorns were vegetarian?”
“It seems like your unicorn stereotypes were wrong.”
“Well, well, isn’t this nice,” said a female voice.
A woman with long, curly dark brown hair came in front of the head unicorn. She was wearing a long, flowing red gown, and her make up seemed heavy but not over done, she seemed slender but not too skinny, her eyes were very round, but not too large. She looked like the perfect woman, which fit in perfectly in this perfect dimension. She was so perfect, that she made the perfectly perfect white unicorns look blase next to her.
Luke’s eyes widened again.
“What’s going on?”
“Well,” Luke said in a whisper again. “It seems like we’ve found our culprit.”
“Who is she?”
Lucas continued like he didn’t hear my question. “She’s been ordering the unicorns to kill. Remember we went to your brother’s funeral in that one dimension with the church?”
I nodded.
“Do you remember how he died?”
“Stabbed… in the heart… with something cone-shaped and spiral-y,” I said, only understanding the full meaning of it after I had completed the sentence.
“That is correct,” he said. “It seems… like she’s been after us for a while now.”
“Yes, but who is she?” I repeated.
“It’s so nice to see you again, Luke,” she said. “Is ignoring me and talking to your new girl any way to treat a former lover?”
“You are not my former lover,” Luke said sternly.
“Yeah, and I am not his new girl,” I said.
The woman turned to look at me. “She is absolutely lovely, Luke. Where are you taking her? Dumping her off in a river or something? Does your leaving of a woman get progressively worse the more you sleep with?”
“I have not slept with him!” I snapped.
“And quite charming, too,” the perfect woman said, turning back to Luke. “Now, baby, why don’t you just come back into my arms, and you can come back to my place. I’ll make you some of that chocolate cake that you loved. The one I made for my birthday, the one I know you still think is the best. Maybe that, a cup of tea, and we can catch up. You tell me how your… dimension thing is going, and I’ll tell you all about…” she lifted her hand up, and with two fingers, stroked the maine of the unicorn she was leaning against. “…I’ll tell you all about my new pets.”
“Oh, that is so likely, Valerie,” Luke said, the sarcasm in his voice being plainly apparent. “You have set these beasts to kill people, people I know that you hand picked to murder, and you are going to tell me why right now.”
“Now, now, love,” Valerie said, taking a few steps forward. “I wouldn’t be too hasty about matters like this. Especially since I am the one with the power right now. Honestly, dear, it’s amazing that I am still letting you talk. I should be the ones asking the questions, you see.”
“What is going on?” I asked Luke.
“Oh, your new slut wants to know what’s going on?” Valerie asked. “Well, dearie, let me tell you the story. The story of Lucas Francium: Keeper of Dimensions.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
It didn't take us too long to find the next door. It was relitively close by, and still within the un-green green ish trees of this oddly green forest. Did I mention how weird the green was? Like, it wasn't normal green. Normal green is, like, the color of normal leaves. These leaves were not normal. Because they were a weird green. They were like if you took the leaves of a normal tree, and made them exceptionally bright, and then you ate peas for lunch and then threw up on them. That's what the leaves looked like. Anyway, I never had to look at those leaves after that, because we found the door and decided to go through it.
The green here was so much more beautiful. It was sa soft green, and the light, yet comfortably warm sunlight just barely hit my face through all the foliage and festoons. It felt like we were in some sort of forbidden garden. And I don't know my christianity too well, but it almost felt like we were in the Garden of Eden. Every single leaf, every single plant, and every single petal on every single flower seemed to be perfect in every single way: they were the perfect shape, the perfect texture, the perfect size, the perfect color, the perfect scent. Just absolutely perfect.
So as we went around searching for the majestic white and weirdly perfect horse that wore an odd and funny detective hat on its head, I couldn't help but just be completely awe struck at the beauty of the pure nature of this place. I mean, sure, I had loved seeing the sky scrapers, and being in towns with aactual people was great, but there was just something about this place that made me just want to lie in the grass, lie down, and let the sun hit me as the perfection of this place went around me like some sort of thhing that goes around people.
And so when we went under a tree, I requested Luke if we could stop.
"Luke... can we take a short break?" I asked. "I'm absolutely exhausted... and this place is so nice and perfect... come on, let's just go under this tree here." And before he could answer, I had sat down and leaned against the giant tree that cast a shadow over the perfectly green grass.
"We have to find that horse, Caity-cakes," Luke said. "Come on, we don't have time for this."
I took a deep breath. "Just for a little while. I mean, we can always catch that horse. If your motorcycle is going faster just to catch it, I'm sure that out running it will never be a problem. And the fact that we can tell when and where it dimension hops... that horse has no chance against us if we're planning to hunt it down. So just relax a bit. Sit next to me. Please?"
Luke rolled his eyes, but did what I told him to. He crossed his legs and sat right next to me so that his shoulder was touching mine. He looked at me and smiled. "This place is kind of nice. I wouldn't mind having a wedding or something here."
I raised my eyebrows. "A wedding? You? Getting married? Why, it's more likely to see... well, honestly, I don't really know what's likely to see and what isn't. I suppose everything is possible now that we can go into alternate dimensions."
Luke looked down at his hands and smiled again. "Yeah. Me, getting married. That's just such a stupid idea, isnt it? I think it is. I mean, the job was meant for me to do alone, anyway."
"No, don't say that," I said. "I mean, sure, the job is more convenient for you to do alone. But you know my dad? He got married. And he had children. And he had a family, and a life, and I knew all about his social life and his friends and all of the family friends we had who would com over for dinner. I mean, the only thing I didn't know was where he worked, and why he kept leaving for business meetings for such long periods of time and so often. I guess he just wanted to keep us all safe. But it didn't really work, did it?"
Luke put his hand on my leg. "If we get up, we can go find the person who did that to your family," he said. "And it could help you feel better. You know, the whole vengence thing."
"Doesn't revenge not solve anything?"
Luke shrugged. "It depends on how you look at it. And whether it solves anything or not, it feels damn good. In fact, vengance has to be my favorite thing right after sex and chocolate cake."
"Really? That's jut a bit sad."
"Why is that sad? It feels good, getting revenge on someone."
"Yeah, but my favorite emotion is love. I love my family. And my life. And I think that is so much better than revenge. Really."
Luke rolled his eyes. "You're a sentimental fool, that's what you are."
I shrugged. "Maybe, but I still think love is a bit stronger than hate. Hey, maybe I'll be the one to get married here."
"Yeah," Luke said. "Maybe we both will."
The green here was so much more beautiful. It was sa soft green, and the light, yet comfortably warm sunlight just barely hit my face through all the foliage and festoons. It felt like we were in some sort of forbidden garden. And I don't know my christianity too well, but it almost felt like we were in the Garden of Eden. Every single leaf, every single plant, and every single petal on every single flower seemed to be perfect in every single way: they were the perfect shape, the perfect texture, the perfect size, the perfect color, the perfect scent. Just absolutely perfect.
So as we went around searching for the majestic white and weirdly perfect horse that wore an odd and funny detective hat on its head, I couldn't help but just be completely awe struck at the beauty of the pure nature of this place. I mean, sure, I had loved seeing the sky scrapers, and being in towns with aactual people was great, but there was just something about this place that made me just want to lie in the grass, lie down, and let the sun hit me as the perfection of this place went around me like some sort of thhing that goes around people.
And so when we went under a tree, I requested Luke if we could stop.
"Luke... can we take a short break?" I asked. "I'm absolutely exhausted... and this place is so nice and perfect... come on, let's just go under this tree here." And before he could answer, I had sat down and leaned against the giant tree that cast a shadow over the perfectly green grass.
"We have to find that horse, Caity-cakes," Luke said. "Come on, we don't have time for this."
I took a deep breath. "Just for a little while. I mean, we can always catch that horse. If your motorcycle is going faster just to catch it, I'm sure that out running it will never be a problem. And the fact that we can tell when and where it dimension hops... that horse has no chance against us if we're planning to hunt it down. So just relax a bit. Sit next to me. Please?"
Luke rolled his eyes, but did what I told him to. He crossed his legs and sat right next to me so that his shoulder was touching mine. He looked at me and smiled. "This place is kind of nice. I wouldn't mind having a wedding or something here."
I raised my eyebrows. "A wedding? You? Getting married? Why, it's more likely to see... well, honestly, I don't really know what's likely to see and what isn't. I suppose everything is possible now that we can go into alternate dimensions."
Luke looked down at his hands and smiled again. "Yeah. Me, getting married. That's just such a stupid idea, isnt it? I think it is. I mean, the job was meant for me to do alone, anyway."
"No, don't say that," I said. "I mean, sure, the job is more convenient for you to do alone. But you know my dad? He got married. And he had children. And he had a family, and a life, and I knew all about his social life and his friends and all of the family friends we had who would com over for dinner. I mean, the only thing I didn't know was where he worked, and why he kept leaving for business meetings for such long periods of time and so often. I guess he just wanted to keep us all safe. But it didn't really work, did it?"
Luke put his hand on my leg. "If we get up, we can go find the person who did that to your family," he said. "And it could help you feel better. You know, the whole vengence thing."
"Doesn't revenge not solve anything?"
Luke shrugged. "It depends on how you look at it. And whether it solves anything or not, it feels damn good. In fact, vengance has to be my favorite thing right after sex and chocolate cake."
"Really? That's jut a bit sad."
"Why is that sad? It feels good, getting revenge on someone."
"Yeah, but my favorite emotion is love. I love my family. And my life. And I think that is so much better than revenge. Really."
Luke rolled his eyes. "You're a sentimental fool, that's what you are."
I shrugged. "Maybe, but I still think love is a bit stronger than hate. Hey, maybe I'll be the one to get married here."
"Yeah," Luke said. "Maybe we both will."
Chapter Twent-Two
I had the strangest dream. I was walking through this oddly colored town, the sky was turning red, and everything seemed to be covered in heat waves, making the curvy lines of the buildings move like snakes. In the distance there was a brilliant, white horse. As white as the newest snow fall, and as pure as an innocent child. Except for one odd thing about it was the fact that it was wearing a detective hat on its head.
“Hello there, little horse,” I said, but my voice echoed the moment it left my throat, which made it sound like I was either very high or very insane. “Do you want to give me a lift?”
The horse did not look my way. It had its eyes fixed on something. Something it could not keep its eyes off of, even if it tried.
“Little horse!” I called again. “I need to find my friend. His name is Lucas. He is the Keeper of the Dimensions or… well, something like that. I need help finding him. Could you give me a lift?”
The horse turned and looked at me, its black eyes fixed and un blinking.
“Come over here, little horse!” my voice echoed. “I need a lift! Could you give me a lift?”
The horse turned around, and walked away. It did not bother to look at me again. It had something else to look for.
“Hey! Hey, where are you going? You’re not just going to leave me here? All by myself? I need your help, and you’re leaving me? Hey, where do you think you’re going? Come back here!”
“Caitlin?”
“Don’t leave me…”
“Calm down, Caity-kins, I was never planning to leave you.”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“You are not alone, Caity-kins. Wake up.”
My eyes opened. The sky was not red, it was blue. And the person talking to me was not a white horse, it was a white guy. Lucas was directly above me, holding me gently in his arms.
I sat up straight instantly. The pain shot into my head. “Ah! Oh, God. What… what the hell happened?”
“I really have no idea,” Luke said. “Is your head okay? Should I find you an ice pack or something?”
“No, my head is fine,” I said. “But really, what’s going on? Where’s that horse?”
“Horse?”
“Yeah. There was a horse… with a hat on…”
Luke raised one eyebrow. “You were dreaming, Caity-kins.”
“No! There was a horse… that didn’t feel like a dream.”
“Trust me. I haven’t seen any white horses wearing any caps.”
I paused for a moment. “I never said the horse was white.”
“What? Oh. I. Um. You mentioned it. While you were muttering.”
I gave him a skeptical look. “You did see a horse somewhere around, didn’t you?”
Luke sighed. “Yes, I saw a horse. It just looked at me holding you and then galloped off. I didn’t give it any importance.”
“Was it wearing a hat?”
“Why is that important?”
“Luke, just answer me.”
Lucas frowned. “Yeah, it was wearing a hat.”
“We have to go after it,” I said. “We have to find it. That horse has answers.”
“Answers? Slow down, Caity-kins, you’ve got a serious bruise on your head, and I don’t think you’re talking completely straight.”
“Of course, because a white horse with a hat on having answers is completely unlikely said the Keeper of the Dimensions.”
Luke sighed. “Just rest for a little bit. Do you have any idea what knocked you out?”
“No, I didn’t get to see. I wasn’t looking up, I was looking down, I think.”
“And you didn’t see who did this to you?”
I shook my head, which made it hurt even more. “No,” I answered.
“All right. Well, when you feel up to it, you can stand up, and we’ll go track down that horse with the funny hat.”
I stood up immediately, but felt incredibly dizzy and almost fell over again. Luke caught me before I completely toppled over, though.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, standing up straight. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”
“Well, I don’t want to have you walking,” he said. “We’re going on the motorcycle.”
So Luke carefully led me to the motorcycle and I got on by myself as my brain continued to pound against the side of my head.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m fine!” I assured him. “Just drive.”
So he revved up the motorcycle, and took off in the direction the white horse with the funny detective hat went off to.
Before too long, we were at the strange colorful city’s edge, and we were going into a forest where the leaves seemed a bit too green to be natural. And soon after that, I noticed the perfectly white horse just a good number’s yards ahead of us.
“There!” I said, pointing at it. “There it is!”
The horse looked back at us, and even though horses don’t have expressions, it seemed incredibly shocked to see us following it. It soon broke out into a run, and went incredibly fast. Faster than I’ve ever seen a horse go.
“Come on, step it up!” I said. I watched the little needle indicating Luke’s speed on the dashboard slowly go more and more towards the right as the motorcycle gained speed and was gaining on the white horse.
As the horse realized that we were after it, it started to go faster as well, and soon, it was a race to see who could go the fastest. At time we would be right on the horse’s tail (literally) and at other times the horse seemed so much faster than we were.
Luke was in incredible concentration because of the high speeds he was now going at. He leaned against the dashboard, his knuckles turned completely pale white, almost as white as the horse itself, as he held onto the handle bars of his motorcycle.
And just like that, the stunningly white horse with the funny and oddly placed detective’s hat had vanished.
Luke came to a screeching halt. The two of us looked around to see where it could have possibly gone.
“Um… did you see where it went?” I said, now completely oblivious to the pain in my head.
“It seemed to just vanish,” Luke answered. “But I have never seen my motorcycle go that fast before, nor have I seen any living thing on its own feet go that fast before.”
“Well, why do you think your motorcycle went faster than usual? Do you think that horse had anything to do with the inter dimensional forces of all the universes?”
Luke smiled. “You’re finally starting to catch on, Caity-cakes, because that’s exactly why I think the motorcycle went faster than usual.” Luke pressed some buttons on the dashboard, and the light all turned green.
“Are you trying to locate a door?”
“If that horse is from a different dimension, this function will be able to tell us.”
“Honestly, it seems like this dimension is deserted,” I said. “All the houses were empty, and there was absolutely nobody. I don’t blame them, for having houses like that.”
“You tried to go into the houses?” Luke asked in a disapproving tone.
I shrugged. “I was thirsty, and not really in the mood to come crawling back to you.”
“And yet, I was still the one to find you unconscious on the street,” Luke said with a slight smile.
I rolled my eyes at him, but he was too focused on the lights of his motorcycle to notice.
“It… it’s just gone,” he said.
“Gone? What d’you mean gone?”
“It’s not here. Not in this dimension.”
“What do you mean? Where could it have gone? How could it have gone?”
But that last question was answered when look gave me a serious and unsettling expression.
My eyes widened. “You think that horse is the dimension hopper?”
“Well, you’re the one who said that that horse had answers,” Luke said slowly.
“So you think that’s the one that’s been causing the quakes? That’s the thing that killed my father and my brother?”
“I didn’t say that,” Luke said. “It’s a possibility. And the motorcycle even says it… the horse isn’t even in this dimension anymore. It is probably the dimension hopper we’ve been looking for.”
“I find that incredibly hard to believe,” I said.
“There’s only one way to find out for sure.”
“Oh, really? And what exactly is that?”
“We find out which dimension it went to and we follow it.”
Luke hit some more buttons on the dashboard. “Ah. Good. It went to the dimension directly adjacent to this one. So if we can find the door, we’ll be able to make it there. And this dimension I am actually familiar with. So we should be safe there. Well, safer there than here, anyway.” He hit the locator buttons on the dashboard again, and all the lights flashed green.
“And what if that horse wasn’t the dimension hopper? What if it doesn’t lead us to the person who killed my father and brother?”
“Well,” Luke said as the lights turned from green to purple. “Right now, that horse is the best lead we’ve got, and following it is our best bet. If we’re lucky, then that horse is the dimension hopper, and we will be able to stop it. If not, maybe it will lead us to the actual dimension hopper, and we will be able to stop whoever that person is.”
I nodded. “All right. Let’s go, then.”
So Luke kicked the motorcycle to life again, and we drove off in search of the door.
“Hello there, little horse,” I said, but my voice echoed the moment it left my throat, which made it sound like I was either very high or very insane. “Do you want to give me a lift?”
The horse did not look my way. It had its eyes fixed on something. Something it could not keep its eyes off of, even if it tried.
“Little horse!” I called again. “I need to find my friend. His name is Lucas. He is the Keeper of the Dimensions or… well, something like that. I need help finding him. Could you give me a lift?”
The horse turned and looked at me, its black eyes fixed and un blinking.
“Come over here, little horse!” my voice echoed. “I need a lift! Could you give me a lift?”
The horse turned around, and walked away. It did not bother to look at me again. It had something else to look for.
“Hey! Hey, where are you going? You’re not just going to leave me here? All by myself? I need your help, and you’re leaving me? Hey, where do you think you’re going? Come back here!”
“Caitlin?”
“Don’t leave me…”
“Calm down, Caity-kins, I was never planning to leave you.”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“You are not alone, Caity-kins. Wake up.”
My eyes opened. The sky was not red, it was blue. And the person talking to me was not a white horse, it was a white guy. Lucas was directly above me, holding me gently in his arms.
I sat up straight instantly. The pain shot into my head. “Ah! Oh, God. What… what the hell happened?”
“I really have no idea,” Luke said. “Is your head okay? Should I find you an ice pack or something?”
“No, my head is fine,” I said. “But really, what’s going on? Where’s that horse?”
“Horse?”
“Yeah. There was a horse… with a hat on…”
Luke raised one eyebrow. “You were dreaming, Caity-kins.”
“No! There was a horse… that didn’t feel like a dream.”
“Trust me. I haven’t seen any white horses wearing any caps.”
I paused for a moment. “I never said the horse was white.”
“What? Oh. I. Um. You mentioned it. While you were muttering.”
I gave him a skeptical look. “You did see a horse somewhere around, didn’t you?”
Luke sighed. “Yes, I saw a horse. It just looked at me holding you and then galloped off. I didn’t give it any importance.”
“Was it wearing a hat?”
“Why is that important?”
“Luke, just answer me.”
Lucas frowned. “Yeah, it was wearing a hat.”
“We have to go after it,” I said. “We have to find it. That horse has answers.”
“Answers? Slow down, Caity-kins, you’ve got a serious bruise on your head, and I don’t think you’re talking completely straight.”
“Of course, because a white horse with a hat on having answers is completely unlikely said the Keeper of the Dimensions.”
Luke sighed. “Just rest for a little bit. Do you have any idea what knocked you out?”
“No, I didn’t get to see. I wasn’t looking up, I was looking down, I think.”
“And you didn’t see who did this to you?”
I shook my head, which made it hurt even more. “No,” I answered.
“All right. Well, when you feel up to it, you can stand up, and we’ll go track down that horse with the funny hat.”
I stood up immediately, but felt incredibly dizzy and almost fell over again. Luke caught me before I completely toppled over, though.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, standing up straight. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”
“Well, I don’t want to have you walking,” he said. “We’re going on the motorcycle.”
So Luke carefully led me to the motorcycle and I got on by myself as my brain continued to pound against the side of my head.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m fine!” I assured him. “Just drive.”
So he revved up the motorcycle, and took off in the direction the white horse with the funny detective hat went off to.
Before too long, we were at the strange colorful city’s edge, and we were going into a forest where the leaves seemed a bit too green to be natural. And soon after that, I noticed the perfectly white horse just a good number’s yards ahead of us.
“There!” I said, pointing at it. “There it is!”
The horse looked back at us, and even though horses don’t have expressions, it seemed incredibly shocked to see us following it. It soon broke out into a run, and went incredibly fast. Faster than I’ve ever seen a horse go.
“Come on, step it up!” I said. I watched the little needle indicating Luke’s speed on the dashboard slowly go more and more towards the right as the motorcycle gained speed and was gaining on the white horse.
As the horse realized that we were after it, it started to go faster as well, and soon, it was a race to see who could go the fastest. At time we would be right on the horse’s tail (literally) and at other times the horse seemed so much faster than we were.
Luke was in incredible concentration because of the high speeds he was now going at. He leaned against the dashboard, his knuckles turned completely pale white, almost as white as the horse itself, as he held onto the handle bars of his motorcycle.
And just like that, the stunningly white horse with the funny and oddly placed detective’s hat had vanished.
Luke came to a screeching halt. The two of us looked around to see where it could have possibly gone.
“Um… did you see where it went?” I said, now completely oblivious to the pain in my head.
“It seemed to just vanish,” Luke answered. “But I have never seen my motorcycle go that fast before, nor have I seen any living thing on its own feet go that fast before.”
“Well, why do you think your motorcycle went faster than usual? Do you think that horse had anything to do with the inter dimensional forces of all the universes?”
Luke smiled. “You’re finally starting to catch on, Caity-cakes, because that’s exactly why I think the motorcycle went faster than usual.” Luke pressed some buttons on the dashboard, and the light all turned green.
“Are you trying to locate a door?”
“If that horse is from a different dimension, this function will be able to tell us.”
“Honestly, it seems like this dimension is deserted,” I said. “All the houses were empty, and there was absolutely nobody. I don’t blame them, for having houses like that.”
“You tried to go into the houses?” Luke asked in a disapproving tone.
I shrugged. “I was thirsty, and not really in the mood to come crawling back to you.”
“And yet, I was still the one to find you unconscious on the street,” Luke said with a slight smile.
I rolled my eyes at him, but he was too focused on the lights of his motorcycle to notice.
“It… it’s just gone,” he said.
“Gone? What d’you mean gone?”
“It’s not here. Not in this dimension.”
“What do you mean? Where could it have gone? How could it have gone?”
But that last question was answered when look gave me a serious and unsettling expression.
My eyes widened. “You think that horse is the dimension hopper?”
“Well, you’re the one who said that that horse had answers,” Luke said slowly.
“So you think that’s the one that’s been causing the quakes? That’s the thing that killed my father and my brother?”
“I didn’t say that,” Luke said. “It’s a possibility. And the motorcycle even says it… the horse isn’t even in this dimension anymore. It is probably the dimension hopper we’ve been looking for.”
“I find that incredibly hard to believe,” I said.
“There’s only one way to find out for sure.”
“Oh, really? And what exactly is that?”
“We find out which dimension it went to and we follow it.”
Luke hit some more buttons on the dashboard. “Ah. Good. It went to the dimension directly adjacent to this one. So if we can find the door, we’ll be able to make it there. And this dimension I am actually familiar with. So we should be safe there. Well, safer there than here, anyway.” He hit the locator buttons on the dashboard again, and all the lights flashed green.
“And what if that horse wasn’t the dimension hopper? What if it doesn’t lead us to the person who killed my father and brother?”
“Well,” Luke said as the lights turned from green to purple. “Right now, that horse is the best lead we’ve got, and following it is our best bet. If we’re lucky, then that horse is the dimension hopper, and we will be able to stop it. If not, maybe it will lead us to the actual dimension hopper, and we will be able to stop whoever that person is.”
I nodded. “All right. Let’s go, then.”
So Luke kicked the motorcycle to life again, and we drove off in search of the door.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Are you okay?” Luke asked. “You seem a bit off. A little huffy if you ask me.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m not asking you,” I said as I walked ahead of Luke on the streets of this odd little town. It looked normal when you took a good, close look around it. But something felt weird, something felt off.
“Jeez, what’s wrong with you? See, this is why I don’t make emotional connections with women.”
I turned around to face him. “No, Lucas, this is why you don’t BREAK emotional connections with woman.” I turned back around and stomped off away from him.
“What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Honestly, Luke, just leave me alone for right now. I need some time to think to myself.”
“Oh, so first you don’t want me to be alone, and now you want to go be alone? Fine, then, go ahead! Be alone! What do I care?”
I took a deep breath to prevent myself from screaming, and then walked away in a giant huff, not looking back at him.
“But be careful! Remember, I’ve never ben here before, so I have no idea what could possibly be around! It’s not safe to wander an unknown dimension by yourself!”
I turned around again and screamed a few swear words at him. “I will go wherever I damn please, and you don’t have to worry about my safety, Lucas, because I can take care of myself plenty, I don’t need you to trail me all the time! Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be back, but for God’s sake, Lucas, you have to learn when to shut the fuck up!”
I went back to my huffed exit, and turned a corner so Luke was no longer in sight of me nor was I in sight of him.
As I continued on in my angry huff, I noticed that the roads and total empty: that was probably what was causing this really weird, empty feeling that the whole town seemed to have. Was this a ghost town? How come there weren’t any people? I looked around to observe my surroundings even more and only just realized that the houses weren’t built straight up. In fact, it almost felt like I was taking drugs or something because the houses seemed as if the straight lines that made up their edges were all squigly and weird, like some little four year old attempted to draw a straight line. And not only were they all weirdly shaped, but they were also huge. And on top of that, every brick that made the house was a different color, a bright, neon like color, that made the houses almost painful to look at. I began to wonder what sort of people could possibly be living in these houses. Some extremely weird people who were on drugs when they decided to make this? I came to the conclusion that the architect was definitely on something when he came up with these building plans, and that once the town realized what these houses looked like, they decided to just leave because they were so horrifyingly ugly and bright and disgusting.
I also only realized that I was incredibly thirsty. That chocolate cake I had eaten really didn’t do much for wetting my mouth. I also came to the conclusion that if anone were possibly living in one of these houses, they would be kind enough to give a thirsty girl a drink of water. I just hoped that this was not a ghost town like I thought it was. And I most definitely did not want to go back to Luke and beg him for water.
I knocked on the door of the nearest house. No one answered, and I heard nothing. “Hello?” I called. “Is anyone there?” Silence.
I felt a bit ashamed at this failed attempt, that I really didn’t want to be around this house anymore. I went to the next house and tried the same thing. I knocked. “Is anyone at home? I’m not a robber or anything. I’d just like some water, that’s all. And I’m not homeless, I swear, I’m just alone and thirsty.” Still no response.
“Maybe there really isn’t anyone around.”
I decided to try one more house before giving up and going back to Luke. So I went to the third house, and though it looked identical, I expected different results.
I knocked on the door for the first time. “Hello? Is anyone there?” And as I hit my knuckle against the door for the fifth time, the door simply opened. I assumed it was unlocked or something. “Oh, I’m sorry for opening your door.” I stepped into the doorway. “Is anyone here?”
Inside the house, all the furniture seemed really large. And oddly colorful. Each piece of furniture was a different brightly colored color, and looked as odd and abstract as something you would find in a modern arts museum.
I then assumed that the whole town was deserted. And if this town was deserted for the amount of time proportional to the amount of dust that had collected on the furniture, I figured it would be all right to go inside this house just for a cup of water.
The whole house was completely empty of life. Not even bugs or mice or anything, really. As I went into the deserted kitchen, I was reminded of that one time where I had a rat in my kitchen. It would always run around and steal food. I rememeber how upset and angry my mum was about that. Boy, she really let it all out on the exterminator for not being able to get rid of it. I thought it was kind of cute, though, and I would secretly leave pieces of food on the floors of the kitchens so that the rat would always have something to eat if my mum decided to lock up our pantry. And then, standing there in that deserted kitchen, it sort of reminded me of home. Not really the psychedelic furniture or the abstract design, choices, but the emptiness. The loneliness. The fact that even though there was a world of colors and beautiful things around me, I was stuck there, sipping water
And then I remembered what Luke wrote in his journal. Abut being alone. About not making emotional connections with people.
I put the rainbow cup down near the sink that could have been large enough to be my bath tub. “I should really get back to him.”
I left the house and closed the door behind me.
And then I blacked out.
“Yeah? Well, I’m not asking you,” I said as I walked ahead of Luke on the streets of this odd little town. It looked normal when you took a good, close look around it. But something felt weird, something felt off.
“Jeez, what’s wrong with you? See, this is why I don’t make emotional connections with women.”
I turned around to face him. “No, Lucas, this is why you don’t BREAK emotional connections with woman.” I turned back around and stomped off away from him.
“What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Honestly, Luke, just leave me alone for right now. I need some time to think to myself.”
“Oh, so first you don’t want me to be alone, and now you want to go be alone? Fine, then, go ahead! Be alone! What do I care?”
I took a deep breath to prevent myself from screaming, and then walked away in a giant huff, not looking back at him.
“But be careful! Remember, I’ve never ben here before, so I have no idea what could possibly be around! It’s not safe to wander an unknown dimension by yourself!”
I turned around again and screamed a few swear words at him. “I will go wherever I damn please, and you don’t have to worry about my safety, Lucas, because I can take care of myself plenty, I don’t need you to trail me all the time! Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be back, but for God’s sake, Lucas, you have to learn when to shut the fuck up!”
I went back to my huffed exit, and turned a corner so Luke was no longer in sight of me nor was I in sight of him.
As I continued on in my angry huff, I noticed that the roads and total empty: that was probably what was causing this really weird, empty feeling that the whole town seemed to have. Was this a ghost town? How come there weren’t any people? I looked around to observe my surroundings even more and only just realized that the houses weren’t built straight up. In fact, it almost felt like I was taking drugs or something because the houses seemed as if the straight lines that made up their edges were all squigly and weird, like some little four year old attempted to draw a straight line. And not only were they all weirdly shaped, but they were also huge. And on top of that, every brick that made the house was a different color, a bright, neon like color, that made the houses almost painful to look at. I began to wonder what sort of people could possibly be living in these houses. Some extremely weird people who were on drugs when they decided to make this? I came to the conclusion that the architect was definitely on something when he came up with these building plans, and that once the town realized what these houses looked like, they decided to just leave because they were so horrifyingly ugly and bright and disgusting.
I also only realized that I was incredibly thirsty. That chocolate cake I had eaten really didn’t do much for wetting my mouth. I also came to the conclusion that if anone were possibly living in one of these houses, they would be kind enough to give a thirsty girl a drink of water. I just hoped that this was not a ghost town like I thought it was. And I most definitely did not want to go back to Luke and beg him for water.
I knocked on the door of the nearest house. No one answered, and I heard nothing. “Hello?” I called. “Is anyone there?” Silence.
I felt a bit ashamed at this failed attempt, that I really didn’t want to be around this house anymore. I went to the next house and tried the same thing. I knocked. “Is anyone at home? I’m not a robber or anything. I’d just like some water, that’s all. And I’m not homeless, I swear, I’m just alone and thirsty.” Still no response.
“Maybe there really isn’t anyone around.”
I decided to try one more house before giving up and going back to Luke. So I went to the third house, and though it looked identical, I expected different results.
I knocked on the door for the first time. “Hello? Is anyone there?” And as I hit my knuckle against the door for the fifth time, the door simply opened. I assumed it was unlocked or something. “Oh, I’m sorry for opening your door.” I stepped into the doorway. “Is anyone here?”
Inside the house, all the furniture seemed really large. And oddly colorful. Each piece of furniture was a different brightly colored color, and looked as odd and abstract as something you would find in a modern arts museum.
I then assumed that the whole town was deserted. And if this town was deserted for the amount of time proportional to the amount of dust that had collected on the furniture, I figured it would be all right to go inside this house just for a cup of water.
The whole house was completely empty of life. Not even bugs or mice or anything, really. As I went into the deserted kitchen, I was reminded of that one time where I had a rat in my kitchen. It would always run around and steal food. I rememeber how upset and angry my mum was about that. Boy, she really let it all out on the exterminator for not being able to get rid of it. I thought it was kind of cute, though, and I would secretly leave pieces of food on the floors of the kitchens so that the rat would always have something to eat if my mum decided to lock up our pantry. And then, standing there in that deserted kitchen, it sort of reminded me of home. Not really the psychedelic furniture or the abstract design, choices, but the emptiness. The loneliness. The fact that even though there was a world of colors and beautiful things around me, I was stuck there, sipping water
And then I remembered what Luke wrote in his journal. Abut being alone. About not making emotional connections with people.
I put the rainbow cup down near the sink that could have been large enough to be my bath tub. “I should really get back to him.”
I left the house and closed the door behind me.
And then I blacked out.
Chapter Twenty
Luke opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but was interrupted by the flashing purple lights on the dashboard of the motorcycle. He squinted his eyes, and gave a confounded look at the odd little lights. “What the bloody hell…?”
“What? What happened? Did the door get destroyed or something?” I asked, slightly nervous.
“No… that door… the one we came in through is fine…”
“So shouldn’t we go to it soon? I mean, I think the city is done… burning and being destroyed.”
“No, that’s not the odd thing,” he said. “The door just looks like a door, but it’s actually an inter dimensional portal between two alternate dimensions, it can’t be destroyed by fire or toppling buildings or things like that.”
“Than shouldn’t we go?”
“No,” he said. “No, you see, there’s… well, according to this… but there can’t be…”
“Are you just going to go on like this mumbling to yourself, or are you going to tell me what the hell you are talking about?”
“There’s another door.”
“What?”
“Yeah. There is some other door.”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you just tell me that there was only one door in this dimension?”
“Yes, that’s what I said, but apparently now there’s another door.”
“What d’you mean? Who builds these doors, and how can there just suddenly be another one?”
“They’re not built by anyone, they’re just there. But how come this one has never showed up on my radar or in my research before?”
“Maybe the universes knew you were in trouble and decided to just pop! Create a new one or something.”
“Highly unlikely,” he said. “But… what other explanation is there? As far as I know, there is no way to manually create this doors… I mean, if I gathered the energy of the motorcycle, I could probably. But I haven’t ever done that. It’s much too difficult. It’s just a whole lot easier to go to the pre existing doors than to just randomly break the walls between barriers and create a new one.”
“So where did this one come from?” I asked.
“I really have no idea.”
“Well… is it closer to us than the island? Because we could use that door instead. And we’ll be moving forward instead of moving backwards.”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “I mean… for all we know, we could be walking into a dimension with no oxygen. Or a dimension that will lead us right into outer space. Or a dimension that could be located at the center of a star, causing us to burn to a crisp before we even have a chance to close the door before it blinds us.”
“Whoa. We have this risk with every single door that we open?”
“No, because I know the doors that we’ve opened. I know which dimensions they lead to, and I’ve been through all of them before. But if there is just some random new door, how am I supposed to know what’s behind it?”
I frowned. “So are we not going to go through this door?”
“I’ve got to see if it’s safe first. If it’s not, then we have to go back into the island.”
“Well, where is it located?”
“Believe it or not,” Luke turned around, “it’s inside the light house.”
And before we could look at each other to verify that we were both thinking the same thing, we ran towards the light house door and opened it.
“See? The stairs go lower than the ground floor,” Luke said. He looked back at me. “Are you sure you want to come? I don’t want to see you get hurt. And we could always go back.”
“Yeah…” I said. “I want to come.”
“All right. It’s your choice.” He smiled again. And then he looked down at his watch and began fiddling with one of the little knobs.
“What are you doing?”
A light sprung from it, and it hit the door.
“Doing a scan,” he said. “It’ll give me an analysis summary on what’s actually behind that door. It’ll let me know if there’s anything dangerous, or nothing at all.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It is. But since it’s so small, it takes forever to analyze things. And then report to me a summary. Bloody hell, this thing needs to be fixed or something.”
“Um, Luke?”
“Yeah, Caity-cakes?”
“I just have a question.”
“Go ahead. I’m free until this stupid thing starts working.”
“Well… just out of curiosity… what do you plan to do after this?”
“Plan? I don’t usually plan anything. And what do you mean after this?”
“I mean, once we stop this bad guy. What do you thing you’re going to do?”
“You mean, like, life plan, or immediately after this?”
I shrugged.
“Well, my life won’t change much. I’ll still be the keeper of dimensions, and if anything like this happens again, I know I’ll be strong enough to handle it.”
“And then immediately after this?”
He looked up at me and raised one eyebrow. “Honestly, I’m thinking of getting you back home and hooking up with that one cute blonde girl that was in the pub a couple of days before I met you.”
I looked down at the ground and only just realized how dusty it was. “Oh,” I managed to spit out.
“But I did promise to take you to that one dimension you wanted to go to,” he said. “The one that was unseemingly like your home one, and you wanted to figure out what the difference was?”
“Oh, right,” I said. I had almost completely forgotten about that at this point. I was surprised Luke had remembered. “It’s not that important, I guess. Since now that I know that all the difference is just that I’m dead there, and alive here.”
“Yeah, and also the fact that the chocolate cake in that dimension is phenomenal. You know what? We probably should stop by there, jut to grab a slice. I think it’d be worth it. And you can poke around as you’d like. Do you agree?”
“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”
Luke’s watch started beeping. “Aha! Hm. Okay. Well, honestly, it just looks like there’s a regular town on the other side of that door. It doesn’t seem like anything is too dangerous. Shall we go through?”
I didn’t say anything, and walked in front of Luke, and pushed the door open myself. I almost felt like slamming it behind Luke as I walked through it.
“What? What happened? Did the door get destroyed or something?” I asked, slightly nervous.
“No… that door… the one we came in through is fine…”
“So shouldn’t we go to it soon? I mean, I think the city is done… burning and being destroyed.”
“No, that’s not the odd thing,” he said. “The door just looks like a door, but it’s actually an inter dimensional portal between two alternate dimensions, it can’t be destroyed by fire or toppling buildings or things like that.”
“Than shouldn’t we go?”
“No,” he said. “No, you see, there’s… well, according to this… but there can’t be…”
“Are you just going to go on like this mumbling to yourself, or are you going to tell me what the hell you are talking about?”
“There’s another door.”
“What?”
“Yeah. There is some other door.”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you just tell me that there was only one door in this dimension?”
“Yes, that’s what I said, but apparently now there’s another door.”
“What d’you mean? Who builds these doors, and how can there just suddenly be another one?”
“They’re not built by anyone, they’re just there. But how come this one has never showed up on my radar or in my research before?”
“Maybe the universes knew you were in trouble and decided to just pop! Create a new one or something.”
“Highly unlikely,” he said. “But… what other explanation is there? As far as I know, there is no way to manually create this doors… I mean, if I gathered the energy of the motorcycle, I could probably. But I haven’t ever done that. It’s much too difficult. It’s just a whole lot easier to go to the pre existing doors than to just randomly break the walls between barriers and create a new one.”
“So where did this one come from?” I asked.
“I really have no idea.”
“Well… is it closer to us than the island? Because we could use that door instead. And we’ll be moving forward instead of moving backwards.”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “I mean… for all we know, we could be walking into a dimension with no oxygen. Or a dimension that will lead us right into outer space. Or a dimension that could be located at the center of a star, causing us to burn to a crisp before we even have a chance to close the door before it blinds us.”
“Whoa. We have this risk with every single door that we open?”
“No, because I know the doors that we’ve opened. I know which dimensions they lead to, and I’ve been through all of them before. But if there is just some random new door, how am I supposed to know what’s behind it?”
I frowned. “So are we not going to go through this door?”
“I’ve got to see if it’s safe first. If it’s not, then we have to go back into the island.”
“Well, where is it located?”
“Believe it or not,” Luke turned around, “it’s inside the light house.”
And before we could look at each other to verify that we were both thinking the same thing, we ran towards the light house door and opened it.
“See? The stairs go lower than the ground floor,” Luke said. He looked back at me. “Are you sure you want to come? I don’t want to see you get hurt. And we could always go back.”
“Yeah…” I said. “I want to come.”
“All right. It’s your choice.” He smiled again. And then he looked down at his watch and began fiddling with one of the little knobs.
“What are you doing?”
A light sprung from it, and it hit the door.
“Doing a scan,” he said. “It’ll give me an analysis summary on what’s actually behind that door. It’ll let me know if there’s anything dangerous, or nothing at all.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It is. But since it’s so small, it takes forever to analyze things. And then report to me a summary. Bloody hell, this thing needs to be fixed or something.”
“Um, Luke?”
“Yeah, Caity-cakes?”
“I just have a question.”
“Go ahead. I’m free until this stupid thing starts working.”
“Well… just out of curiosity… what do you plan to do after this?”
“Plan? I don’t usually plan anything. And what do you mean after this?”
“I mean, once we stop this bad guy. What do you thing you’re going to do?”
“You mean, like, life plan, or immediately after this?”
I shrugged.
“Well, my life won’t change much. I’ll still be the keeper of dimensions, and if anything like this happens again, I know I’ll be strong enough to handle it.”
“And then immediately after this?”
He looked up at me and raised one eyebrow. “Honestly, I’m thinking of getting you back home and hooking up with that one cute blonde girl that was in the pub a couple of days before I met you.”
I looked down at the ground and only just realized how dusty it was. “Oh,” I managed to spit out.
“But I did promise to take you to that one dimension you wanted to go to,” he said. “The one that was unseemingly like your home one, and you wanted to figure out what the difference was?”
“Oh, right,” I said. I had almost completely forgotten about that at this point. I was surprised Luke had remembered. “It’s not that important, I guess. Since now that I know that all the difference is just that I’m dead there, and alive here.”
“Yeah, and also the fact that the chocolate cake in that dimension is phenomenal. You know what? We probably should stop by there, jut to grab a slice. I think it’d be worth it. And you can poke around as you’d like. Do you agree?”
“Sure,” I said. “Why not?”
Luke’s watch started beeping. “Aha! Hm. Okay. Well, honestly, it just looks like there’s a regular town on the other side of that door. It doesn’t seem like anything is too dangerous. Shall we go through?”
I didn’t say anything, and walked in front of Luke, and pushed the door open myself. I almost felt like slamming it behind Luke as I walked through it.
Chapter Nineteen
There was a lot written in it by some other people I had never heard of, so I kept flipping through it until I found Luke’s name.
So today I found out something extremely weird. Like, it was unbelievable at first. But I figure it must be true, because how can anyone make up something like this? I mean, this random dude in a brown suit just walks up to me and says, “Hey. There are alternate dimensions. Here’s a motorcycle. Take care of them.” He gives me little to know and practically no explanation at all. What the bloody hell is going on? He told me to keep this journal, because all of the previous dimension care takers or whatever you’re supposed to call them people kept it before me. I mean, I’m just some kid. I asked him what some of the perks were, and he said, “Seeing new places, meeting new people, and only aging when you want to.” Like that was possible. I’ve got enough here in my world to see, there’s seven billion people, I’ve got enough to meet. And as for aging… well, staying young forever would be nice. But Do I really want to mess up the natural order of myself? Well… I guess I’m fairly curious about that last one. I am rather dashing, if I do say so myself. I would like to keep this face for as long as possible. What the hell, maybe I’ll give it a shot. If I don’t like the job, I can always give it to someone else… right? Right?
I went on the job for the first time today. I took the motorcycle the man in the brown suit gave me, and drove it around. It rides really nice. And it can go through dimensions. How awesome is that? Well, I found out what alternate dimensions really are. They’re a bit like the parallel universes in Doctor Who. Man, I love that show. I feel like the Doctor. Except I can’t travel through time. Or space, really. I mean, dimensions, but I can’t go from here to there in a flash of a Police Box. Anyway, I guess I’m not the Doctor. But it all does feel very science fiction. It’s very interesting, though, because I’ve met a couple versions of myself in these dimensions. Well, not actually met. I didn’t want to approach them and have them ask me why the hell I look exactly like them. But I did see them! Damn, they were good looking. Ha ha. Well, I’m not exactly sure what it is that I should be looking for that could possibly mess up these inter dimensional whatever they’re supposed to be thingies, but we’ll just see how this goes. So far, I am not hating this job.
I know it’s been a while since I wrote in this journal, but that whole deal where I am supposed to be meeting a ton of people… my God, it’s actually amazing! So far, I’ve met a ton of awesome girls. Like, it has been excellent. This one girl I met at a bar, her name was Valerie Skins. My God, she was the sexiest thing I have ever seen in my life. (“Hmph!” I said as I continued to read Luke’s diary.) She was wearing this one dress, you know? And her hair… long, curly, and auburn ish brown. She was something, I’m telling you. She invited me over to her place, and said that she had some chocolate cake left over from her birthday party which was a couple of days ago. She said she had made it herself with some of her friends. It was literally the most amazing thing I have ever tasted in my life. Chocolate cake is excellent. Well, the cake wasn’t nearly as sweet as the desert I got after desert. I won’t go too much into detail, (“Thank God!” I said.) but I will tell you a little something about that night… (I skipped the rest of this entry because I was not interested in the least about Luke’s sex adventures.)
Honestly, I haven’t been doing much other than researching more about inter dimensional stuff, having sex with lots of women, and I frankly can’t remember the last meal I ate that wasn’t chocolate cake. I guess you can say life is pretty good. But I feel bad for some of the women I had sex with (“You deserve to feel bad!” I said.) because of the work that I constantly need to do and the research that I have to finish, the stuff I have to learn about what I need to do to protect the dimensions and all that stuff… well, it’s tough. And I don’t have time for girls or a relationship. But I like the sex. I guess it makes me feel less alone. I feel very alone. I guess that’s the only down side to this job… I can’t do it with another person. After all the research I’ve been doing, it seems very dangerous if something bad was to happen, and it is my job to fix it, and it would be all my fault if someone I knew or cared about got into danger because of me. I kind of do miss that old Valerie Skins, though. She was something. But every since I left her that morning before she woke up… yeah… it’s been kind of lonely. The whole of all the universes left out for me, and yet there is no other person there for me. I guess I am doomed to be forever alone.
So I was on the train yesterday, in my home dimension, going up to London. That girl that usually rides the train… I guess we sort of talked for the first time. Her name is Caitlin Whitewood, and…
“Caitlin!” I heard Luke call my name from inside the light house tower. “Are you getting the cake?”
“Yeah!” I said, closing the diary and chucking it back into the compartment.
Luke opened the door and came outside. “What’s taking you so long?”
“I, uh, couldn’t get the compartment open until just now. One of the little thingies was stuck.”
“Well, at least you’ve got the cake now.” He opened the box, picked up a piece with his hand, and handed it to me. I accepted it and started to eat as he picked up a piece for himself.
“I think the island is finally starting to quiet down,” Luke said.
I looked over at where the burning city of skyscrapers once stood, and now all I saw was a thin line of smoke rising into the black clouds.
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “All of those people…”
“We should get back as soon as possible,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”
Luke pressed the usual buttons on the dashboard of the motorcycle. “Let’s just set this up as a navigation system so we don’t get lost once we get on the island. We want to be able to find the door quickly through all the ashes and stuff. So we’ll just hone in on the nearest door, and—”
“Lucas?” I interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t want to go back to my home dimension,” I said.
He looked up at me. “What do you mean? You just don’t want to go back?”
“I want to help you finish this,” I said. “I want to help you stop whoever is doing this.”
He shook his head. “I appreciate the thought, Caitlin, but it’s too dangerous for you. I don’t want you to—”
“Excuse me, but the last time I checked, you are not the judge to tell me what and what is not too dangerous for me. And besides, I have a role in this, too. Whoever did this could potentially be the one who killed half of my family.”
Luke sighed.
“Also, not to mention…” I put my hand on his shoulder, and he looked at me, for the first time, directly into my eyes, “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
So today I found out something extremely weird. Like, it was unbelievable at first. But I figure it must be true, because how can anyone make up something like this? I mean, this random dude in a brown suit just walks up to me and says, “Hey. There are alternate dimensions. Here’s a motorcycle. Take care of them.” He gives me little to know and practically no explanation at all. What the bloody hell is going on? He told me to keep this journal, because all of the previous dimension care takers or whatever you’re supposed to call them people kept it before me. I mean, I’m just some kid. I asked him what some of the perks were, and he said, “Seeing new places, meeting new people, and only aging when you want to.” Like that was possible. I’ve got enough here in my world to see, there’s seven billion people, I’ve got enough to meet. And as for aging… well, staying young forever would be nice. But Do I really want to mess up the natural order of myself? Well… I guess I’m fairly curious about that last one. I am rather dashing, if I do say so myself. I would like to keep this face for as long as possible. What the hell, maybe I’ll give it a shot. If I don’t like the job, I can always give it to someone else… right? Right?
I went on the job for the first time today. I took the motorcycle the man in the brown suit gave me, and drove it around. It rides really nice. And it can go through dimensions. How awesome is that? Well, I found out what alternate dimensions really are. They’re a bit like the parallel universes in Doctor Who. Man, I love that show. I feel like the Doctor. Except I can’t travel through time. Or space, really. I mean, dimensions, but I can’t go from here to there in a flash of a Police Box. Anyway, I guess I’m not the Doctor. But it all does feel very science fiction. It’s very interesting, though, because I’ve met a couple versions of myself in these dimensions. Well, not actually met. I didn’t want to approach them and have them ask me why the hell I look exactly like them. But I did see them! Damn, they were good looking. Ha ha. Well, I’m not exactly sure what it is that I should be looking for that could possibly mess up these inter dimensional whatever they’re supposed to be thingies, but we’ll just see how this goes. So far, I am not hating this job.
I know it’s been a while since I wrote in this journal, but that whole deal where I am supposed to be meeting a ton of people… my God, it’s actually amazing! So far, I’ve met a ton of awesome girls. Like, it has been excellent. This one girl I met at a bar, her name was Valerie Skins. My God, she was the sexiest thing I have ever seen in my life. (“Hmph!” I said as I continued to read Luke’s diary.) She was wearing this one dress, you know? And her hair… long, curly, and auburn ish brown. She was something, I’m telling you. She invited me over to her place, and said that she had some chocolate cake left over from her birthday party which was a couple of days ago. She said she had made it herself with some of her friends. It was literally the most amazing thing I have ever tasted in my life. Chocolate cake is excellent. Well, the cake wasn’t nearly as sweet as the desert I got after desert. I won’t go too much into detail, (“Thank God!” I said.) but I will tell you a little something about that night… (I skipped the rest of this entry because I was not interested in the least about Luke’s sex adventures.)
Honestly, I haven’t been doing much other than researching more about inter dimensional stuff, having sex with lots of women, and I frankly can’t remember the last meal I ate that wasn’t chocolate cake. I guess you can say life is pretty good. But I feel bad for some of the women I had sex with (“You deserve to feel bad!” I said.) because of the work that I constantly need to do and the research that I have to finish, the stuff I have to learn about what I need to do to protect the dimensions and all that stuff… well, it’s tough. And I don’t have time for girls or a relationship. But I like the sex. I guess it makes me feel less alone. I feel very alone. I guess that’s the only down side to this job… I can’t do it with another person. After all the research I’ve been doing, it seems very dangerous if something bad was to happen, and it is my job to fix it, and it would be all my fault if someone I knew or cared about got into danger because of me. I kind of do miss that old Valerie Skins, though. She was something. But every since I left her that morning before she woke up… yeah… it’s been kind of lonely. The whole of all the universes left out for me, and yet there is no other person there for me. I guess I am doomed to be forever alone.
So I was on the train yesterday, in my home dimension, going up to London. That girl that usually rides the train… I guess we sort of talked for the first time. Her name is Caitlin Whitewood, and…
“Caitlin!” I heard Luke call my name from inside the light house tower. “Are you getting the cake?”
“Yeah!” I said, closing the diary and chucking it back into the compartment.
Luke opened the door and came outside. “What’s taking you so long?”
“I, uh, couldn’t get the compartment open until just now. One of the little thingies was stuck.”
“Well, at least you’ve got the cake now.” He opened the box, picked up a piece with his hand, and handed it to me. I accepted it and started to eat as he picked up a piece for himself.
“I think the island is finally starting to quiet down,” Luke said.
I looked over at where the burning city of skyscrapers once stood, and now all I saw was a thin line of smoke rising into the black clouds.
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “All of those people…”
“We should get back as soon as possible,” he said.
I nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”
Luke pressed the usual buttons on the dashboard of the motorcycle. “Let’s just set this up as a navigation system so we don’t get lost once we get on the island. We want to be able to find the door quickly through all the ashes and stuff. So we’ll just hone in on the nearest door, and—”
“Lucas?” I interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t want to go back to my home dimension,” I said.
He looked up at me. “What do you mean? You just don’t want to go back?”
“I want to help you finish this,” I said. “I want to help you stop whoever is doing this.”
He shook his head. “I appreciate the thought, Caitlin, but it’s too dangerous for you. I don’t want you to—”
“Excuse me, but the last time I checked, you are not the judge to tell me what and what is not too dangerous for me. And besides, I have a role in this, too. Whoever did this could potentially be the one who killed half of my family.”
Luke sighed.
“Also, not to mention…” I put my hand on his shoulder, and he looked at me, for the first time, directly into my eyes, “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
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