1027: Chapter 10

I’m not sure when I eventually fell asleep, but I knew without looking at the clock what time it was when I woke up again.

“2:30?” I said to myself as I pulled the covers off my head and emerged into a dark room illuminated only by the digits of the clock radio. “2:30,” I said, confirming my suspicion via a glance at the glowing numbers.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said, climbing out of bed. I’m not sure at what point I had become so complacent about these strange happenings — after all, it was just yesterday that I had been yelling at the mysterious figure about how much I wasn’t ready to deal with whatever its stupid plan was. Perhaps it was just mental exhaustion — not having anything more left to “give” — or perhaps it was a sign that I really was growing accustomed to this strange and unnatural existence.

I walked slowly and carefully down the hallway in the direction of my sister’s room. Without hesitating this time, I grasped the door handle and opened it. I felt the same sense of nervous tension as I always did when doing this, and I knew that she’d be there waiting for me. I didn’t sit down on the bed, and I didn’t reach out to touch her; I just spoke in a soft voice.

“Alice,” I said. “Are you there?”

“Yes,” she said, apparently unsurprised to hear my voice. “Come on in. Not that I think I have a choice in all this, huh?”

“No, I guess not,” I said with a slight chuckle. “But I don’t really have a choice either.”

I sat down on the side of the bed.

“Shut your eyes,” she said.

“What?” I asked, and was promptly answered by Alice flicking the light on, dazzling me. I snapped my eyes shut.

“I warned you,” she said. “Now, is there a reason you keep bothering me in the middle of the night like this?”

I thought about this for a moment.

“Well, if I’m honest, not really,” I said. “But I wanted to see you again, and it helps to have someone else to talk about these weird happenings with.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said. “After all, whatever it is that’s happening to you happened to me that one time. I managed to come in and see you in your room.”

“Oh, so that was you,” I said.

“Of course it was me, you big lunk,” she said. “You recognised me and everything.”

“Right, right,” I said. “That’s not what I meant, though.”

I took a deep breath and started to recount my strange conversation with the shadowy figure from yesterday — including the part about how we were different “versions” of each other from the ones we knew.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there,” she said. “So I was right, then. This is some sort of weird parallel universe thing.”

It sounded utterly ridiculous in the blunt manner she said it. But I had to admit that there weren’t many alternative explanations.

“Yes,” I said. “I suppose so. You’re convinced I’m… you know.”

“Dead?” she said, slightly irritably. “Stop pussy-footing around it and just say it. I thought you were dead, yes. And you apparently thought I was dead. And?”

“Well, then,” I said. “That there doesn’t add up. We can’t both be right. Unless we are. The only way in which we could both be right is if one version of each of us is…”

“Dead,” she said, finishing my sentence. I thanked her silently for not making me say it. “Man. My head is spinning. And, I gotta say, if it is the whole ‘parallel universe’ thing going on, I think I’m the one who got the shitty end of the stick here.”

“Why?” I asked, a little more indignantly than I intended. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she said. “But you’re dead. And so is everyone else.”

“You mean Mum and Dad?” I asked.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Along with pretty much everyone I’ve ever known, ever. I’m all alone. And not just all alone in an ‘I’m so depressed so I’m going to lock myself in my room’ sort of way. I mean literally all alone. There is no-one else here at all. They are all dead. They are all gone. I am the only person alive. Are you getting this yet? Are you understanding me?”

My blood ran cold as her increasingly-agitated words reached my ears and my brain decoded their meaning.

“Holy shit,” I said. Then the lights went out, and I was left sitting on the side of her bed back in my own reality.

*

I couldn’t get back to sleep after that revelation, so I had spent the rest of the night making myself strong cups of coffee and staring at the clock on the oven. As the sun began to rise, I dug around for my phone and sent Laura a message saying that I’d be all right to go to college today. This empty house was starting to feel like a prison — though it couldn’t possibly compare to what Alice must be feeling.

I felt a little guilty about the amount of self-pitying I had done over the course of the last few days. I thought I had it bad, but at least I still had Laura, and at least I was still living in a world that actually had people in it.

I had considered the possibility that Alice might have been playing a cruel prank on me, of course, but I remembered the curiously empty, dark college campus I’d seen. There was certainly no sign of human life there — was that part of the same strange phenomenon that was, for some reason, bringing me together with this… “other Alice”? If so, it would certainly seem to match up with her story.

I had too many questions to be able to draw firm conclusions. I never stayed long enough in what I was coming to think of as “Alice’s world” to be able to tell if she was telling the truth or not. I didn’t even know for sure that the deserted campus and the darkened room in which she was still alive were the same… parallel world, or whatever they were. I got the feeling Alice wanted to say more to me last night, but she didn’t get the chance to. Why was she the only one left alive? How did everyone else die? What was so special about her? And what was so special about me, who was able to… cross over and see her?

I lay my head down on the kitchen table as I grasped my latest cup of coffee — I’d lost count somewhere around the fifth or sixth — and closed my eyes. I groaned to myself. This was not getting any easier to deal with, but somehow my past feelings of fear were starting to seem like a distant memory. I was mentally and physically exhausted, and right now I just wanted to get out of here. The prospect of going to college and immersing myself in some tedious coursework was just what I needed right now — a semblance of normality in a completely chaotic existence.

There was a knock at the door, and I recognised the distinctive pattern as Laura’s. I got up, tossed my now-cold coffee into the sink and went to answer it. Sure enough, there she was on the doorstep, looking as tired as I felt.

“You all right?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve just been… worrying, you know.”

“Yeah,” I said. I felt bad. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said. “I don’t think. I don’t know. Hey. You’re probably right. Getting out of here is probably a good idea, but do you think we could talk about this later?”

“Sure,” I said. “But it’s not really making any more sense now than it was before. In fact, it’s probably making less sense.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “I just want to… feel like I’m in the loop, you know? I don’t want you to get dragged away by whatever weird shit is going on. I want to help. If I can.”

“I’m not sure you can,” I said. “But thanks. How about you come back here after classes today and we’ll talk about it?”

She smiled at me.

“You’ve changed a little,” she said. “I like it.”

I felt my cheeks flush slightly and got a sudden urge to change the subject.

“Shall we go, then?” I asked.

“Yep,” she said, visibly brighter, though still with massive bags under her eyes.

*

The passed uneventfully. I was grateful for the lack of weird incidents, and happy for the opportunity to throw myself into the surprisingly tiresome task of writing 1,500 words on the subject of “taboo language”. It turned out that exploring the etymology of the word “fuck” wasn’t nearly as interesting as it sounded.

Laura met up with me outside the front door of the college once the day had come to an end. She looked a little more lively than she had done earlier.

“All right?” she said. “Still okay to come by for a bit?”

“Yeah,” I said. I felt a slight sense of nervousness at the difficult, bizarre conversation I had waiting for me at the end of the drive home, but also grateful for the fact that Laura was willing and able to stick by me through all this. I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be able to handle it all by myself.

I thought to myself, with a not-inconsiderable amount of guilt, that handling it by herself was exactly what Alice was doing right now. Her words — if they turned out to be true, of course, and I didn’t really want to doubt her — meant that she really was all alone, rather than having someone who was apparently willing to stick by me even as I came out with the most outlandish-sounding nonsense about why I was acting so strangely.

“Hey Laura,” I said as I got into her car. “I probably don’t say this enough, but… thanks.”

“What for?” she said, smiling.

“Everything,” I said. “I really appreciate you being there for me. You’re always there for me. You’ve got my back, I know that.”

“It’s fine,” she said, starting the engine. “You know, it’s not entirely selfless on my part, either, as you’ve probably noticed.”

I hadn’t. Should I have?

“Oh?” I said.

“Yeah,” she said, pulling the car out onto the road. “You’re not the only one who feels alone, you know. While I really like spending time with you, I don’t hang around with you so much just because of that. Outside of my parents, I haven’t really got anyone else either.”

“Oh, wow,” I said, quietly. I felt awful. I’d never even thought of that. I’d always just thought of Laura as “my friend” and not even considered the question of who — if anyone — she might be hanging around with when I wasn’t around. So that was why she’d been so upset at the weird happenings the other night. She thought she was losing… her only friend?

“It’s okay,” she said. “You’ve had your own stuff to deal with, so I never brought it up. But… since strange stuff is going on, I’d like you to remember it if you can. I know I got a bit hysterical the other night, but I meant what I said. I don’t want you to go anywhere. I’m not sure what I’d do without you so please… whatever it is you’re involved with, and I’m hoping we’ll have a good talk about this when we get home, please try and stay safe.”

“I will,” I promised. “I will.”