I didn’t know what to expect. A shock? Like a static shock? Such half-expected television memories aside, the world was the same after I passed through the shimmering veil.

Or, mostly the same.

It did appear more . . . well, I am having a hard time explaining what I mean. Although everything looked just about the same, parts of my reality were somehow altered. Not in any large way, but in small ones; the best way to describe what I mean is perhaps like this: things looked off-kilter, like some objects were too close to one another while other objects were too far away to make sense. Positioning of the vases and flowers on the shelf, for example, made no sense as reality in that vicinity ebbed differently than in other parts of the store which, from my current position, seemed natural. Seemed.

Slowly, I walked further down the aisle. I already had the impression that the clerk thought I was a moron, but it was for that reason why I was careful— I didn’t want any more reason for this underpaid man to hate me by also getting it in his head that I might be a thief. But crooking my head back to take a look at the clerk, I saw a very different world; behind me, lay not a simple aisle filled to bursting with foliage, but an elongated pathway curved with paths and objects that were not there before passing through the shimmer; trees, shelves lined with goods I was not familiar to, and simply space. More space than made sense. It was similar to a Picasso painting, expect it wasn’t quite a wild with the jagged edges. And the clerk? He was far behind me. He was still standing behind the desk staring intently at me, but he must have been a good football field’s worth away. How had I traveled so far without realizing it?

Turning back to my front, I saw that the world again had changed without me even realizing. Whereas before, I had been in the aisle, I had now, somehow, been transported into a forest enclosure.

Not transported, the cat creature telepathically communicated. Wandered. You walked here; we are still in the store, just a deeper area of the shimmer. Near the heart.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I had to take the creature’s word. Still, I tried to suss out the truth for myself and I frantically scanned the horizon for any sign of the flower shop that I was just inside of a moment ago . . . far in the distance, I thought I saw some of the shelving of the store, its purchasable goods a mere fleck on the horizon. But where I was now, hardly reflected the store, at least, outside of the trees which surrounded me being larger— impossible—versions of the flowers which had lined some of the shelves; I was no flower expert, but I knew that tree sized mint plants did not exist, and so why I was being dwarfed by one such thing now was a mystery.

It is part of the under-reality. Lots of weirdness— to you— here. Pay it no mind, yet. The cat-creature said. As if that explained anything. It wasn’t meant to explain anything, you fucking donut piece of— whatever. Look, here we are.

“And where are we, exactly?” I said, not expecting an actual answer.

In a shimmer. Try and keep up, bruh . . . but, I guess you want more. We are close to Un-Earth. Primeval Earth. Old Earth before magic which has unique properties which we can use to survive.

I didn’t like how the cat-creature Felix used the word ‘survive’ so casually. I guess that violent death tonight had been a distinct possibility— as had what apparently happened to poor old Chippy— but I hadn’t truly processed that possibility as something happening to me. More something that could happen to the unusual life form I had been saddled with. I felt a twinge of fear within my adrenaline and for an instance, felt the tiredness on my body wear me down.

Walking into a denser patch of tree-matter than what had surrounded me just a moment ago, Felix jumped down from my head for the first time since he had taken residence. I felt empty without his presence, not entirely unlike feeling a winter breeze in the middle of summer.

On the ground, Felix pawed and clawed at the dirt and clay. To me, it looked just like normal, everyday dirt, but to him, I guess it was different. After doing this a moment, he curled up, began to purr, and his butterfly-like wings fluttered. A soft glow was birthed from the dirt but it was over as soon as it begun. Then Felix jumped back onto my shoulders, then nested on my head again.

I found what we needed. Let’s get the fuck out of here before the hit squad arrives and— but Felix could not even finish that sentence before the death squad arrived.