“What is more useful when it is broken?”

Julie’s eyes looked upward, trying to think of the answer.

“Uh. I don’t know. A bottle so I can stab you with it?”

They both giggled.

“No, bitch! It’s an egg!”.

“Ah....” Julie nodded her head up and down as she understood.

“Give me another one...”, Julie requested.

“Uhm. Ok. Let’s see...”. Grace took a moment to consider another good one.

“Ok. Ready? What works better when you put it in your mouth? Even better when it vibrates? And when you are done, you spit?”

Julie’s face turned red, and she startled to giggle again. But before she could say anything, Grace jumped in, saying “A toothbrush! What did YOU think it was?”.

Both girls continued laughing out loud to each other.

At that moment, Grace turned to Julie, with a serious look. “Deja vu!” she exclaimed.

Julie kept laughing. “What?”

“Total Deja vu right now! Have we had this conversation before?”, asked Grace.

“No, bitch! Don’t you think I would have remembered the answers?”.

“It’s just so weird. I totally remember us sitting here, in my room, laughing hysterically just like this. I’m sure of it.”

After a few minutes the sensation subsided, and the girls continued talking about other hot topics, including their favorite fandoms, and bands, and boys.

“So, my mom told me about this movie that totally freaked her out as a kid. It’s called Poltergeist. Have you heard of it? It’s about this girl who gets sucked into a TV or something, and apparently, like, half the people who made the movie died under strange circumstances. So now, some people think it’s, like, real, or cursed, or something.”

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

“What? That’s crazy. No way.”, said Julie. She wasn’t the smartest girl in class, but she wasn’t foolish or superstitious. For a high-school teenaged girl, she was remarkably grounded.

“Seriously. That’s what my mom told me. Wanna watch it with me?”, Grace inquired.

“Yeah, as long as you don’t get all weird about it.”

Grace gave Julie a weak middle finger and rolled her eyes. “Bitch, whatever.”

Last year, they had both watched a movie called “The Fourth Kind” - which was about a supposed alien abduction. The movie was not real, but was shot in a way that made it appear like a documentary, thereby giving it the feel of credible realism. Julie usually stayed over on movie nights, but that night she had to go home because her family had early church on Sunday. That Monday, though, Grace had come to school completely freaked out. She was certain that Saturday night, she had been visited by an alien in her house. She hadn’t been abducted, but a bright light erupted in her ceiling and a strange, shiny grey “alien” came through it and into her bedroom. It didn’t “talk”, but it did communicate with her. It told her not to be scared, and let her know that time and space and all energy and matter were all one “thing”. It told her she was important to the universe, and it told her it had planted a seed in her mind that would help the universe, once it blossomed. After this, she doesn’t remember anything except waking up.

Grace had thought it might be a dream. But it felt so real. She could see the lights and the alien in color. She could remember the smell of sulphur or carbon, like a chemical burning, when the hole in her ceiling appeared. She remembered the way the lights reflected off the alien’s shiny skin. She remembered the dank and bitter smell of the alien, itself, and the feeling of its communication in her mind.

Most of the day Sunday, she had been very quiet. She didn’t tell anyone about the experience. Her brain was trying to synthesize what had happened, and trying to determine if it was real or a dream.

On Monday, when she returned to school - she was still a bit quiet. When she sat down for lunch with Julie, she began to tell her about what happened. Julie, being the skeptical, grounded girl, she was, was certain it was just a dream. Julie tried to convince Grace of this, but Grace was inconsolable to this fact.

The incident had become a “thing” in the girls’ relationship. Grace was convinced there was something real about the experience, and Julie was sure it was just a dream. It took several days before their emotional and practical interactions settled back to something that seemed normal.

“Look, if you get some freaky dream again tonight, I’m not gonna listen to your bullshit tomorrow.”, Julie informed her.

“Bitch, I will slap you in your tits!”, responded Grace as she mimed backhanding Julie across her breasts.

“At least I got tits!”, replied Julie. Grace replied with another weak handed flip of the bird, and roll of her eyes, as she fingered the remote control to pull up the Poltergeist movie on the television.

I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I surround every place.

What am I?