“Sarah? Wakey wakey.”
A gentle voice called out to the woman lying on her side, in an attempt to rouse her from her slumber. At first there had been no response; which was self-explanatory, as it was apparent at a glance that the lady was fast asleep. But the voice tried once again, this time a little more firmly. It wasn’t as if there wasn’t any time to spare; the voice just felt that it would be best for all parties involved to be caught up to speed with the situation they were currently in.
And it knew that she wasn’t really fast asleep; merely keeping her eyes closed as she lay on her side.
Leave me alone, the woman thought, irritated. What’s the point in waking someone like me up so early? It isn’t like they don’t know my condition; don’t they have better things to do?
“Come on, sun’s all the way up by now! Up you get!” The voice persisted, cheerfully repeating its request.
Oh right, she realized. Tests and stuff. They have to justify those exorbitant fees somehow. To be honest, I’d much rather they give up already. What kind of comfort is, ‘radical new techniques that have shown great promise’, to someone with my constitution? Like dangling a bit of cheese in front of a hungry rat and yanking it away at the last second. Which actually, is quite an accurate analogy, if you consider that in that scenario I’m the lab rat.
Alright, fine. They win. Getting up now.
“Yeah, yeah Teresa… I’m awake. What do you want now, a blood sample or something? Get it over with quickly so I can get back to sleep.” Finally complying, the woman stretched her aching limbs as she awoke, tiredly addressing her attending. She rubbed her bleary eyes, and casually reached to the dresser by her side where she’d placed her glasses the night prior.
Only to find that her hand did not brush against the cheap plastic frame of her glasses; and that even through the blurriness of astigmatism, she was fairly certain that the sight before her eyes was most certainly not the familiar hospital ward she’d been accustomed to seeing every morning for these past three decades.
In fact, it seemed as if the place she found herself now was in actuality some sort of large, featureless void. Not a single landmark around, as far as her impaired vision could tell; just a plane of endless milky white that she’d been deposited onto.
Sarah got up with a jolt, trepidation beginning to creep up on her. Was she still asleep? It seemed like the obvious explanation was that this had to be a dream; but that wouldn’t explain why she was still myopic. A dream would seem vivid and real to the dreamer; not present itself in a blurry mess like… whatever this was.
She ran her hands down her gown, pinching and rubbing the rough fabric. Yep, it was still the same old standard Heston Lodge patient attire. Or at least a very convincing recreation of what she was wearing the night before. So she was fairly certain that this was definitely not a dream.
Had she been kidnapped, then?
What would even be the point of that? I’m not rich or important. I mean, they’d have to get past hospital security – which to be fair, isn’t exactly impossible – but then they’d have to lug my unconscious body all the way out of my bed, into a car, and drive to some… place… just to set all this up? Why would anyone do that?
Could be a prank, I suppose? But by who? Don’t think Dr. Teresa’s the jokey type; she’s all business when it comes to my check-ups. And the logistics of it all; if it’s just a prank they’ve certainly gone the extra mile, that’s for sure.
“Ah, there you go! Now we can begin.” The cheerful voice returned once more. Sarah didn’t recognise the person speaking, which wasn’t a good sign, but she could make out that it was male, at least. Some… guy was behind all this, and now he was taunting her!
She spun around quickly, trying to catch a glimpse of her captor. To her utter surprise, there was no one there. And yet the man’s voice had seemed to speak directly into her right ear, as if there had been someone standing right behind her.
“What is all this? How are you doing this?” Sarah asked aloud, cautiously shifting her gaze from side to side, trying to pick out visual discrepancies in her line of sight. She’d been bedridden for quite a while now, but it wasn’t as if she hadn’t kept up with the latest advances in technology. This was that, wasn’t it? Some sort of advanced augmented reality projection? Even those had their limits; you just needed to pick out the subtle screen tearing that occurred when you-
“No, it’s not augmented reality, I’m afraid. Whatever you’re seeing is real, Sarah.” The voice gravely replied.
She froze in place, the lines spoken by the unknown entity throwing her thoughts into disarray.
Did… did that voice just answer her thoughts directly?! How in the world could that be possible? No, she had to calm down, there still had to be some reasonable explanation for this. Brain mapping, neural viewing, cognitive linking-
“Oh, right. Your eyesight’s still terrible.” The voice noted matter-of-factly. “Still, easy fix.”
And with that, she was once again the proud owner of 20/20 vision. In disbelief at this minor miracle, Sarah stared down in marvel at the back of her hands, easily making out the tiny hairs on the knuckles even as she stretched them out as far as they could go. How did he…
Oh.
Sarah finally understood.
It made sense, when she thought about it. Why the place she was currently in was inexplicably not the hospital bed she’d laid down the day before, why she could now see perfectly in spite of having ruined her eyesight with late night scrolling on her smartphone when she was a kid, and why this stranger was able to speak directly to her without needing to be anywhere close to her.
“I’m dead.” She murmured.
Sarah wasn’t particularly religious, but it was simply the only conclusion she could come to when faced with all the facts. The other scenarios were simply too unlikely in comparison; even placed up against the idea of actually dying.
Unless she was willing to accept that someone snuck her out of a hospital, injected her with some sort of nanobot technology which allowed them to listen to her thoughts and fix her eyesight, and brought her to a vast open plot of land which they’d painstakingly painted a pure white.
The large plot of land was actually the least plausible part of this scenario, what with the price of land nowadays.
“Well, yes.”
The voice confirmed her hypothesis simply. Sarah could feel her heart sinking as the man did so. She’d just… died? Just like that? She hadn’t felt any worse yesterday. The new IV drip had lessened her symptoms significantly, and she had been diligently exercising every day. As much as a paraplegic could exercise, that is.
And yet – this result wasn’t too far a stretch.
She’d seen this day coming a long time ago. The most recent prognosis by her doctors a year ago was that her condition had progressed to the point that it wouldn’t be unlikely for her organs to give out abruptly. They’d given her a little over five years.
So the estimate had been a little off.
“You are most definitely dead. Sarah Petra Whitberg, aged 38. Died of,” The voice paused, as if the person speaking was looking over their notes. “complications resulting from hereditary long-term muscular degeneration over - whew, thirty two years! Any questions? It’s all here, if you’re curious. Oh right, the paraplegia. Silly me.”
And with that, Sarah felt sensation return to her long useless appendages. The nerves and muscles which doctors had once told her were completely dead and irreparable had been given new life. It seemed unimaginable, but as she got to her feet, wobbling like a newborn fawn, it seemed to be true. She could walk again.
Sarah nervously raised her head to the heavens.
“So you’re God, then.”
The voice chuckled.
“Well, I suppose you’d see it that way. I mean, it’s not an inaccurate way of describing our relationship. You are the creation and I am the… uh, not creator… supervisor? Observer? Something like that. When it comes down to it, I’m just an old man; no one special. It just so happened that circumstances met in such a way that I ended up in charge. No more, no less.”
Sarah frowned. What was this person saying? He wasn’t God?
“Then what’s all this supposed to be? If I’m dead, then shouldn’t I be, I dunno, in Heaven right now? Or Hell? Unless you’re telling me that this is it? Heaven?” She gestured around at the nothingness blanketing the landscape. “Not a lot of stuff to do here for the rest of eternity.”
“Oh, no; this isn’t it.” The voice clarified. “The usual process is wholly automatic. Has to be, for the purposes it’s intended for. If I hadn’t pulled you out into this in-between space, you’d probably already been reassigned to something else by the system. Hold on, let me check the allocation details here… ah, yes. A Telphin tentacle colony. Which, trust me, isn’t as bad as it sounds. There’s billions of other organisms that live much more undesirable existences.”
“Then why-”
“Say, Sarah.” The voice cut her off mid-sentence, calmly posing her an offer. “How would you like another chance at life?”
“…huh?” Sarah said, surprised at the sudden proposal.
There was no way she could go back, could she?
“I could do that. Put you back in your former world. Give you back the use of your legs there, too.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Seriously?! Then there wasn’t any debate – that had to be the only choice!
“Then I want-”
“Hold on, let me finish.” The self-proclaimed old man interrupted. “There’s that, of course. Same world, same everything except you can walk and run, but c’mon, you’ve been given a golden opportunity here! Think; whatever fantastical worlds your mind can dream of, you can visit! Living another life where you can experience new things that wouldn’t be possible if you simply chose to go back to your old world. Fly with dragons, swim with mermaids, make friends with ghosts; anything!”
Sarah went silent.
She wanted badly, so badly, to ask to be sent back to Earth, every illness which ailed her banished. She’d dreamed to be able to walk on her own two feet once more, eat something more decadent and rich than the bland hospital fare which graced her flip-up table every meal time.
Climb Mount Everest! Jump out of a plane! Learn how to knit!
That last one was something she'd been meaning to get around to.
But.
The voice had a point.
Why not pick a fantasy world for her second go through? Earth was great and all, with its massive leaps in technology and civilisation. But with the scientists deciphering each and every one of the various chemicals which collectively made up the human condition, and ever-present and steadily growing operant conditioning which existed, insidiously, in every aspect of entertainment available, it was easy to get desensitized to all of it. To become nothing but a zombie, endlessly tapping away at a screen for the next dopamine hit.
She could do better than that.
Plus, it wasn’t like there was anyone else in her life. Nobody that would grieve over her, nor anyone that she would miss. Going back to Earth would be nothing but more of the same – a life on rails already set down in front of her. Why shouldn’t she blaze a new path?
“Can I choose?” Sarah asked, hesitantly. “The details of the world I’ll be sent to, and all that?”
“Of course you can.” The man reassured her. “I wouldn’t have asked you this if you couldn’t. I’ll accommodate your wishes as far as my, uh, associate will allow. Go ahead, list away.”
“Well, I like animals. I could never interact for long with them. There was always some reason, like allergies or communicable diseases. So if it’s possible, a world with talking animals, please.”
“Gotcha, animals that you can chat with. Anything else?”
“I don’t want to change too much; so can you let me keep this body? Without the, y’know, paraplegia and bad vision.”
“Easy. Done. You know what, I’ll throw in a little something to help you along. You’re going to a strange new world, after all.”
A ruby red crystal ball materialised next to Sarah out of thin air.
“Bind Item Spawner to Sarah Petra Whitberg. Transcribe list to owner.”
Sarah felt her mind fill with paragraphs of simple phrases. It wasn’t painful, more like someone was dragging a bunch of goose feathers in a circle on the inside of her skull; a sort of fuzzy sensation. And with that, she knew exactly how to use the item she had been gifted, as well as its limitations.
“I think that about settles it.” The old man said. “I hardly think you’ll be in any trouble as long as you have that with you. Alright, have fun! Set Sarah Petra Whitberg soul tether state as off. Attach world 953847985143. Generate link portal.”
A translucent blue door formed in front of the human, presumably the gateway to Sarah’s new life in the world she had specified. Everything she had envisioned, all but a couple of paces away. But as she took one tentative step towards the portal, she stopped.
There was something that still bugged her.
“Before I go, can I ask you something else, sir?” Sarah asked.
She didn’t expect the old man to reply. If all this was true, then she was being given everything she could ever dream of, with nothing in return. It would be the height of ungratefulness to point out what she was about to say.
“Sure, shoot.”
But of course, the old man immediately answered.
At this, she smiled faintly. Sarah hadn’t known this stranger for very long, but she was now starting to get a better idea of who he was.
“Why are you doing this? There’s no reason for you to give me this second chance.”
“Well, why does anyone do anything? Because I want to.”
“No, but,” Sarah interjected. “why ask for my opinion? I don’t know exactly why you brought me back from death, but if you wanted to send me to another world, you could have just as easily done so without talking to me. Instead, you explained to me exactly what was happening, considered my feelings and adjusted the relevant conditions accordingly. Why?”
“Oh,” the old man faltered, seemingly taken aback at this question. There was a moment of silence as he pondered it over. Then, in a wistful, melancholic voice, he answered, “I suppose I was lonely, Sarah. Lonely enough to resort to this as an excuse to meet you.”
Sarah took in his timid admission, digesting it. He… was lonely? The corners of her mouth curled upwards, and she shouted into the white void. “I don’t know if you can see the look on my face, but just in case you can’t; cheer up, old man. I was lonely too, once. Back on Earth, I mean. Then I died – still alone. But then, I met you. And you gave me another chance – one more opportunity at companionship.”
She took another step towards the blue door, the energies which comprised it humming slightly. As she lifted her right foot to make that final step, she turned to address the old man.
“Maybe next time you’ll meet somebody new that’ll keep you company. Somebody to make sure that you won’t be lonely anymore.”
And with that, she left the space in-between worlds.
~
Sarah’s first few steps in the world of Aphelia were wary and indecisive. Yes, the old man had jotted down all the things she had wanted. But maybe the world he had selected had other dangers outside of her parameters. She nervously caressed the orb tucked under her arm. He’d seen fit to give her something that could create close to anything she desired. Why would he do that if there wasn’t a chance she could meet some horrible end?
Why on Earth did I ask for talking animals, she groaned inwardly. There’s so many different kinds of talking animals. Could be that they all eat humans here; or they’ve enslaved all humans like that one ape movie. I should have went with my second choice – a world made of talking desserts that beg to be eaten. Win-win for both sides.
Just then, a shrill shriek pierced the air.
Sarah stopped in her tracks. That was… a cry of pain, wasn’t it? If something was hurt, then wasn’t it likely that whatever hurt it… could hurt her? Her grip tightened around the gift that the old man had given her.
Calm down, she reminded herself. I have an invincible tool here by my side. Whatever it is won’t be able to hurt me. And it is a fantasy world, maybe I should go on an adventure? Help the person that got hurt?
Approaching the source of the shriek, Sarah soon realised that it had come from a small, white haired tiger cub. Except that this cub was nothing like the ones she’d known from Earth – this one was entirely humanoid, and other than facial features which resembled that of a feline, you could easily mistake it for an actual human. Even the way it clutched its hurt shoulder was so reminiscent of how an Earthling might act. From the looks of it, the cub had fallen while trying to climb a tree, catching its shoulder on a tree root that was jutting out. The root had torn through its hide, ripping out a three inch long gash.
Seeing her approach, the cub began to snarl, pushing its back against a tree while still holding on to the injury on its arm. Sarah raised her hands in surrender, slowly advancing on it.
“Shh, shh, shh… It’s okay, I’m here to help.”
[Create Bandage!]
After intoning the command to the Item Spawner in English, a roll of bandages popped out, landing harmlessly in her hands. At this display, the cub fell silent, its anger instantly dispelled. Now it was tilting its head in curiosity at the impromptu magic trick, pain all but forgotten. It hardly stirred even as Sarah carefully wrapped the roll around the ugly tear in its hide, studying the strange fabric inquisitively.
“There,” Sarah tied off the bandage, stroking the tiger’s head as she smiled at him. “All better now.”
The tiger looked at her warily – or as warily as a small humanoid tiger could, anyways – but nevertheless still voiced his gratitude, followed by what he really wanted to know. “Thanks, miss. Actually, how did you do that? Making that thing appear from nowhere? Can you teach me?”
Sarah laughed. “I don’t think you’ll be able to learn how to do it. It’s not a language from this world, after all.”
The tiger cub’s eyes widened. “Wow! So you’re from another world?! Tell me more, tell me more!”
Sarah cradled the cub with both arms, and sat him down snugly on her lap, “Alright, why not? Well, first we have to start at the beginning. So there’s this place called Earth, and there exists a species called humans…”
As Sarah told this cub a story of another world, her mind drifted off to dream about how she would lead this second lease on life. She’d make new friends, help people in need, and surround herself with her loved ones. People she would care about, and would care about her in turn.
That was all she would need to be content.