Chapter Four

But of course I did. I hesitated so much stepping through that mirror again. I thought he might come back for me, but he waited. There were so many questions in my mind as the world around me faded. Wondering if how many times I went through it would it alter my DNA, would I mutate? So many silly things.

This wasn’t the first time that I felt just disorientated. This I processed a lot better. My vision swam with twinkling stars. Bright lights that for one moment made me try and shield my eyes. Of course, that didn’t really work because I wasn’t actually corporeal. We exited the mirror, and I turned to look at it, seeing the brief image of the spaceship through the swirling blue colors. “That’s one hell of a ride.”

“I don’t remember much from my first, but everyone after gets a lot more detailed,” Steve said.

I glanced around. It was just as I’d left it. I cringed. Mirrors. I still hated them.

“Are you okay?” Steve asked.

“No, I don’t like them. Not sure I ever will, even if I know you aren’t dead ’cause nothing actually ate you.”

“Do you think your fiancé is about?”

I never expected her to still be there. But I looked around and saw dusty footprints in and out of the hall of mirrors. “I guess not. It’s a bit of a walk from here if I recall.” I said.

“Don’t mind walking; it will give me some chance to see if I can cope with the gravity. I have a few tricks up my sleeve if I can’t.”

“Does it feel different at the moment?”

“Did you feel different on Goliath?”

I had to think about that for a little while. “No, I guess I didn’t.”

“Then I’m hoping there’s really not been much difference between us, and I’ll be fine.”

We started walking, first out of the fair.

“This has really fallen apart,” Steve said.

“Yeah, after you vanished, things fell apart for them, the police cordoned it off for a few days, but then people didn’t want their kids to come; it because a ghost park before long, and then no one even traveled for it, despite the stories that encouraged people.”

“That’s a shame we spent a lot of time here.”

Seeing his face as we walked back to the wall was sad. “Cold, though,” Steve said.

I tugged my jacket off and handed it to him. “Take it.”

“You’re sure?”

“It was hot on the ship, I can say that much.”

“Down to the laser and fires, I think.” He frowned but put my jacket on.

That’s when I saw Alli’s car was still in the lot.

“What is she still doing here?” I said aloud.

“Who?”

“Alli. My fiance.”

“You think that might complicate things?”

“Yeah,” I said. “How am I going to explain where I’ve been, like at all.”

It didn’t take her long to spot me, either. The headlights of the car shot on, and then, in the next moment, we were bared down upon by the fast-moving vehicle.

“Holy shit,” Steve said as he jumped out of the way, “She’s cra—”

“Oh yeah,” Alli opened the doors and jumped out, running for me.

“Kade, Kade, oh my god, you’re here. I’ve still try for your phone. Where, what?

She literally trembled in my arms. She was terrified. I’m glad she was okay, but to not have gone home? That was crazy.

“Why are you still here? It’s late, really late.”

She looked at me none plussed and I glanced to Steve… “Why wouldn’t I be, I couldn’t leave you… I don’t know where you went.”

There were other headlights I saw in the distance. “Who else is coming?” I asked her. Glancing again at Steve.

“I needed help searching. The police, they wouldn’t believe me, they… they said you were pranking me. But I knew, I saw you go through that mirror! I needed someone else to come, to look.”

“Who did you call?”

“My brother and his friends.”

“What did you say?”

“I thought you were just playing with me. I know how much you—”

That’s when she saw Steve. “I’m sorry; who is your friend.”

I had no clue what to say here. “That’s Steve,” I said in the end. I couldn’t lie to her either.

“Steve? As in the Steve that went missing ten years ago?”

Steve nodded and came a step closer. Even I could see the reflection of his uniform in her car lights. It shimmered and sparkled.

“Steve Rash,” he said and held his hand out.

Alli took his hand. “You’ve been missing for ten years, you look—”

“Haggard?” I said.

“No,” Alli slapped me. “Just older, wasn’t he supposed to be your age?”

“Yes,” Steve said. “Things are different were I’ve been, call it stress”

“Different? How is that even possible.”

“Where I’ve been, well its complicated.”

The headlights from the cars were drawing in closer up the forest path. “Alli,” I pulled her to me. “You can’t talk to them about Steve. He can hide back inside till I’ve sent them off.”

“You want me to lie to him?”

“I just need to talk to you properly with Steve for a while, without them and their questions. Can we just get rid of them?”

“Kade? That’s not really fair. They’ve driven a few hours to get here.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I knew that Chris did really live a fair trek away. And so did his friends. “Just let them know how much you appreciate it. We’ll meet them in the morning at Sally Orbits for breakfast. I’ll refill all their tanks and pay for them to stay at the hotel if they go and let us sort it out.”

Alli stared at Steve. “You’re really him?”

Steve nodded, “I am, and we don’t need other people finding out right now.”

“Okay,” she nodded but there was real sceptisism there. “Go and hide, Kade can come and shout at you when we’re done, and they’ve gone.”

Steve moved back to the wall and slipped inside.

“You’re sure about this?”

I held onto her. “No, but I know I need to talk with you and work things through without them here.”

She had tears in her eyes, and I wiped them away. “I love you,” I said. “I really love you.”

“I love you, too, more than I even thought possible. When you vanished, I thought about all the stories you told me about how Steve disappeared, that you never found him or his body.”

The cars drew into the parking lot and were over to us within the next ten seconds. Chris got out, and with him, one of his friends. I knew they were both bouncers at one of the city’s highest-rated X clubs. They were both tall, and easily twice my weight.

Alli went to him, and he stared my way. I never even heard what she said to them, but she pulled her wallet out and gave him her credit card. Looking at the other two cars, with at least three guys in each. This was going to be one expensive night at the hotel for me.

What else could I do, though? It took her a lot more words for him to chase his friend back in the car. Then he came to me. I almost expected to end up on the floor.

“You ever, ever do anything as stupid again, I will not hesitate to smack you upside down, understood.”

“It wasn’t meant to be like this one on either side,” Alli placated. “Its as much as my fault as his, I shouldn’t have, I shouldn’t have forced him to face them.”

That was as heartfelt as it was going to be from her, she was looking at me those tears in her eyes still there.

Chris glanced at her. “I get it. We all have our phobias.” Then he turned, got in his car, and all of them left.

“Phobia?” I asked.

“You wouldn’t believe it if I said it.”

“Really?”

“Spiders,” she said with just the hint of a smile.

“You’re kidding. He’s been hiding all these years he doesn’t like spiders?”

“Screams like a girl and will jump on the couch if he sees one.”

“That’s bad…”

“Totally I am sorry. I used to take the piss out of him when we were younger. I think I get my aversion to phobias because I can’t accept that he really is scared.”

“I really am scared of mirrors.” I replied.

“I know, I— tears sprung from her eyes once again. I yanked her to me and held her.

“We’ll be okay,” I said. “I promise you we will.”

I shouldn’t have been making that kind of promise, but she was so upset. I wanted to wipe the slate clean and start again.

I didn’t care if Steve didn’t want her involved. I needed her, and there was no way I would let her go now. Not ever.

I moved to the wall and shouted to Steve.

Alli frowned. “I thought for a moment this had all been some weird dream.”

“Not a dream I said. Or a nightmare, any of it.”

“Yeah, I think that is one of the worst things about it. This really is something I wish I could wake up from.”

“I wished I could have too,” Steve said.

I pointed to Alli’s car. “We should go, at least drive back to ours, talk, and have a drink. Make a plan for tomorrow.”

“Plan?”

“You mean apart from the hotel breakfast.”

“We might not make that,” Steve said. "We have so much to do."

Alli gasped. And I had to say. “That’s why we need to talk.”

“You really… I don’t…”

“Come on, I’ll drive. You sit in the back, Steve.”

He nodded and climbed in, then I put it in gear, and we set off.

By the time we arrive back at our new flat. I had explained everything that had happened to me and Steve had filled in a few blanks. It was much easier for me to listen to Steve and drive than actually question him myself.

I liked how Alli asked things. She had the right mindset. I was all emotional but still very emotional.

“What did you train for?” Steve asked.

“She’s a psychiatrist,” I replied. “Cant you tell.”

“Yeah, I think I remember one of my mom’s doctors sounding so great. They could have gotten anything out of me there.”

“That’s our job. But also our job to see how much damage there’s been done.”

“So you have a professional opinion of me?”

“Yes, you really believe all of this,” Alli gave me a worried side glance. “So does Kade. That worried me.”

“You don’t believe us?”

“I’m just struggling, you vanished in front of my eyes, no matter how much the police say it was a prank. I looked everywhere I could. I can’t see how you’d prank that.”

I rested a hand on hers as the engine ticked cooling off. “Let’s get upstairs, have some drinks, and sit down for real.”

“I could eat,” I said. My stomach growling. “You really weren’t kidding about traveling between worlds making my metabolism work harder.”

Steve got out of the car. “Yeah, I’m hungry too. It really does make a difference.”

We took the lift upstairs and then went inside. “This is amazing,” Steve said. “How can so much have changed in ten years.”

“We both have good jobs,” I said. “We really worked hard for this.”

Steve moved to the TV and cabinet display. “I remember TV’s and phones. Computers you could hold in your hands. Gaming systems you could take from room to room. Did VR develop anymore at all?

“Yes,” Alli said and moved to the fridge. She pulled it open and brought out a six-pack. “Presuming you have alcohol where you’ve been.”

Steve actually shook his head. “Not in the sense of what we had here.”

“Then maybe I won’t give you the beer.” She made to pull it back, and he snatched it the frothing top spilling over.

“No way.” Steve instantly sucked it up. Then coughed. “I don’t want to not try it. I might never get another chance.”

“I can put some pizza in the oven,” she said. “Is that okay, bit late for making something fresh.”

“Oh my god. Pizza, you’re kidding me?” Steve’s face lit up. “I haven’t had pizza in forever.”

“Over ten years,” I reminded him.

When his face wrinkled I knew something more was going on. Alli moved to get all the things out, and we sat at the breakfast bar while I popped the lids. The first taste of beer tonight had my throat on fire.

“Why does it taste weird?” I asked.

“If you call the system log up, you can see. Our food has no real taste. It’s just memories enhanced by the system. But this, this is real, and it’s never had real food or drink before.”

“Holy shit.” I said. “So…”

“This is the first time for it to experience anything on Earth.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

“Maybe both. Like when you were with Alli, how you feel about her, and her kissing and touching you.”

“Everything?” I felt my face flush.

Yes, so I guess no hanky-panky if you don’t want them to be watching.”

“Fuck that,” I said. “You ever try and refuse your girlfriend while she’s rubbing all over you.”

Steve flushed this time, and I cringed on the inside.

“What is she like?” I asked after another mouthful of beer.

“Intelligent, passionate, resourceful. They’re called Flimats,” he said. “Technically not human, but humanoid. They’ve soft downy feathers all over and wear very light clothes. The ship was over warm, not just because of the lasers. They actually like it like that.”

Ha, I laughed. “So it really wasn’t just me.”

“No,” he said. “They do like it to be fairly moist as well. Hence most of the time, I stay in this suit as well. It keeps my temperature on the right side of human.”

“I really hope we can help them.” I said.

Alli came back to us, sitting next to me and popping her beer open. She took a swig. “So what kind of materials are we looking at buying, and how much of.”

Steve pulled his arm out and tapped his wrist. Alli stared at it as a long list of materials flashed up.

“That’s a lot,” she said.

“Do you even have any idea how much all of that will cost?”

Steve shook his head. “I have no idea of any prices on Earth at the moment. Even when I was a child, I never paid attention to things like Rock salt or aluminum.”

Alli chuckled. “I can only imagine what kinds of friends you would have had if you did.”

“Me,” I said. “He would still have been friends with me.”

She smiled and leaned on me. “This really is a bit bizarre.”

“Tell me about it; I never expected to be here,” I said. “Especially with you and my x dead best friend.

“No,” Steve said. “Missing ex-best friend.”

“Yeah, let’s hope that we can move on from that.”

“I hope so too.”

The smell of pizza drifted to us all as we conversed. Alli had brought her laptop up to the bench, and we’d started to make a list of things and prices.

So far, the total was literally in the thousands.

I’d never have that kind of money even on my credit card. In fact using all of them, I don’t think we’d have enough.

“We’ve never going to get all of this,” she said.

“I know,” I frowned. “Not to mention it’s in quantities; I don’t think we could ever order in online.”

“Your right. This might take days.”

“Is there anything you can do without, what’s the minimum you could do with?”

Steve talked about his wrists a few more times, and then the prices on the laptop were reduced by half.

That was a lot more manageable. “You were over estimating?”

“I just wanted to be sure, yeah.”

“But this time, that’s the absolute min you could take.”

“Yes, we need every drop of grain or salt for this.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. And tapped the screen, making sure I was okay to hit my bank up. I checked all my accounts.

“Alli,” I said.

“I know,” she groaned.

“What?” Steve asked glancing to the both of us and back again.

He looked so innocent, and this was as fucking bonkers as it came. Space ships, aliens coming to earth…. I sighed. “This is our wedding fund,” I said and showed him the balance.

“You can’t spend that,” Steve said, “Thats…”

“With that and the credit cards, we have enough to buy the lot.” Alli just nodded.

Steve swallowed. “How about getting it to the fair.”

“That might still be a bit of a challenge.”

“Yeah, a few things have to come in, but if we call them first thing in the morning, they might get a super shipment out to us.”

“How long do you think that might take.”

“Twenty-four hours.”

“That is bad. So tight.

“Yeah, let’s hope Jen can shave some more time for us. Like a lot more time.”

The clock really was ticking.