I wasn’t sure if I had just lost my mind from the whole policeman incident or if there really was a man in full colour standing in front of me.

Just like the other citizens of this world, he didn’t seem aware of my presence. The man was scared of something, he had such an intense look on his face and it felt like he was staring straight at me. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down and turned around to see what was so captivating.

At first, I didn’t see anything but then I heard it. The same sound as earlier, the sound of a police siren. My stomach lurched and I had to try hard not to vomit, I screamed at the man to run.

Almost as if he had heard me, the man turned and started sprinting into the alleyway beside him. Without even thinking I started to follow him. I was terrified that he was about to face the same fate as the briefcase man but I couldn’t help myself - I had to follow him.

Never before had I seen an ounce of colour in this world - apart from me, of course. He stuck out like a sore thumb and I was befuddled as to what he was doing in this world. Was he from here or was he from the same world as me, but somehow managed to escape from the bubble?

Nonetheless, I didn’t have time to worry about this. The sound of the siren was getting louder with each passing second, I wondered if it was the same policeman from earlier. My heart was in my throat and my hands were slipping down the sides of the bubble as I tried to anchor myself so I wouldn’t be bumping around as we flew down the alley.

As we whipped around the narrow passageways, it seemed that the man knew exactly where to go. He turned each corner with such confidence it seemed that he had been in this world for a while. Gray trash cans and gray dumpsters lined the sides of the alley, I wondered if this place smelled.

“Fuck.” A noise from the man startled me out of my thoughts.

Did I just hear him speak? Never before had I been able to hear someone in this world so clearly, it was almost as if there was no barrier between us.

It seemed that we had come to the end of an alleyway with nothing ahead of us except a brick wall. The man turned around to leave but stopped the second he noticed the policeman was blocking the only exit.

It seemed like the same scene that I had witnessed only moments ago was playing out in front of me again. My anxiety was through the roof and my clothes were drenched in damp sweat.

“Nice try,” the man chuckled lightly. The second those words left the man's mouth I heard the ear-piercing boom of a gun going off.

Squeezing my eyes shut I let out a horrified scream, my ears were ringing and my heart was practically thumping out of my chest. Another shot went off and this time I felt my bubble being rocked violently.

I smashed against the alley wall, almost flipping completely over. Opening my eyes I couldn’t believe the scene in front of me.

The policeman was dead on the ground, blood leaking out of the bullet wound in his chest. The man was now standing in front of me, staring almost directly into my eyes - a gun pointed squarely at my bubble.

“Fuck you,” the man sneered. Was he talking to me?

My mind and stomach were both swirling. I had been under the impression that the people of this world were unable to see me. Before I could do or say anything, the world outside started to pulse erratically.

Error… Error…. Error…

A faint robotic voice was speaking from somewhere inside my bubble. I sat upright and swung my head around, trying to find the source. The world outside started to pulse faster and the man in front of me was turning into a blurry mess.

I suddenly felt very, very tired. Closing my eyes the last thing I heard was the robotic voice chanting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warm sunshine peeked through my curtains, I rolled over in bed and pulled the covers over my face. The events of yesterday were still imprinted firmly in my mind.

I had fallen asleep in the gray world and woken up back in my world, I had gotten back at around 10 PM which meant I had spent at least two hours there. I couldn’t stop thinking about the man in colour that I had seen, how had he been able to see me? Was he from my world?

After arriving back in my world I had tried to go back but the same robotic voice told me there was an ‘error’. I figured that had something to do with when the man had shot at my bubble.

A million different possibilities churned around in my thoughts; maybe the citizens could see me but just ignored my existence, or maybe only the man in colour could see me. Or maybe nobody could see me but somehow he had been able to sense me.

I didn’t have too much time to ponder, it was time for me to go to work. I seriously considered calling in sick and trying to go back to the gray world. Squeezing my eyes shut I tried to conjure up my bubble, but the same voice pinged inside my head.

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Error… Error…. Error…

Exasperated, I threw the covers off and got dressed for work. It was going to be another boring day of answering phone calls and crunching numbers - at least with this job I could afford to buy food and pay my rent.

The people of the gray world rarely ate, only when they were in their houses did I ever see them sit down and have a meal. Usually, they ate the same thing every day - a piece of meat with some vegetables and rice. To be honest, it wasn’t too much different than my meals.

I pushed open the door to my apartment and scampered down the stairs. Exiting the building I was met with a blast of warm air. Summertime here was sweltering, I could hardly wait to get onto the air-conditioned train.

Making my way through the city, I wondered if someone was watching over me. Maybe another person in a bubble was watching our city, seeing us scramble to work each morning and trying to survive in this hopeless rat race.

It comforted me to think that I wasn’t alone, that maybe someone was watching over me like how I watched over the citizens in the gray world.

“Let’s go, Mr. Bubble,” I whispered to myself. A woman to my right cast me a concerned glance before moving away from me.

Rolling my eyes, I tapped my metro card and entered the station.

The train was packed, as usual, all the businessmen and businesswomen travelling to their office buildings. No concern for one another, we crammed together like sardines. The sour smell of sweat circling through the air-conditioned carriage.

Getting off the train, I arrived at my workplace. The guard at the front barely acknowledged my existence as I entered the building and boarded the elevator. A woman called out for us to hold the elevator for her but the man to my right immediately slammed on the door close button.

I watched as the angry woman slapped her hands on the closing door, cursing us out. I averted my eyes and prayed that my boss would be in a good mood today.

“Hey, Emily!” My coworker Rita called out to me as I plopped down at my desk.

“Morning.” I flashed her a small smile. Rita was the only person in this office that talked to me, I enjoyed listening to her monotonous stories about her two mischievous kids and stuffy husband.

Rita came over and perched herself on the corner of my desk, leaning down close to me I could smell her expensive perfume.

“Rumor has it,” she whispered, the sound of her voice sending tingles down my spine, “Carl has been having an affair with Cheryl.”

I wasn’t surprised. They never made any effort to hide their flirtations, openly making remarks at one another from across the office and slipping away together for lunch.

“Does Carl’s wife know?” I didn’t care about Carl or his wife, but I knew that it would make Rita happy to gossip about it.

Rita pursed her lips, deep in thought. “Should I tell her?”

My mouth fell open in shock, “Rita, no. That’s a terrible idea.”

“Why?” She leaned closer to me, licking her lips. She batted her eyelashes mischievously and I felt my heart do a little somersault.

Looking away from her, I scanned the rest of the office. Our boss wasn’t here yet so everyone was busy talking, probably talking about the same thing we were.

“Don’t get involved in other people’s business. If it doesn’t concern you, then let them do what they want.”

“Emily,” Rita whined as she squatted at my arm, “you’re no fun.”

Right at that moment, our boss sauntered into the office. A grimace plastered across his repugnant face.

“I’m not paying you people to gossip, let’s get to work!” His shrill voice pierced through my skull and I instantly felt like strangling him.

Powering up my computer, I drummed my fingers against my desk. Lost in my thoughts, I almost didn’t hear my boss calling my name until Rita kicked me from under the desk.

“Emily! Are you paying attention?” He called from across the room.

I whipped my head around and smiled sheepishly.

“Come with me.”

I felt my soul leave my body as I stood up and walked across the entire length of the office to his desk. My coworkers peered up at me as I passed by them, snickering and making quiet comments.

“Close the door behind you and have a seat.”

The door clicked shut and I slumped into the wooden chair, lowering my eyes to my feet I could feel tears welling up.

“You haven’t been performing well at all. You are not even meeting the minimum requirements.” His voice was cold, not a hint of emotion.

I kept my eyes to the floor, the tears broke free from their barrier and were now streaming silently down my face.

“You can pack up your desk and leave.”

I bit my lip and nodded, there wasn’t anything I could say or do that would convince him to allow me to keep my job. I could only blame myself, I did the bare minimum and never tried harder. But this was life, cruel and cold.

Leaving his office, the entire floor was silent. My coworkers kept their eyes down, I knew that they all knew what had just happened. I lumbered over to my desk and started throwing my belongings back into my bag.

“What happened?” Rita’s harsh whisper broke the suffocating silence.

I shook my head in defeat, “he fired me.”

“What?! He can’t do that!” The loud pitch of Rita’s voice caused the entire office to turn and stare at us. A single phone rang somewhere in the corner of the room and I heard one of my coworkers answer it.

“It’s okay, I’ll just find another job.” Great, I couldn’t wait to be unemployed again and back to sending out hundreds of resumes with nary a response. At least I had some savings to survive off of until the next humdrum office job.

Rita suddenly stood up from her desk, nearly knocking over her chair in the process.

“No! I’m going to go talk to him, he can’t just do this!”

I jumped over to Rita’s side of the desk and grabbed her arm, in a low whisper I pleaded with her not to embarrass me any further.

“Please, Rita, just keep in touch with me, okay?” I smiled up at her through my tears. She looked down at me and gently wiped away a tear from my cheek.

“Okay, Emily.”

I let go of her arm and walked back to my desk, picking up my bag I slung it over my shoulder and headed out the door.

In a way, I felt free, free from the restraints and social norms of this awful job. Maybe this time I could find a job where I would be respected. I was already 28 years old, there was no more time for me to go back to school. I had to stick with what I knew but now that I had some experience, maybe there was a chance I could climb up the corporate ladder.

I left the office building, walked back to the train station and headed home.

Feeling dejected, I opened the door to my apartment and tossed my bag on the ground. The various objects inside clinked and rattled around.

I flung myself onto my bed and buried my head under the pillow, letting out a groan.

“Ughh…” I wondered if people in the gray world ever got fired from their jobs.

I settled my thoughts and focused on bringing up the image of the bubble in my mind. To access the gray world from this side, I had to imagine an image of the bubble. The longer that I thought about it, the clearer the image became and eventually the gray world would begin to phase into existence.

Imaging the smooth shell of my bubble, I expected the same voice to tell me there was an error. But this time, the voice said something new.

Reboot successful.