"... we must announce another disappearance– this time a twelve-year-old child named John Ronald. That is the 67th of these mysterious disappearances that have been plaguing not only Canada, but the entire world. And only in one month! What do you think is the answer behind this issue mister Reed?"
"Well, Miss Xi, I must say the internet has many crazy theories. There are many many theories out there. From Aliens to North Korea to the world governments themselves. Don't believe all you read online because–"
"Please mister Reed, I'd like to stay on track."
"Pardon me. Yes, I believe that this is simply just a coincidence. You know these days, social media will jump on any bad news and make it seem like it's the end of the world. Honestly, if it were me, I'd leave twitter right about now because the conspiracies are everywhere–"
Nadia Walker turned off her television and sighed. She was an older woman that was in her late fifties now. She felt tears well up in her eyes when she thought about her daughter.
Hannah.
She missed her so much. She was her baby girl. But she was gone. And yet when she reported that she was missing more than one month ago now, the police had told her that there was nothing to be done. She was last seen going up the elevator in her apartment and the cameras inside of it weren't working, so there was no way of knowing what happened to her.
"Where are you... Fuck."
This had caused a rift in her relationship with her husband. Nadia had spent almost all of their savings hiring private detectives, psychics, anything to find Hannah. None of them had wielded results. Not yet at least. The woman took her iPhone and opened up twitter. #2020Kidnappings was trending now, and it had been for a few days since the media picked it up. Hell, it had even revived the newspaper industry in her small town. She looked at the official disappearance count. It was... four thousand already. Most of them were concentrated in North America, but almost all countries had seen at least one of them.
She turned off her phone. It was time to sleep now. Maybe tomorrow there would be some news. Maybe Hannah would be found. She prayed to God as hard as she could, like she had been doing every day since Hannah went missing. If there was a God, he probably thought she was a hypocrite for only praying when her world collapsed around her.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
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All over the world, events like these were happening. Hannah was not the only one. She was not unique, and neither were Esme and Malcolm. Thousands of new arrivals. Thousands of souls transported in this unfamiliar environment and more arriving each day.
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A young woman was sitting on a plane, with around fifty other people. She was happy because she was finally flying in first class, and she was watching Black Panther on the little screen they gave you with her headphones. It distracted her at least, as she couldn't sleep on a plane. She always wondered how anyone did that.
"The real question is, what are those?!"
She cringed. That was a dead meme. She paused the movie and looked up to see if she was allowed to unfasten her seatbelt. She needed to go to the bathroom really bad. It was off. She whispered to herself.
"Thank God."
As she got up however, the world shifted and she found herself with the passengers in a city full of... were those dragons?
A lot of screaming ensued.
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A man was currently running out of his university business class. He didn't want to miss his bus, even if it was raining and he was completely drenched. He saw the bus slowly arriving at his stop, but he was still at least thirty seconds away. He hoped there would be a red light so he could make it. Almost there... almost...
He face-planted into the ground, but instead of the hard sidewalk, he fell in soft sand. It was hot. Extremely hot. Where was he...?
"Enemy [Spy] in the camp!"
He looked around him and he saw huge cow men approaching him, swords in hand. He panicked. Were those minotaurs?! Those didn't exist! He was tripping, he had to be! But he was surrounded, and so he had no choice. He pulled up both his hands.
"Wait! I'm–"
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Another young man was carelessly riding his bike through the hot streets of Palodhi in India. Even in winter, it was hot. He wished he could see snow. He wished his family wasn't poor. But now wasn't the time to think about that. He was going to have fun with a few friends today. They had all saved and bought movie tickets to see something tonight, and so he was carefree.
He didn't see when the truck approached him at speeds that should have been above the speed limit. The truck honked at him but it was too late. He wasn't fast enough, he was–
Not on the road anymore. He was on a mountain, and it was snowing.
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Many more innocent souls over the world were taken. No one knew, on Earth or in this new one. Thousands of them. Many would die on their first few days, killed by a monster, or dying of dehydration, starvation or poisoning. Some of them had cancer, were diabetic, or needed medication regularly to live. The selection was random and ruthless. It didn't spare anyone.
Hannah was sleeping, ignorant of this situation. There might have been someone from Earth in a city close to hers. There was no way to know. She thought Esme was the only one she had. Her last memory from home along with a few belongings in a bag, but this was much bigger than the two of them. Slowly, the world was changing. Both worlds.
And this was just the beginning.