I was sweating. The killing was inevitable if I wanted to win, so the trigger went off, and the bullet did the job. I was shaking. The body disappeared after a few seconds.

That’s how I won the local e-sport tournament. It was some shooting game competition, and although I was 27 years old I really enjoyed online gaming. What I didn’t enjoy are the events which took place at my friend’s house.

    Joe was already in my apartment when I got home, laying on the couch and watching some no name Netflix show. I wasn’t even surprised when I found out that he ate all the cookies my mother sent the other day.

“This couch is freaking killin’ my back Seph, you should buy a new one with the tournament money,” he always calls me Seph, because Joe is a moron and thinks that Joseph is for men in their late 40’s.

“You know, I was thinking,” I murmured, then I turned to Joe to catch his reaction, “when the government said that next month we are going to send an experimental group to the 4th region, I was – “  I couldn’t finish because Joe interrupted.

“Oh, come on Seph, the government has been sending so called “experimental” groups and people to the Regions since ages, don’t tell me that you believe their “official” statement that this will be the first time they send more than one person.”

“That’s not my point. After the statement, I began thinking: why would they send there anybody officially, if they can’t bring them back?”

“So you’re saying that they figured that out? It’s not a one-way ticket anymore? But then why would they keep that a secret? I mean, that is wonderful news, especially for the people who are in the Regions since years.”

“You know, this was my question too. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. That’s why I decided to go on to the dark web for the first time in months. But check this out! Immediately after I logged in to my old account in the Truthspeakersassemble forum, a message already was in my mailbox. And it was sent just minutes after the statement,” I know what Joe thinks about the dark net and its community, but I had to tell him the full truth and all the details. “The strange thing was that the message had no sender, the username was hidden or something. The whole text was this: “Let’s meet at Joe’s house, just the three of us. Tuesday 8pm. M.”

“What?” Joe shouted. “What the fuck Seph, why didn’t you call me? Melissa sent you a message 2 days ago and you didn’t think you should share that information with me?”

“Wait, first of all, the fact that she didn’t use a username is strange to say the least, and second, when Melissa left you 2 years ago, she explicitly said in her letter that she don’t want us to contact her.”

Looking at his face, I couldn’t figure out if he was angry or sad or surprised. Probably all three at the same time. But we didn’t have time to waste, because it was almost 8pm.

   On our way to the house, Joe was rather quiet. I knew him since we were 8 years old. Our friendship throughout the 18 years had its ups and downs, and most of the time we understood each other without saying a word.

“Did you find anything noteworthy in the dark web about the reason of the new experimental group?” Joe spoke silently, and I could tell that he wasn’t really interested.

“Well, not really, just a few conspiracy theory. I think your dad could say a few things about it.”

“Yeah..” he let out a little giggle, but then he got serious, “since they fired him… He acts strange you know. He was always a weird guy, typical scientist spirit, but it’s like he gave up on life since the incident. I don’t mean like he’s depressed or anything, he is just not his old self.”

“I can understand that. I always liked him, especially when the 3 of us went camping and fishing together. He always acted like a macho who knows every manly tricks. I liked his jokes as a kid. It’s not fair from the NPUC that when their own idea backfired they blamed the scientists working for them. I mean, the Regions are similar, but curing a 81 years old guy’s illness with a medication we haven’t even heard of, just because they saw that this old man’s mirror self in the 4th region took that same medicine? Come on, I am not a doctor but it looks stupid even for me. And the fact that your dad even raised his voice against it, but they didn’t listen to him. So they fired the whole team because they did their job?”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

I always talked intensively about this subject, and when I am passionate I am always flailing my hands.

“My dad talks about a lot of things. I heard so much variations of this story I don’t know what to believe” he had just taken out his keys to open the door.

I was disappointed to hear that his parents were out of town, I would have loved to hear some interesting stories from his father. A physicist who worked for the National Parallel Universes Council always has some good story.

   When we got in, for our biggest surprise, the backdoor was wide open. It was already dark, and the cold wind swept across the house. Somebody was in the garden already. But it wasn’t Melissa.

We slowly walked out to the garden, half scared and half excited, waiting for some explanation we deserved 2 years ago.

“Nice house you got there Joe, is there a chance that your dad used to work for the government?” It wasn’t the voice we expected, but it was a voice I knew from a long time ago.

She was an old friend of mine, we met in the dark web 5 years ago, and I only met her twice in real life, one time in an e-sport competition, and one time at Joe’s 24th birthday. She was from Hungary, Europe.

Mónika stood in the middle of the garden watching the sky, dressed all black. She didn’t even looked at us while speaking.

“Sorry for the confusion. I know you expected Melissa, but I needed your attention and this was the only time I could show up here, and I have to talk to you in person. And, just to be clear, I didn’t lie, the message didn’t explicitly said Melissa.” She wasn’t showing any sign of regret for tricking us to believe it was Joe’s ex-girlfriend who wanted to meet up.

Joe just stood there shocked, and I didn’t know how to handle the situation. I was of course happy to see Mónika, but it was a cheap shot from her.

“Fuck you” my childhood friend was angry, confused, sad.

“What are you doing here Móni? If you wanted to meet, why didn’t you call? Why the message when you know I don’t frequently visit the dark web anymore?”

“Before I explain anything, there is something I have to tell you” She spoke a little slow, which is weird because the one thing I was surprised about when we first met 3 years ago at Joe’s, that she talked super fast.

“I’m not the Mónika you know. I look the same, my name is the same, but I’m from the 6th region.” She was staring at the grass the whole time, didn’t even look at us. She didn’t show any feelings.

“Seph, is she high?” Joe kindly asked.

I was staring at her, a whole army of thoughts was fighting in my head, trying to figure out everything at once, but I was sure about one thing: she wasn’t lying.

“When you… I mean, the other Mónika. Where is she? Why are you here? How can you be here?” I needed answers. Joe calmed down in the meantime, and he didn’t show any interest towards the conversation.

“Listen here. The whole thing is complicated, but I will tell you what I know” Finally she was speaking to us, not to the ground. Even her eyes were different from Móni.

“As you know, this whole NPUC thing started 5 years ago, when the scientists proved that parallel universes exist, and they discovered 13 of them that are similar to this world. Everybody calls these universes The Regions. A few months go by, they announce that there are ways to communicate with them, and maybe the travelling is possible too, but only there, a one-way ticket. Their physics are similar too, but different enough to make commuting impossible. At least that’s what they said. One year later, and strangely enough they are only interested in one of them: the 4th region. The most similar to this world. In “secret”, they do experiments, expeditions, sending agents there, knowing that they can’t return (at least, they thought).” She sighed in relief when she stopped.

“Well” Joe had an arrogance in his voice “we knew all of this. They do a shitty job at keeping things secret. Tell us the interesting part: how do you know it’s possible to come back from there. You said you’re from the 6th Earth, which is basically just a big desert, a few million people, and very rudimentary technology. No internet, no phones, maybe even books are rare there.”

“I’m not here to lie. I’m here to help both of you.” Finally she showed some feelings, even if it was anger. “It’s true that my world is not that fancy as yours, but we do have something like an internet, a way of communication. And yes, we do have books. Back to my point and answer how I know that it's not a one-way ticket, you have to come to Melissa’s house. I can show you all the proofs in my computer. I know it can be upsetting to hear this, but you can’t freak out: I and Melissa switched places, she is at the 6th region at the moment.”

Móni looked worried, which bothered me.

“Don’t waste any time, Joe, let’s go” I wasn’t hesitating, I wanted to know everything. My heart was beating too fast.

“Before we go, I have to tell you something. I met your mirror-self in the 4th region before I-“

Enormous noise. My ears rang, it hurt. Her head was covered in red, she fell to the ground. I threw up, Joe was screaming, my whole world was crushed. Mónika was shot.