Parallel Worlds

I always felt as though there was something off about the world around me. I’ve ignored that feeling for years, thinking those were just fragments of my imagination. Everything around me appeared normal, birds still chirped their little songs, cars still honked on the worst part of days, kids laughed in the playground, but there was always something itching in the back of my mind telling me that the aura felt different.

I woke up in my dorm room, quickly sitting up on my bed. “How am I still thinking about this in my sleep?” I muttered to myself. I slowly got up, trying to rub the ray of light from the window out of my eyes. As I tried to regain my balance standing, I walked towards my bathroom, dreading today’s finals.

As I was getting myself ready for my morning class that day, I noticed something… flicker. I looked up. It wasn’t the lights. I turned the light switch on and off. Nope, it definitely wasn’t the lights. I then looked at the mirror.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “There can’t be anything wrong with the mirror. Not today.”

Shrugging, I reached for my toothbrush and…

I froze, staring at the mirror. “Did I not move?” I thought.

I did the same motion I did to reach for the toothbrush. The mirror didn’t reflect. It looked like I was just standing still with my hands straight down, my own eyes staring back at me, lifeless. Then within a millisecond, I felt my mind and body pull towards something. I yelled in agony and closed my eyes shut, feeling the pressure tightening up around my body. Then I opened my eyes, saw something that I’ve never seen before.

It looked like another place, something sort of… futuristic. Not like the futuristic Tokyo or Dubai type. It was something that I have never thought to be possible, it was something otherworldly. The place was as dark as night but the people around me were literally illuminating. Some were flying faster than the speed of light and others were conversing in a language that did not sound possible for a regular person to say.

Then there was a boy standing in front of me. He appeared to be about 5’5” with light blue skin and dark green eyes and looked to be about my age. His black and green outfit was glowing, but his skin glowed even brighter.

“You need to hear my message,” he told me.

“What?”

As the boy opened his mouth to respond, he turned around to glance somewhere else. When he looked back to me, I felt my body pull me back towards something.

“What’s happening?” I was freaking out. I appeared in front of the mirror, my reflection continuing to stay still. “That was weird.”

I let out a huge sigh to hear a knock on the door. “Are you okay, Scarlet?” I heard my roommate, Cassie, yelling through the door.

“Oh great, so everyone probably heard me.” I walked to the door and opened it to see Cassie’s eyebrows knitted together. She slowly walked in. “I heard you all the way down the hall. Are you okay?”

I rapidly nodded. “Yeah.”

“You don’t seem okay,” Cassie said, putting her hands on his hips, “this is the second time this happened.”

“I just thought that I saw something. You know when you wake up, and you see things that aren’t real.”

She nodded as if to say for the second time? “Alright,” she said as she hugged me, “just make sure that you drink water and call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks.” As we released from our hug, Cassie said, “I’m about to go Calculus. See ya later.”

“See ya.” The door slammed shut and I slowly walked back to the bathroom. My reflection was still standing still. Then it did something that my eyes believed was fake. I was glowing.

I rubbed my eyes and splashed water on my face. “This can’t be real.”

Then all of a sudden, I felt someone standing next to me. I turned my head to the right and saw the blue boy from my vision staring at me. I wanted to scream, but something about him looked genuine. His eyes were full of regret and other things I couldn’t figure out at the moment. But you know I still had to make sure that he wouldn’t do anything bad to me.

“Who are you and how did you get here?” I asked, attempting to be as composed as I could.

“I teleported here from my planet,” he said with a monotone voice. “I also can not tell you who I am.”

“Why? You already barged in here without me knowing.”

“I want to help you.”

I crossed my arms. “And because?”

“Earth is in danger.”

I squinted my eyes at him. “Of what?”

The blue alien walked carefully to me and gently placed his hand on my head.

“What are you–”

“Close your eyes,” he softly interrupted. “I need to show you the message.”

“Oh, I remember him talking about that.”

Surprisingly, I did what he told me to do. I was a bit stiff, but despite that, felt my shoulders relax a little bit.

I blinked my eyes only once and I was transported into another world. The same one that was in my vision. When I appeared in the same place of my vision from earlier, all of the aliens were staring at me like I was the alien. Well, I guess that does make sense since I’m not from their planet.

“Why am I here?” I asked.

“To show you why you have been seeing different things from other humans. And to save you.”

“Why are you trying to save me? Nothing’s going on.”

The boy squinted his eyes at me. “You are not telling me the truth.”

My eyes widened. “Why would I? And how long have you been knowing about this?”

He hesitated. “I can not tell you that either.”

“Wait a minute,” I started to say, growing frustrated, “how do you know so much about me, but I can’t learn anything about you?”

He paused again, then softly sighed. “It’s because…” He looked to his left and right then grabbed my hand. “Come.”

We were running through the crowd of aliens, some of them were staring with awe and others with fear. I know that I’ve felt like an outsider before, but this place definitely proved it.

We stopped at a glowing machine that was pulsing energy of what looked like light. There were strange symbols hovering above the machine with the sound of different languages that I’d recognized.

“Have y’all always been spying on us?”

“More like monitoring.”

I scoffed. “Sure.”

“Put your hand on the machine.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see.”

I rolled my eyes, regretting what I’d gotten myself into. “Alright, Hermes.”

For the first time since I met this boy, he smiled. “I like that name. Are you saying I am similar to the Greek god of messengers and travel.”

“Pretty much,” I said as I slowly reached my hand toward the machine. I paused and turned around to the boy I nicknamed after a renowned trickster. “How do you know I wouldn’t die at this very second if I touched this thing? Have other humans touched this before?”

“No.”

I groaned. “This doesn’t make it better at all.”

“I know, but I have tested this out with a replica of a human.” I still didn’t trust him. How could he expect me to touch something so un-earthly and be fine afterwards?

“Let me guide you through it,” Hermes said as his blue hand touched the top of my chocolate brown hand. He then quickly glanced back. “This will be quick.”

“Alright.” I sent a quick prayer to God, praying that nothing terrible would happen to me and that this boy had good intentions for whatever he was getting me into. I placed my hand on the machine, with Hermes guiding me towards it.

And just like that, I felt my body zip through a force so strong that it was like getting pulled into a movie. All of a sudden, I saw people in a park, the park I used to go to when I was younger, I saw beings throwing frisbees at each other and they were smiling and laughing. Nothing looked abnormal about this, but something did feel a bit strange, like usual.

“Why did you bring me here?” I asked. “It seems like this was just a machine to watch over people.”

“Wait,” Hermes gently said, “look a bit harder.”

I peered around my surroundings, trying to find something unusual. Nothing. “I don’t see anything.”

“You are wrong,” he said.

“How am I–”

He then pointed to two little boys fighting each other verbally. Then it escalated into a fist fight so vile that two adults had to pull them apart. “Notice something peculiar about them?”

I squinted at them. Their eyes. Their eyes looked… off. “Their eyes don’t look human.”

Hermes nodded. “That is right.”

“And,” I started to say, looking around the park, “almost everyone’s eyes look like those boys that were fighting.” Some of them were in the same activity as the boys. They were fighting in the same motion simultaneously.

“Yes,” he said.

The two boys slowly turned their heads in our direction. Their eyes definitely were off because they were glowing bright orange. That was obviously not normal. Everyone else was minding their business which was even weirder.

Hermes swiftly stood in front of me and it sounded like he then cursed, but in another language. The boys ran towards us, with the same strange hungry look on their faces. When they came too close to Hermes, he punched both of them in the face and they fell to the ground.

He kneeled to the ground and put both of his blue hands on each of the boys’ backs. “I am sorry, kopuwes,” he whispered.

He stood up and turned to me. “I am sorry that happened.”

I realized at that moment that my breathing stilled. I nodded once.

We then were transported to a place that looked similar to Hermes’ planet, standing behind two machine-looking boxes. I slightly leaned to the right to see two emerald green aliens fighting each other, both verbally and physically. They held the same stance as the boys from the park and their eyes were glowing the same color of the sun. Each of them were growing taller and gaining flight the more they fought. When they were done, they slowly smiled, as if they accomplished something. That could only mean…

“They were controlling the park,” I thought.

The two aliens turned their heads in our direction. “Did they hear me?” As if we were reading each other’s minds, Hermes and I turned around and sprinted. They chased after us, raising weapons that looked like liquid guns and plant-like swords.

“Stay close,” Hermes said while squeezing my hand like his life depended on it. Well, we were literally on the run, so I guess that made sense.

And before I could blink my eyes, we were back in my dorm. It was like coming back from a nightmare.

I rapidly blinked my eyes, attempting to return to reality, if this was even reality.

“Were we actually… there?”

“No,” he said, “our minds were able to teleport there.”

Hermes’ skin and eyes started to illuminate. Then he looked down to the floor and said, “That was the message I needed you to see.” He then stared straight at me, his gaze strong enough to ground me like a statue. “You need to save this planet, Scarlet.”

Wow. He actually said my name. I guess he really was serious.

I hugged myself. “How?” I trembled, “I have some martial art experience, but I don’t know if that would help.”

Hermes took a deep breath and took one step toward me. “You are going to have to do something more than that.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Like what?”

He gave me a small smile. “Have you used a weapon before?”

“Yes,” I slowly said, “I’ve used a bow and arrows for sport, but that’s all.”

He nodded. “That will work.”

This time, we actually traveled to the planet that I still don’t know the name of. We were walking around in the illuminated city where aliens with robotic-like outfits roamed the land. I had a bow around my body and arrows on my back and Hermes had a liquid-like sword attached to his back as well. We had on suits similar to the crowds.

“This is kinda clunky,” I told Hermes as we walked toward a building of bright lights shooting up into the dark, green sky. Although our suits were thin, the pressure of it felt like a ton.

“You will be fine,” he reassured.

I sighed and brought out my bow from around my body and knocked an arrow on the string.

“Shoot at the orange orb,” he quietly told me, pointing at the ball at the top of a building.

I then raised my bow and pulled the string back to the corner of my mouth. My breath slowly flowed in and out of my lungs, then I released my arrow. It went straight through the orb and it turned into an orange sticky-like liquid that dropped to the ground.

“Get ready,” he breathed. “And remember, shoot at the circle of the suit.”

As if on cue, a bunch of aliens in robotic uniforms appeared from out of nowhere and ran toward us. Hermes swiftly pulled his sword from his back and held his stance in front of the herd. He swung his sword around, resembling a dancer, but liquid blades edition, and slashed each of the sides of their arms and they fell to the floor. Instead of a liquid substance coming from their bodies, it was something similar to flames.

One alien was sprinting toward me and I shot at the red circle in the middle of the suit and they fell to the floor. One down, a lot to go.

After what seemed like forever fighting the horde, we ran up the squiggly steps of the buildings and ended up at a machine that looked similar to the machine we saw from a few hours ago.

“This is it,” I said, “now it’s time to swing your sword at that thing.”

Hermes swung his sword half-way then paused. He just kept staring at the machine and his face turned purple. “What is he doing?”

“What’s going on?” I asked, slowly walking up to him. Then I looked around. “Is someone controlling you?”

He placed his sword at his side and shook his head. “No, I just… can not.”

“Our whole purpose of coming here was to stop this planet’s control of humans and you just want to abandon that?”

“I will get killed for that.”

“Nope,” I responded, “that’s not the reason why. And you know it.”

Hermes paused, grimacing as if his soul was pinching him. “I just need to look after Earth, after you.”

Whoa. I didn’t expect that. Silence formed between us, each second becoming more uncomfortable by the next. Then I continued, “You can’t create a machine for one individual person?”

“This planet would not allow it.”

The silence was loud again. We stared at each other, trying to figure out what the other would do next. Then I did something that could cost me my life.

“I’m sorry, Hermes,” I whispered. Then I grabbed his liquified sword and slashed the machine. As the light of the machine dimmed down, so did the lights all around us.

His eyes widened in horror. “They are going to try to find you.”

I nodded and sadly smiled at him. “I know.”

Hermes gently grabbed my hands. “You didn’t have to do that. I’m supposed to protect you.”

“Let me return the favor. You’ve already done so much for me.” Then I paused. “Why do you sound like you’re from America now?”

“Because–” Bombing sounds came out all of a sudden. “You need to leave now.”

We ran inside an opening of the now pitch black building. Hermes crouched down toward what I could figure was a box. He scrambled through the items, picking up a few things then throwing it back in the box. He finally grabbed the item he was looking for and walked towards me.

“This will protect you from my world,” he said, placing the object in my hand.

I nodded. “Thank you.”

He then raised his arms out. “I guess this is the human way of saying goodbye?”

“Yes,” I said as we gave each other a hug, “but it’s not forever.”

“I know,” he chuckled a bit sadly. His head then turned to the stomping from the stairs of the building then turned back to me. “Listen to me.”

I nodded.

“Close your eyes and hold on to the object,” Hermes said, “I’m taking you back home. Say the name Ryhulr when you are in danger.”

“Wait, that’s your name?” I smirked. “You finally told me about yourself.”

He sadly laughed. “Goodbye, for now.”

He placed his blue hand on my forehead and just like that, I was back in my dorm room. I looked at the clock on my dresser. It was still the same day and time. I glanced down at my hand. I was still holding this… thing. Hermes said that it was going to protect me. Was it truly going to protect me from the trouble I was getting into?

I took a deep breath and grabbed my backpack, shoving the object into it. I walked out of my dorm room, walking toward my new world. My new world of clarity……. with a little bit of mystery and a little bit of a smile too.