The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith

by S Jay Starring

  Jason looked at Kate, who was explaining about traveling with wormhole for him.

  “Nice shoes,” he blurted out, looked at slippers with long bunny ears, which didn't match her black suit.

  “You vomited on my shoes,” Kate squinted at Jason, and he pretended to look elsewhere.

  “I can't show you around much because it is the rules. You shouldn't see or know about the stuff here, I will take you to the room,” Kate changed the subject because losing her favorite shoes would continue living with her for several days. She needed more activity to slip it away.

  Jason shrugged. He still didn't believe the story of a parallel universe, because for him it was only in cartoons. “This isn’t a joke, right? I've watched on TV there were hidden cameras at different places, ceiling, under the table or shirt button,” he said while looked for locations that would have hidden cameras. Especially Kate’s shirt button.

  “No, this is real, detective, Smith,” She emphasized clearly, covering her chest from his eyes.

  “Why I never know about traveling through a parallel universe before? I mean, I don't know if it's possible. Not just in cartoons or movies, despite you travel by wormhole normally like this,” Jason said.

  “We try to keep the traveling between parallel universes as a secret for non-wormhole technology universes like yours. There are only some universes that can travel like this. We have the name of our alliance call ‘WHOLE’. We don’t want the traveling between parallel universes to be much traffic or else we will definitely get a wormhole traffic jams problem soon. And one more thing, nowadays WHOLE still setting up a system and making a law between parallel universes but not complete, yet,” Kate answered.

  Jason considered and looked around did she tell him the truth? Although the story she told sound reasonably but it was too incredible. Jason noticed that this was a normal nursing room but the instrument in the room he has never seen before. The medicine bottles were strange shape looked like syrup or juice. The syringe looked like a pen and didn’t hurt when injected. It also has a soft click sound made Jason enjoyed.

  He was injected with painkillers and other drugs several times to relieve the eyes pain faster.

  If this place was full of strange things he’s not familiar or used to it. What Kate explained to him could be true. There was only a shower in the restroom that he was sure to handle and use it properly.

  Kate and Jason walked along the winding passageway in the building that looked like a spacecraft from science fiction. The shiny material didn’t look like the construction materials that Jason has known.

  “What is this?” Jason asked, pointed at the wall and the turn on-off button.

  “It's a sheetrock. Made of flexible material, lightweight but strong like steel. It can change the status to transparent as well. We call it Iron Glass,” Kate explained and pressed a button on the side of the wall. And the solid white walls were changed to be clear like a glass.

  Jason could clearly see the outside of the building. There were a lot of strange tall buildings he’s not familiar with. This wasn’t the city that he’s ever known. And not any city in the world that he had seen. The color from decorative lights and billboards dazzled. The night sky was illuminated. This was like the future city in the sci-fi movie.

  So what floor was he? For this high vision, it would be not lower than 50th floor.

  Because of super high technology here, then they could open wormhole for traveling to other parallel universes. In Jason’s universe just has a non-driver car for a few years, and some cars still used a driver and gas.

  “Oh ... Are you hungry?” Asked Kate.

  Jason turned his attention to the inside of the building again. Being asked about food after just vomited all his guts out, he realized how hungry he was. It was almost 8 p.m., an hour late for his normal dinner time.

  “Yes,” he replied, then his stomach screamed loudly as it agreed with him…. More embarrassing….

  Kate smiled for his funny reaction. “Then first, I'll take you to find something to eat. There are many restaurants downstairs. Then I will buy you stuff like a toothbrush and toiletries. Even though you stay only one night, you should brush your teeth, detective Smith,”

  Indeed, he should always take care of oral hygiene. “You can call me Jason,” he said.

  Kate made a thoughtful face. “Well, I will call you Jess, so I won’t confused with Jason Smith of this universe,”

  Jason Smith of this universe? Sounded interesting. Seeing himself in another parallel universe would be good. “Can I see him? I have a cool hi 5 to teach him too,” he said enthusiastically.

  “Um.....We.... used to have Jason Smith,” Kate said.

  Jason rose up his eyebrows. “Used to?”

  “He died four months ago, he and I used to work together,” Kate said in a sad voice and avoided his eyes.

  Jason stunned. Hearing this kind of thing made him feel frightened. He himself in another universe was dead. “Sorry about that, Kate. I ... um... unfortunately I don’t have a chance to talk to him,”

  If there was an opportunity to meet him that would strongly confirm the story of the other parallel universe was real.

  “But if he’s still alive, I'm not sure he will hi 5 with you, Jess,” Kate said, smiling at him with sad eyes.

  After that, Kate took Jason to the restaurant on the 8th floor, there were many restaurants, many styles and cultures. Some kind of foods he had never seen before. Didn't know what it called.

  After dinner, Kate took Jason to buy personal items before took him to the room in the same building. And she was all paid because Jason didn't have the currency of B07, and the money he had wouldn’t enough to pay for the clothes.

  “I’ll pay you, later,” Jason said.

  Kate smiled at him. “It’s alright, Jess. It's my own fault that you get stuck here,”

  Jason scratched the back of his head, blushed, he felt uncomfortable when he had to let a woman paid for dinner and buy clothes and personal items.

  “This building contains offices, apartments, restaurants and department stores. Most of us who work here move to the apartment in this building because there is everything ready, no need to go outside. As for me, I go out for a holiday to socialize with my friends,” Kate said after opened the door of one room on this floor and let Jason entered.

  30 square meters room size with furniture, bathroom and full kitchen utensils, also separated living room and bedroom.

  “Wow... this is more luxurious than my apartment,” Jason said, looked at the room with sparkling eyes. The room was simply decorated, modern style black and white furniture made it felt luxurious. The polished white stone floor was clear.

  At least, got lost in another parallel universe made him have a good place to rest for a night.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll call you at 8 o'clock. Oh, your cloth is already washed. It's in the closet. Good Night, Jess,” Kate told him before left the room.

  Although the new name that she called him sounded unfamiliar but Jason felt good about it. He laid down on a soft mattress, exhaustively. He just realized how much he tired. It’s like he just ran up to the hill all day.

  Traveling by wormhole could make the body become exhausted, even though it only took a minute. He looked at the empty ceiling, then he had fallen asleep...

  Chapter 5

  At 08:30.

  Kate and Jason were sitting in the lab of The Agency of Civil for Peacefulness and Security between Parallel universes (ACPSP). They just finished breakfast. Kate told Jason not to eat too much, the traveling may cause him to vomit heavily again.

  This room has a thick white walls made of metal. Strange control panel full filled with colorful buttons and dashboards. In the middle of the room, there was a white circle platform, about three meters in diameter and raised from the floor a bit. Now it has been cleaned after Jason made it filthy yesterday.

  “Oh...great, today, you're not stinky,” Emma, a chubby woman greeted when s
he entered the lab.

  Jason remembered her voice, even though yesterday his eyes was hurt so much that he couldn’t see anyone or anything around him. At that time, it was very chaotic. He was brought out of the lab, struggled along. He was injected and took off all clothes to take a shower, cleaning from head to toe before sat on a patient bed wearing a small bathrobe.

  “Yes,” Jason replied, staring at her with excitedly, even though he has just met her for the first time but he did familiar. She looked like Emma Johnson, the forensic science officer working in the same place as him. The different of this Emma was she got 10-20 kilograms more than Emma he knew. He was really in another parallel universe.

  “Okay, today I’ll send you back home. But there is only one condition that you must not tell anyone about you has traveled to another parallel universe. Do you understand, Mr. Smith?” Emma said in a sharp voice after placed a large orange handbag on the chair. “Otherwise, we have to send someone to brush you away,” She continued with a serious face.

  Brush away? .... “Well, ... you’ll kill me?” Jason asked with a curious face.

  Kate laughed softly. “Don't threaten him, Emma,” she said. Then Kate turned to Jason.

  “Actually, we just catch you and erase your memories,” She smiled...

  Erase memories? so...not better than be brushed away.

  “Alright, I won't tell anyone about this. Because no one believes me, actually, I still can't believe, even though I'm sitting in another parallel universe. I don't want anyone to think I'm crazy,” Jason shrugged.

  Kate and Emma looked at him. “Ok, I’ll believe you. Kate, could you please help him sign a document,” Emma said.

  Kate opened the file cabinet and picked up a tablet. “While waiting for Emma to warm the wormhole connector, you must read this document and sign it. This document will be used as evidence in court. If you refuse to sign, we will send you back but not all in one piece,” She winked at him.

  Oh yeah…how threatened… “Yes,” Jason said, rolling his eyes and grabbed the tablet for reading reluctantly.

  “Why yesterday I vomited but you don't?” Jason asked Kate.

  “That was the first time you've traveled by wormhole. Your body can't handle it. We call this symptom as wormhole-sickness. When the first time of mine, I was the same but not dirty like you,” Kate answered sarcastically.

  Today, she wore a pair of new high heels that seemed to be higher than yesterday. And that dirty shoes had to be thrown away. But deep inside, she still missed her limited edition shoes.

  Jason didn’t care about her sarcasm and then continued reading. In the document, he must keep the story of other parallel universes as a secret until his universe could create the innovation that could open a wormhole. Which might take a hundred years.

  In addition, he was also not allowed to writing notes, drawing or creating work for any reason. Otherwise, he would be sued and prosecuted under the laws of parallel universes group (WHOLE) and the maximum penalty was to erase all his memories.

  “I have to go to your court?” Jason asked with doubt.

  Kate nodded. “We have federal parallel universe court. There are 7 members from parallel universes that can use wormhole. We call this alliance ‘WHOLE’. They will judge and punish you in the term of break a contract,”

  “In the past, there were some people who had accidentally dropped into a wormhole and were erased all memories. Because they told stories about another parallel universe for the people in their world and sometimes they make a lot of money from their story. Because some of them were on television, talk shows, until the scientists there began to pay attention to his story. We need to brush away before they can tell anything more,”

  “But someday they will be able to travel between parallel universes, won't it?”

  “Yes, but we don't want to speed up those processes. This time, we are very busy. Do you know, those who travel in and out between parallel universes are not all good people, some people make a crime and leave the evidence for police to catch another themselves from another parallel universe,” Emma said sharply.

  “The identification process is very complicated and use time. We have to waste a lot of manpower and resources to control these crazy things. We have to make a lot of new rules and new laws between parallel universes because new problems happen every day and the lawyers between parallel universes have to ponder on a regular basis. And importantly there were a lot of illegal wormholes that we have to find a way to check and prevent,” Emma continued with frustrated.

  “Our scientists and physicists do researches and conduct serious studies and discover how to create a machine that can devices and connect to wormholes. That allows us to discover many parallel universes. And we do ourselves without receiving any help from other universes, so you must invent it by yourself, not using shortcuts from other. Do you understand Mr. Smith,” she added. That sounded reasonable.

  “…Yeah…” Jason replied and shrugged. He continued to read the document. “How do you know if I tell anyone?”

  “We have a special process that you unaware,” Kate replied. “And if necessary, we have to erase the memories of the people you told the story as well,”

  Kate made him feel suspicious. What methods did they use to check and no one knew? Would they come to set the camera in his apartment? Or they would send someone to replace people he knew, like Ted and Todd, or others, to monitor his behavior. Sounded crazy….

  “You can catch the killer, can’t you?” Jason asked. He couldn’t just sit and read the documents quietly?

  Kate’s face looked worried. She looked at Emma and Jason alternately and they waited for her answer as well. “Um ... I’ll try, Jess. Although we still don’t know where to find him, and why he do this but I’ll try,” She answered.

  Jason looked at her thoughtfully. He knew it might be very difficult to find the killer from 16 parallel universes. Just only one universe of him, it was too vast.

  “Alright, the machine is ready. You sign the document and then stand at the white circle platform,” Emma said after checked the process of the wormhole connector.

  When Jason signed the document, Kate returned his handgun and his badge. Then led him to the center of the white platform.

  On the ceiling, there was a machine that shoots a beam of light or something. It looked like a super-giant light bulb. The light might as bright as the sun.

  “You have to wear this. Your eyes won’t be hurt again,” Kate picked up the sunglasses from the inside of her suit and wore him. They stood together very close, Jason was able to smell her delicate perfume by not even try. “And hold this, too,” She gave a big sick bag to him.

  “...Thank you,” Jason received a sick bag. He knew he would have to use it in a few minutes.

  “Take a deep breath to release an excitement. You looking good, Jess, when wearing sunglasses,” Kate said to him and Jason smiled proudly.

  “I’m not looking good for long. In a few seconds, I’ll vomit, Kate,” Jason joked. Even though they just met each other but she was very nice to him. He wore his yesterday clothes that Kate had washed and he had a small bag on the shoulder with clothes and a toothbrush inside. He looked like a tourist who was going home. If there was anything he could return for her, it would be good.

  “You are going to travel at the speed of light. Be careful not to drop anything and relax while in the wormhole. Even though it feels uncomfortable, but don’t squeeze like before, because this time, you don’t have me ... Goodbye, Jess,” She loosens up the collar of Jason's shirt that rolled a little before walked away from him. That meant he wouldn't see her again, because in his universe, Katherine Isaac was dead.

  Kate left the white platform and back to Emma who was giving Jason a hand signal.

  “Ready? Mr. Smith,” Emma said.

  Jason was excited. When the sound of something like the engine started to work, his heart began to dance and it faster when the white light was released brigh
ter ... stronger...

  He could remember this light. Yesterday, he saw it in the coffee room and thought it was a light from a helicopter. What he was thinking at that time and ran into the light.

  “... Kate. If you want to find the killer, I think you should try to find a place with silica, I mean sand. Police officers found it from the dust near the third woman’s body,” Jason said.

  Yes, this was a small return that he could give her ... 'information'...

  “Dust?” Asked Emma and Kate at the same time.

  “Yes, the dust that was spread in a thin circle. I think it should be caused by traveling by wormhole, right? The sand we found is not compatible with the sand at the beach, any beach of us. I think it should be important. I’m on checking it, so I haven’t put the information in the document boxes that you read,”

  Kate listened to him intently. “That’s right, those dust was found at the crime scene and there might be dust from the killer or the dead body that could tell where they got killed,” she said agreed with Jason.

  “The killer may have a disability on the left ear. When he killed the victims, he put his own symbol on them,” Jason continued.

  “Emma, could you please turn off the machine?” Kate said and Emma power downed the wormhole connector. The sound of the engine from the working large machine has stopped immediately also the bright white light that shone on Jason, too.

  “What happen, Kate?” Emma asked.

  Kate smiled pleasantly. “Listen, Emma, I think he just tell us something make sense,”

  Emma nodded with agreement but she looked at Kate with a strange feeling. “Even though how good he can analyze but we have to send him home, Kate,”

  “I know, but now I don't have a partner to work with. Well,... and ... I think it will be good if Jess works with me,” Kate said loud enough for Jason to hear and he made a blank face.

  “No, Kate, it breaks the rules,” Emma argued with a sharp voice. She pulled Kate's arm to talk to her at the corner of the lab. Strength of the chubby woman who large twice as Kate made her looked like a rag doll that was drag away.