by Kaylee Kane
A faint smile formed on my face. I had done the right thing, right?
8
“Hey, Xixili?” A warped voice echoed in my mind. “Xixili? Please wake up…” The sudden jolt woke me up. I blinked quickly and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. A chill ran down my spine when I saw the glimmering crystal chandelier hanging overhead and the red of the curtains and the carpet…
Wait a minute. I shook my head. I knew this place...Where did I see this place before?
“Xixili, you alright?” asked the same voice, this time clearer. I looked to my right. The tiny hairs on my arms stood on ends when my eyes fell on the familiar girl. It took me a few seconds to remember she was Jessi, my colleague.
Except she looked very different. Instead of being in her usual trendy, fashionable office attire, she was in bright red lingerie. I could see her nipples poking through the thin material.
“Holy fucking shit! Jessi! Why are you dressed up like a fucking whore?” I shouted. When I looked down at the maid lingerie I was wearing, blood drained from my face. “Fuck! Why am I dressed up like a fucking whore?”
I jumped from the leather couch I had passed out in to my feet and looked around. “Where the fuck are we?”
“What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? We are at Up Your Alley Funhouse!” Jessi looked at me as if I had gone completely mad.
“What the fuck are we doing here?” I frowned at her.
Jessi shrugged and laughed as if it was normal. “Uh, work?”
I shook my head so quickly I jerked back. “What work?”
Jessi looked at me funny. “Are you having an existential crisis? Oh well, aren’t we all?” She rolled her eyes and checked her nails.
I stared at Jessi as the memories of what happened before I passed out flooded back into my head. I was on this alien planet called Vugaris before. I was on a mission to retrieve this glowing pink alien substance called the Athyleum. I could remember everything so clearly up until I got into the escape pod which was supposed to fly me to safety.
What happened next? I had no fucking idea. Suddenly, everything became so clear right now.
This had to be the alternate reality of what happened if the Athyleum fell into the hands of the human kind instead of the Vugarians. But who got it?
I pinched my temples as the thoughts whirled in my head. “What year is it, Jessi?”
Jessi said without looking at me, “2030.”
I nodded. At least the mysterious mastermind behind the robot had not lied to me. I was sent back to my year. Only a different reality.
“And what planet is this?”
Jessi stared at me with a look of disgust. “Are you on something? Where do you think you are?”
I sucked in a deep breath. My eyes stilled on Jessi as I contemplated the decision of telling her what happened. I looked around me and it hit me that I had no idea who owned this brothel that we happened to work at. What if it had been the same people or probably aliens who sent me on the mission? I had no idea what they would do to me.
“Do you have any access to the internet?” I asked.
Jessi arched her brow and crossed her arms over her chest. “The internet? What the ancient tool from ten years ago?”
I pursed my lips. “Shit! Okay, here’s the thing! I am not from this reality. I am from another alternate reality where both of us worked as junior designers for an adult toy company. Yup, we were colleagues but not working in a brothel.”
Jessi looked at me with her mouth wide open. “Holy shit! That looks like a reality I would like to live in.”
“Yes, I mean, not really. But compared to this one here, yeah, that was a way better reality to be in.”
Jessi arched her brow at me. “And…what happened?”
“I know this sounds really absurd but I sent the wrong video to an audition call. The next thing I knew, I was picked. Of course, I was overjoyed. It has always been my dream to act in a movie, albeit being a side chick. They called me up for an in-person virtual audition so I went to this really dodgy looking studio. I thought something was not right but when I figured out, it was already too late.”
Jessi looked stoned. I probably looked stoned to her as well.
“Long story short, I was sent back in time to stop a cyberwar. I had to retrieve some alien substance that was supposed to give you power if you consume it. I stole it from this alien species called Vugarians and–”
“Vugarians?” Jessi’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah, you know them?”
“Yeah, during the World War III–”
“You mean the Earth War III.”
“Um, no, it’s World War III, but yeah, we wiped their species out.”
“What the fuck?” My hand flew to cover my mouth. My thought went to Warwreck and the other Vugarians I had met on Vugaris. They were all gone? “All of them?”
“Yes,” said Jessi casually. “Turned out the Vugarians were living among us, disguised as a human. They traded and used human females as sex slaves in their space brothel. The leaders of the world were pissed with this so they declared war against them. We decided it would have been better if we wiped them out.”
“What happened to the planet Vugaris?”
“Now it has become Earth 2.0.”
“Holy shit! How could we wipe out their entire species like that?”
“Calm down. It’s not like they are the only species that we wiped out, okay? These intelligent alien species pose a threat to humanity. We can’t risk having them turn against us. Plus, we could use some backup planets when this one is gone.”
I could not find my voice. Regret pricked my conscience. I should have destroyed the Athyleum when I got the chance. I clenched my fist and punched at the edge of the leather couch. “Fuck! This is madness!”
“Who runs this place?”
“President Auximoff? Does he ever exist in your reality?” All the puzzles were falling into pieces. I locked my jaw as I glared into the space.
Of course. It was him…who else? My bet was he was the mastermind behind this mission. He was the one who sent me back in time so that I could become the scapegoat who retrieved the Athyleum for his mass destruction plan.
A surge of anger and disgust rose in me. I marched across the room to the ceiling to floor windows and flipped the curtain. I staggered back when what looked like a train zoomed past me in the windows. “Holy shit! What was that?”
“That’s the unmanned rocket train. It connects to every single building.”
“What?” I frowned. “You mean like every building has its own station?”
Jessi nodded. “Yes.”
I shook my head and tried to gather my muddled thoughts. “Right, so why are we working in a brothel?”
“We don’t have the luxury of choice in this reality, Xixili. All the works have been replaced by robots. There are only a few jobs we can choose from and they are not very glamorous.”
“What about the men? Are they prostituting themselves as well?”
“Some do, yes. But most of them work in the factory, doing some of the menial jobs. Trust me. They ain’t gonna last long. Soon, the robot will replace them as well.”
Robot…of course. “Where is Auximoff now? Is he somewhere on Earth?”
Jessi scoffed. “Why would he stay in a dying planet and inhale this polluted, unclean air? He is on Idrerea, one of the premium planets.”
“What the fuck?”
“Yeah, when they wiped out the other alien species, they took over their planets. The better planets are made to be residential planets for the wealthy.”
“Fuck! This is so fucking wrong!” My blood blazed like fire through my system. I clutched tightly onto the curtains and almost tugged them off. My head was whirling down the spiral of wrath and regret.
I should have destroyed the Athyleum when I got the chance. I shouldn’t have brought it back to whoever behind the robot
.
“It was all my fault.” I hung and shook my head in despair. “I didn’t know this was what would happen. All I wanted was to save humanity from extinction from being wiped out by the Vugarians.”
“There, there. You can’t go back in time to change history now. But you can do something different today to change the future. Well, hopefully.”
If only I could turn back the time…if only I could turn back…hang on.
I turned to Jessi when an idea hit me. “Do you have any directory or anything to look up for someone?”
“Um, kinda. There is a database you can search at mobile Council booths.”
“Can we get there?”
A wry smile peeked from Jessi’s lips. “I can take you there if you take me on your adventure.”
I rolled my eyes as a sigh escaped from my chest. “Okay, if you could keep your mouth shut.”
“You are my only colleague here, Xixili. Who am I going to tell things to? The clients?”
“I don’t know, Jessi. You had a big mouth in my reality. And if you could get something we could put on, it’d be great.”
“Nope, this is what we got here.” Jessi hopped to her feet, grinning excitedly. “It’ll be fine.”
“So it’s normal to walk around the streets with your tits hanging out?”
Jessi nodded.
“Alright then.” I sucked in a breath. “Please lead the way.”
Jessi breezed past me towards the door. I rolled my eyes at her back. I could not believe I had to work with her again even in the alternate reality.
“The coast is clear. You coming?”
I picked up behind her and we snuck down the hallway. Jessi took me through a series of stairs and back lanes and we eventually ended up at the station. I had not seen another human yet.
The station was dimly illuminated by few lamps. The wind whistled across the tracks and made the tiny hairs on my arms stand on ends. I wrapped my arms around my chest to shield myself from the cold.
“Where is everybody else?”
“Mostly at work. Employers take the advantages of people not being able to afford children, hence increasing the working hours from eight hours a day to fourteen hours. They have to complete the hours if they want a minimum wage that they can live on. Else they would have to get a second or third job.”
I wanted to say something when the train eased into a halt and the doors hissed open. Jessi and I hopped into the train and sat next to each other. As I had predicted, the train was empty. It seemed like we were the only two people onboard.
The doors hissed closed again and the train jolted into motion. I looked at my hands as I laced and unlaced my fingers. So many thoughts were whirling in my head, making it pound hard.
I sucked in mouthfuls of deep breath trying to relax. Everything would be back to normal, I told myself, I would fix this shit that I created.
“So who is this person you are looking for?” Jessi broke the silence.
I turned to her. It sent a chill down my spine how much she resembled the Jessi I knew. With her long blonde hair and blue eyes and small dainty nose. I looked at my own reflection in the windows and nothing had changed. I still wore my black bangs and had the same pale complexion.
It felt so strange that everything about us had remained the same but everything else was so different. So wrong.
“Bronson. He was the guy who got me into this. I think he must be some sort of programmer or something.”
“You think he’s going to help you?” Jessi looked at me with wide eyes.
“I don’t know. But as you say, we can make a difference today to change the future, right?”
Jessi smiled at me. Okay, I hated to admit, this version of Jessi was less annoying.
The train eased to a stop again. Jessi looked around and said, “This is our station.” We hopped out of the train and I followed Jessi down a series of stairs and bridges until a large glass-coated building materialized in front of us.
“This is the Council.”
I nodded and followed Jessi down the stairs. We were finally down on the streets. Still not a soul seen. This would be the perfect introvert paradise. I turned around in circles, trying to pick up the surroundings. It rang a bell for me. I knew I had been here and it looked like a place I knew that had been restructured.
“What is this place called?”
“I don’t really know the name of this street.” Jessi looked around trying to find a street sign. “But the station we got off from was Clita Station.”
All the memories flooded back into my mind. I stood there frozen with my feet rooted to the ground. Of course, it looked familiar. It was the station I took the train to work every day. I looked around trying to find my office building.
I stopped when I found it. Moss had grown all over the walls. The neon signboard was still there, flashing ‘Up Your Alley Adult Toys’. “Hey, Jessi!”
Jessi took my side. “What?”
“Saw that building over there with the signboard saying Up Your Alley Adult Toys?” I pointed in the direction. Jessi peered through the darkness.
“Yeah?”
“That’s where we worked together in my version of reality.”
“Oh, whoa! I bet it’s better than where we work here.”
I shrugged. “We both hated our jobs.”
“Oh.”
“And I hated you too.” I moved past Jessi, who still stood there staring at the building. “Are we going to find the booth or what?”
Jessi picked up and walked next to me. “Why did you hate me? Do I hate you too?”
I shrugged. “You had a big mouth. I couldn’t tell you anything. We weren’t even friends. We just worked on the same team. It was hell. You probably hated me too. I would never know. You didn’t tell me shit either.”
Jessi’s shoulders slumped when she sighed, “Well, let’s hope that in the next reality, we are not working or hating each other.” She pointed in the direction of what looked like a telephone booth. “That’s the booth.”
I sprinted towards the booth, the cold wind cut my skin. That was the last thing I could be bothered right now. Jessi followed suit. We shut ourselves in the booth.
Jessi’s fingers were tapping rapidly on the hologram keyboard as I spelled out Bronson’s name. When she hit Enter, Bronson’s profile photo came out along with the details of his workplace.
“Dicky’s Dildo Factory! That’s just opposite of the street!” cried Jessi. “Bronson’s still got half an hour before his shift ends. If we run, we could make it there.”
“Let’s do it,” I said to Jessi when she had already made it out of the booth. I really wished that our boss could see the teamwork we both shared right now. “What do you think Bronson is working as in the dildo factory?”
“I have no idea,” said Jessi as we both headed back towards the hanging bridge.
9
“I think I know now,” I said to Jessi as I peeked at the advertisement from the board in the waiting booth outside the factory gate. The factory looked almost like a prison with the high concrete walls and barbed wires. Jessi scooted next to me and looked at the paper.
Hiring Now!
Human Dildo Testers!
“Okay, I guess I should stop complaining about my life.” Jessi and I sat inside the booth, hugging ourselves. I looked up at the sky and saw a hint of the golden rays coming up from the horizon. It reminded me of the sepia sunshine on Vugaris.
The bell rang, reminding me of the time back in school. Jessi and I stood up when the throng of people dragged their feet towards the gate. It had to be the first time I saw another human other than Jessi in this reality.
The automated gate slid open and the people started sieving through. Jessi and I stood on our toes as our eyes darted between the dead tired faces. They trod past like zombies, their eyes void of life or hope.
I thought it was bad enough to see the people bustling
past in the cities rushing in all directions. This was a worse sight.
At first, I was a little self-conscious about what I was wearing. Soon, I realized none of them noticed these two girls in lingerie in the booth. They just breezed past, heading towards the station.
“There he is!” shouted Jessi, her voice echoed loudly through the booth I almost turned deaf.
She bolted out of the booth and pushed past the mindless throng. “Jessi!” I cried as I nervously looked for her everywhere. I stood at the door of the booth. The cold wind cut me. I swept my hands up my arms, not wanting to go out.