Your Dimension Or Mine?

by Cynthia Kimball

  You have a new message from AttractivelyAgile

  You have a new message from AttractivelyAgile

  You have a new message from AttractivelyAgile

  You have a new message from AttractivelyAgile

  You have a new message from CuriousityLemmings

  You have mail from DaringlyGauche

  She blinked at the messages. The last one was from earlier and she would look at it in a minute, but her heart sped up as she saw the five messages from Orion. It did a backflip as she saw the message from Terrian.

  “Yes,” she whispered in relief, opening it up.

  Arwen,

  That is a beautiful name. So, you live in a library as well? Well, that is wonderful to hear. Though maybe not for you. It can be a bit taxing. I thought it would be nice to tell you a little more about myself, if that would be acceptable to you. If not, read no further.

  I am a rather large sports enthusiast and wish I could spend more time engaged in them rather than watching. My favorites are wind surfing and tree skiffing. Do not spread this around, but I also have a deep love for animals. My mount Abriethon has been with me for a few decades and I swear he knows me better than anyone else. I also raise Dipthan Kivees, somewhat similar to the Orenean Brevs, but my mother and I have been striving to breed the perfect corg with a more malleable temper.

  Have you ever jumped dimensions before? I did when I was much younger. Unfortunately, I found it did not bode well for my temperament, so I stopped. My brothers Caifu and Stero spent a couple centuries doing it and it never affected them, though, so it might just be me. My youngest brother, Zenun, jumped once but found the shift too painful. He stayed in the Anjolan Sphere for fifty years before he was killed accidentally. We tried to get him to come back home before then, but he stubbornly refused.

  I was sorry to hear you lost your mother. Losing one’s parent must be a dreadful experience. My mother has just passed her millennial birthday and is stronger than ever. My father is close to his bimillenial. I am quite young at only 745 years. Within my direct family, I have two older brothers and seven younger. There are many other relations who I will not mention, as to do so would take far too much space.

  Besides the books I have read, I am unfamiliar with your particular dimension. Would you be willing to tell me about it? Or anything you wish to write about. I would just like to get to know you better.

  Looking forward to your next message,

  Terrian

  All her excitement about his message died as Ari read it. What was wrong with the men from IDS? Were they clinically insane? Maybe they were trapped in a mental ward somewhere and used this as their way to get to know people? Disappointed, her finger hovered over the delete button. Her ankle stung lightly, and she reached down to rub it. Maybe she would delete it later.

  Sighing, she looked at the unread messages from the other two sites. After deleting all of them, she glanced at DaringlyGauche’s. His message was innocuous and rather boring, but considering how disappointed she was, she barely noticed. Clicking on the link to view his profile, she looked at Orion’s messages.

  Maybe she should reply to let him know she had received them but wasn’t interested. He might think she hadn’t gotten them. He was weird enough. It might never have crossed his mind that someone would not be interested in him.

  Glancing at her browser, she saw only ten percent of Gauche’s profile had downloaded, so she opened Orion’s oldest message.

  Corruptible,

  Are you ignoring me? It won’t last for long, beautiful lady. I doubt you can resist my charms.

  Orion

  Snorting, she went on to read the next.

  Corruptible,

  Respond immediately.

  Orion

  …and the next.

  Write back now!

  Orion

  …and the next.

  If I do not hear back soon, I will be greatly displeased. And, pet, you do not want me to be displeased.

  Orion

  A shiver went down her spine at the fourth message. Pet? That was what he had called her in her nightmare. How could she have known he would call her that?

  Gulping, she opened his last message.

  Your master sends you a flower, and you do not even deign to acknowledge its existence? That is very bad behavior. Never fear. I still plan to collect you and turn you into the perfect pet. Your insolence will cost you at first.

  I must say, it does warm my heart that you have placed it where you sleep. Dream of me, pet.

  Orion

  “Oh, no. No, no, no, no,” she murmured to herself, reading and then re-reading the last message. Her eyes slanted toward her bedroom where the flower was and she became aware of a stinging pain in her ankle.

  Jumping up, she ran into the bedroom and grabbed the vase, letting out a little scream as the stinging pain became unimaginable agony. Gasping, she kept her hand around the vase and limped out into her living room, opened her front door, and tossed the flower—vase and all—out into the small garbage can nearby. After slamming the top down on it, she limped back into her apartment, confused when she realized her ankle no longer hurt.

  It was still thrumming, something it had been doing since she got out of the bathtub, but the pain was mostly gone.

  “Weird,” she whispered as she deleted all of Orion’s messages as well as the one from DaringlyGauche. When her finger went to delete Terrian’s message, her ankle throbbed twice making her think twice about it. “I can delete it later.”

  Closing down DaringlyGauche’s profile without even looking at it, she shut her computer down and collapsed into her chair. Something strange was going on. Before she could figure it out, her phone began to ring.

  Moaning, because she really did not want to talk to anyone, she answered it. “Yes?”

  “Arwen, I am sure your mother taught you to answer the phone nicer than that.” Abigail’s voice was stern and yet amused.

  “Hey, Abigail. Sorry. It has been a really weird, disturbing day.”

  “Disturbing, how?” Her grandmother’s concerned tone made her smile. She would have laughed at it if it weren’t for the fact she was a little weirded out by current events.

  “It is hard to explain,” Ari sighed. “In the last week, so many things have happened, and at first, I thought they were odd, but until today I never assumed they might be connected.” Having her grandmother call her once, let alone three times in the same week just added to it.

  “Arwen Maria Reynolds, tell me what is going on. Maybe my psychic was more right that we thought.”

  “Okay, well, I haven’t even begun to process it yet, but maybe by talking about it, I can put the pieces together.”

  Leaning back, she started to tell Abigail about her week. “It all started a couple days after Jane had me sign up for some online dating services. I was getting weird power fluctuations both here and at work, one of the services sent me a gift, and I got contacted by a really weird guy.”

  “Wait,” Abigail interrupted. “What gift did this online dating service send you? I wasn’t aware they did that.”

  “It was a beautiful piece of jewelry. An anklet.” Ari blushed as she prepared to tell the rest. “Strangely enough, it seemed to fit my ankle perfectly, and once it was on, I could not remove it.”

  “Oh, Lord,” Abigail muttered.

  Ari continued as she needed to get all the pieces out before she forgot. “Yesterday, I went out for coffee with some friends, and the barista brought me one from a stranger. I didn’t get a good look at him, but he looked rich, and something about him was off, so I ended up throwing the coffee away. But that wasn’t the weird part.”

  “What was the weird part?”

  “I got a new message from that weird guy, and his postscript asked me if I liked chocolate in my coffee. Abigail, the barista brought me a white chocolate latte.”

  Abigail inhaled sharply, but did not interrupt.

  “Added to that, these guys k
eep acting as though they are from some different world—you know, as if they were in some role-playing game. Last night, I got a decent message from what looked and sounded like a decent guy. Then today happened.”

  Her grandmother let out a whoosh of air. “Well, come on, Arwen. Let me hear about today so we can figure this thing out.”

  Grimacing, Ari told her grandmother about the entire day—about her ankle hurting and the strange flower, about Terrian and his disappointing message, and lastly about the piece of jewelry disintegrating in her bath. The only thing she held back was the bad dreams.

  “Arwen, you say the anklet disintegrated?”

  “Yes. The only thing left after my bath was the clasp.”

  Abigail sighed and muttered under her breath something that sounded like, “I told Destra she needed to tell you, but oh, no! She wanted to keep it all a big secret.” Her voice rose and she spoke into the phone again. “Arwen, what was the name of this online dating service?”

  “Oh, the Interdimensional Dating Service. It—” She stopped as Abigail let out a shout.

  “NO!”

  Surprised at the outburst, Ari sat and chewed on her lip, wondering why her grandmother would be so upset.

  “Arwen, tell me something. When you brought up their website, is that when the flashing of your screen started?”

  Frowning, Ari started to shake her head no, but then realized, “Actually, yes I think it was.”

  Groaning, her grandmother said something in a language Ari did not understand. “Arwen, I want you to listen to me closely. I cannot say everything I wish as this line is too open, but honey, you entered into something you really should not be dealing with.”

  “But Jane said her friends found their husbands through it.” Ari’s voice trailed off as she realized she had never told Jane the actual name of the website.

  “Somehow I doubt they used that particular site.” Abigail snorted. “Arwen, have you had any strange dreams?”

  Sitting up straight, Ari nodded, before finally saying, “Yes,” in nothing but a whisper.

  “Before or after the jewelry?”

  “After. Actually they came last night and again today.”

  “Arwen, I am sending you a picture. Take a look and tell me if it looks familiar. My line is about to go out, but I will call you later on to find out.”

  Without another word, the line was cut.

  Placing her phone on the coffee table, Arwen glanced around her room, suddenly feeling afraid. What was going on? Her grandmother seemed to think it was bad. “You entered into something you really should not be dealing with.” Well, how was she supposed to know?

  Looking down, she was surprised to find herself rubbing her ankle. “Why do I do that?”

  Groaning, she stood up and made sure her door was locked. As a precaution, she placed her high-backed chair in front of it and under the knob. She felt a little stupid, but not feeling comfortable in her own place was unnerving her, not to mention she was almost afraid to go back into her bedroom.

  The buzz from her phone made her jump and scrambling across the room, she picked it up. It was a picture from Abigail. The title said Shift Bracelet. Pulling it up, her eyes zeroed in on the small image. Almost at once, her breath started coming in short, quick pants, and her heart sped up.

  Staring back at her was a picture of a wrist with a series of red criss-crossed welts upon it in a beautiful design. If she did not know already, she would have assumed they were a tat of some sort.

  But she did know. Looking down, she stared at her own ankle. The design was different, but there was no denying that the owner of that design had worn the same kind of jewelry she had.

  What had she gotten herself into?

  Chapter Six - Interdimensional Shift

  The next morning, Ari slowly dragged her eyes open, groaning at how much energy it took. Blinking, she was surprised at first to find herself sitting in her living room and not in her bed.

  Then she remembered.

  Gulping, she winced at her sore throat as her eyes darted over to her bedroom door. Something had changed, and even though she had thrown out the offensive flower, her bedroom no longer seemed safe. Not that her living room was that much safer, but her only other choice was to call one of her sisters and ask if she could bunk on their couch for the night.

  She did not want to field the questions that would have come from that.

  Slowly standing up, she moaned. She felt horrible. Her muscles ached, her throat felt like sandpaper, and her eyes burned. A small part of her, the part that seemed to find humor in the oddest moments was amused that at least the burn had moved from her ankle. The rest of her was not so pleased.

  Limping into her bathroom, she took a hot shower, which just seemed to make all the achiness worse. “I’ve never been sick a day from work,” she mumbled to her blotchy complexion in the bathroom mirror. “Today will not be the first.”

  As she hobbled into her bedroom, trying to ignore the way the hairs on the back of her neck stood up the second she passed the threshold, her closet seemed awfully far away. And with each step, it seemed further and further. Moaning, she felt as though she could not take another step and crumpled to the floor.

  “I’m not sick,” she mumbled through dry lips. Her body was still aware she was in her bedroom, and before she knew it, she had crawled out of it into the living room, collapsing in front of the sofa.

  “I can’t move,” she muttered to nobody as she laid there. She could not remember ever getting ill. Jane and Cory both had suffered from the flu, chicken pox, as well as allergies. She, however, had seemed to escape when those maladies came calling. “I guess I was due,” she said in a nasally voice.

  Reaching for her phone, she quickly dialed her boss’s office line. Just holding the phone to her ear seemed to take all of her energy. When her message was finished, she let the phone drop then allowed her body to drop as well and quickly fell asleep.

  When she woke up, she felt worse. Tears poured from her eyes as she pulled herself up onto all fours and made her way to the kitchen. Looking up at the very high countertops, she knew coffee was not going to happen. Whimpering made her wince from the pain in her throat and more tears escaped. She turned around and hobbled back to the living room, pulling up part way onto the chair.

  Leaning her head down on the leather seat, she closed her eyes and drifted.

  “That’s good, pet. Yes, don’t fight it. Your body is going through the shift. Soon you will be with me always.”

  Ari’s eyes sprang open at the sound of Orion’s voice. Her ankle burned and every muscle in her body seemed to twitch as she looked around the room, almost expecting to see the man with red eyes.

  Maybe this illness had been coming on for a while. It would make the delusions she seemed to be having make more sense. Letting out another whimper, her eyes started to close again.

  “Shh, pet. Just let yourself fall asleep. It will make the shift easier.” She shivered as a cool finger drifted across her cheek. “When you awaken there is much to be done, so get your rest now.”

  Her ankle fizzled at his touch, and yet something in his voice made her want to obey him. As the muscles within her body relaxed, she felt herself drift further toward darkness, toward him.

  “Good little pet.”

  Every muscle tensed as a loud blaring noise made her eyes snap open. Looking around, she realized she was still in her living room, and the sound that woke her was her phone.

  Groaning, she reached for it, but it was so far away. It would take so much energy to reach it.

  “That’s right, pet,” he whispered in her ear. “Ignore the sound. Go back to sleep.”

  Whimpering, she forced herself to reach further.

  His voice hardened. “No, pet. Stop. Go to sleep.”

  Her ankle once again flashed with pain, but it gave her enough energy to lunge toward the phone, toppling over on top of it.

  “Hello?” she yawned as she opened it.


  “Arwen?”

  “Yes,” she muttered, almost immediately feeling herself drift again.

  “Arwen Maria Reynolds! Snap out of it!” Abigail’s voice demanded through the phone.

  “Wha—?” she gasped, sitting up straight, blinking her eyes open. Why did she feel drugged?

  “Arwen, are you listening to me?”

  Her head felt strange, as though stuffed with cotton balls. Ari shook her head violently to try and clear it. “Yes, Abigail, I am listening. I’m sick today and can’t concentrate.”

  “No, Arwen, you are not sick. Well, you are, but it isn’t a malady you have ever heard of. Tell me, have you seen Orion again?”

  Ari felt that was a strange question, but yawned. “Yeah, he keeps calling me his pet and telling me to relax and rest.” It sounded like good advice. She was so tired. Leaning over, she laid her head on the floor as she kept the phone to her ear. It took too much energy to sit up.

  “Good pet. Let it go.” As she closed her eyes, she felt his fingers drift down her arm. “Just sleep, pet. Sleep.”

  “ARWEN!”

  Groaning, Ari blinked her eyes open again. “I can’t,” she mumbled into the phone. “Too much energy to stay awake.”

  “Arwen, listen to me. This is not going to make a lot of sense, but you are shifting from one dimension to another, dearest. That is why you feel so ill. You must fight it, Arwen. Do you hear me? You must fight the desire to sleep. You must fight his encouragement!”

  The words made no sense, and Ari moaned softly, unable to say anything. All she really felt was something soft drifting up and down her arm and a deep thrum within her reacting to it.

  “That’s a good pet. Turn off the phone. Come on, pet. Turn off the phone.”

  Yawning, her finger reached over to cut off the line. Before she could, her grandmother yelled something she could not understand. At the same time, fire lit up her leg and screaming, she sat up, rubbing at the flames she could not see.

  She felt a flash of anger, and then all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing.

  “Arwen?”

  Looking at her hand, she pulled the phone up to her ear. “Yeah, I’m still here. My leg hurts.”