Twisted Tales

by Edward Grey

  Grant knew he couldn't just wait for something to happen. If Travis was some kind of deranged sociopath that was using a fake badge to lure his victims into a secluded area, then he needed to get away before anything happened. He needed to run.

  When he passed the tree, he stepped left into the dirt and continued into the wilderness. Travis stayed a distance behind him, and that made him comfortable with his next decision. He balled his fists, tucked in, and started to run. A moment later, his body felt cold and he fell hard into the ground.

  As the world phased into darkness, he watched Travis walk up to him. The man shined a light into his face, and then he passed out.

  ~

  Grant opened his eyes and felt disoriented. He was staring at the ground as a small spider crawled along the dirt. Just passed it was a small warm fire and a large rock wall, which was probably a portion of a desert cave. Travis was sitting against a nearby wall messing with what looked like a phone.

  He decided it would be in his best interest to remain still. He wanted to assess his situation before making any decision. He knew he needed to get away from Travis as soon as possible, and as long as the man didn't know he was awake he had the advantage.

  A voice came through the speaker on the phone and said, "Is everything going as planned?"

  Travis said, "Yes, sir."

  "Good. How long before we can get out there?"

  "I'll kill him soon. I just need a little time to destroy the body entirely, and then I will send the signal."

  "Fine, make it quick."

  Cold tremors ransacked Grant's body. He was right all along. Travis was going to kill him, and he walked right into it. Of course, he did try to run, but Travis had planned for that.

  Even though he didn't know how the man subdued him, the only logical explanation was a Taser. If that was the case, there was a possibility that he only had one cartridge, and if he ran now, he could get out of there, where ever there was.

  He sat up quickly with his arms, but when he tried to stand, his legs didn't respond. He tried even harder, but they remained immovable. It was as if he'd been paralyzed from the waist down.

  Travis glanced up and said, "You won't be able to move for a little longer."

  "What the hell did you do to me?"

  "It's a side effect from the Taser. It'll wear off soon enough, I promise."

  Grant looked around and grabbed a hefty rock with his right hand. He held it high and said, "If you don't let me go I'll smash you!"

  "Calm down. I had to stop you from running. I didn't have all night to chase you through the desert."

  "You want me to calm down? You just said you were gonna kill me!"

  "Oh, for the love of—listen, just calm down and I'll explain in a bit."

  "Or what?" Grant said as he started to drag himself towards the entrance of the cave with his free arm, "You'll kill me?"

  "I am not going to kill you, but if you don't relax and stay here I'll zap you again." Travis sighed, "Although if I do that, we're both dead."

  Grant noticed a small chill in the way Travis spoke about his own death. He seemed to be sincere in exposing they would both be killed if he didn't stop.

  "Dead?"

  "That's right. I promise I'll explain everything to you, just wait a minute. It will be easier if you just see."

  Grant propped himself against the wall and set the clobbering stone aside. He didn't want to get shocked again, but he also had a feeling that Travis wasn't going to hurt him. At least not more than he already did.

  He wondered what he needed to see in order for Travis to finally explain. At first he thought it was the man on the phone. However, he told the man that he was going to kill Grant. So it couldn't be him, but what else did he need to see that was so important he couldn't explain otherwise?

  He sighed and became curious as to why this was happening to him. He led a relatively positive life, and that positive energy was used for good things. There was no reason for anyone, let alone the universe, to put him in a possibly dangerous situation.

  Spiritually, he knew that being positive brought with it intensely positive outcomes. He knew that if he relented to negative thoughts, negativity would inevitably lead him down a chaotic path. This just didn't make sense, because he had done nothing negative. Hell, he had spilled coffee on his crotch just that morning, and still had a smile on his face when he cleaned it up.

  This might be the beginning of a negative moment that would require him to remain positive to surpass it. He knew that life had a way of throwing chaotic circumstances into someone's life, and it was positive energy that carried him through it all. It had to be that way, because there was no other explanation.

  As he sat there against the wall watching Travis tinker further with his phone, he started to feel a small tingling sensation in his legs. He looked down and tried to wiggle one of them, but it only moved slightly. It was almost as if his legs were mechanical, and the battery with which they were powered was running low.

  Travis said, "Do you feel that?"

  "Yeah, the tingling?"

  "No, but that's good. That means you'll be walking soon. I meant the cold, do you feel it?"

  "Of course, it's the middle of the night. What would you expect?"

  "Wait for it, you'll see." He said, and as he started to grin the temperature grew drastically colder. It was almost so cold that the thin dew on the walls might crystallize into ice.

  Grant's foot twitched, and the tingling sensation started to subside. Soon, he was able to move his foot and then bend his legs.

  "Perfect timing." Travis said.

  Suddenly, a bright five-foot sliver of light appeared at the back of the cave. Then the sliver became thicker, and the light began to look more like exaggerated electricity coursing through translucent veins.

  Of all the things Grant expected to happen, this was not one of them. Imaginations had conjured wild things and placed them in movies, and while they usually had well-designed logic to explain their place in the fictional world, it was never good enough to be convincing. What was happening was impressive, thought-provoking, and severely terrifying.

  The electricity first parted in the center, and then the whole thing widened into an oval. Within the confines of the light, there seemed to be a plate of glass or a still body of water. This body of water projected the image of a steel room, a room that was not in the cave, and probably nowhere near their location.

  Travis said, "Can you try standing?"

  Grant nodded and kept his gaze fixed on the strange thing in the cave as he stood.

  "Here's the deal, and you need to pay attention because we don't have much time."

  He only nodded again.

  "Grant! Look at me!"

  He turned his head and saw that Travis no longer had the soft doughy features of a kind man. He looked hard and determined, as if this moment was going to determine the outcome of the rest of their lives.

  "This is a portal to a parallel universe. When we walk through it, we will be in the exact same place and somewhat within the same time. While we are there, you need to do exactly as I say. Got it?"

  Grant shook his head. "I don't want to go in there."

  "You need to, and if you don't, then you and I will both be killed. Even worse, the world as you know it in your universe will be destroyed."

  Grant knew this couldn't be happening. Surely there was an explanation. Perhaps he had fallen asleep on that cliff while he was gazing out into the expansive celestial ocean. However, even in his most lucid dream it was never as real as this moment.

  "Destroyed?" Grant said as he looked back at the portal.

  "Yes, but I'll explain that on the other side. Right now we need to go."

  He watched Travis move to the portal, and he joined him. He looked into the room beyond the gate, and it looked medical. There was a large table in the center that looked a lot like a coroners slab, but this one had five leather straps to hold someone down. On each of the
several steel counters were different scientific devices, which some of them Grant recognized, but others were foreign.

  "When you step through it, you'll feel cold and you'll feel sick, but that will pass soon. It's only your body getting used to the changes."

  "What changes?"

  "You'll see. Now go."

  Grant stood there for a moment. His legs felt like they were frozen to the ground as a result of the surrounding temperature. However, he knew that it was his own fear keeping him from taking that step into unknown territory.

  He felt a hand on his back, and Travis gently nudged him towards the portal. "Go on, it'll be okay."

  He had family in this world, and if what Travis said was true, then he needed to do something. He loved his mother and father, and held nothing against the people of this world. Though he knew many of them to be evil, no one deserved to die, especially the innocent ones.

  With a deep breath, he picked up his iron-heavy foot and stepped into the portal. The surface in which he passed through was surprisingly neither glass nor water, but simply a gateway that divided the two worlds. He felt the linoleum on the other side as if it were literally in front of him.

  With his foot in, he started to feel a gravitational pull. An invisible force seemed to grab at him, and he was pulled gently through the gateway.

  Travis was right. He felt frigid, even more so than what seemed healthy for the human body. In addition, his stomach raged with nausea, wherein several butterflies flapped and fluttered ferociously with discord. However, as quickly as it began, his tormented stomach calmed.

  Grant looked back at the portal, and saw Travis standing in the cave. In here, sunlight from a nearby window warmed his skin, but on the other side, the cave was still darkened by lunar shadows and the dancing specters cast by the small fire. He imagined it was probably still cold as ice in there as well.

  He watched Travis step through the portal with confidence. As he did so, the man's hair dissolved, leaving his dome looking as though it were clean shaven. A large scar appeared at top of his skull, and his clothes transformed instantly into a black leather jacket, jeans, and boots. A second later, the portal closed.

  Travis looked at him and said, "All right, are you okay? Are you focused?"

  "Yeah, I guess." He said, though he wasn't fully confident with his words. “What the hell happened to you?”

  "I’m glad you’re okay." He said, "I’ve changed, but more importantly, you should know that there are two of you here."

  "Isn't that unsafe? I mean, I've watched all those movies, and I really don't feel like deforming into a puddle of gooey mess if I get to close to him."

  Travis laughed. "No, you'll be fine. You see, each dimension is slightly different, but all in the same way. Each one has elements within it that are the basis for creating life. Because those elements are different, you are not exact copies, and therefore, are not truly the same beings occupying the same universe."

  "So we're like twins with different fingerprints?"

  "Exactly, but instead of having different fingers, each of you has a biological fingerprint that makes you unique."

  "Okay, okay. So why exactly am I here? I understand all this end of the world bullshit, but what does it have to do with me?"

  "You are the key to stopping all of this. The Grant of my universe is a brilliant scientist. He was the one that created the ability to open a gateway to other universes. At some point, he went mad with the idea he could rule other worlds, soak up more intelligence, and use that knowledge to take over more worlds. His hunger is what drives him, and his power enables him."

  "So he just went crazy? How does he think he's going to take over the world?" Grant said through a laugh. "Our government is more than equipped to handle an insurgence."

  "No, they're not. Maybe if your world was the first stop, but there were two others. On the last one, he was fortunate enough to get his hands on advanced weaponry schematics. Add to that his clones, and he's unstoppable."

  "Clones? Sounds like something out of a sci-fi flick."

  "You really need to stay focused on the objective here. Here's what we need to do. You will pretend to be our Grant, and use your fingerprints and eyes to get us through security. Once through, we are going to shut the whole project down. We'll self-destruct the clone pods, and then cease weapon manufacturing."

  "Before we get on with this, how do you fit into the picture?" Grant wondered. "I mean, I understand your desire to stop him, but what are you to this project?"

  Travis sighed. This was the first time Grant had noticed the light in the man's eyes falter. He must have truly done something wrong, because he seemed ashamed of what he was going to say next.

  "I'm his right hand. I helped design the portal system, and worse, helped him take over the last two Earths."

  Although it was worse than he suspected, it certainly justified Travis' exterior show of inner turmoil. With the fall of civilizations, there was no doubt many lives that were lost. Even in the history of his world, people had sacrificed millions of lives struggling for power, and if he were in Travis’ shoes, he’d probably be just as sick with remorse.

  "Okay, let's do this." Grant agreed and then glanced at one of the many reflective surfaces in the room.

  His skin was darker, his hair was a bit longer, and he had a large scar starting from his left ear and extended down his neck to his collar bone. He was also wearing a uniform that looked similar to an old fifties Korean War jumpsuit, except it was dark black and had no single-star insignia on it.

  He said, "Why the hell do I look like this?"

  "Ah, I forgot to mention. When you step into this world, you also take on the characteristics of your counterpart. Even though you are different, the dynamics of the world still believe that you are one in the same, so that's why you feel the sickness. It's the world compensating for your differences and changing you accordingly."

  "Weird, but all right." He said, feeling the rigid surface of the scar.

  Travis quickly walked to a door that lead to the hallway and typed a code into the small device near the handle. When it clicked, he turned the knob and opened it.

  Just outside was a long hallway, and Grant followed him into it. It was similar in style to the boring white corridors of a hospital, except it didn't have the aroma of sanitizing agents.

  As they made their way south Travis said, "Just be you. The only real difference between you guys is that he's nuts."

  Grant acted as normal as he could. Being thrust into a situation that defied all logic of the known universe and its workings was hard enough to deal with, but to act normal in these circumstances seemed nearly impossible.

  Still, as they neared their destination, a few of the people that passed them, probably employees of the notorious Grant, nodded at him with a smile.

  When they reached another door, Travis pointed to a small device built into the wall. There was an outline of a left hand, so Grant reached down and placed his palm within the boundaries. After a short moment, the lock disengaged, and they were granted access into a smaller antechamber.

  "Good. We only have one more door to get through, and then we can finally finish this."

  The following device was attached to the wall as well, but was at head level. A pair of goggles protruded from the device, and so Grant looked through them.

  "How long does this usually take?"

  "Should've opened by now. Back up and give it another shot."

  He did as instructed, and as before, the door remained locked. "This isn't working."

  Grant backed off and shrugged at Travis. As he was about to try again, large shutter doors opened revealing giant plate windows. Behind those windows was Psycho Grant and what might have been the head of security.

  The intercom system clicked and Grant heard his own voice tainted with cynicism. "I knew you were getting soft, Travis."

  "We can't keep killing people, it’s wrong!"

  "What’s wrong is t
hat you thought you could stop me by bringing one of my alternates here. When I looked over your data, I knew right away you were lying to me about everything. For a while I actually believed all this bullshit about sacrifices."

  Travis turned to Grant and whispered, "These chambers are equipped with a gas that will pump in here at the press of a button. There's something I didn't tell you, and you need to pay very close attention."

  Psycho Grant said, "Travis, no secrets. God damn it! Nate, turn up the volume so we can hear what he's saying."

  Travis continued quietly, "You are connected on a deep mental level. I need to you concentrate, and stop them from killing us. You need to focus very hard on what you want to happen, and make the other Grant do it."

  "What?"

  "Do it, now."

  None of it really made sense to him. All he knew is that he didn't want to die, but Psycho Grant seemed to have the power at the touch of a button. He needed to do what he could, because it was the only option he had available. Therefore, he closed his eyes and tried with unmatched determination to make something happen.

  When he opened his eyes, he looked up at Psycho Grant and watched as the man took out his sidearm. He fired at Nate, killing him instantly, and then he turned the gun to his own head.

  "No!" Travis said, "Don't do it!"

  "Why, if he's just going to keep killing people, he needs to be stopped."

  "Remember when I said you two were connected by the universe? Well, like the scar that appeared when you crossed over, if you kill him, the universe will compensate and you’ll die too."

  Grant kept the gun trained on his alternates head. There was a panel there that would release them and allow them to continue to the next chamber. However, he had no idea how it worked, and worse, if he pressed the wrong sequence of buttons then it would kill him, Travis, and Psycho Grant.

  He didn't know how many universes there were, but there had to be many more. If he accidentally killed Travis, then there wouldn’t be anyone to stop someone else from taking Psycho Grant’s place. Travis knew all the inner workings of this facility, and if left alive, he could continue on to shut everything down.