“The wrong dimension? The wrong f*****g dimension? Again?!” I blurted out,
Lucille stood by the window staring at me with a worried expression on her face,
“Alex, darling? Are you okay?” She asked,
“Do I look…” I shouted, pausing to take a breath, “No, no Lucille, I’m not,”
I felt a sense of calm come over me as my wife stared at me with a worried expression, she walked over to me, placed her hands on my cheeks and began to kiss me passionately. At first, I didn’t feel quite right kissing someone I didn’t even know, but she was my wife in this dimension, and the thought of that put my mind at ease.
“Now what’s this about a wrong dimension?” She asked,
“Believe me. You really wouldn’t understand. Besides, it’s fine, I’m fine,” I replied,
“Okay then, if you say so,” She said with a smile, “Would you like some coffee? I’m going to have a coffee,”
Lucille began walking towards the door as I gave her a slight nod and sat on the sofa looking around,
“I can’t stay here,” I thought to myself, “I need to find my mum, there must be a way.”
At that moment a thought crossed my mind,
“What if I used the mirror method to have more control over where I jump?”
I figured that theoretically, waiting until 12 am and using the mirror method, I could find a way to jump to a dimension where my mum is in my life, she is still alive, and where I also have a sister who dies. I’d be willing to make that sacrifice, considering I’d never had a sister before that first jump. That settled it. I had decided that if I’m careful and can be precise about which dimension I’d want to jump to, nothing can go wrong. Lucille came back into the living room carrying two cups of coffee, handing one to me, she sat down next to me and turned on the TV,
“What would you like to watch?” She asked, “Anything in mind?”
“No, not really,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee, “It depends on what’s on,”
“Well, there’s a few different game shows on, oh, there’s a film on Channel Five, or Doctor Who is about to start on BBC One,” She said excitedly,
“I’ll tell you what, you watch Doctor Who, I’m going to finished my coffee then go and get a shower then get an early night,”
“Oh, okay then, I’ll be up once this finishes,” She replied, placing her hand on my lap,
With that, I headed into the kitchen, I poured a bit of extra milk into my coffee to cool it down, drank the whole thing in one big gulp then started to look for a candle and a lighter before heading upstairs. I placed the candle and the lighter down on the back of the sink, turned on the shower then took a towel off the towel rail and put it on the toilet lid, closer to the shower. While I was in the shower I began hearing a thousand voices whispering in unison amongst the sound of the water pattering against the floor of the shower, and then, out of nowhere, a bright flash distorted my vision. My vision quickly returned, and I was overcome with an immense heat as the temperature of the water suddenly rose, forcing me to jump into the corner of the shower to avoid the water burning me further, I quickly turned the dial on the shower, finished washing my hair and got out.
As I stood there, reaching for the towel, I stared at my hand as steam rose from it, picking up my towel and drying my face, I noticed a peculiar smell lingering on the fabric,
“Smoke?” I thought, throwing the towel down and reaching for another one,
Again, the throwing the towel over my head to dry my hair, I could smell smoke, but the smell wasn’t coming from the towels, the smell was on my hands,
“I’ve not lit the fire tonight, and I’ve just had a shower, why do I smell of smoke?”
I finished drying myself off then washed my hands in the sink before brushing my teeth, I opened the bathroom window slightly to let out the steam then headed into my bedroom,
“Tonight’s the night,” I thought as I walked over to my window, “Time to get this jump right,”
Looking out into the evening scene, I noticed a light fog had veiled the lifeless street as the orange glare of the street lights beamed through the darkness, as I set my alarm for 12 am then went and laid in bed. I had just started drifting off to sleep when Lucille called out from the other side of the door,
“Alex, are you awake?” She asked,
“Well, I am now,” I replied,
The door slowly opened, and I could see the silhouette of Lucille standing in the doorway, looking up, I turned the lamp on and was stunned. She was standing there completely naked as I looked her up and down, taking in the beauty of her smooth, glabrate body. Her auburn hair was blanketing one side of her face, exhibiting her stunning emerald eyes amidst the waves, her small, elegantly formed breasts sat tantalisingly upon her chest as she ran her fingers lightly down her neck, chest and stomach. For the first time, my eyes had been opened to her radiant beauty. Walking over to the bed she turned off the lamp and climbed under the sheets, throwing her legs over me, I placed my hands on her waist,
“Kiss me,” She whispered in my ear,
I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline as I pulled Lucille closer, kissing her lustfully as she ran her hands down my body. Suddenly, I heard the sound of my alarm, and I jumped up to see Lucille sleeping next to me while the glow of my phone dimly lit up the room,
“Did we just…? were we…?” I mumbled to myself in confusion,
I stopped my alarm and kissed Lucille on the cheek, pausing, I looked at her through the darkness, thinking to myself,
“I’ve come to a dimension where I’m married to a woman who clearly cares a lot about me, she’s gorgeous, and I must have married her for a reason. I’ve never even met my mum, and I fail every time I jump, maybe I could be happy here.”
Lucille looked so peaceful laying there like a silent, sleeping angel. I felt like my mind was being torn apart, a part of me wanted this, wanted to stay, but all I’ve ever wanted is a mum.
“Maybe, just maybe, if I’m very specific, Lucille will be in the next dimension too, ” I thought out loud,
“What?” Lucille moaned,
I sat there, not saying a word, hoping she was just talking in her sleep then climbed out of bed, as I was heading out of the door Lucille pounced on me,
“Where are you going?!” She shouted, “You’re going to watch filthy videos while I’m up here asleep, aren’t you?! And on our Anniversary!”
“What the f**k? What are you going on about? I’m going to the toilet!” I exclaimed, trying to pull away,
“Don’t lie to me, Alex!”
“Get off me!”
I tried to pull my arm free as we scuffled our way into the hallway,
“Lucille, let go, I need the toilet!” I said, raising my voice,
“You’re a liar! You’re lying to me! Okay, I’m coming in!”
“What? Grow up! Get off my arm now!” I shouted, trying to pull free,
Lucille had finally let go, dropping to her knees as she started crying,
“Alex, why do you keep doing this to me? Why do you hurt me?”
“I’m not doing anything, I just need the toilet,” I tried to explain,
Lucille looked up at me with tears in her eyes, and her expression changed to one of pure hatred and rage,
“No! It’s all lies!” She screamed like a banshee, pouncing towards me once again,
“Lucille! You’re psychotic!” I shouted, pushing her away from me,
She fell backwards, tripping over her pile of clothes outside the bedroom door and fell head first down the stairs. When she came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, she laid motionless in the most unnatural position, and her limbs contorted into positions they shouldn’t be in,
“What have I done?” I muttered, “No, I’ll bring you back!”
I ran to the bathroom, picked the towels up which I had used earlier and took a candle and the lighter off the sink before heading over to the window to hang up the two towels. As I was about to close the window, I noticed that the fog had gotten considerably denser, and started thinking back to my childhood, and how I used to love walking the streets in the fog, pretending I was in a scene from Silent Hill. Snapping out of my daze, I hung the towels up to cover the window, blocking any outside light, before lighting the candle and sitting in front of the mirror.
I sat there in the darkness staring at the mirror with nothing but the candle between us, after staring at myself for about 10 minutes. I was careful to think to myself what it was that I wanted specifically before speaking into the mirror,
“I need to jump to a dimension where my mum is alive, and Lucille,” I paused, “My sister is there, and she dies,”
I sat for a further 5 minutes reflecting on this, repeating it over and over in my head when my reflection began to speak, but I couldn’t hear a word, I tilted my head in confusion as it spoke again, this time I heard my own voice,
“Alex,” It called out, “We need to swap places! Do you understand me?”
“Yes…” I replied, shocked,
“We need to swap, can we swap?”
I bowed my head, thinking for a minute before replying,
“I need to swap with you, but, is my mum there? Is my sister?”
“Yes, yes, everyone’s here, we need to swap now!” My reflection said, sounding a little worried,
“Is Lucille there?” I questioned,
“Yes, I’ve already said, yes!”
“I never asked,”
“I said everyone’s here, you asked for them earlier, they’re here,”
“Okay, that’s fine then,”
“And… We can swap, right?”
I nodded, then got up and began to walk away,
“Go to bed, Alex,” I called, heading for bed myself,
I looked towards the bottom of the stairs to see Lucille’s body just laying there,
“I’ll be with you soon,” I whispered,
I went into my bedroom, turning on the light I saw that the dense fog had engulfed the whole room, I didn’t understand how it had got inside,
“A side effect of the jump maybe?” I thought,
I headed over to the windows to close it, blinded by the fog and almost tripping over my clothes by the side of my bed, but the window wasn’t open. I turned around to head towards my door, and it felt like something unseen had grabbed my ankle, as I tried to kick it away I feel onto my bed. Kicking my legs and fighting to turn over to see what had a hold of me, I saw that the fog was no longer in my room and my light wasn’t even turned on. Now I was convinced it was just a side effect of the jump and made myself comfy in bed. Hesitant to going to sleep, I laid here thinking about what just happened, but my mind had was at ease by the thought of the dimension that awaits me, and with that, I closed my eyes to go to sleep.
I woke up the next day to the sound of my phone beeping and the sun beaming through my window, and I had a text from… my mum,
“You said you’d be coming round today, didn’t you? I’m just going shopping with Lucille, but we won’t be long,”
I laughed at the thought of my mum sending a text message, and then something clicked, Lucille was in this dimension, and my mum was fine, she was going shopping for God’s sake! I’d finally done it. I’d finally made it! I laid there for a moment staring at the ceiling, thinking about the journey that I’d had, the f****d up premonition, killing my mum twice, the creepy old guy on the canal and a smile grew across my face,
“Oops,” I laughed to myself, “Better text mum back… I’m about to text my mum,”
Looking at the blank message, I realised, I didn’t even know where my mum lives, sure, I found her the first time I’d jumped, but I didn’t want to go searching the online directory again. So much seems to change each time I jump that she may not even live in the same house, then I had an idea,
“Okay, not a problem, will you stop by my house on the way home please?”
While waiting for my mum to text me back, I got up and got myself dressed, went downstairs and made myself a coffee and sat on the sofa to watch TV. Flicking through the channels, it seemed there was nothing decent on, but when is there at 9 O’clock in the morning? Nothing but daytime talk shows and cartoons. Since I’m neither a stay-at-home mum or a fan of the TV show aimed at them, I opted for one of the cartoon channels, and Pokemon was about to start so why not? That’s when my phone beeped,
“Okay honey, not a problem.”
I watched Pokemon and drank my coffee, then began to flicking through the channels again, stopping halfway through my search to run to the toilet. On my way back into the living room I saw that the news was just starting and figured it could be good to see what’s happening in the world, in this dimension,
“Clinton has won the US election with 79% of the electoral votes,”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Hilary Clinton running America,
“Bring on world war three,” I muttered sarcastically
“Scientists have confirmed many of the supposed benefits of Cannabis,”
“Well, I’m certainly not in my dimension anymore, am I?” I called out,
“A woman who was out shopping with her daughter-in-law has been gunned down in the Arndale Centre this morning,”