Across Dimensions (ONC 2020)

Chapter Ten: Beginning Of The End

Present

"Then what happened? How'd you and my mom end up getting back to our dimension?" I ask kicking my feet, I lay on my stomach absorbing the story.

Life seems surreal in this moment. Gazing at Maximus I can no longer see him the same way. Just this morning I assumed he was a boring business man, who held me to his paticular standards to live in his household.

Boy, did he have me fooled, for nearly a year! He had projected this image so perfectly that I never thought to question it. There was no way I would've guessed he was well... What he is. A freakin dimension traveler, a smarty pants that was not good enough in his fathers eyes.

"The military captured me, and I woke up at a secret facility next to Kyle, your father. We escaped, locating your mother among the rebel encampment. Since there was no way for us to get home, we joined their cause. I became a spy and found disturbing information that I had planned to give to Kyle's mother, but she never showed and I got captured." Maximus pauses, a frown pulls down the face that I have grown used to smiling at all times.

"Your mother and Kyle worked close together, quickly becoming an item. By the time a rescue was sent for me, she was infatuated with him. I was heart-broken that she moved on from me so quickly, though we were never truly more than friends, at least not in her eyes. But I never said a thing, because when you truly love someone, all you want is their happiness, even if it brings you despair."

"Things continued to get worse. Half of our forces were murdered, and countless others disappeared, never to be heard from again. By the time your mother completed working on the portal, there were only twenty of us left. Each one had their name displayed on the execution board. We wanted to save them all, but only Kyle chose to come with us."

"After that we found ways to travel to different places, making it our personal mission to fight against injustice. We did this for years, but once we revisited the places we had been, the consequences of what we'd done were like a knife to the gut. Our interference in the worlds we didn't belong in opened a black hole, killing millions."

Maximus stares at his hands, they tremble uncontrollably. "We thought we were liberating them, but we brought their destruction. Each ghost in this house is millions of restless souls, they fell through the portals we created after everything their dimension collapsed on itself."

"But, why?" I ask, not knowing what else to say.

Numbness fills me. The overwhelming guilt he must face on a daily basis is insane. How is he functioning? Did he find a way to turn off his emotions? Or perhaps he removed them entirely... That's possible right? I mean, up until now I hadn't thought ghosts, or portals to other dimensions existed, so how outlandish is an idea like that?

"I wish I had an answer but I don't, at least not for theirs. After this started happening, my father kept pushing for us to continue. Vidya quit, I was forced to run the project in her absence... Until the spirits grew weary of my fathers ignorance and killed him."

"Your father is from another dimension Kai, and for some reason, ours seemed unaffected by his presence. At least it seemed that way, until a small crack opened sixteen years ago on the twelfth of December."  Maximus states. His eyes grow clouded, as if there is something he knows he should say, but is deciding not to.

"That's my birthday. Am I the beginning of the end?" I ask, tucking my hair behind my ear absently.

Everything I have experienced in life could not have prepared me for this moment. Without a choice, my presence in this world from birth may be endangering it. But now that I know, what am I supposed to do with that knowledge? Will I need to uproot my life and jump into the dimension I'm partially descended from? Or will it just cause the same thing to happen, since I'm not purely from one world or the other?

The constant racing thoughts, cause my head to pound. There's no solution. It doesn't matter what I do.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence,  or perhaps that character who blackmailed Kyle made so many entries and exits that things started to tear." Maximus declares, wringing his hands. "Regardless, we have worse matters that need attention. The business trip I took was to investigate anomalies that appeared the day before Graysons arrival."

His nervous behavior is odd, it's not something I have ever seen before, which means whatever he saw was serious. Those monstrous black holes in the video were nothing to be taken lightly.

"Are you saying, him being here is causing our world to have the same fate as the other ones? Will we be destroyed?" I ask quietly, as if the level of my voice could be heard by a random onlooker... Though in a metallic safe room that is impossible.

Why am I even worried about such a thing? Our whole galaxy might be in danger! If someone were to hear that, would it matter? Especially since I know the majority of the world is as skeptical as I used to be. Despite me unknowingly being a part of the problem, despite Maximus' denial otherwise.

"Yes, but I don't know if sending him back is going to stop it. Vidya, your mother managed to save one of the worlds that we sent into a death spiral. I've been working at it for years but have not found a way to fix things. After I... Did something unforgivable, she refused to see me. It wasn't until their disappearance that I found out she had entrusted you to me. I was forbid from seeing you for most of your life. From their perspective it was likely for good reason." He swallows, guilt apparent in his expression. But that is quickly hidden the instant he see's me staring.

"Since Kyle's world was the first one we traveled to, I wonder if they are facing the same fate as us. I think they may have kidnapped your parents in an effort to save it." Maximus states, getting up to leave.

I leap to my feet, my hand closes around his wrist,  not allowing him a chance to exit. "If sending Grayson back won't stop it, then why would you kill him? It won't make a difference."

"He's the reason your parents were targeted. I fear he has something to do with their capture, whether he knows it or not." Maximus turns around, looking straight into my eyes. "When that boy regains his memories, he won't be recognizable. Everyone leaves Edipeis a monster. Even the kind-hearted innocent's are unable to escape that place without losing their sense of humanity."

WC: 18,213