The Realities of Love

Chapter 4

I've been in this reality for a week now, and I still wasn't confident enough to talk to anyone outside of Randal. Lucky for me what Randal told me that first night seemed to be true. People legitimately thought I was cursed here. I went to town three days ago to memorize the differences of this town compared to the others and when I made eye contact with a mother and her son on the street they screamed and ran to the other side of the road. Also when I tried to go inside a market to see if that's where I should get my groceries the manager found me five minutes later and asked me to leave since I was scaring his customers.

As happy as I had been to be left alone, this made it very hard to adapt to this dimension. All I have learned about this dimension is that these people were incredibly superstitious. Randal was the only one that would even consider talking to me, and as annoying as I found his demeaning manner I had to admit that it was useful. He would show me things and explain what they were and how they worked to me like I was a small child. It helped me learn what was used in this dimension and what wasn't, however, I was ready to cut out his tongue due to him treating me like I'm stupid.

I had gotten close to punching Randal in his very handsome yet frustrating face many times, but every time I clenched my fist, something stopped me. Like an unknown instinct or a sixth sense that didn't allow me to truly resent this version of him.

It was this lack of resentment that made me swallow my pride and decide to ask Randal for help. Now I just needed to figure out how to contact him. TVs, radios, and laptops were all in this dimension, but like I had originally thought cellphones weren't. Maybe they have email? I opened the light silver laptop and was happy to see that there was no password on it. I checked all the icons and was surprised to see that Google was on it. So this dimension has google but no cell phones? How on Earth did that make sense? I pulled up the familiar search engine and saw the email symbol in the top right corner of the screen.

I got onto the email and found around fifty unanswered emails. They were all from fans of the books that the other Cara had written. They all asked questions or expressed their adoration of their favorite book. After glancing at all of them I got a good idea of what kind of books the other Cara had written. She had written tragedies, they all seemed to end with fire. According to Randal, my parents in this reality met a terrible end in a fire. It obviously really affected the other Cara. Shaking my head to rid me of my thoughts and the sudden longing for my parents from my original dimension I went to work.

I searched till I found a compose button and clicked on it. I typed in Randal and was pleased to see that his contact information showed up. I wrote a short message basically saying that I desperately needed his help. As I looked over it I was happy to see that the format was almost identical to the one from my original dimension. I sent it and within seconds he answered saying that he was on his way. I closed the laptop and sat on my newly made bed to wait.

It only took three minutes for him to get here. I could tell he was here before he even came through the door, that strange sixth sense notifying me instead. I got up to answer the door before he even knocked, but I wasn't fast enough. He burst through the door nearly taking it off its hinges and started to look around while yelling, "What's wrong?"

"Geez ever hear of knocking?" I asked slightly annoyed at his lack of respect for my privacy.

"Why isn't the place on fire or some other terrible thing?" He asked ignoring my question.

"Cause I'm not an idiot," I answered with an eye roll. Seriously what does he think my IQ is? Is IQ a thing here?

"Why did I get that super urgent email then?" He asked more at ease now.

"Cause apparently I'm too cursed to be able to get groceries and I have zero food. How did I use to get food?" I replied frustrated.

"That's it?" He asked annoyed and gave me an eye roll, "You said it was a matter of life and death."