Bloodline of Alterations: Escaping Reality

CHAPTER 1

I fell onto the sofa like a lifeless corpse, I shook my head in hopes that all this was nothing but some delusion or that I had finally gone insane and tried to get insanity’s hands off of me. The living room before me I feel was stretching out, as if everything was becoming small and insignificant, much like the life I led on here if what these people said was true. I could feel the air becoming thicker around me and my dear friend Mallory, who sadly put herself in this abyss of insanity with me.

I looked up at Mallory, her eyes reddened and turned my gaze away from reality’s cold revleation, yet part of me refused every single second of what was happening to be reality. She sat next to me, and found as if her only option was to hug me tight. I don’t think anything I could say would be able to console her, for I cannot even begin as to how to process all these fantasies and delusions.

I wrapped my arms around her, I simply waited for her to say something, anything. I know she isn’t taking this any easier than I am, no sane human being would be able to take the information we got and still be completely sane and unaffected. She buried her head in our embrace, holding on so tight like two pieces of metal now melting together.

“Aki, please tell me what they’re saying isn’t true, please tell me it’s nothing but lies.”

Although she was still glued to me, slowly we went out of our embrace, “I don’t believe a word of it, but at the same time, what would these people gain by making up this weird story about me? I have never seen them before in my whole life, they’re nothing but strangers to me. They can have so much better to do with their time than waste it doing this nonsense to me.”

“On top of that, some of them aren’t even human, some of them don’t even seem to be good people. I could tell just by their constant looking down at everyone else. You aren’t like those people Akire, you are an amazing girl, the best friend I have ever met in my whole life. Please, tell me you’re not going with those people. Please tell me you can stay here and that nothing they say will come to be true.”

“If any single thing they say is true, if I can believe even one thing they tell me, then I really can’t stay here. It would only hurt you more if I were to stay here.”

Mallory simply turned her gaze away from me and toward the door where we know those people are waiting behind it, “But it’s just absurd, it’s complete and utter insanity what they spew! Not even putting a tin foil hat on them would do it justice because people like those, in spite of their crazy and fantastical rambles, would not believe a word they say.”

“I know, I understand all this just as much as you do. Thoughts are all running in my head asking so many questions and just trying to connect everything together,” I groan, and decided to rest my head on her lap, “I just don’t know Mal.”

“Haven’t you thought about what they said though? They—“

I lifted my head up to meet hers once more, “Mal, what they said is the only thing that is my mind right now. There hasn’t been a second so far that a thought has not been about this whole thing. We both heard what will happen to me if I stay, just like we know what will be done if I were to leave.”

“And you know you can’t just leave everything behind. Where will they even take you? What would happen to everyone you have met here? Your family, your friends,” she paused, and forced my eyes to meet hers, “What would happen to me Aki?

My body inside twisted and turned as she said that with her eyes watering up and hearing her voice choke up like that. Mallory looked so vulnerable, so afraid, a Mallory that I have only seen one other time in the years we have known each other.

“Mal, no matter what is it that they want to do, I will never let anyone separate me from you, for any reason. I am not leaving without you, and they must understand that.”

“You can’t, I already heard the conversation you guys had about bringing me along. They just can’t seem to trust me, and even if they did they told you it’s impossible to bring me along.”

I shook my head, “I could care less about what they said to me, I am not leaving until they figure this out. I’m not just going to leave everything behind and simply forget them and all the memories I have. All that just to end up leaving with them, strangers, and demand faith that I cannot have knowing the endless possibilities as to what can happen to me.”

We heard the door open as one of the “Alterations” peeks through the door. She walked in smiling, it was that girl dressed as some circus ringmaster or Alteration Gamma as she was introduced to me, “Mind if I stay and talk with the two of you?”

I simply pointed to the couch across from us, she bowed like a conductor who finished a concert, and sat, “Listen, I was eavesdropping on this little heart to heart conversation that you were having, and I have some comments to make. I may be this grandiose, eccentric girl who appears to do nothing more than to make shows spectacular, but hear me out.”

I looked at Mal, she only looked back shrugging, I respond with a sigh, “Well, I guess we can listen, although we don’t have much choice in the matter.”

“First, I only find it fair to introduce myself properly to the both of you, I apologize they weren’t more personal, Xirena is as old as time when it comes to introductions, and hardly understands the importance of knowing someone’s real name. I’m Ruby Atwell, and it is a pleasure to meet you both,” she shook our hands, and she stood poised before us.

She took off her white top hat and placed it on the coffee table, we looked at her inhuman scarlet red eyes, her current posture and expressionless face was a complete contrast to how she was earlier as a girl who was filled with an excess of energy and emotion.

“Before I begin, I must start by asking one question. For what reason do you two think I could help in this situation, knowing that the few Alterations here all have a role in making this work? What is my role according to you two?” Ruby began sounding like some professor.

We stared at her blankly, I mean what purpose would she serve, if she has any at all?

“I don’t think you really have any particular role, I mean you’re no different than us, and the others seem to have firm grip on what they’re doing and are far from what I could call human,” I told her.

Ruby giggled, “See, even the others thought that, so I had to pester them into bringing me along.”

“Yet, judging by how you speak part of me wants to guess you have your own reasons for coming here that not even these other Alterations know of.”

Ruby snapped her fingers, smirking, “Exactly!” She looked at Mal, “You know, your deductions skills were far better than I thought. You must have been an amazing officer.”

It didn’t shock us that she also knew, considering how they told us our whole lives upon our first meeting, “Well, all I can say about that is the chief of police saw very highly of me and almost wanted me to gain that position if he were to retire to pay for all the cases we solved together.”

Ruby nodded, then continued, “Now seeing the little time we can waste, there’s no point beating around the bush,” she looked at the both of us with a growing smile, then said in a low voice, “I’m here because I have a plan to fulfill Akire’s request.”

I felt my eyes widen, then looked at Mal, whose eyes began to shimmer in the tears that are too afraid to come out, “How? What is your plan?” I began to ask.

“Also, if you know how to possibly solve this, how come you haven’t told the other Alterations yet? You could have told them from the beginning so they could have brought you along. It just makes no sense why you would hide the solution from a team,” Mal questioned.

“Because as I stated earlier, it’s merely a plan have, though small it is, there is an quite concerning margin of error, and the other Alterations would not have believed my theory if I told them then. Now would be a more optimal time, because once here they will start spewing their ideas and try to connect them, except it will be an organized chaos. You see, each has a specialty in the plan which would be enough to at least get Akire out of this universe, only if all the pieces fall in nicely.”

“In other words, it could be a bit risky?” I asked.

“More than risky, if one piece fails, the whole plan falls apart and the universe would become more unstable due to the tinkering they must do to it.” In spite of her appearance and first impression, Ruby seems to have much knowledge about this situation.

“How do you even know all of this? I’m sorry but you didn’t seem like some person with some sort of PhD to be able to know this much. How come you know this while the others don’t?” Mal retorted.

“Well to be brief, you’re right. Which is why it takes someone who has several PhDs and knowledge about toying with the time and space within multiple universes and the entire dimension to know what I know,” she began staring at Mal, waiting.

Mal simply threw her hands up in the air, “Alright I’m done trying to make sense of all this, but at least it shows you really know what you’re talking about.”

“So tell me, how would this theory of yours work? Because if there is any plan that even has the smallest percent to not lose everything I have here I am willing to risk it. I want to bring those I care about with me.”

“Well, to put it brief, you must be able to awaken into Alteration Delta and find that Awakening to become one, then we simply do what I always do when travelling to different parts of space and be able to live in any universe: you and Mal together elevate into another dimension.

“What does that even mean? I can’t even begin to see how that makes sense,” I said, looking at her with my brows furrowed.

“With the Awakening, you will be able to do the same as me, and to be able to live within my universe, the closest to the Real World, you must elevate from the 4th and become 6th dimensional beings.”