It's been a long time since I've posted a series of any sort, and even longer since I've posted a fairly long one. Consider this an experimental story, one that I'll be updating for as long as I remain interested. With that out of the way, please enjoy the tale.
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It was a particularly drab, rainy spring morning. The birds were not chirping, not in this weather, and nobody was out and about in the little suburban neighborhood. That was except for Mary Brown. Alas, that was part of the reason it was such a drab morning.
Mary Brown was the most normal girl in the universe, some would say. The middle of the road, the 50th percentile. She got average grades in school, got at best 4th in every contest she entered, and worked as a secretary in a glue factory. There was nothing special about her, from her plain, short brown hair, to her frumpy office lady outfit and dull glasses.
To say she was as interesting as the wallpaper in the office of Blandy McBlanderson’s tax accountant would be of great offense to the wallpaper. So much so that Blandy and his accountant might hire a lawyer on behalf of the wallpaper. Merely to sue you for defamation.
In other words, she was a fairly boring person. But not so much that it would be to a noticeable extent. In fact, by the end of this paragraph, you’ll have probably forgotten she has even existed. Like her parents, who’ve missed half her birthdays because they can never remember how many kids they’ve had. They’ve only had one, but they’re convinced they had two or three. The problem is the whole stretch of their lives they spent raising their child is nothing more than a blur to them.
What were we talking about again? Oh yes, Mary Whatshername. She was slowly walking across the sidewalk of her rainy neighborhood. She had a not particularly early morning shift at the glue factory but was in no rush to arrive. It’s not as though anyone would notice if she wasn’t there on time. Then again, they wouldn’t notice her even if she was there, plus there wasn’t (and never was) an urgent need for her to be in the office, so she was taking her time.
“Another day, another dollar,” Mary said to herself. It was the most conversation she’d had all week, maybe even all month. “If they remember to pay me this period,” the woman sighed. She looked ahead on the gray road, expecting to see nothing more than raindrops and concrete. Instead, she saw Ronnie Ray staring up at the sky.
Now, Ronnie Ray was a fair bit more notable than Mary. Although that wasn’t saying much. The poor soul behind the counter of your local convenience store is also more notable than Mary by virtue of existing. The difference between Ronnie and that unfortunate individual is that Ronnie was not quite normal.
Supposedly, Ms. Ray worked as a voice talent for local radio stations. She’d sing, do radio dramas, that sort of work. At least, that’s what Ronnie told everyone. Of course, people did find her hot pink hair that seemed to glow in the dark and her impossibly lean figure, despite the fact she only ate potato chips, to be somewhat strange. That and how she was always on her radio at night listening to “foreign language radio dramas.” Said dramas sounded more like garbled noise being projected through a pair of poorly maintained megaphones than anything else.
The horrible truth of the matter was that Ronnie was a fugitive, but not a fugitive from this Earth. Yet, she was entirely human, or rather something so close to a human that making a distinction would be pointless to most people. More on that in a moment. As for why she was looking at the sky? Well, the terrified look on her face said it all.
“Are you okay?” Mary inquired. She’d seen Ronnie quite a few times, even talked with her once or twice. The dull girl never learned Ronnie’s name but was too embarrassed to admit it, so she just fell back on vague language.
“Fine, totally fine, everything is fine,” Ronnie’s mouth ran at a mile a minute. “You wouldn’t happen to have a seen a particularly dull and boring-looking girl, have you?”
“That would be me,” Mary admitted reluctantly.
“Yeah, if you see her, tell her I’m looking for her,” Ronnie’s ears failed to register Mary’s words.
“I don’t have time for this,” the drab girl stated. “Or well I do, but...forget it.”
“Uh, huh, yeah,” Ronnie nodded as Mary passed her. “Wait, there you are,” the pink-haired woman exclaimed.
“What do you want?” Mary sighed.
“Hey, uh,” Ronnie tried to relax, “you want to get a drink or something?”
“I have work,” Mary replied. “Also, you’re acting suspiciously friendly. What do you actually want?”
“It’s nothing like that. I’m just being neighborly,” Ronnie assured.
“You’re not my neighbor,” the brunette pointed out. “Also, you’re starting to creep me out. I’m going to go before I end up on the news in a missing person’s report.”
“Wait, don’t go,” Ronnie grabbed Mary’s shoulder. “Just blow off work. Who’s going to care?”
“I will,” Mary countered.
“Let me rephrase that,” Ronnie looked back up at the sky. “No one will care. No one will be around to care.”
“The way you phrased that sentence is concerning,” Mary tried to back away. Alas, Ronnie’s grip strength was unnaturally strong.
“Okay, I was going to try and ease you into this. Maybe get a few drinks in you to open you up to the idea,” the fugitive stated. “But I’m running out of time.”
“Where are you going with this?” Mary felt a few dozen pangs of panic as her mind raced with the possibilities Ronnie’s words implied.
“Hold still, please,” Ronnie pulled out a travel-size red canister with a spray nozzle at the top. With a click of the nozzle, a pink mist emerged from the canister and entered Mary’s nose.
“Wha...?” Mary’s brain went to lala land as she saw stars.
“Good thing you’re loopy, or this would probably give you a massive headache,” Ronnie commented. The pink-haired woman readied a small black device with dozens of buttons and switches on it. With a click of one switch, the two women lurched through the fabric of reality, and suddenly they were no longer on the rainy street. They were no longer in the suburbs, their town, or even the Earth. In fact, currently, they weren’t anywhere.
Ronnie Ray was a fugitive, but not from this Earth. She was from a different Earth that was a few thousand years further along. Medicine and cybernetics had advanced to the point that one could spend their whole life eating deep-fried cookies wrapped in bacon for every meal and feel no adverse effects. They had also discovered interdimensional travel at some point. It became a popular pastime to cross realities for bored people with a disposable income.
Ronnie was not one of those people, but she did mug a guy who was and ran off into the multiverse. She was already on the hook for poorly filed taxes, “it’s not like I can get in any more trouble,” was her only thought about the act. As it turns out, yes, she could, as the pink-haired woman was soon being charged with petty theft, harassing lower lifeforms, and loitering in the gap between dimensions.
The fugitive had settled on Mary’s world as a hiding place. It was perfect, being a backwater dimension nobody cared about. That was until now, which led to Ronnie’s hasty escape with Mary in tow for reasons that will become clear in a moment.
“Where are we?” Mary came to in mid-interdimensional transit.
“Oops, you weren’t supposed to wake up until we landed. Guess I should have used more spray,” Ronnie shrugged. “Try not to look into the boundless void. It’ll just make your brain explode. I’m not speaking in hyperbole, by the way.”
“Okay, okay,” Mary shut her eyes and tried to brace herself for the oncoming motion sickness. “So, why are we here?”
“Well about that,” Ronnie began, right as a massive cross-dimensional event occurred behind them, sending the two into a spiral.
“What was that?” Mary screamed as she felt herself fold infinitely.
“That was your dimension being pruned. It happens sometimes,” Ronnie answered.
“What, why? How? What’s going on?” Mary tried to ignore the sensation of her body twisting in eight different directions at once.
“I’ll explain later, if I feel like it,” Ronnie was totally relaxed. “Consider yourself lucky. You’re the sole survivor of a whole universe.”
“I don’t have time to unpack that right now!” Mary hazarded opening her eyes, only to see her own behind in front of her. She quickly shut them again. “Why would you save me then? I’m literally the last person on Earth anyone cared about.”
“Exactly,” Ronnie smirked. “I’m kind of doing this dimension jump illegally, so I was hoping your dullness would dilute my signal, so the fuzz doesn’t get on my tail.”
“Then what?” Mary shouted.
“I don’t know. You could become my partner in crime,” Ronnie shrugged.
“You mean scapegoat,” Mary guessed her savior’s true intentions.
“Ah, don’t worry about it,” the pink-haired girl blew off the accusation. “GOTM isn’t going to find us.” As the last syllable exited her mouth, the duo’s transit halted on a dime, and the two were suspended in mid-air. Until physics kicked back in, and they fell to the ground. The two women looked up to see they were surrounded on all sides by heavily armed soldiers of various shapes and sizes. Each was wearing a patch with a logo that read “GOTM.”
“Why me?” Mary lamented as the soldiers moved to arrest them.
To Be Continued...
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You're whole world can be flipped upside down at any moment and in an instant.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
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