The Flip Side of Reality

Chapter 3

My knuckles crack, but the sound is delayed, echoey, and distant. Yup, I'm in the fold. Why am I so forgetful? If I had only remembered, if I had only paid more attention! I have to find my way out of this reality and back to your own. I have to find the fold that will take me home.

"Laiyn?" I open my eyes and swivel around. A Ria is standing beside me, but is it my Ria, or some other manifestation of her born in this reality? "Laiyn, it's me."

"Wait, actually?" My voice echoes around, and it takes a minute for my ears to comprehend the sound as my own.

"Yes." She looks around, evidently a little underwhelmed. "I didn't realize I could come with you physically into an alternate reality." She closes her eyes for a second. "Huh, everything's a lot less bright than in my dreams. I must say it's a welcome change, it gives me a headache."

"You can come with me?" I take her hand to make sure she's really here. "I'm so confused, how is that possible?"

She shrugs, "All I did was grab your sleeve. I was trying to stop you from slipping into the fold."

"Miss Raymond? Is... that you?" A voice echoes out, and I recognise it as Ms Octavia's. For the first time, I glance around me. Although a little more coated in dust and grime, Ria and I are in the same bus we just left, and Ms Octavia is walking toward us. She looks the same, just a little more tired, and she seems hesitant to approach us. Her walk is irregular and almost unwilling, and her eyebrows bare clear signs of concern. I suppose we did just appear in her bus.

I glance at the row of seats we would be sitting in, but realise they've been taken up by two boys I don't recognise. Looking closer at the faces of the people in the bus (which isn't hard to do now that they've all turned to look at us in shock), I realise this reality's Ria isn't here either. Good, having two Ria's in the same bus would have been hard to explain.

"I'm sorry professor, we - we just had to use the restroom? Both of us at the same time." Ria says. She's never been the best at making up stories.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She says to Ria. Then, seeming to forget about her, she turns to me. "And - and Laiyn, what are you doing here? We haven't seen you for months! I'm so sorry, I have to sit down. Mr Roberts! Mr Roberts, will you please pull over the bus? I think I need some fresh air..." Ms Octavia's breaths are short and rapid, and she nearly stumbles but catches herself on a chair just in time.

"Ms Octavia?" My old teacher, Mr Davis appears behind Ms Octavia. "Laiyn!" He says, startled when he sees me, recognition flashing across his face in a sheet of white. I swear he's going to faint. What is wrong with them? I look around and realise my classmates are murmuring, some looking angry, some confused, some even scared. What did the Laiyn in this reality do?

"Laiyn..." Ria murmurs in my ear. "They're losing it... we've got to get out of here."

"I know, but we're gonna have to wait until the bus pulls over, unless you want to jump out of a moving vehicle." I murmur back. The bus slows down and pulls over to the shoulder, coming to a stop. The doors open, and the teachers shakedly walk out. Ria and I creep over to the bus door and stand just out of sight. It's hard to focus on what they're saying with 38 teenagers watching your every move, but we do our best.

"Why is she here?" I hear Ms Octavia whispering. "I thought... I thought..." She seems incapable of finishing her sentence, and quiets.

"Me too." Mr Davis murmurs back. "And who's that girl with her?"

"Nevermind her! Laiyn's back! Why is she back?"

Ria and I listen with apprehension, unsure of what to do. Our only escape is through the very door through which Ms Octavia and Mr Davis just walked out of, and by the warped sound of it, they're right on the other side. Suddenly, Mr Davis walks back up the steps and into the bus, and Ria and I fight to look as though we weren't eavesdropping.