A Dimension's Last Truth

Chapter 4: He Who Rules Our Town

I came out of Sarah's house. I just stood there outside her house pondering on everything she told me. "Zero huh?" I said quietly to myself. About 30 minutes ago Sarah and I chatted about herself and the town and it was pretty surprising what she told me.

*Flashback, Cue sound effect here*

 I just asked the question "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" and then Sarah started to speak.
"Well Robin, again I would like to greet you to this world and so with that I want to talk about this towns' rules."
"Rules? What do you mean by that Sarah?"
 "I mean that I have done my research on parallel worlds. Each world has its own customs despite appearing the same. That IS the basic concept of parallel worlds is it not?" Sarah looked at me but I saw dead serious eyes instead of the cheery ones she had before. You can say her eyes resembled that of an adult that has gone through a lot.  She continued speaking.
"A parallel world. A world that is the same yet different . People, Origins of people, who your friends are, where you live, even who your parents are, they can be different or the same, depending on the world."
I looked at Sarah and sighed. "Uhh Sarah? I know what parallel worlds are and how different they can be."
"That's true but I doubt you have a ruthless leader governing your town. Besides, what about those people on the third side?"
"Third side? Huh? what are you talking about?" I was really confused. Third side? What the heck is that? Sarah answered my question

"It's simply that, a third parallel world is watching us, you feel its presence don't you? Why do you think Declan gave you the name bernbern? It's because he's been influenced by the third side. That side or world is heavily influencing everything, and I think you will get more weird names that will pop into your head. Someone on the third side is exactly like you Robin, but they have a different name, slightly different friends and different experiences. He is watching over us but hemeans no harm. Also, remember my painting? The influence of ideas and thoughts going around even though they are far apart contribute to this. Why do you think Declan got that name? it's because it was influenced by the third side and really in general why do you have random stuff pop in your head? It's all because of an invisible field that carries info from Parallel world to parallel world and from past to present and future."

Now I was a bit lost, what the heck was Sarah saying? She was jumping from one topic to another. It was hard to grasp what she was trying to say. "Sarah I'm confused...." Sarah then spoke
"It's ok Robin, Later I'll explain it much better but I just wanted to get that out of the way. Anyway before I get to the actual thing I want to tell you about, I have to say that peoples parents can be different, or should I say peoples origins. I'm saying this because I don't exist in your world do I?" I replied to her question. "Yeah that's right, I've never heard of you before, but  you existing in my world is a possibility, its just I guess you don't live in Epochfield." She then looked down from her chair  and folded her hands together over her lap. "Is that so? well I guess you just have to find me then" She cracked a small smile but then her face turned into a much serious one. "Ok Robin, now time for some helpful information. I asked you this earlier but I got sidetracked telling you about the third side. Do you have a ruthless leader in your town?" She asked me this with sharp dagger eyes. I was actually intimidated by her. "W-well no, I don't"
"Hmmm ok then.  I'll tell you about him. Our ruthless leader..... Zero"
As soon as she said the name, I shivered.
Zero.
 Who wouldn't be intimidated by a name like that? Again, she continued.
"In a normal town, A mayor rules over it but instead we have Zero, A man who tortures people. It doesn't matter who they are, be it women or children, he takes them for his sick experiments .
"That's awful! Why exactly would he do that?"
"Who knows?" Sarah replied. "But he abducts people for experiments and they never come out alive"
I balled my fists. "Nobody like that should deserve to live!" Sarah sighed
"You know, this whole conversation seems sort of cliché, whatever, point is, be careful out there Robin. Zero has his own men patrolling the more highly crowded areas, they wear all white so keep on a look-out." My fist unclenched and calmed myself. There was still one thing I wanted to know. "What does he look like? Zero I mean" Sarah did her signature "fist on cheek supported by her other arm" pose and spoke once again. "I don't know. Zero's face to us is basically a guy with a long-ass black coat and a gas mask. He doesn't want his identity known for some reason which adds to his mystery and ruthlessness" I thought about it.
"Ok Sarah. Thank you for telling me all of this" I then stood up. "Whoever Zero is I want to find out. Nobody like that should be left to live"
Silence went through the room
"Oh my hero!" Sarah then imitated a schoolgirl and closed her hands together and blushed.
"He-hey! don't mock me!" I knew exactly what she was doing. She was mocking me on how grossly cliché and heroic I was acting. But I didn't care. Sarah was back to her cheery self.
"Hehehehe so sorry Robin but I just had to" Sarah smiled and her smile made me blush.
"You know Robin you're very cute, I wish I could date you but of course you have Declan and also...." She trailed off "Sarah?" I said her name to ask what was wrong and to my surprise she told me. "It's just that I miss someone very much right now"
"A lover?" I said
"Yeah. it's been quite a long time since I saw him and it's all because of Zero.  He took him away from me and I can't forgive him." She then started to tear up
"Aww Sarah please don't cry. We can work together and find out who Zero is and find your lover. I promise" She then sprung  from her chair and into my arms and cried in my chest.
"Thank You. Robin but unfortunately I can't go with you and help. I'm bound by this house unless I disguise myself"
"Huh? Why is that?"
"Because Zero's men want me. I have something and they need me. I can't go out unless I disguise myself well and that's a pain usually" I didn't ask any more questions as I knew it was hard for her. I stroked her back while she silently sobbed in my chest. A while had passed before Sarah spoke again. She spoke with mini sobs."Robin, even if I didn't have a lover waiting for me, you still wouldn't date me. Cause you're gay right?" I scoffed at what she just said.
"Here's a philosophy of some sort for you. It doesn't matter to me who is gay, straight, bi-sexual, whatever. Point is,  no matter what that person is, they still can fall in love with you. It's why I've never given up on someone who identifies as straight because in the depths of their heart they could love someone like me, even if they can't get over the fact that the male body doesn't turn them on, they love me for who I am inside"
"Wow you sure are optimistic about this stuff. But don't you think you're a bit too high up in the clouds about this?"
"Hmph Maybe I am but that's not going to stop me. At the end of the day the answer on whether they like me is Yes and No and not I'm Straight or Gay."
"Man, Robin you're making it harder for me not to like you"
I chuckled and hugged her tighter. "Well, to respect your wishes and your lover I won't go any farther than what we are doing now. " She then pulled her head off my chest ad looked up at me and smiled.
"Promise me you will find him ok? Find him. I miss him so much.  And if he doesn't exist on this planet any more then I guess I will have you...My saviour" We both chuckled on how cheesy we both were acting. I knew that we both are going to be great friends. We could be great lovers but there's the fact that she still had someone waiting for her as well as I had a boyfriend to get back too, Besides, for some reason it just feels wrong to date Sarah Summers.  I wonder why?
 After that we said our good byes' and talked about the next time we can see each other and I proposed that we take it outside. She was sceptical about the idea but she ultimately agreed. And with that I stood out her house look at the high shining summer sun. Sarah Summers.  Just like the sun. Sarah was a cheery individual but at the end of the day she lies in wait until she can shine herself to find her lover again. And so, I stood outside her house thinking of everything she just told me while staring at the sun with my hand over my eyes to shade them . "Zero huh?... I will find who you are and bring Sarah her beloved back" I smiled to myself as to how cheesy I must've sounded. I then started walking towards the Pizza Hut that I was supposed to meet Declan and Lily at.
*Fast forward to when I finally arrive at Pizza Hut*
I collapsed to my knees right in front of the Pizza Hut. "Holy crap, that was quite a distance" I whispered to myself with my breathy voice. I was exhausted by the 20 minute walk I did. "For a skinny body, it sure is out of shape" I sighed and got up and opened the door. Inside I spotted Declan and Lily laughing and having the time of their lives...without me. I wasn't so pissed but still.... Either way they still had a delicious Hawaiian pizza still on the table and as soon as I saw that I rushed over to them and sat down by of course, Decy. For the whole duration there I explained to me what Sarah told me and they confirmed it all true. The reason why they didn't tell me at first was because they both didn't want to scare me. I said that it was fine because I had enough bull trying to figure out my body. We then started to talk about just normal things or things that are happening in this world. Really nothing too special, I always hated politics and what's happening in the world and to my surprise for about 15 minutes they started talking about that and I just zoned out . After that we paid and then left the building. "So where do you want to go next?" Declan asked. 'Weeeeeeeeeell I for one would like to go to a video game store" I said jumping up and down. "Huh? Ok. Its a bit far to walk to so we'll take my wave board." Lily said. "Huh? wave board? how can we all fit on a wave board? don't you have a car or something?" I said this but then I realised two things: 1. No mirrors includes cars crashing so they probably didn't finish the idea in this world and 2, Lily is only 15. And so with that I just let Lily speak. "Car? let me guess, another thing that is in your world but isn't in ours? Well yeah pretty obvious we don't have "cars" here. Instead we have these wave boards. It seems like you already know what one is so yeah."
What she said didn't make sense though. "How can two or more people fits on those?" I asked
"Huh? well easy! These wave boards extend when there are more people. See? " As soon as Lily finished talking she pressed a button on the bottom of the wave board and just like she said, it extended to hold Declan and I. Now, if you need more visual on what a wave board is, I suggest you Google it. Now imagine it extended. Instead of those two round thingies at the end imagine the thing extending and then magically creating 4 more of those ends. Yeah, that's right. Those heads just appeared out of nowhere and that's physically impossible though I didn't question it as I know a different world has different physics but still.....
And oh, did I mention? It started floating too.
"Whoah! Its floating! That's fricken cool!"
"Hahah yeah it is. It designed like this so it can traverse areas much easier. You can either  ride it normally with wheels or it can float. Once more people are on, it automatically goes into hover mode. Also I bet you don't know that for safety it straps your feet like a snowboard does." Lily smiled after this. She sure was proud of her wave board.  I was pretty satisfied with the explanation but the whole extending thing still was unclear to me. Nevertheless I let it slide and decided to get on. I looked up to the clear blue sky. The sun shining its ever blinding light.  I checked my watch that I was just realized that I had on and it said.
"5:30....."
I said this out loud. It was still plenty sunshine outside since it was summer but I felt a dread of tiredness overcome me. "Hey guys. I think instead of the video game store, let's just go home please. " They knew I sounded quite tired and so they agreed. Lily went to the front of the wave board and jumped on it hence activating it. Declan and I were already on it so our legs were immediately strapped. It caught me off guard but I knew I wasn't in any danger. She then took Declan and I to my house.

Once we got there I waved off Lily as to conclude our little outing. I then saw her riding away on the purple wave board.
"Hey Declan, Aren't you going to go home too?"
He looked surprised at my question.
"What do you mean?" He said "This is my home too. I live with you, remember?"
Oh so he lives with me. Ok great. I was just too tired, I got used to all the bullshit this world gave me and accepted it as fact. Don't get me wrong. I would love to live with Declan but a person needs some quality time alone as well.
"Well obviously I don't remember" I said "Also that being said, what happened to my parents?"
Ahhh, that's right, forgot you're from some parallel world. Well to answer your question they simply left you in charge with this house. Actually, all parents do that here...well most anyway. They all want to live a life, far away from their kids so they can have some freedom. So they entrust kids their house when they are pretty much 15."
I looked at Declan. "That sounds like complete bullshit and you know it"
Declan just nervously laughed. "Hahahahaha, it does doesn't it? but believe me it is truly is the truth"
"What are you? A wizard? pfft, whatever let's just go inside hehe" I giggled.
Gahh, the girl inside me is rising!

For the rest of the day, Declan and I simply played videogames and such and we got to know each other a bit better. This Declan is way different the one in my world. He's more kind and compassionate but even so he still has some of the traits of the Declan of my world. He's different but he's better because this Declan cares for me and I care for him but I                 would be lying if I said I didn't miss the Declan of my world. He was pretty unique in the way he was, always laughing at my weird atrocities but nevertheless, I love the Declan I have now.
 At last after a few hours, it became dark. It was 11:00 PM and we headed outside to the backyard to look at the Moon and Stars.
"The stars sure do look nice right Robin?"
I then started laughing. "Hahahahah oh man, please don't let this be some cliché couple under the stars thing"
"Hehe, fine then, Why don't we just cuddle and sleep under without talking. Besides we did our fair share today. I looked to the left of me, where he was and he was smirking. I couldn't help but smile back. I then decided to hold his hand and closed my eyes.
At that moment though, I decided to think about all the stuff that happened today:
First, I woke up to another world where I'm white and skinny and I have a new friend named Sarah as well as find that there's no such thing as mirrors
Second, Sarah shows me what I look like only to see that it appears to be what I look like in my world so the question comes, why did my other self request those paintings? For what purpose? Was he expecting me or something?
Third, Lily finds a painting that we had to guess on what it was. It's apparently a dog and we are taught about a little experiment that could be a new form of telepathy that we don't even have to think to use, it automatically does its thing.
And finally, Sarah tells me about Zero.
Just who exactly is Zero?
Why's his men after Sarah?
What does Sarah have that they want?
And just who is Sarah's lover that she so desperately wants to meet again?
And why is Sarah living alone? Is what Declan told me true?
What is the third side? and why does Sarah know so much about it?
Is what she told me regarding my nickname related to the dog painting?
And really, the most important question is,
 Why am I even here? Who sent me here? Was it Zero?
I had so many questions but I feel like that everyday only more and more will pile up but I had a feeling that most of them would be answered either by Sarah or time itself. And with that I drifted off into sleep under the shining full moon while holding my beloveds hand....