The air in Axel's dimension buzzed with the faint hum of unseen energies, currents that felt like the heartbeat of the universe itself. Axel landed back on familiar ground, the lights of the sprawling, high-tech city stretching beneath him as he descended into his lab. This wasn't the world he'd left behind when he visited Mavis. Here, the boundaries of science, time, and space were threads in a tapestry that he and others like him wove and unraveled at will.
He had barely stepped through the portal when his assistant, Rhys, greeted him with a flood of updates, most pressing of all the news that Yvonne had made another breakthrough. Axel listened intently, his mind still partially rooted in the other dimension, thoughts lingering on Mavis and her earnest curiosity. But the gravity of the work before him quickly drew his focus back.
In this world, Axel was renowned—not just for his pioneering research but for one specific project: The Nexus, a portal that led to other dimensions. Yet, this project was not his alone. Yvonne, a fierce and resilient scientist, had discovered the first gateway to another world under circumstances no one could have anticipated.
Years ago, Yvonne had gone missing in the thick, untamed forests that surrounded the outskirts of the city. She'd only spoken of it to a few—Axel included—about the night she stumbled into that first doorway. She'd been running, terrified, through the trees, two men chasing her after a night gone wrong in the nearby town. Driven by fear and desperation, she'd veered off the main path, plunging into the depths of the forest until the sounds of her pursuers faded into silence.
And then, in the shadows of a twisted grove, she found it—a doorway, flickering with faint light, an invitation as strange as it was irresistible. Without fully realizing what she was doing, she stepped through. What followed was a blur. Yvonne described visions of landscapes that didn't belong, skies that curved in ways impossible, and creatures with eyes that seemed to see beyond her, as if she were the one out of place.
When she emerged, three days had passed, though for Yvonne, it had felt like mere hours. She was found, exhausted and disoriented, by a search party, barely able to speak, haunted by visions of what she had seen. From then on, her life was changed. She became driven to find answers, to explore the dimensions beyond, ones that whispered to her from that first accidental crossing.
Yvonne's discovery had set off a cascade of developments. She recruited Axel, and together they devoted themselves to uncovering the mysteries of these interdimensional doorways. Through tireless experimentation, they'd managed to stabilize a portal, one that allowed Axel to visit the world of Mavis—a place he could explore in ways the others here never would.
"Rhys said Yvonne had an urgent message for you," came a voice over the intercom. It was Kara, another scientist on the team, sounding tense. "She thinks she's found another entry point."
Axel's pulse quickened. Each time they located another portal, they got closer to understanding how these dimensions interwove and why certain places seemed to hold the key to traversing them. He gathered himself and went to find Yvonne, who stood in her lab, eyes alight with barely contained excitement.
"Axel," she said, her voice hushed. "I think I've found a stable door. A doorway... to somewhere new."
As Yvonne presented her findings, a surge of excitement rose in Axel. Yet his thoughts drifted to Mavis, with her wide-eyed wonder and relentless curiosity about realms beyond her own—a curiosity so reminiscent of Yvonne's. The resemblance between the two was uncanny; Mavis was like a younger reflection of Yvonne, though worlds apart in age and experience. He wanted to share these mysteries with Mavis, to unveil the wonders she'd only begun to imagine. But now, back in his own dimension, the pull of another discovery—a doorway to an unknown world—anchored him in place, tempting him with paths they had yet to explore.
With a final look at Yvonne's findings, Axel knew his work here was far from over.
YOU ARE READING
"The Me She Never Had"
Random"The Me She Never Had" tells the haunting and mysterious tale of Mavis, a girl who was born dead in one world, but alive in another. Unknown to her mother, Yvonne, Mavis has been living in a parallel reality-a realm where she exists as a vibrant you...
