Through the Portal

Chapter Four: Reasoning

Stephanie woke up. Her hair was a tangled knot and papers stuck to her cheeks. Ripping the papers off of her face, she yawned and her eyes drifted to their whiteboard. Instead of holding a chart that maps out their entire week of work, it was full of black hole and teleportation equations, charts, and descriptions. Stephanie then looked down at the dining room table and saw papers, cups of crushed soda cans, and laptops tossed haphazardly.

Letting out a sigh, she rebooted up her computer, cracked her back against the chair frame, and started her research again. However, Stephanie's gaze flickered to where Jason sat last night. In his place was a sticky note that read, "Went home. Will come back around nine with a bat, Matthew Version Two will certainly talk then." Stephanie smirked at their ingenious nickname for their intruder. Though, what Jason implied was certainly frightening. Suddenly, a dreadful thud came from their live streaming room. Shooting out of her chair, Stephanie raced towards the room to an odd sight. Matthew's face was pressed against the white rug, his bound hands were crushed under his chin, and his bottom was raised high in the air with his duct taped legs awkwardly half way on the couch.

"What in the world did you just do?" Stephanie couldn't help herself ask.

Matthew Version Two turned his head, "Nothing, this is your planet's fault! Or..." his eyes narrowed, "did you cast some sort of spell on me witch?"

Witch? Stephanie wanted to take the logical sense with his confusion and teach him about gravity, yet the trickster inside of her won out in the end. Grinning, she wiggled her fingers, "Yes I did, now tell me how to get our Matt back or else."

Matthew gritted his teeth, "You may have won this battle, but I will never tell you anything."

Stephanie exhaled loudly. If her fear tactic didn't work, then maybe common sense would work. Sure she could wait for Jason, but she really didn't want him to use brute force to get the information out. She didn't like Matthew Version Two, yet she didn't want to wash blood off of the carpet either. Well, either that or Matthew would scream so loudly that the neighbors would call the cops. Getting Jason sent to jail is the last thing Stephanie wants.

"Look, if I just get you what you want, will you leave and being Matthew back safely?"

"Hmm...fine! I need some sort of map that proves that Earth truly exists! Then everyone will never question me again!" Matthew exclaimed.

Stephanie's eye twitched, "You did all this just for a map!?"

"Indeed. Quite a brilliant plan if I don't say."

She face palmed. This seriously couldn't be her Matthew's other self.

"Don't do that." Matthew piped up.

"Do what, face palm?"

"Yes. The...much more superior Stephanie where I come from did that to me all the time, so stop."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. There was certainly a story here that her curiosity ached to learn, but pushing him too far is the last thing she wants.

"Okay, when Jason comes back I'll go and get you your map."

"Fine,"