And the Stars Answered

See You in the Next Universe

"You haven't been paying attention. Have you?"

I took a sip of my coffee and tried to recall what Ben had been saying. My brain was fuzzy, and I had a splitting headache. The caffeine was not helping-it was supposed to help, right? Or was it making it worse?

Maybe I should have tried tea.

"Not really," I said, opting to hold the warm cup close, instead. "What were you saying?"

Ben rolled his eyes.

"This is impossible," he mumbled. "Where are those damn instructions?"

Fishing something out of his wallet, he slammed it down on the table. It was a small, blue envelope. I reached out to take it, only for it to disappear as my fingers brushed against it.

"Oh great," he said sarcastically. "This universe is already breaking—exactly like the last one. Dan, this is ridiculous. You had one job."

I looked up at him, my brain struggling to keep up with what he was saying. Everything was going blurry.

How was this my fault?

"I'll see you in the next universe," Ben said, standing up. "Let's hope that one has more time."

"What are you talking about—?"

And then I blinked.

Ben was sitting across the table from me, a scowl on his face. It felt like something weird had happened, but I couldn't be sure. My head was so fuzzy that I couldn't remember what happened a minute or two ago. I lifted my mug and took a sip.

I grimaced. Tea was my least favorite drink, but it was supposed to help with headaches. Wasn't it?

"Okay, Dan," Ben said, leaning forward across the table. "I need you to tell me exactly what you did with the Tesseract, and how to reverse the collapse of the multiverse."