Beyond The Rift

Chapter 26: Online

Booting up the pc, I login to Steam and see that my friends are already online. Of course, we don't know each other's real names or where we live. All we really do know is that we all live in North America and that we all somehow have really good internet. Since they are all in a match on CS:GO, I decide to just spectate the match. Not wanting to be left out on the chaos that is our friendship, I join our Discord server to hear what they are saying.

When I join, I immediately hear my Grav (their username is Gravitronicle36) heckling the rest of our team. TC (TrashCompacter) is clearly annoyed by Grav and is on the verge of muting them. Prax (Praxim), Ryan (AutoRyan, DeagRyan, (they change their name a lot) Mr.Fire, etc.) and Syl (Silicotan) are just laughing their asses off due to TC's annoyance. This laughing continues until TC notices that I joined the voice channel.

"Oh hey Em (my username is EmeraldKing)! Look who decided to show up after being gone for five days! Do you know how obnoxious it is to only play R6 Siege and CS:GO with these dimwits? I'll answer that for you, VERY!"

Everyone else in the group are laughing like hyenas at TC. They are basically dying of how funny this is to them. This shrieking leads to them losing a few rounds just because they have no ability to take the game seriously at the moment. After, finally, calming down they continue playing seriously and start asking me questions.

"So Em, where have you been these past few days? I remember you telling us that you don't have that much to do where you live."

"Well... An irl friend of mine just inherited a house and asked me to help with some stuff. You wouldn't BELIEVE what is inside there!"

Grav scoffs and says, "Yeah, like a run-down house would bring up anything useful or interesting!"

"That is what I thought at first too Grav! I thought that it would be old and boring, but it is SO much more than that. Do you believe in different worlds?"

Syl is confused, "As in different universes? We've had this conversation before Em, they do exist."

"No, no Syl, like Alpha Centauri, a planet with the same living conditions of Earth!"

"Em, stop trying to bring up the excitement level. Tell us what you found already."

"Okay, okay, I found a portal to a different world in the house!"

With that, everyone laughs hysterically. Everyone stops moving their characters and are just focused on laughing.

"Are... *wheeze* are you seriou... HAHAHA!"

"I know it sounds ludicrous but I'm serious! There are also books in the house that are written in Aramaic in the library!"

They are too distracted to even listen to me. Too busy laughing to even realize that the other team is knifing them and winning lots of rounds. It takes them a long time to settle down. Syl is the first to calm down and talk to me without re-bursting into laughter.

"Em, you're kidding right? There is no way there would be multiple books in Amharic in some random house in America. It sounds so absurd that even thinking about it makes me want to laugh or call you an idiot!"

It is clear that they don't believe me. If I don't show them proof, they will use this against me for a long time to come. I definitely don't want that to happen, I mean look at TC. TC once claimed that an alien landed near their house, only for them to realize that it was a drone with strobe lights attached to it. That happened more than a year ago and we still badger them about it.

"Okay, okay you guys, tomorrow when I get on.I'll show you that I'm not kidding! You'll come to understand what I'm talkingabout!"