EMBER

A DIFFERENT WORLD

Icy veins creep up my system instead of blood.

I am cold. So very cold.

My legs slowly carry me around Karim to the table in front of the sitting girl. Karim doesn't move to stop me. He is equally dumbfounded. He lowers his arm holding the scissors.

He is stares at the girl intensely taking in her black eyes, her braided raven hair but mostly, her uncanny resemblance to me.

His eyes flit between her and I, taking in the subtle likeness and differences. We are quiet for what seems like ages until the girl, I mean Artemis breaks the silence.

"I am not demon, am merely more of a dark being. Very clear line of difference between us."
She says pointedly turning her black gaze to look up at Karim. She looks at me intently.

"What are you?" She asks me squinting her eyes a bit. I am offended. Am the least freaky one here. She is the entire parade of freakishness.

That snaps me out of my reverie. How dare she call me a thing? I cross my hands over my chest and lean on the balls of my feet. I give her my best glare and she has the air to look impatient.

"Well....tell me" She looks at me.

"Althea Alice Hathaway" I enounce each name slowly adding just the right amount of sarcasm.

"AAH" she said slowly her eyes glazing over something.

"Where am I?" She asks me.

"Earth" I say. Where else is there to go?

"I know am on earth but where? Which realm?" She's so impatient.

"Let's just say somewhere in Africa."
I mumble.

"Africa.... Never heard of it" She said trails off.

I look up at Karim but he looks lost too. I shrug, guess I'll be doing the questioning here.

"What are you exactly? Where did you come from? And what are you doing here?"
I narrow my eyes at her, daring her to lie.

"I already told you, am a dark being, a darkling to be precise and I came from a much darker realm similarly to what scientists call mirror worlds." she says it slowly for me to understand.

"Wait, what?" Karim looks like he is looking at the most complex equation in life. He doesn't understand a thing but then he never took advanced physics like me at Prospect Heights high.

Artemis looks at him and smirks. She is enjoying this. The nerve of her.

"Let's say this is Earth." she gestures at me. "Put it under a series of dividing mirrors and you'll get mirror earths, same concept though we prefer to call them realms."
She said coughs a bit. I move to my bag pack and get an apple splash juice box and hand it to her.

She smiles with total gratitude on her face before she starts chugging it down like a desert animal.

"I still don't get it" Karim looks defeated. I take pity on him and so I thought of a good explanation.

"Remember when we binge watched the flash a few weeks ago?" He nods.

"Remember the mirror earths the multiple Doctor Wells used to come from?" He nods again slowly. I see he's starting to understand and piece the concept.

"Holy shit, that stuff is real." I have never heard him cuss so loudly so i take a moment for it to sink in. "This is a whole new advancement and way of seeing things, that means other versions of us exist."

He's excited.
"Wow, we have to record this but wait, why do you call them realms?" Karim looks at her puzzled the excitement making him drop his murderous intent.