Vs Reality by Blake Northcott Read Free Book Online Page B

surrender.
    “No, jackass,” she giggles, “I’m not talking about scientology or any other religion. I’m taking about actual science here. Try to keep up.”
    Cole does his best to produce a serious expression, though his lips refuse to cooperate. “Ah, just checking. Please continue.”
    “What I’m saying is that I don’t think that was the first big bang. I think that before our universe was created, another universe was here in its place.”
    “Hmm.”
    “And before it ended, everything was probably rolling along smoothly for a few billion years, maybe longer.”
    “And then?” Cole asks.
    “And then, one night on some little blue-green planet that probably looked a lot like this one, a girl was sitting in her room when she accidentally cut her arm. The pain was sharp, and unleashed something deep inside her. She triggered, manifesting a new ability. After some time, this girl learned to harness and channel her newfound power, and she eventually opened gateways by tearing the fabric of the universe. She kept experimenting with her ability until she could actually walk through these portals if she opens them wide enough, and could move freely from place to place.”
    Coles laces his fingers behind his head. “Hmm, this story is starting to sound familiar. Is it about anyone I know?”
    Dia presses a finger to his lips. “Wait for it, there’s a twist ending. So, one dark and stormy night she tears the fabric a little too far, and a little too hard. All of a sudden the universe starts to unravel, like pulling a thread from a tacky wool sweater my aunt Margaret would knit me every year before Christmas. This girl knows that if she keeps pulling at the loose thread it will destroy everything, but she can’t stop herself. Deep down, she knows that her reality is a big, ugly scab that needs to be torn off before the healing can begin underneath.”
    The smile fades from Cole’s face. “And then…bang?”
    Dia nods. “ Big one. The tear gets too great, and the universe swallows itself, resetting existence. Everything we know – the Earth, the sun, stars, galaxies – it all gets sucked into a ravenous void before anyone knows what’s happening. The big bang happens once again, and just thirteen billion short years later, ‘poof’. We all get a new shot at redemption.”
    Donovan lifts his head and pushes his elbows behind him, sitting up slightly, but remains pinned beneath Dia. “So that’s the point of this whole thing: we’re all just looking for something inside ourselves? What are we trying to redeem?”
    “If I told you that there’d be no point in taking the journey.” Dia’s playfulness melts away. Her luminous blond hair fades into darkness, and her eyes start to lose their intoxicating blue shimmer. Her gaze becomes an inky black stare, vast and endless and devoid of hope. “Now wake the fuck up, Sleeping Beauty – nap time is over.” With a crisp slap to the face, Cole awakens.

Chapter Ten – Reality Rebooted
    New York City
August 26, 2011
2:19 am, Eastern Daylight Time
     
    Dia’s plan was for her and Cole to appear on the rooftop of a fifty-story Manhattan skyscraper. It was the location she’d pictured in her mind when she tore open the rift. A solid plan in theory, but in practice their ‘appearance’ was more of a ‘landing’; from a height of about seven feet they burst from the glowing tear, slamming into the marble tiles with a bone-rattling thud. It was as close as she could manage. Teleportation, after all, isn’t an A-to-B proposition – as she’d eventually explain to Cole, it’s more like throwing a paper airplane at a bee from the window of a moving car. It’s theoretically possible to score a bull’s-eye, but more often than not you’re just lucky to come close to the target.
    Cole has returned to his natural, unaltered state: thin, wiry, and completely exhausted – and only with a vague memory of the dream he’d just experienced. His cuts and