The Other Side

For a long time, we didn’t know how it started, or why it started, or what it was that did it. We just knew something had happened; some great disaster that left us with so little of what we once had. My memory of the early days is spotted with great dark expanses where I just survived and hardly existed at all. It wasn’t until we started getting some answers, and some help, that I came back to myself.

When I did, I found that I lived in a cramped room with a number of other survivors. I vaguely remembered trading what few possessions I had left; a heart shaped locket passed down from my grandmother, and my wedding ring that had been slid onto my finger by hands that were now cold and dead.

With the help came a need for volunteers, and desperate to get out of the intensely human smelling sleeping quarters with no natural light and nothing but a thin cot between myself and a concrete floor, I volunteered immediately. Writing my name down with a pen made me feel nostalgic for the days when I had a name - it had taken me a moment to remember, and then the loops came naturally.

They gave me a room with a bunk, and told me I’d be with one of them. At first, I was frightened, and then, I was curious. Because for the first few weeks, I never saw my bunkmate. But the bed was also constantly unmade in various ways that told me someone was sleeping there. One night, I swore I felt the bunk shift, but when I turned the light on, no one was there.

At lunch time, in a cafeteria with more people than I’d seen in one place for longer than I could recall, I overheard someone say they thought their roommate was a ghost.

“That’s nonsense.” A voice cut off the person in the middle of their emotional plea to be believed.

“I saw the faucets turn on and off, by themselves.” They pressed on. “I followed the footsteps back to our room, and watched the bed indent with no one there.”

I almost turned around to say something, but the other people at the table had started to bark laughter and I heard the person's voice wilt and eventually stop speaking. The subject was changed and out of the corner of my eye I saw the person's head dipped over their food in defeat.

The next night I heard them shift in the bunk above me. Tired of the mystery and the fear that it kept building inside of me, I snuck up the bunk and grabbed into the darkness. I felt a bare foot under my firm grasp and heard a yelp. Suddenly I was flung off the bunk and my head connected with something hard. Darkness sunk around me.

All we knew about them was that they had accidentally stumbled upon us after using our planet to test a weapon. They hadn’t known anyone lived here, and thanks to them, not many people did anymore. They knew how to fix what they’d done, but no one could fix the scores of the dead. So they vowed to help us fix what they could, and would help us rebuild society - if not the way it was before, then to a state that would be sustainable til the natural end of our planet's life span.

No one had seen them, and yet they ran everything we did. They’d even helped create a small committee of humans that made the decisions for our corner of the world.

No one had seen them, until I opened my eyes.

The light was blinding and I made a seething noise as I covered my face with my hands to block it out.

“Careful, careful. You’re still damaged.” The voice was comforting, and I pulled my hands down to see a pleasing, round face, with a tousle of brown hair, smiling down at me. “Nice to meet you, co-inhabitant.”

“You’re my bunkmate?” I asked, my voice rough.

“Yes, I am.”

“But you’re human.”

“Not quite.” They stepped back and I realized I was lying in my bed, but the room itself had transformed. Instead of the dull cinder block walls, everything was brightly lit and white. A desk was in the corner with stacks of papers, and the door was ornately decorated and bright red.

“Where am I? This can’t be…” But it was still my room, I could feel it.

“You are somewhere else, and the same place, all at once.” They waved a hand around. “This is what I see on my side.”

“On your side?”

“I am surprised you were able to cross over; humans aren’t supposed to. I suppose it should be something for us to look out for in the future.”

“Am I not supposed to be here?”

“Not at all. But now that you are, you could be useful to us.”

“Where am I?” I couldn’t get over it. I was in the same place, but I wasn’t.

“I told you, you’re on my side. Our side. Didn’t you wonder how we had no idea you all were on this planet? It’s because we arrived slightly out of step with your side; in a whole different dimension. A few of us were able to cross over enough to communicate with your people. To apologise. But really, it’s not our fault you’re ignorant to other slices of your reality.”

“It’s not our fault we are either.” I spat back, feeling suddenly defensive.

“Of course it’s not.” But their tone was easy to read, and I bristled at it. “Well, we’ll have to get you to medical, with that bump on your head and the fact that you’re outside of your own reality, can’t be good for you.”

“What will they do to me?”

“We’re allies, you have nothing to fear from us. It was an accident.”

“Was it? Even I could tell you lived in here, regardless of if I could see you. How did you not notice we lived here? Billions of people?”

They shrugged. “I wasn’t here for the first mission. I heard they found places like this, set up by other beings or perhaps even humans able to exist on this plane, that were long abandoned.”

“People used to live here?”

“Possibly. Everything seems created for human shaped frames. It’s why we wear these.” They gestured to their body. “It’s a clumsy suit, but it helps me exist here.”

“A suit.” I was starting to feel dizzy, but I didn’t want to lay back down.

“You’re wearing a suit as much as I am; you just can’t tell where you begin and your suit ends. It’s just a shell for your thoughts. What you see as death, we see as a change of clothes.”

I shook my head, and immediately regretted it as pain shot through my skull. “I don’t understand.”

“Alright, come with me to medical, we’ll get you-” And as they grabbed my hand, everything went dark.

“What the.” I heard the same voice, but now we were in the room as I knew it: cold, dim, nothing but a bunk and a flimsy gray door. I could still see them, and they let go of me and looked around with wide eyes. “Is this, am I on your side?”

“Apparently.” I said, standing up. My head still hurt, but now I was curious about something. “Give me your hand.”

“I don’t really think that’s a good idea.” They said, but then as they looked around, they slunk their shoulders. “Fine.” They put their hand out, and I grabbed it. The light burst everywhere and we were back on their side. They exhaled out of relief.

“What does this mean?” I asked them, looking around.

“It means either you’re stuck here, or I’m stuck there.” They said, wonder in their voice.

I took a shaky breath. “So I can’t go home-

“Unless I leave mine.”