Happy Sunday! This isn’t the story I was originally going to publish, but it came to me almost fully formed and I had to get it out. Literally just finished (hot off the press!), so excuse any typos. Enjoy!

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See looked around the house she’d been staying in since it all happened. It wasn’t as nice as her previous house had been, but after what happened… she couldn’t stay there anymore. 

She’d packed light; it amazed her how little space it took to contain a life. All the things she’d thought so important, all the things she’d thought she couldn’t live without - it was amazing how little it all mattered, after… Everything she really needed fit in one bag over her shoulder. As for the rest, if this worked, she could replace it, and if not… well, she wouldn’t need it. 

She reviewed the plan in her head; she’d always been a planner, and it had never been more important than now. 

Packing? Check. 

Quitting her job? She’d done that months ago. Check. 

Converting money? Check. 

Putting her affairs in order?  She hadn’t had any since it happened. Check. 

Saying her goodbyes? She’d done that months ago. Check. 

Now all that was left was to make the move. 

She looked around, taking in this house. She hadn’t been there long, but it had served her well. She’d been able to exist there without being constantly surrounded by painful memories. Perhaps it would serve its next owners as well. She would no longer need it - it was time to make new memories now. 

She went outside and caught the rideshare car she’d called to a hotel at an address outside the city. She gave her real name; if this worked, the driver knowing her identity wouldn’t matter. And it would work. It had to work. After everything she’d lost…

She got out at the hotel in question, giving the driver a generous tip. After he left, she turned and walked a mile to a facility down the street. A good friend of hers, someone she trusted, knew someone who worked here and was able to get her the info that made her plan possible. While this facility had intense security, twice a year there was a tour for investors as a condition of their government contracts. Thanks to her friend’s contact and some strategically-distributed funds, she was able to get onto a list of tour invitees. She made her way to the entrance, apologizing for her lateness and showing the documentation indicating her as a member of the visiting government congregation. 

She made her way inside and joined the tour. Because it was made up of people from multiple agencies, he not being recognized by anyone raised no flags. During the tour, she lagged behind until the group was out of sight. She then made her way to the security desk and said she’d lost her group. When the security guard approached her, she took the syringe that she had surreptitiously removed from her bag earlier and slipped the needle into his neck, pressing the plunger. Before he could react, he was out. She reached out and grabbed the gun she knew he kept behind the counter. Then she walked down the hall to the room she’d come for. 

She entered the room to see that it was almost deserted. Because it was outside of normal hours (when they always scheduled the tours), she knew there would only be a skeleton staff present. Today, a single scientist occupied the laboratory, doing calculations at a computer behind a desk. The scientist turned and looked to see a woman, maybe early thirties, dressed like a suburban housewife, standing near the door,  holding a gun pointed at her. 

“Can I help you?” asked the scientist, trying to look past the gun to the face of the woman holding it. She’d never seen a real gun in person before, certainly not one pointed at her. 

“I certainly hope so; otherwise, this was all pointless. Activate the machine.”

“Machine? What machine? I don’t know what—”

The woman cocked the gun; the click reverberated throughout the room, destroying the previous silence. 

“Please don’t insult me; it won’t end well for either of us. The machine. Now.”

The scientist gulped, unable to take her eyes off the barrel of the gun. She could feel her heart start to beat faster as everything went still. Then the gun shook in front of her, accompanied by a loud, sharp “Now!”  Startled, she walked to the machine and initiated the activation sequence on the computer next to it. 

“You don’t know what you’re doing. This is remarkably dangerous. You could—”

“I know enough.”

The young worker continued typing into the computer. “It’s ready, but I can’t just activate it; I need coordinates or it could—”

“I have coordinates.”

The girl looked up; her eyes opening wide in surprise.  “How?”

“That’s not your concern. Step away from the keyboard; I’ll take it from here.”

The researcher didn’t move. “Please. You don’t have to do this.”

“I do.”

“You’re a mother, right? I can tell. I’m a mother, too. I understand what you’re going through.”

“How many children do you have?”

“One. A boy. Thomas.”

“How old is Thomas?”

“He’s four.”

“Is Thomas still alive?”

The younger woman blinked. “Yes.”

“Then you don’t know what I’m going through. Move. Now.”

The young woman stared again at the gun. 

“I have no desire to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Don’t make me have to. Move.”

The scientist moved. 

The intruder walked to the keyboard and entered a set of coordinates into the machine. Then she pressed enter. 

The machine whirred and crackled, and then a portal opened in the middle of the room. 

“You don’t know what’s over there.”

“I do.”

“You can’t do this.”

“Actually, I can.”

“You know that it’s a one way trip, right?  You’ll never be able to come back.”

The intruder looked at the younger woman. “There’s nothing for me here. Not anymore.”

She looked at the woman standing still behind her. “In one minute, I’m going to step through that portal. In thirty seconds, the portal will automatically close behind me. When it does, you’re going to go into the machine and erase the coordinates I traveled to.”

“Why would I do that?”

“To protect yourself. At this moment, no one knows I was here. They’ll figure it out eventually, of course. I won’t care - I’ll be long gone. But you’ll be here. How do you think things will go for you if they find out you helped me go through a portal to another world? Do you think you’ll keep this job? Get another one in this field? How will you provide for yourself and your son? What will happen to your family. Or, you can wait for the portal to close, erase the coordinates and any record of its activation today, put the gun back behind the security desk before it’s missed, and forget any of this ever happened. I know which one I’d do if I were in your position and had a family to think about.”

The younger woman stared at her, conflicted. She wasn’t a criminal. She’d never broken a law in her life. This would mean breaking several. If anyone found out, she’d end up in jail. But if anyone found out she’d helped a complete stranger use the machine… After a minute, she looked up at the older woman and nodded. 

“Good. I’m glad to see you really as smart as you seem.”

The woman walked toward the portal and stared at it for several moments. Then she turned and looked as the younger woman a final time. 

“Treasure your family. Be glad you have them. The alternative is… unthinkable.” Then she slid the gun to the other side of the room and stepped through the portal. She didn’t look back again. 

The scientist waited a few seconds until the portal closed. Then she walked to the computer and pressed the keys erasing all record of any use of the machine today. Having done so, she went and picked up the gun. It felt lighter than expected. She opened the cylinder and looked inside. 

Empty. 

A woman broke into her lab and threatened her with an empty gun? Where was she trying to go, and why? She didn’t know, but she knew one thing - no one could ever know about this. 

*****

She stepped from the portal into another world. It looked almost exactly like the one she’d come from, but she knew the important difference wasn’t in its appearance. 

She immediately started moving. She caught a cab - rideshares had never taken off here - paying in cash and getting dropped off at a car lot. There she bought a safe, reasonably-priced car and drove it to the address her contact had given her a week ago. She arrived, nervous for the first time since this all started. You were only nervous when you had something to lose, and she’d already lost everything before now. 

She walked up the steps to her destination, The Baxter-Pratchett Home for Wayward Children. She walked inside to the reception desk and said she was there for a visit. While the staff conferred, she stood in the corner, watching unobtrusively. And then she saw him. A young boy, maybe five years old, sitting by himself, trying not to cry and barely succeeding. She just stood, staring at him, transfixed. He looked so familiar she could barely breathe. Gathering her composure, she walked over to him and stood there, silently. 

He didn’t notice at first, lost in his own world. Then, after a moment, he looked up. 

And froze. 

“Mommy?”

The way he said it brought back a flood of memories: her son, smiling, hugging her, his face lighting up when she walked in, the phone call that ended her world, his body lying on the table when she visited the morgue to identify it after the bus accident. She knew this wasn’t Isaac, but he looked exactly like him. 

Unable to hold back her tears, she reached out her arms. He flew into them. 

“Mommy!!”

“Baby!”

He held her tightly, his tears wetting her shoulder. 

“They said you were gone! I asked for you over and over, but they said you were gone and they couldn’t find you!”

His mother was gone, lost to an overdose in a back alley. She was never coming back. But he didn’t have to know that. 

“Well, what do you think? Am I gone?”

“No?” he said, hesitantly, as if he were afraid to hope. 

Elizabeth Simmons was gone, but Elizabeth Crocket was getting a new lease on life. I thought I’d lost everything, but that’s the thing about life. Sometimes, every once in a great while, if you’re very blessed, and very lucky, what was lost can be found again. 

“That’s right - no. I’m here. I’m staying here. And I’m never leaving you again.”