Alternate Reality Ch. 07

He nodded and looked even more miserable. "That... yeah. She was... she saved me, you know. My, um, cock would've exploded if not for her. I... can we not talk about her? I feel really bad about her."

"Why, Mike?" Christina pressed the issue. This could be the breakthrough she was hoping for. "Why do you feel bad about her? What did you do to her?"

"I... infected her," he said, and she was surprised to see tears in his eyes. "She got left behind because of me."

"Left behind? Tell me where, Mike."

"There. In the other plane. The aliens got her."

"The other plane?"

"The alternate plane."

"Oh, that plane. Umm... do you think you could take us to where you last saw her?"

"I told you guys, it just happens indiscriminately. I have no control over it. I'd like to take you there because it'll prove I'm not lying, but I can't just summon it up like that."

"Summon? You mean like in a magic spell?" Christina was scribbling furiously now. Magic? Was that what he believed had happened?

"No, I mean the dimensional slip! Look, I know you're not likely to believe me, so there's no point..."

"OK, take it easy, Mike," she used an even tone to calm him down. She wouldn't be able to get anything useful from him if he became agitated. "I'm here to find out more, alright?"

"You don't believe me, do you? Come on, admit it!"

"I'll be honest, Mike. It's tough believing what you're saying. I mean, dimensional slips, alternate planes, alien plants raping women... what would you think if you were in my position, and had no proof that such things existed or occurred?"

"Exactly the same as you," he said glumly. 'Except... I was there."

"OK, tell you what, then. Give me a reasonable explanation for how you ended up here. If what you said was true, there was no way out. How in the world did you end up here, naked, and with the girls' clothes all around you?"

"Tell me something first," he said suddenly. "The three of them... they weren't the only ones who went missing, right?"

"How did y..." Christina began, caught off-guard by his question. The mass disappearances had thus far been kept a secret. No point in starting a mass panic when no one really knew what was going on. "OK, yes, you're right."

"And there's no way of explaining how they disappeared? By all accounts, they were roughly in the same geographical area when they disappeared? How about their clothes? All lying on the floor like they'd just stepped out of them?"

She realised that she was losing control of the interrogation. "Mike, I'm here to find out what went on. I'll ask the questions, alright?"

"I've just described everything to a T, haven't I?" he challenged. He wasn't about to let it go.

"Alright, yes, you're right," she said, frustrated. For a simple gardener, he was certainly displaying a better quality of brainpower than she had expected. And grudgingly, Christina had to admit she respected him for that. Damn. He was quite good looking too. "OK, since you know all that, can you explain what happened then?"

"It's mostly conjecture on my part, but I'll give it a try," he said, smiling wanly.

Christina was shocked to find herself wondering: In another life, given different circumstances, would she have considered getting together with this intellectual gardener? "Behave yourself, Chris," she mentally reminded herself as she nodded at him to continue.

"I'd been pondering about this for a good while, but I think our... Venus and mine, I mean... initial hypothesis was correct. These dimensional slips or wormholes were opening up gaps into other universes. Not in the sense of other planets, but more other versions of the same reality. Or at teast, the reality we're most familiar with."

Her pen flew across the page and she had to reach for a fresh piece of paper as he continued.

"I think something happened to create these slips. I don't know what it was -- it could have been experiments involving supermagnets or something powerful like that -- but whatever the cause, the effect was that these wormholes appeared randomly and with no discernible pattern. The net result of these was that large groups of people would disappear."

He paused to catch his breath, as if he was trying to tell her everything before it all escaped him. "Interesting," she thought, and noted this down.

"Only the people would disappear, by the way, not their clothes. That's the funny thing about these wormholes. Maybe only living organic matter would pass through them. Anyway, it's important to remember that when we're talking about alternate planes, we're not talking about alternate worlds. That is to say, a different world from ours, but only by very small degrees."

"So the difference would be miniscule, like say, between the length of a person's hair, or his job or life experiences?" she queried, her pen pausing. His theory was interesting, to say the least. Especially when it was coming from a gardener whose record showed only an elementary education. It would take a lot more imagination and intellectual ability than Mikhail had displayed in his entire life, right up to now.

"Exactly. Or in the named. Vanessa, Venus. Melanie, Melody. You get my drift."

"And Angie and Andie," she pressed. She was getting close. He was beginning to associate the names of the missing girls with the names he'd come up with for them.

"Yes, that's right. That's why you call me Mikhail, when my name, in my own reality, is Michael."

"OK, I get that," she agreed in order to encourage him . "So what you're saying is that you come from another reality where you're really a professor in the university and not a gardener on campus?"

"Yeah, that's right," he said, looking relieved. He thought she believed him. Good.

"Help me understand something if you will, Mike," she said, looking steadily at him. "What about the featureless world that you described in most of your account? How does that fit into the theory of an alternate plane like you described? And if living organic matter passes through those wormholes, wouldn't we have some of those alien plants you described?"

"I'd been thinking a bit about that," he said, his eyes moving up and to the right. He wasn't applying his creativity, he was actually thinking rationally. "You're right, of course. If that were true, there would be some aliens here as well."

"The most rational explanation is that the wormholes don't connect directly to the other, alternate planes, but to a non-definable, unfixed dimension that exists between our planes," he continued as she stayed silent, waiting for his eventual confession. "A kind of limbo. I think the place I went to kind of rotates between the planes, and those who are sucked up into the wormholes are actually transported into that mid-plane. Eventually, we get spun out just like water flying off a spinning top."

"OK, let me get this straight then," Christina wanted to clarify his statements so that he would somehow admit his part in the disappearances. "What you're saying is that in another plane of existence, there's a Michael, Venus, Angie and Melanie. Somehow, all you got sucked into that mid-plane, and were attacked by the aliens while you were there. So what happened to OUR Mikhail, Vanessa, Andie and Melody? Where did they go? Are they now in that mid-plane?"

"I'm not sure," he said. He looked like he was really earnest in telling the truth. "I think they might be. Then again, given the incidents we went through in that mid-plane, it's also possible that when one version of us comes close to another version of us, only one remains."

"You mean to say that of the two, one has to die?" Christina queried. It was as good a time as any to put in words that could potentially upset him. "Is that what happened?"

"No. I don't know. I don't think so," he said. He still looked very earnest and she found it quite difficult to believe he was lying or trying to concoct such a fantastic story with so much detail. "When I think about it, I realise that we never ever came across another version of ourselves at any point of time. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that mid-plane is so featureless that time doesn't make sense either."

"Time doesn't make sense?"

"Our version of time. Our linear concept of time, I mean. Look, I know time is a concept created by man... sorry, humans... in order to put some order and framework upon events that regularly repeat themselves. Spring, summer, autumn, winter... even night and day. But the one thing we insisted on when we came up with the concept was that we couldn't, ever, go back in time. We could only ever go forward."

"And you're saying we can go back in time then?"

"No, I'm suggesting... how should I put this?.. My theory is that our concept of time doesn't work in the mid-plane. Remember Mel's recollection of me... of my raping her? She spoke of it as if it were in the past, but later on, when we finally found her, that was when I actually did umm... fuck her. The rest of the circumstances fit too, so that meant..."

"She was remembering forward, to the future," Christina completed his sentence for him, hoping that it would encourage him to further open up to her. "Is that why you thought it was Van... Venus that you entered before you found yourself here?"

"Yeah, that's it. I suddenly remembered the first time I saw the image of her naked ass. What I was doing to her was exactly what happened to her when I was standing on the outside, in my own reality. Hey. You know what that means?"

Christina noted the change in tone and wondered if she should ask some of her male colleagues for help. He looked a little excited. She shook her head.

"That means it's very possible that Angie was saved by another version of me and Venus! Because now that I think about it, that scene I saw before I went after Venus and Mel was exactly like what I'd seen when I first came upon her with Venus... only I was further away the second time round!"

She reached for the button under the table and considered pressing it for a moment, then withdrew her finger. He looked excited, but he didn't look wild... and he certainly didn't look like he was going to get violent. "Last thing I need now is somebody coming in here and pounding on him," she thought to herself. "Not when he's beginning to trust me with his strange theories."

"Don't you see, Christina? Everything that happened to us happened again, almost like it was a closed loop!"

She nodded, not really understanding, but noting in his file that he seemed highly excited by his most recent revelation.

"OK, but how do you explain the events that were not repeated?" she suddenly asked him. "You weren't attacked again, and neither was Venus. She was peeing, I believe you said, when she was attacked."

"That's easy," he replied with a small laugh. "It happened not long after she got into the mid-plane, and with me around. I think that it's happening again... I'm just not there to witness it. This me, I mean. Ditto my attack too."

"Mike... I thought you concluded that Venus was 'one of them'? By 'one of them', I presume you mean one of the aliens?"

"Yeah, it seemed like a plausible explanation at the time. After all, she did say I was the vector of infection for the aliens' seed, yet she was urging me to fuck her good friend. That didn't make sense. I guess I was also upset with the feeling that I'd been conned into walking right into that alien trap."

"Upset enough to blame her for it?" Christina asked. Now was the time to tighten the screws. The confession was coming soon, she knew it... all she needed was a confession to one murder, and everything would fall into place.

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know," he said, looking confused again. "I think...you know, she could still have been the vector. You see, my initial hypothesis was that there was a time lag between the planes, so I assumed, when I got in there, that she hadn't been penetrated yet by the alien I thought was attacking her. But just before I got out of there, my... well, I went all the way in. I mean ALL the way. I could feel the end of her... her vagina."

"And that's significant because..?"

"Well, it would explain why she refused to... why she only put me in her ass," he said. Inwardly, Christina winced. Close. So close. He said "refused to", which indicated the poor girl had not given her consent... meaning he was looking at one rape charge at the very least.

"So... you think it's because she got infected first..?"

"Yeah, that's right. And that's the other thing. OK, I had a thing for her... and I think that may have coloured my perspectives on everything. I'm not sure now if it was Mel the alien came from, or Venus... after all, the bulbous part of the thing was inside Venus. Then, there was the sleeping arrangements. I slept... I slept with Angie alright, but I never even got near to Mel. At least, I didn't have prolonged exposure to her. Both Angie and Mel were sleeping right next to Venus!"

"So you think Venus was the one who spread the infection?"

"Yes, yes. Everything makes sense now... she was the one! Of all those times I thought I saw her being attacked... I mean, if time isn't linear in the mid-plane,it's quite possible that she... that the aliens were coming from inside her, not trying to get into her!"

"Hmmm... so did that make you feel mad?"

"I know where you're going with that, Christina... sorry, that's not gonna work. No. I wasn't mad. That was my Venus, remember? Sweet, sweet Venus. I wouldn't get mad with her..."

"But you did argue with her," Christina tried again to push the point.

"Yes, and people argue all the time. It doesn't make them mad... or at least mad enough to want to do something to them."

"Touche," Christina smiled, keeping her cool. OK, this wasn't going to be a walk in the park. She would have to play a little harder. "You do realise, Mike, that going by your account and your theories, you would have been the one who infected her first, before she did that to the others? Near the end when you found her and fucked her while she was stuck in between the two planes?"

"What do you..? Oh... you mean that? Oh... That's really fucked up!" He hung his head and looked really ashamed.

She watched as tears suddenly appeared at the corners of his eyes. Damn. He was either a really good actor or he was really sorrowful. Christina sighed inwardly. This was going to be a really long interrogation.

"Doc?" A voice interrupted her thoughts. It was detective Bryan speaking over the intercom. "Doc, can you come out for a bit? We've got the DNA reports."

"OK. Excuse me for a while," she said to Mikhail. Being civil would help keep the discussion going when she came back. He didn't respond at all. He looked positively shellshocked.

Privately, she was glad to have a break from such an exhausting interview, but she was determined to let the stupid detective know she didn't appreciate the interruption anyway. She felt she had gained much ground in gaining the suspect's trust, and wasn't too far away from getting some sort of confession before she was interrupted. The break in the session could potentially give the suspect time to recoup, to work out what to say next.

But what the detective had to say made her glad she had stepped out.

"The results are weird, doc," the detective said. "I mean, I can't figure it out. Did they make a mistake?"

She grabbed the sheets of paper in his hand and read the reports. No. It couldn't be. The clothes of the girls contained only the DNA of the respective girls. Nothing else. Which meant the clothes weren't forcibly removed. But that wasn't highly unusual... he could have threatened them. Then again, the way the clothes were found were peculiar in themselves -- they were found lying right where they'd been dropped, as if the people had been plucked out of them.

OK, she decided to put that out of her mind and poured over the rest of the reports. There wasn't anything too weird about the fluid they scraped from his penis. They contained traces of all four people -- Mikhail, Vanessa, Andie and Melody -- which was to be expected if he had raped and sodomised all three girls.

The weird part about the DNA reports was with the sample scraped from the inside of his cheek. It wasn't similar at all to Mikhail's DNA. It wasn't even a sample from a man. The cheek swab contained DNA from a woman To be more precise, it closely matched Vanessa's DNA. Strange that it wasn't even an exact match to the girl Vanessa. What was going on?

"Doc? Doc? You alright?" the detective's voice brought her back to reality. Or at least, the reality she thought she knew. "You look a little faint."

She knew his arm was already snaking up to her shoulders, so she shrugged and stepped away. What did the DNA tests prove? Was Mikhail Michael? Was he telling the truth?

She turned to the one-way mirror and looked at the suspect again. He remained bowed over the table, unmoving. Christina suddenly realised that she couldn't see his face all that clearly even though he sat facing the glass. Odd.

Swiftly, she pushed the papers back at Bryan and strode back into the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Mikhail! Look at me!" she commanded. The situation was getting out of hand and it was time to establish control again. "Mikhail!"

He didn't even look up at her, so she moved to sit in front of him, banged the table to get his attention, and yelled: "Mike! Look at me! Look at me!"

The figure in front of her looked into her eyes and Christina recoiled in shock. What the..? Was it a trick the guys were trying to pull on her? Dressed in the same clothes, sitting in the same chair as Mikhail, was a young, beautiful, and obviously frightened girl.

"Hey! Who are you?" she said when she recovered her voice. "What are you doing here?" Inwardly, she raged at her colleagues. It could only have been a prank. Only they could have sneaked the suspect out of here and replaced him with a girl. That was the only possible explanation.

The large eyes on the girl's face seemed to fill with tears. "Help me!" she whimpered, and Christina suddenly felt sorry for her. She looked so... helpless, so confused. She shouldn't have shouted at her, poor thing.

"Look, I... How did you get here? What's your name?" she said, softening her tone. "Did the guys put you up to this?"

"My name is Venus," the girl said, and Christina felt a chill run down her spine. She pulled the file towards her and flipped to the page where a description and picture was provided. Yes. It was Vanessa. Or at least, a girl who looked a whole lot like Vanessa.

"Vanessa?" she looked at the girl. "You mean Vanessa, right?"

The girl shook her head. "No. I'm Venus. I'm scared. Where am I?"

"It's OK, Venus. You're safe now. You're in a police station. My name is Christina, by the way. Can you tell me how you got here?"

"I don't know," the girl replied, shaking her head. "I really don't. All I know is that I'm here, wearing these clothes that don't fit me..."

Christina realised that the girl had long hair, in spite of her striking resemblance to Vanessa, who had short hair. It had been hidden under the collar of the jacket the guys had given to Mikhail. Damn, the guys were good.

"Why I am naked under this jacket?" the girl suddenly asked, looking down into the gaps between her buttons. "What was... oh god. I remember now..."

"What? What do you remember?" Christina asked, noting her sudden horror. The girl was really scared. Would she be able to give a rational account of what happened to her? Maybe she could finger Mikhail as the main culprit.

"I... they... oh god. No. Why did they?"

"Why did they what? Tell me," Christina reached out and clasped her girl's slim hands, which were clenching and unclenching with the trauma of her memories. "What did they do?"