She's My Whole World

"Do me next!" said the one to the left.

"No, cut me!" cried the one on the right.

Will swung left, then right. Catching one Julie in the side of the neck, and slicing off the fingers of the other.

"Wow."

"Oh, that feels different. Do it again!" they said to Will, but he was already gone.

Running at a breakneck pace, he finally reached the harness. He yanked on it twice and held on for dear life as it began to be winched back through the portal. A hand grabbed his leg. The crowd of Julies had caught up with him. He struck out with his knife, accidentally cutting his own leg in the process of driving them off. The taller Julie he had first ran into climbed atop the grasping bodies of the others, reaching up to grab him. Will stabbed his knife through her hand. He lost his grip on it as she fell to the ground below, howling, though if it was in pain or pleasure he couldn't tell.

His lungs burning, pleading for oxygen, he tried to catch his breath as the cable pulled him towards safety. The man looked around at the landscape one last time. Beneath him, the ground itself was going wild trying, and failing to reach him with arms the size of buses.

As he finally neared the portal, the line twisted and he saw something off in the distance. A plateau of flesh. Atop it, was a man wrapped in dozens of arms, screaming wordlessly towards him. Suddenly, Will realized there was a hole in his memory. How did he escape from Julie? When did he pick up the knife? His mind reeled. As he was pulled through the portal, he heard a single word. "Goodbye."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will fell through the portal. "What the hell happened to you in there, man? Where are your clothes? You were only in there for a few minutes!" Samuel yelled at him over the din of the machines.

"Shut it down." Will yelled. He looked back, terrified something would try to follow him through.

"What? Are you bleeding?"

"Just shut down the portal!" Will screamed.

"You got it!" Samuel flipped a switch and the portal began to shrink away to nothing.

Just before it closed, something burst through the shimmering gate and landed on the floor with a soft thud. Will whirled around to look at the intruder, but saw only his backpack lying on the floor. As the noisy machines quieted down, the portal shrank to nothing and vanished. Will crawled over to the backpack. There was a note pinned to it, written in Julie's handwriting. "This one's for you. Raise her well." Cautiously, Will unzipped the backpack, finding a baby girl sleeping peacefully inside.

"Is that a baby? What in God's name happened in there?" Samuel said.

Will looked down at the sleeping child. "You'd never believe me if I told you."

END