Random stories

She touched the bruise on her cheek as she leaned closer to the mirror. I watched from behind the two-way glass, studying her face. She was young, no older than 20, with thick brown hair down to her shoulders. These days I didn't get so emotional, but it was still hard when young ones came through.

I turned to the other man in the observation room, who had been quietly scribbling on a clipboard.

“Is she ready yet?” I asked him. My left hand shook involuntarily. I always got nervous before having to do my part.

He peered down at his clipboard then looked back at me, “not quite.”

“Well, what else is there?”

“We have to be sure she doesn’t recognize the events immediate prior to her coming here.”

He walked over to the glass and pushed the intercom button, “Mia, do you know how you got your bruise?"

She shook her head.

"And do you know where you are?"

She shook her head again, fear sweeping over her face this time. He turned and nodded at me then looked back at the young woman.

"The door behind you is about to open," he said through the intercom, "When it does, I’m going to need you to walk down the corridor to the red door at the end. There’ll be someone there waiting for you,” he said and lifted his finger from the button.

He looked at me expectantly. “Well, you’ve got one job, now go do it,” he said. I hurried out the side door and rushed down a dark corridor, lights coming on above me as I walked on so I could see just ahead of me.

A moment later I was at the red door. Before I had a chance to catch my breath the door swung open and she was standing here, looking terrified. When her eyes met mine she winced and instinctively raised her hands.

“Don’t worry, I'm not going to hurt you,” I said, “just follow me.”

We walked down another seemingly endless corridor, lights above guiding our way through the darkness.

“Wh..where are we?” She asked over my shoulder, stuttering with fear.

I glanced back and forced a reassuring smile, “that’s not important right now, what’s important is that you do everything I say.”

We continued walking and I kept up a quick pace, not because we necessarily had a time to keep, but because even I was unnerved by this area of the building and didn’t like taking any longer than I needed to.

A green light shone through the darkness up ahead. As we approached an electrical hum was audible. The green light was above another door. This one was larger and looked to be reinforced with some heavy duty equipment.

When we were a few feet from the door it opened automatically. We walked through into a giant warehouse full of light, noise and people. There were dozens of giant globes hovering around the room and people wearing lab coats standing around them, observing things closely, while others walked purposefully in every direction.

“This way,” I said without looking back. We weaved in and out of people. We passed a couple of other weary looking people being led through this hive of activity, all seemingly unable to comprehend the situation they found themselves in.

I looked back and saw Mia had fallen behind, distracted by something on one of the globes.

“Hurry please,” I called out and she started running towards me. She was a few feet away when a young girl stepped into her path and they collided, both falling to the ground. The girl, who was no older than 10, had also been following a minder.

I glanced at the other minder and winced, before crouching down to help Mia up.

“Let’s go!” I said, pulling her arm. But she was frozen solid, staring at this young girl in terror. I pulled harder and she shook me off.

Then she looked back up at me, “what is this place?”

“I already told you it’s not important, now come on,” I said as I finally managed to get her back on her feet.

“But, her.” She said, pointing at the girl who was being helped up by the other minder out of earshot, “She’s…me.”

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath as I glanced around to see if anyone else heard her.

“Whatever you do, don’t say that again,” I whispered as I pulled her along, “I’ll explain as much as I can once we’re out of here.”

After another minute of weaving through the room we got to a wall stretching hundreds of yards, with thousands of doors of varying colors. I pulled Mia through a blue one into a small room and slammed the door.

The room was bare inside, the only noticeably features being two large circular holes on the opposite wall. They looked like slides leading into a dark abyss.

“So, what was that about?” Mia asked.

“It’s complicated, and you don’t want to know. Trust me, once you know, you can’t go back,” I said.

“Know what? Is it to do with her? She was me, right? I know it was me from when I was younger,” she said.

I paused for a moment, then nodded. “Look, it’s easier if you just go back. You can have a nice, happy life, try it all over again, and never have to worry about any of this,” I said and glanced towards the tubes.

“I don't understand, where do those go?” She asked, following my eyes.

“Home,” I said firmly, “you can either choose your current home, or shift into a new home.”

“But I can’t go yet. I have too many questions. Like, are you an angel?”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, I’m just an idiot who asked too many questions,” I said as I started moving towards the tubes.

“So you want me to just jump in one of those tubes and go back to do it all over again?”

I nodded, “the system requires it. You can choose a random loop, which could be any loop in existence, or you can stay in your current loop.”

“The system? What is this place?”

“It’s better you don’t know,” I said.

She shook her head and started walking towards the tubes. Then she stopped and stared at the tubes in thought.

“But, if that young girl was me, and she was on her way to make the same decision you’re asking me to make now, and you’re saying we could both choose the same life, or loop, or we choose that other tube that will randomly insert me into an alternative life, am I even me?”

I glanced at the door. “I'm sorry but you’ve already asked too many questions. They could be compromising the system. You have to go, now!”

My heart was starting to race as I looked at her hesitating. We were within arm’s reach of the tubes now.

“…so if I could be anyone, and anyone could be me, who, or what am I?”

Just then an alarm started wailing and a second later the door burst open. Guards holding weapons stormed in.

Without thinking I grabbed Mia as the guards started yelling. I shoved her into the alternate tube, desperate for her to be lost in the loops and not have to suffer the same fate as I.

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Submitted by RockingWren on Sat, Aug 13, 2022 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

Reincarnation is real. But since time is not linear, other lives can be before, after, or at the same time. You come to the startling discovery that all the lives on Earth that ever were or will be are all just YOU.