I looked at Boe through my human and insect eyes, Boe’s own eyes wide at the sight of me on the floor, and probably the giant bug as well.

  “So, um,” I said through gritted teeth, trying not to scream in pain from the ripped out catheter, “Can you get like a nurse or something?”

  “Um, yeah… yeah, sounds like a good idea.”

  Boe gave the moth a look before leaving the room. When he was gone, I hid my moth body in Slip Away. Bug Jacob wasn’t happy since they’d finally gotten a body of their own, but they understood why, and did it before two nurses came in.

  They did a basic medical check-up, looking more shocked that I was moving and speaking than the catheter. Then they fed me a couple powerful painkillers and got a doctor to come and check me out, which outside of the newly enlarged hole I had, said I was completely fine. But recommended that I stay for a little longer to figure out what was happening with the Fugue state and to make sure the catheter being ripped out wouldn’t do lasting harm.

  But I didn’t think my nonexistent insurance would cover it, the doctor argued about it with me for a bit. But I’m a legal adult, so I’m legally allowed to be an idiot. Then they realised I wasn’t going to cave, probably thinking he had better things to do, and gave me instructions on how to take care of the injury. Leaving the room to print them out, giving me and my brother some valuable time to be awkward in silence.

  Boe looked at mepursing their lips, then said conversationally, “So… did you see that weirdly big moth a few minutes ago? You know, when I first walked in here.”

  I gave them a deadpan expression, “Uh, no.”

  Boe’s face went pale.

  I grinned, “I’m fucking with you, yeah, I saw it. Green and the size of a dog.”

  They relaxed with a sigh, then glared at me, “Gosh, you’re horrible sometimes.”

  “Sometimes? Jeez, I've been slipping.”

  Boe shook their head, “What was that thing anyway?”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek and went to groom my non existent antenna, but just scratched my head instead. I tried to formulate some brilliant reply, but the painkillers were making me feel a little loopy, so I didn’t put much effort into it. “Well, so… Hmm, I don’t really know how to say this, so I’m just going to be blunt. Magic is real, and I have it.”

  They looked at me, trying to judge if I was screwing with him or was insane, but I saw the shift in their expression the moment they remembered Bug Jacob.

  Boe shifted in their seat and said, “Can you show me proof?”

  I raised a hand for show, then summoned a dozen or so Solar Scale Butterflies, letting them flutter about the room for a moment before putting them away.

  Boe bit their lip, taking a few deep breaths before saying, “Ok… so is this the reason you were unconscious for the last two months?”

  “Two months?”

  ‘Wait, didn’t Terra say something about sending me back to my body the moment they took me?!’

  “Yeah, give or take.”

  I was silent for a few moments before saying, “Yeah, I guess it is.”

  “What happened then?”

  “Wel… It’s… I don’t really know what or how to say…,” I sighed in frustration, “Can you give me some time?”

  Boe nodded, then I decided to get up and leave the hospital. Boe and the doctors protested, but I had two magical words that made them all shut up, those being‘I’m broke’. There were some token efforts to stop me, but they only did it so they could say they did it.

  Then I got into Boe’s old blue SUV and drove through the streets of Portland, Oregon, USA, zoning out as I watched the streets pass me by.

  Then Boe said, “So, um, a little bad news for you, Jacob. You know your little place in Beaverton west of here.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, your Jerk of a landlord evicted you.”

  “What! I was unconsciousin the hospital, there's got to be some laws against that?”

  “Yeah, I did some legal stuff on your behalf, but for now, you can’t stay there. Thankfully, though, I got a place down in Oregon City you can crash at.”

  “Oh, thanks. Wait, when did you move back from New York?”

  “Around seven months ago, the accounting firm I was working for did some layoffs, and I decided to return home.”

  “Why? Weren’t you their best worker or something?”

  “Yeah, but bureaucracy is a bitch.”

  I looked at my brother, a little stunned. That was the first time I had heard his curse since… well, the argument, but before that was when he accidentally released a shiny Pokémon in Black and White, and that was when I was nine.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  I didn’t comment on it, though, as I said, “Oh, that sucks, sorry.”

  Boe gave a noncommittal grunt as they flicked off an indicator after taking a turn.

  The conversation fell dead after that, the only sounds being the rumble of the engine and the hiss of the wind, while the ever present Oregonian rain pitter-pattered against the car. The faint smell of tacos from a food truck wafting through the air, only slightly dulled by the rain.

  Even with all those details, it was hard not to believe that this wasn’t real, that it wasn’t some dream or delusion after all that happened in the last two months. I suppose my memory could’ve been fake, my mind playing tricks on itself.

  I looked out the window, seeing the thin streaks of newly born rain splatter against it. After watching it for who knows how long, I rolled the window down, putting my hand out. Little rockets of water hitting me, and little jets of air slicing me at forty miles per hour, feeling like a million icy needles pricking me.

  And it was real.

  Then I surrounded my hand with raw MP, pushing the rain away for a split moment as it burst out.

  It was real.

  And what was I supposed to do about it? Exist… I could kill a dragon and move an ecosystem with two months practice.

  Then I felt something touch my shoulder, and I jumped, my mind jumping to pull my army out. But I stopped myself at the last moment, seeing it was just Boe, my rapid heartbeat slowing.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” They said, unbuckling their seat belt, “We’re at my place.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, you didn’t.”

  Then I got out of the car and saw a small one story house surrounded by pine trees, making it hard to see it and all the other houses in the suburbs. Walking towards it, I felt something inside my core, something foreign, cold, and sterile like a morgue in a forensics lab. But familiar.

  I turned my attention towards it, finding that the thread of Domain connecting the System and me was still there, pulsing with energy. Then it exploded out like radio waves, looking for something. A gray pillar of light appearing in front of me, I looked at it with shock as it kept on growing till it consumed all of my vision.

  OOO

  “Two days ago, portals to another place opened around the world, and you were one of the people who saw them open, correct, Jacob?”

  I looked at Agent Robert Jenkins of one of the random three letter government agencies I didn’t bother to remember. Then I took the can of cola they had gotten for me. Opening it with a pop and pouring a couple of sugar packets into it before taking a sip.

  After not answering for a while, Jenkins reiterated, “As I said before, this questioning is to just establish what happened that day.”

  ‘Had he said that? Eh, I wasn’t paying attention, so probably.’

  “Yeah, that’s what happened,” I took another sip.

  “What did it look like?”

  “Y’all questioned me directly after it happened, can’t you go read that?”

  “This is a follow up that’s going into more detail, and right now I’m establishing that my understanding of the day is correct. Ironing out any mistakes that might have happened.”

  I took another sip of the soda, “Makes sense. And to answer your question, it was cold and gray.”

  “Was it a rocky beach?”

  “What?”

  “The other side of the portal, you said it was cold and gray. I was asking if it might have been a rocky beach.”

  “No, the portal itself was cold and gray; the environment on the other side was a forest, a regular old temperate one like here in Oregon.”

  “The portal itself was cold and gray?”

  “Yeah, like the energy and stuff making it up.”

  “That’s… interesting. Nobody else has seen this ‘energy’ as you have described it.”

  I tensed up slightly. I forgot that energy I said was Domain, and I was probably the only person in the world who could sense it.

  ‘Hopes and prayers to that not biting me in the ass later.’

  “Oh, really,” I did my best to not sound suspicious.

  “Yes, among the three portals that have opened in Seoul Korea, and the Casey research station in Antarctica. You are the only one who saw that and was able to give a clear answer on what they saw on the other side of the portal. They all said it was murky, and they only caught glimpses. Anybody who wasn’t initially there says it’s just a shimmering disk of light.”

  I tensed, then shrugged to hide it, “Guess I'm just a special little boy then. It could also be possible brain damage messing with my perception of reality from being unresponsive for two months."

  “Yes, that is a good point, but I'm not going to discard any information until I have a concrete reason to.”

  I grunted non comitaly, then said, “By the way, why do you think those magical portals are here?”

  “That is part of what I'm trying to figure out.”

  “Yeah, but do you think they are right now?”

  “... Honestly, no clue. Nothing like this has ever happened, so there is nothing to build off of.”

  “Fair.”

  Jenkins cleared their throat, “Anyway, after the portal opened, what happened?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Was there any event that happened that you believe is correlated to the portal opening?”

  “Well, the police arrived, then the feds, then I was questioned. Then me and my brother had to go live with a cousin because the house my brother lived at was quartered off by the feds.”

  “I meant directly related to the portal, like did you feel something… happen to you.”

  I looked directly into Robert Jenkins' eyes as I kept a straight face, saying, “Uh, no, nothing like that,” Then I grinned, “What, you think I got magic or superpowers or something?”

  “Hmm, no. It’s just we’ve gotten weird reading on things coming out of those portals. We have determined that it is harmless, but it is an unknown, so we are being cautious.”

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about me; it didn’t do anything to me that I can tell,” I said truthfully.

  The questioning went on for a bit longer, but it was mostly about getting what happened straight. Which consisted of repeatedly asking me the same questions in different ways to clarify and expand on what happened. The boring process making my mind go numb.

  Then I was out of the government building that had become an impromptu center for all the fed and other government agencies with three letter names. Walking towards the bus stop, taking the first one that came, waiting for my stop near my new place to come by.

  Then I watched it as it passed, and I rode for another half hour, finding myself walking off a couple blocks away from where the portal opened. Not knowing what I was going to do exactly, but stupidity had never stopped me before, and it wasn’t now.