"Wh-what?" I opened my eyes, blinking in confusion at what I was seeing. "Am I…dreaming?" I put my hand in front of my face, staring at it.
Two different hands looked back at me simultaneously. One with chipped purple nail polish, it's wrist wrapped with a black scrunchy, the other fair and unblemished, set upon a backdrop of a room that, while familiar, was not her own.
"How am I…? What's going on?" I asked the air, a tint of panic creeping into my voice. Two viewpoints? Two hands? What on earth is happening? I turned to look at my side.
"She's awake? Penci, what exactly did you do?" In one side of my vision I saw a man and a woman crouched over my bedside, each wearing capes covered with leaf foliage. In the other I saw my empty bedroom.
"Why is her eye black? Is she sleep talking?" The man continued.
"Shut it!" The woman retorted, her brows furrowing as she looked at something on my chest intently. "This is your f***ing mess. Stop bugging me while I'm trying to figure it out."
I continued looking at my arm. "How is my vision split like this?" My speech felt slurred, and my brain felt like it was falling apart, a feeling both sharply painful and strangely loose and slippery. I looked up. "...Violet?"
I tilted my head, confused as I saw Violet's shadowy form leaning against a wall in one side of my vision. She seemed…distracted?
I looked at the two people in front of me. My brain was slowly filtering out the other side of my vision as nothing important was happening there. "Who...are you two?"
After a moment of silence as the two continued intently staring at my abdomen, the woman's fingers twitching as if she were manipulating invisible strings, Violet spoke up. "They are two of the druids who manage this forest. How do you feel right now, Starcrosser?"
I frowned, trying to push through the thick fog that currently occupied my brain to give her an answer. "Are you sure…I'm not dreaming?" I said at last, trying to take stock of the situation
Violet shook her head. "This is no dream. Every activated a hidden circuit in your soul construct by mistake, and it seems to have only partially activated. They are currently investigating."
I looked down at my hands again, then rubbed them on my lips. Two different hands, two different lip-rubbing sensations passed through my brain. I looked through my other vision into the corner of the room where the VR headset rested snugly on its charging dock.
"Everest," I said weakly, but nothing appeared in my vision. I pinched my arm, and felt two different pain sensations. "This…" Panic started to grip my heart and I started hyperventilating. "Is this real? You're…?"
I looked up in shock at Violet, my breathing going out of control as a possibility shot through my sluggish thoughts.
"Please calm down, miss, this is a delicate procedure, we need to be able to—"
"Mom," I stood up suddenly, pushing the two back, I tried to push forwards to leave my room, but the two held me back. And yet only one of my bodies was held back and I suddenly was hit with a wave of nausea and faintness as the two forms went out of sync with eachother.
"We're losing her!" The girl Every had called Penci gasped. "Miss Star you need to lay back down, if both of your bodies aren't in sync with eachother, the transfer ritual could be broken and the backlash could snap your soul.
"I didn't, it's your fault!" I yelled at her angrily. "You're the one who…" I nearly passed out as my vision faded for a moment.
"I understand, but please lie down first, the strain is too much for you!"
My breathing was still fast and panicky, but I stumbled backwards at her word, ending up subconsciously taking a few extra steps to sync up the two bodies, as I lied down on the bed.
"What do I…What's going to happen to me?" I clutched the girl's arm desperately.
Penci sighed. "We're trying to resolve the tension between your two bodies. Your soul has been torn between the two worlds, if we don't resolve it quickly, by pulling your other half over, then the connection will snap, and likely both sides of your soul will perish."
My eyes widened. "And…and then…can I go back? Afterwards?" My fingers dug into her arm.
She shook her head. "I…don't think so. I'm sorry. The normal ritual process has been completely disrupted. If you inhabit this form…we'll likely lose your anchor in the other world."
"Can I…?" A tear escaped from one of my eyes. "Have some time?" I looked at her in despair. The whole situation felt totally unreal, like a dream, yet even in my half-lucid state the implications of what was happening were washing over me like dark waves.
"The operation will probably take me around fifteen minutes. As long as you stay on the bed, you can do whatever you need to in that time." She said hesitantly.
I put my face in my hands. "How is this happening?" I said, shaking, still not fully believing I was actually in this situation.
With shaky hands I pulled out my phone, switching over to paying attention to the other side of my vision. I looked at the time: 9:13, my Mom should already be at work by now. My stomach twisted at the thought of the upcoming conversation. I took a breath. "Please be a dream, please be a dream, please be a dream." I pushed the call button, and waited several anxious breaths as the phone rang.
And rang. And rang. "Pick up, pick up!" I whispered. The moment I heard her voicemail click, I hung up and dialed again. "Come on, come on…" The voicemail clicked again. "Mom, please this is really important, we need to talk now." I left the voicemail, hung up, texted her spamming several all caps messages.
"What do I do, what do I do?" I bit my nails anxiously hoping she would call back, as Penci continued her operation.
"Coworkers, do I know her coworkers?" I anxiously scrolled through my contacts searching, but came up blank. "Damn," I put my hand to my forehead, feeling the sweat beading as the clock anxiously ticked forwards.
After another minute or so I picked up the phone and called her again. After another anxious wait it ticked over to the voicemail and I immediately started talking.
"Hey, Mom, really wanted to do this in person, but it seems like that might not be in the cards for right now…" I sighed, my fingernails biting into my palm. "Um…You know the game I've been playing? Magia Online? Well, um, I think, or well, I guess it's kinda real? Like a real other world, and well, um, haaa, sorry this is hard. Um, well, something went wrong, seems like, and, um, the people there said the only way to fix what went wrong is to bring my soul over there. So um…haaa, still not sure if this is real...Oh and, uh, probably without a way back, so…"
I took another painful breath. "So this might be…goodbye? For a while? Don't worry if something's wrong with my body, umm, I shouldn't be, uh...god..., um I shouldn't really dead, because I'll be over there, so…Oh, and uh maybe you shouldn't come into the game, but if you or someone else does and you want to find me, uh…"
Violet cut me off. "You can't tell her our location."
I stopped, looking at her painfully. "Is there anything I can tell her?"
Violet looked considerate for a second. "Seek out Nazbo in Cantilla city, Grerock kingdom."
"Uh, I've been told you can seek out Nazbo in Cantilla city, Greyrock kingdom. Not really sure who that is, but maybe they'll be able to get in contact with me? Mom, I…" I breathed out, my voice choked. "I don't want to go, and I'm really hoping that this is all just some stupid dream, but if it isn't, I want to say I love you. Thank you so much for raising me and being with me all this time. You're the best, I, uh, love you so much, and…I really hope I get to see you again soon. Alright, um, I'm going to hang up now, just in case you call me back, but I really don't have much time left I think. So, um…goodbye." I hung up.