Chapter Five

I had, Amber had, whatever, had dared Lilith to kiss Daisy, bot h of them went along with it because it was a dare. Hayden had found it interesting, I knew this was going to be a big thing in the time to come because it didn't really exist here. The whole gay/lesbian thing was another phenomena of Earth. More time and maybe it'd be popular here but currently it was unknown, except that Amber was screwing with my future. Either way Lilith then dared Angel to jump out of a tree, like from twenty feet up, of course Angel found this insanely fun. Now it was her turn.

It was the next day, Amber had spent over a day here acting like herself, in my body. Angel saw this as revenge for a comment Amber had made about her taste in clothes. I didn't really want to know what she planned. Still for some reason the word "Consequence" came out of my mouth. I don't know why.

"I dare you to…" she paused, as if for dramatic effect, "..kiss Hayden for a full minute."

I think my heart stopped again, I couldn't do that. Not with Chase standing right here, after what Amber had done yesterday.

"No." I said evenly. "I can't do that."

"Come on, we're all being good sports. You can't back down from a consequence." Angel whined.

"Yes, I can and I am." I replied, shoving my hands in my jacket pockets, I didn't make eye contact with any of them.

"You had no problem flirting with him yesterday." Chase muttered, hurt. I had hurt him when I wasn't even there, because she looked like me. I wanted to explain to him: cry, scream, yell, anything to make him understand that he was more important than anything else was, I couldn't lose him. I was way too dependent on him, he meant everything. Independent, moody, reliable, strong Ambrosia was falling apart. Falling apart, losing her mind, losing her identity, changing her personality, and scared to death that she'd lose everything else in the process.

But I couldn't tell him, I couldn't tell anyone, they'd think I was insane, I thought I was insane. It was common, common, common, but I wasn't going to fall victim. I was going to take control of this nightmare off Elm Street. Elm Street, where did that come from? But whatever, all I needed to do was to find out what was happening and then I'd know how to fix it, and maybe to prevent it from happening again. My mind drifted back to the dream. I had asked the girl; the one I had never met but knew so well if I had finally done it. Done what, accomplished what, why did I know the girl, and where did I know the girl from? I had this dreadful feeling she knew the answers, all the answers.

"I have to go." I said, surprising my friends.

"Where?" Angel snapped, stepping into my path as I tried to walk away. She didn't want me getting out of this.

"I just have to go, Angel. Move." I said calmly, like steel. Not that any of them would know what steel was.

"No. You're not getting out of this and you're not leaving." Angel replied.

"Look. You have three choices: you move, I move you, or you try and stop me." I growled, stepping around her.

She grabbed my left wrist, yanking me back in front of her. I went down, sweeping my leg underneath her feet. She landed on the cement on her back, the sickening crack of her body hitting the ground echoing in my mind. I didn't look back; it was an accident, it was reflexes, and I had warned her, I convinced myself as I quickly walked to the cave from my dream. I needed to go there before I went back to Earth, I didn't know how long it would take and I didn't know how long I had. But I did know that I didn't have time to mess around.

The walk to the cave took half an hour, I knew where I was going and I knew how to get there. The cave was in a clearing, made a half circle coming to a stop at each side within inches of a cave wall. In the half circle clearing the ground was bare with dirt. On the edge of the clearing, not five meters from the cave entrance sat a half circle of stone chairs. Something that I hadn't noticed in my dream, the chairs were very real. Each was like an armchair of stone, low to the ground. If Chase sat in one of them his feet would rest on the ground perfectly. My feet hung losing, centimeters from the ground. I had moved over to one, the center one, at the tip. There were five chairs. I wondered who used them; I wondered why we had never found them before.

I had been out this far, I should have found this clearing by any logic. I got up from the chair and cautiously approached the cave. I was a bit worried, maybe I didn't want to know what was in there. Worse, maybe nothing was in there at all. This was like confirming my reality, but I had found the cave and clearing hadn't I? That should confirm that this was real, that I wasn't insane if I wasn't asleep and dreaming this all up. But the material world, physically around me, was real. I wasn't imagining that there was a cave and that there was a girl, Amber must exist. She was as real as I was, and that thought scared me most of all.

I looked into the cave entrance; I could only see a few feet before the cave was unnaturally dark. Like someone had put a sheet of darkness in the doorway of the cave to warn off and intimidate any unwelcome visitors. Still I walked towards the cave; I was in the doorway, about half a meter from the blackness. I walked farther in, through the black. On the other side was a dimly lit room, with white walls and a ceiling, and furniture. It reminded me of a twentieth century waiting room.

On the wall opposite the one I was backed against a message was written. It said in black, bold, block letters. 'WELCOME TO THE END OF OUTSIDE.' Lower on the wall, over a large door sized mirror was cryptic instructions. 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Gives the answers to it all. Ask a question you seek to find, and you will have it in your mind.' The mirror shimmered slightly, like it was made of liquid and disturbed by my breath in the room. I inched toward it, slowly, and watched it move again. It wasn't the way the light hit it that made it shimmer, it was actually moving. There was no reflection, or at least not until I found it odd, the mirror stopped shimmering and I watched myself watch myself. Then I wondered what I was there to ask it.

I thought of my current predicament with Amber, but when the mirror changed I wasn't looking at Amber I was watching a boy. He had blond hair, short and gelled up, his green-gray eyes wide with fear and surprise. He looked straight into my eyes and I knew he was seeing me. So I reached out to him, straight through the mirror.

It worked; I went through the mirror, to an identical room except for boy standing in front of me, completely shocked. In the mirror was the room I had just been in, then it shimmered again and my reflection was back. The only thought that came to mind was to ask where I was, I wondered if I had stumbled back to Earth again.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"The end of outside." The boy mumbled, disbelievingly.

"I mean, what planet? Earth or Genesis?"

"Neither. I've never been to Genesis, nobody has in over a thousand years, and I'm hoping I'm not back on Earth. I don't think I am, I didn't change realities. I'm still me, Carson's still Carson as far as I can tell." The boy said, confused. He stood up straight, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. He was probably five foot ten, but he was lanky so I couldn't be sure.

"Who are you? And what planet are you from?" I snapped, impatiently, and a bit snappier than I meant to be.

The boy took a step back, shyly. He did reply however. "I'm Carey. I'm from Andromedia, it's in the Andromida galaxy."

Nobody's been to Genesis in over a thousand years? What the hell is with this?

I smiled sweetly, "I'm Ambrosia Kieran, pleased to meet you." I said.

When I mentioned my name Carey's eyes went wider with shock, like he had seen a ghost.

"What?" I asked cautiously.

He grinned, "You're Ambrosia Kieran, the Ambrosia Kieran? From Genesis?"

"Yes, what's so great about me?" I asked, taking a step away from the boy, towards the center of the room.

"You only saved the human race from extinction, you were only the founder of Andromedia! You're only like the most famous person ever!" Carey exclaimed enthusiastically.

I must have looked at him like he was crazy, I felt like he was, though how would I know what was crazy and what wasn't. I tried to call my voice. When it came back I asked, "What did I save the human race from?"

Before Carey could answer another voice interjected, "No fair, you can't tell her her future. It might change it." I looked toward the voice and couldn't believe who I saw standing there.