Milestone: Mirror World

Milestone:
Mirror World

 

LATER THAT DAY…

After we finished our mysterious breakfast, we relocated to Dr. Bright’s lab. I wasn’t sure if it was because I ate the emotionally soothing soup from SCP-348 or if Dr. Bright’s excessively cheerful disposition was rubbing off on me, but my entire body felt warm and fuzzy. I wasn’t in the best of spirits, though. Dr. Bright’s earlier statement nagged at the back of my head.

“Excuse me, Dr. Bright.” Apparently of a similar mind, Iris hesitantly spoke up, while the researcher lined the paper bags of souvenirs off to the side. “May I ask what you meant by your earlier comment? What did you mean when you said that…███ isn’t a resident of our world?”

“Oh, I’ll be sure to go all over that; don’t you worry. I don’t like being enigmatic for the heck of it. I’m afraid that for better or worse, I’m not all that great at picking up on the mood, as anyone will tell you.” Dr. Bright elegantly sat on a chair and turned to face us, a surprisingly serious expression on their face.

Iris and I were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the bed in our usual spot, putting us directly across from the mad scientist.

“Now then, where should I begin?” Dr. Bright mused, a contemplative expression clouding their face as they made a show of seductively crossing their legs.

“███, we—if I may be so bold—we, the members of the SCP Foundation, have kept you under observation to identify your special characteristics, while simultaneously investigating your origin to the point of obsession.”

Well, I guess that was a given… After living in this SCP Foundation research site for as long as I had, I didn’t bat an eye over the revelation. Such was their purpose as the SCP Foundation. It was their goal to investigate, research, secure, contain, and protect anomalies that extended beyond the realm of rational thought.

Within the course of the very first day I strayed into this research site, all of my personal possessions, including the clothes on my back, were confiscated and analyzed through and through. Everything I said and did was watched and observed. I’d had to undergo countless physical exams as well. Analyzed to the DNA level, everything about me was laid bare.

“That’s what you’d think, isn’t it? It’s completely within the power of the SCP Foundation to do that. We possess the necessary knowhow, experience, and drive. You were rather compliant and honestly divulged personal information, making you an easy test subject to work with in those regards.” Dr. Bright frowned, as if they thought there wasn’t any fun in that.

“Based on the investigation’s findings, we’ve learned that true to your appearance, you’re an overall unspectacular, normal boy. Aside from your unique ability to enter photos, there is nothing particularly special about you. You’re the painfully average type of guy—from average intelligence to physical capabilities to appearance—I’d never want you for my boyfriend,” Dr. Bright said, adding their unnecessary personal opinion.

Their face turned serious as they continued, “That was what everyone thought. Even I was starting to lose interest in you personally, if not in your abilities. But just to play it safe, I searched for supporting evidence regarding your investigation…and came across an incredible fact.”

Dr. Bright suddenly thrust their face up close to mine and smiled impishly.

“A field agent went to the city in Japan where you lived, according to the statement you gave. Seeing as you were worried that your family would be upset over your disappearance, it was necessary to at least inform your parents of your wellbeing. Of course, this was all heavily motivated by the ulterior motive of conducting a background check,” Dr. Bright said.

“Were ███’s parents worried about him…?” Iris asked, trying to be considerate of my feelings, but Dr. Bright shrugged with a grin.

“Not in the least! No one even noticed ███ was missing, not even his own parents, school teachers, or anyone else who knows him in any way. No one was worried as they went about their normal, everyday lives as if nothing had happened,” Dr. Bright answered.

That…was actually a bit shocking. In reality, I wasn’t all that special of a person; it wouldn’t matter whether I was around or not. But I never doubted that at least my parents would freak out and search for me if I suddenly went missing.

Did people hate me more than I realized…? Was I a pathetic loser, unloved by everyone?

Seeing me wallow in self-pity, Dr. Bright laughed merrily, “Sorry! I phrased that poorly. It was only natural for those associated with you to act normally. For you see, you never went missing.”

Huh…? What was that supposed to mean?

 

***

 

“This is hard to explain, but you are still there. You’re still going about life like normal in the city where you lived in Japan, ███. You seemed to be enjoying an overall happy youth in your own right as you bounced between home and school day after day.” Dr. Bright looked me square in the eye as they continued spouting nonsense. “I was there—in the city where you lived—until just this morning. I flew over and met ‘you’ myself. I made it seem like a chance encounter and spoke with you, if only briefly. I simply couldn’t believe someone else’s findings, so I went all the way to Japan to check a few things personally.”

Oh, so that was why Dr. Bright was gone for so long. They were actually conducting a legit investigation. Going by that stack of souvenirs, they made several stops across the world along the way. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it on the side while tackling one of their bazillion other projects.

“Not only do I interact with you personally, I’ve possessed a large, diverse pool of people. I have more life experience than anyone else out there. I believe I have a good eye at recognizing people, believe it or not,” Dr. Bright stated, forthright and solemn. “From what I saw, the ███ in that city in Japan was the same person as ███ here before me. Just to make sure, I pretended to trip in order to touch the one I saw in Japan and get a skin sample. I’ve run DNA tests, but they give the exact same results.”

“Huh? Wh-what does that mean?” Iris asked. She looked completely bewildered, like it didn’t make any sense to her. “Is an identical impostor of ███ stealthily taking ███’s place to steal his identity and become him?”

“While that is a possibility, I think it’s safe to reject that hypothesis. No science in the world could create a clone that is completely identical. Even if it was possible, there is no point. Who would benefit from stealing the identity of a normal Japanese senior high boy?” Dr. Bright pointed out.

Hmph! I felt like they were belittling me, but in reality, it was just as Dr. Bright said. Of course, the life I considered normal would probably look like Heaven on Earth in the eyes of someone like a war orphan… Nevertheless, the number of people leading far more luxurious lives than I rivaled the number of stars in the sky. It’d still leave the question: Why would someone choose to steal my identity?

“This has nothing to do with clones or impostors. I analyzed his psyche and movement pattern, and not even the greatest of actors could recreate ███ to such perfection,” Dr. Bright said, presenting their argument like a master detective. “It’s hypothetically possible to make a body identical to yours with the aid of any number of SCP objects, but it wouldn’t have your mind. At the very least, people would notice minor discrepancies. But the boy I spoke with when I flew over to Japan was you through and through, ███.”

“So, um, seriously what does that mean? You said you weren’t going to be enigmatic, so stop putting off the conclusion like it’s so profound, Dr. Bright!” Iris snapped harshly at the end, growing impatient.

With a wry smile, Dr. Bright nodded and said, “In short, the ███ here before us is a guest visiting from a parallel world. If you look at it that way, all of the dots connect, so I’d like to favor that hypothesis.”

A parallel world… I’ve heard those words several times throughout my time participating in Dr. Bright’s experiments here at this SCP Foundation research site. There wasn’t just one world, but countless worlds simultaneously existing at once… Most were overall extremely similar, but various circumstances could bring about innumerable discrepancies, small and large.

The parallel worlds were usually independent of each other, not interacting at all. But there were instances where a variety of things collided together to connect worlds…maybe? At least, that was how I remembered Iris explained it to me when I asked her about the unfamiliar words.

Those words came up when we discussed my unique ability to enter photos as well. It wasn’t as though I was going to the point in time the photo was taken. In other words, I wasn’t traveling to the past, but to a parallel world of the past, or something like that.

Since I was going to parallel worlds, nothing I did in the photos had any effect on our current world. So I couldn’t go back and prevent a horrible tragedy from occurring.

“Uh-huh. ███, your abilities also support this hypothesis. You possess the ability to enter parallel worlds though photos,” Dr. Bright aptly added, as if they were reading my mind. “Upon figuring that out, the rest was easy. The world you’re originally from isn’t the one we’re currently on. From our perspective, it’s a parallel world inside a photo.”

“Oh, I get it… That’s why you said ███ isn’t a resident of our world, isn’t it?” Iris said. Quicker on the uptake than me, she sounded convinced, nodding.

A moment later, it sort of sunk in. This was a parallel world and there was another version of me who existed here. That other me was still carrying out a normal life typical of a senior high school boy—the normal life I resigned myself to before I wound up in this world.

And that would explain the message in A Gift from Dad. It was meant for the me of this world, not the me here thinking about all of this stuff. Here in this world, I was probably attending school every day like usual. That was why my parents offered those words of praise. To be fair, the bowl had no way of knowing I was a different person visiting from another world…

In order to strengthen their hypothesis, Dr. Bright went out of their way to have me eat from A Gift from Dad. Plus, it comforted us while we were feeling down, effectively killing two birds with one stone. Though in reality, there was still a good chance they were merely toying with us. Dr. Bright was that type of person.

 

***

 

As I was half-heartedly considering the surprisingly trivial meaning behind the prior events in the canteen, Iris closed her eyes and groaned quietly, “The ███ next to me is a visitor from a parallel world? No, I probably pulled ███ out of a picture—out of his parallel world—just like I do during all of our experiments.”

Iris opened and closed her hand several times and sighed deeply. “I feel simply awful. I’ve torn you from the world where you belong, haven’t I? And then I had the nerve to keep you here because I’m lonely and say I think of you as family… Man, I’m terrible!”

Iris… I didn’t feel there was any need for her to blame herself. At first, I only stayed here because I had nowhere else to go, but I was here now of my own free will. I chose to be at Iris’s side, as her good roommate. And as family, if she didn’t mind me thinking of her that way.

I poured all of those feelings into squeezing Iris’s hand, which made her give a slightly relieved smile. I could feel the warmth of her small hand.

Perhaps I was a traveler visiting from another world who shouldn’t exist on this one. But I didn’t regret the rather lengthy time I spent on this world where strange SCP objects existed as a matter of course. I didn’t consider myself unfortunate. Not when I always had Iris kindly smiling at my side. I felt satisfied. I was happy. Nevertheless…

“Of course, a man’s life—his soul—can never be held down by another. No one has that right. Although it’s a bit ironic coming from the owner of Immortality…in a funny sort of way.” Dr. Bright sounded surprisingly serious, not nearly as jovial as their words might imply.

“You’re free to live the life you choose in either world, ███. I’m certain the SCP Foundation’s higher-ups would want to secure an entity as precious as you, but I personally want to leave the choice in your hands. What will it be? Are you returning to your old world? Or would you like to stay here forever?”

Uh, but I didn’t see why they would bother to ask if…I wanted to go home. Was there a way to get back? Did they know of a method to return to my old world…?

“Going back should be easy. I haven’t verified it yet, so this is still conjecture, but I believe you just need to go back into the photo you first popped out of. That photo-world is the parallel world you’re originally from. It’s your world, ███,” Dr. Bright said…and then pulled a photo out of the breast pocket of the lab coat they always wore.

A hint of nostalgia rose within me at the sight of the photo. It displayed countless rows of dingy library stacks. It showed the library where I consulted that occult-loving, weird upperclassman about the Girl in the Photos. That felt like years ago; it was almost like I was catching a glimpse of a previous life.

Unlike Iris with her supernatural powers to view the pictures she took as moving images, I saw it as a simple still image. In the center of the library stacks, ██████-senpai was out of focus due to flailing around. There was a book she dropped in her surprise.

Oh, that was right! The title of that book was Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. So this was how the picture over there looked from this world. The sight of somewhere from my memories began to fill my heart with a longing to go back. But my life here at the research facility was happy, too—and had its own kind of fun.

I wished I could pop back home, if only briefly. I wanted to see my parents and friends from school. I wanted to shoot the breeze, study, attend club activities, laze about watching TV while eating snacks from the convenience store, and enjoy that boring, invaluable normal life.

If I had to choose which world to live in, that would be tough. I couldn’t stand the idea of never seeing Iris again, and I’d miss interacting with all the fantastic SCP objects. Now that I took a second to look back, my life here was truly fun and exciting every single day.

 

***

 

“Well, I haven’t verified this, so I can’t say for certain, but when you return to your world, coming back probably won’t be an issue! If you follow the same process—meaning Iris touches you in the photo and pulls you out—you should be able to return to this world,” Dr. Bright said with a wink after fondly watching me debate over what to do as if I were a cute kid. “You can freely travel between the two worlds. Iris is the only one capable of dragging you back, and I’m sure she wouldn’t use that ability if you never wanted to return… In other words, you can come back as much as you want, so long as that is what you and Iris desire.”

From their seat in the chair, Dr. Bright elegantly spread out their arms. “With that in mind, what would you like to do? I’ve said this several times now, but you get to decide for yourself. I will leave this to you, ███. As a reward for participating in so many valuable experiments all this time, I shall allow you to choose.” Dr. Bright spoke in a rather patronizing matter, but I could sense the kindness and warmth in their words. My heart was filled with the same warm fuzzies as when I ate the soup from SCP-348.

“Well, I’ll personally be a bit sad to see you go back,” Iris said, placing her hand over mine this time and leaning close to peer into my eyes. “But it isn’t as if we’ll never see each other again. From the sound of it, you can come back to play whenever you want. If you want to return to your old world, I won’t stop you.”Despite what she said, she threaded her fingers through mine as if hating to let me go.

Iris offered me an innocent smile and said, “I can no longer see my true family, the one that I’m related to through blood. So I think you should go see yours while you still can.”

But I considered Iris family now, too. I poured that sentiment into squeezing her hand back. I also poured my feelings for her into it.

I would return to my old world. Even if just once. Even if only for a short time. While I was there, I wanted to see my parents and friends and tell them about my experiences in this strange world. There were a bunch of wacky, insane incidents that happened while I was here. That occult-crazed senpai was bound to eat these stories up. I was going to share my story about how I fell into the world of SCP objects.

“Then you should do just that. Do whatever your heart decides, ███,” Dr. Bright said. With over-exaggerated reverence, they offered the photo to me. “Try to be quick about it. This photo was deemed an entrance to a parallel world, attracting the interest of a bunch of bored researchers. It’s a test subject in its own right! I’ve swapped it out with a fake to buy some time, but it was a pain in the neck sneaking this out.”

“If you keep breaking the rules, one of these days, you’re going to get yourself terminated, Doc,” Iris said, exasperated.

But Dr. Bright loudly laughed it off, “Wha ha ha! If that happens, maybe I’ll go seek refuge in ███’s world! But I’ll need to make you horrendously indebted to me, first.”

“It’s hard to tell whether that’s a joke or not in your case,” Iris retorted with a chuckle, finally loosening up a bit.

She reluctantly let go of my hand and stood up. Turning to face me anew, Iris offered me a slight bow before saying, “…Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, ███.”

As she waved her hand, she said, “Bye-bye. Thank you for becoming my family.”

The pleasure was all mine. I was so glad I met Iris.

We said, “See you later,” and I placed my hands on the photo.

 

***

 

The smell of the air changed. Within the blink of an eye, I was back in my old world. It felt the same as when I entered the photo-world during all of our experiments, so I wasn’t particularly stunned or anything. It was surprising how much I’d grown accustomed to this.

Apparently, I jumped out of the photo. The brief second suspended in the air made it difficult to land on my feet. Planting them squarely on the ground, I barely managed to catch my balance.

“Oh, whoa!” The shrill cry hurt my ears.

Turning toward the sound of the voice on reflex, I saw ██████-senpai standing diagonally in front of me, so close I could touch her if I held my arm out. From her perspective, I just appeared from thin air, so it was no wonder she was surprised. She reeled back, whacking her head against the stack directly behind her. The impact sent several books tumbling to the ground. A cloud of dust filled the air.

“Huh? What? What gives? What’s going on? What just happened?” It felt like I hadn’t seen ██████-senpai in ages as she threw question upon question at me, completely indifferent to the books she knocked down.

I could feel her breath on my cheeks. Oh, yeah. She was the type of person who would inadvertently enter my personal space… I felt like I was a bit more comfortable with the opposite sex after my co-ed life with Iris, but certain things simply made me feel awkward.

I was trying to squirm away from Senpai as she bore down on me. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to run in this cramped space lined by library stacks. Senpai pounced on me like a predator and began shaking me by the shoulders.

“Hey! C’mon, didn’t you just vanish? And then you reappeared! Or was that my mind playing tricks on me? No, I saw it with my own two eyes! Gyaaah! Shoot, I just saw a real paranormal phenomenon! ♪” she cried, absolutely ecstatic. If she saw an SCP object, I bet she’d faint from excitement.

At any rate, even though I spent several months in the other world, I was gone for less than a few seconds here. Perhaps since the photo was a still image, time didn’t pass while I was in it.

I didn’t really understand how that worked. I should report as much as I could remember and have researchers who were several dozen times smarter than me look into it. Then I could ask what they thought. That was easier, and it made me extremely happy that it was an option… I was thrilled that I could return to that world and talk to Iris in the future.

Seeing as time didn’t pass any in this world…there was no worry that I put my parents and everyone out by disappearing without a trace for so long. It was great this had a happy ending where no one was sad or upset.

Wait, hold up. There was still no guarantee I could return to that other world. It wasn’t like we had already proven I could bounce back and forth between the two worlds. Not to mention, Iris was the only one capable of pulling me out of the picture. Although the odds were less than one in a million, if she didn’t want to see me again, that would be the end of it. She could sever our bond and my connection with the other world from her side.

Pathetic as it was, I was suddenly filled with apprehension. I hastily began searching for my connection (that photo) with the other world! Dropping to my knees, I started to shuffle through the books scattered on the floor.

“Oh, oops! I made a mess! Let me help!” Senpai offered as she excitedly squatted under the false impression I was enthusiastically cleaning up the books that got knocked down.

She picked up the copy of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There lying next to her and looked at me. “You have to give me the dirt later! I want to unravel the paranormal phenomenon that I saw! And you’re a key player! I won’t let you off the hook…!” Senpai exclaimed. It was scary how she panted from excitement, but more importantly…

A photograph was peeking through the pages of the book in ██████-senpai’s hand. I carefully took the book from her and flipped it open with my heart racing. Tuning out senpai’s ramblings until they were nothing more than background noise, I stared at the photo in the book. My heart was filled with expectation.

For some odd reason, lately, whenever I cracked open a book in this world, I would find a photo stuck inside. It was always of a cute girl. In the past, I didn’t know that girl’s name. But I knew now. And I would probably remember it for the rest of my life.

Iris. Brought together in a world both near yet far, she was someone dear to my heart.

“Oh, what’s up with that photo? Where did it come from? Who the heck is that girl? Do you know her? Who are those people around her? Yikes! Isn’t there something freaky about that cat?!” Noticing something strange about what Senpai screamed in my ear, I looked back down at the photo.

As illogical as ever, some time seemed to have passed in the photo. Iris wasn’t the only one in it now.

First off, there was Dr. Bright standing unnecessarily proud with their head held high. I wasn’t sure if they were simply passing by or if Iris asked them to come, but Dr. Goldman and Dr. Selkie were also there. Finally, there was even Josie the Half-Cat with half its body missing. She was held in Iris’s arms.

I felt deeply touched as I looked at the photo. In the past, Iris was the only one who appeared in the photos here in this world. But now it included the people and SCP objects I met and interacted with during my time at that strange research facility. Above all else, Iris was smiling. Her smile was filled with affection directed toward me.

The things I experienced in that world weren’t a dream or illusion… I felt that keenly now. They would always remember the time we shared, and I would never forget. And if I wanted, I bet they would welcome me back to their world…with warm smiles like the ones in this picture.

I could return to my other home, where strange SCP objects existed all around us.

 

—END OF FILE