THE MOMENT
"Okay...," Burt nodded to himself as he caught his breath. He sat atop a sloping hill looking down on the artifact he spent almost an hour digging up. It was a 6-inch cube that glowed with soft golden light. Purple text on each side of the cube read "Magi-knights", but Burt had no idea what to make of it.
He was afraid to touch it too much once he unearthed it, but the glowing sides appeared to be made of glass. He took a glance around out of habit; but, he knew there wasn't anyone nearby. Burt had plenty of time alone with the artifact. He was intentionally off the beaten path.
He came walking through the densest part of the forest on his search for the unknown. Now that he found it, Burt hoped he wasn't completely out of civilization's reach. He pulled out his phone; he was surprised and thankful to find he still had signal somehow. He snapped a couple of pictures for himself, then he decided to research the phrase "magi-knights". His search yielded no results and that only added to the mystery. But, his disappointment was echoed by someone else.
"Aww man," a young girl's voice startled Burt. He hopped up off the ground and spun to find two high-school girls looking at him. "Someone found it already." the girl with violet hair said. But, the other girl, with dark brown hair, shook her head.
"You're not a student are you?" she asked. It seemed like they weren't there to threaten him. Once Burt got over the initial surprise, he calmed down enough to chuckle.
"I'm 37," he said.
"Then...," the girl with the violet hair said. She stepped forward, "You're not doing the Magi-knights quests?" Her eyes flitted down to the glowing cube, then back to Burt.
"No..," Burt shook his head. "What's that?" He saw blue text appear on the violet-haired girl's wrist; but, it faded before he could read it. He was about to ask them about it, but both girls grinned at him.
"You're from this Earth, right?" the brown-haired girl asked. "I'm Tama, this is Vivi," she introduced her violet-haired friend.
"Yeah, Burt," he nodded as he introduced himself. But, after a moment, Tama's statement registered. "This Earth?" he asked. "What, are there other ones?" Tama and Vivi giggled at him, and both girls nodded.
"We're playing a game, and that...," Tama pointed at the cube. "...is one of the pieces we need."
"You're playing a game on a different Earth... and somehow one of your pieces ended up here?" Burt asked. He was trying to make sense of the situation, but he stepped aside to let them grab the cube. Both girls nodded. Tama grabbed the cube while Vivi elaborated for him.
"Our school is celebrating Halloween with a big event. We earn points for each cube we collect; and, we can buy equipment with those points," Vivi said.
"Your school... on a different Earth?" Burt asked. Both girls nodded. Burt tilted his head at them.
"But... how?" he asked. "I get the feeling there are more than a couple of Earths out there. How do you travel between Earths? How is it decided which Earth they go to?"
"Oh, that's easy," Vivi said. She pulled a black card out of her jeans pocket and threw it on the ground. A black portal appeared in the grass. "Moving between universes is cake," she said. "But, they're only sending pieces to AlterNet servers, it's not every Earth out there," she added.
"What's an AlterNet server?" Burt asked.
"Uhm.. imagine if Earth was a video game," Tama said.
"And then imagine it connected to another Earth that's also a video game; that's the AlterNet," Vivi said. Both girls approached the portal ready to leave. "Hundreds of Earths connected together." Burt glanced at the cube in Tama's hand, then at the girls.
"Your saying this Earth..is just a game?" The girls exchanged a glance, and Burt caught blue flashes on their wrists again. He realized they were having a silent conversation. Tama shrugged, gave him a half-hearted wave, then jumped into the portal.
"Kind of, yeah," Vivi nodded. She stepped closer to the hole, but she waited a few more moments while Burt's mind raced. If he hadn't seen Tama disappear into the black hole, he might not believe what they told him.
"So.. what does that make me?" Burt asked.
"What's your favorite number?" Vivi asked him suddenly. It was such an unexpected question he shook his head.
"What?" he asked. "What does that have to do with anything?" Vivi shrugged, then jumped in the hole. She did not want to deal with the rest of his questions; but, she gave him one final answer before the portal closed behind her.
"Sorry," she said as she sank into the hole. "You're not real."