I let out a sharp cry because I realized that I was in mid-air and was descending with a lot of weight. I closed my dear eyes and I landed on something or someone. I opened my eyes and tears flowed as I set my sight upon an ethereal, quite familiar-looking man. 

"GARY! AM I IN THE AFTERLIFE?!" I yelled

"Wo r ye?" he asked

"Excuse me?"

"E sk wo r ea?"

Millions of questions bombarded me. Did the people of the afterlife speak this language? What was I even doing here? What was that mysterious vortex? What was he even thinking right now? Surely, he might think she fell from the sky, right into my arms. I'm not even lying. He set me down and wore a headband. It was black with strange red buttons on it. It beeped and he spoke.

"Are you from Earth?"

"Y-yes," I said, standing up on my heels as I saw him picking up a stick-like thing. I found a similar stick beside mine and got ready to encounter the danger.

He laughed and pressed a button on his grey stick which emitted ocean-blue light, engulfing me in its flames. However, it didn't hurt but I felt uncomfortably hot. I had no idea what was going on around me so I escaped from the flames and hit a blow on him. He countered it back, by defending himself with his stick. I realized he was much stronger and taller than me. My petite 54 kg, 5 ft 4 in height would never be able to fight back. I smirked and kissed him.

Kiss, that too from a beautiful girl was the only weapon that could keep a man of her age in control. Just by looking at his optic ball, I could tell that he was a lonely soul with a hollow heart, waiting for someone to fill the void. And no doubt, that it was Gary, my Gary.

He bit my lips hard and I let go. He fell to the ground and spoke in a shaky voice. "Are you earthly beings, always so desperate?"

I put my stick near his throat and asked, "What is going on?"

He sighed and motioned me to sit. I obeyed him but tightened my grip on the stick more. "Which year is going on in earth?"

"It's 2040," I replied and he let out a hot chuckle.

"Welcome to Florion," he smiled.

"Where on Earth is this?" 

"It's not on Earth, it's a planet in the Supernova galaxy and we are currently in the year 10,040. Quite shocking, I know but believe me," he said coolly.

"Y-you said what?" I started laughing like a kid who had just been tickling her breath out for being an apple pie. "You expect me to believe that Gary? Hell no way, but this dream is indeed sweet."

"I'm not joking and for your knowledge, I'm not Gary. I'm Cinoplex."

"I thought cinema hall," I scoffed. "Now please brief me where on the Multiverse am I?"

"Now let me ask you something," his tone was etched with seriousness now. "How did you get here?"

"I don't know. I was in my room when suddenly a vortex appeared and it pulled me into it. That's when I landed on this mysterious land," I explained, agitatedly.

"Look, first of all. I'm not going to hurt you, so you can keep your weapon down," he said putting his stick on a side and I did the same.

"Now let me clarify all your doubts. We are Florionians, simply the people who reside on Florion. We are not aliens, as you earthly beings generally refer to us, we are also homo specials unlike you. We are more advanced as we are 8,000 years ahead from Earth," he paused to stare at my jaw-dropped expression, then continued, "We were once people of Earth too, we were the people of Atlantis, the one submerged continent. Our civilization was somehow more advanced and developed than the other civilizations. We were in the Age Of AI already when The Egyptians were learning to build pyramids. So, as you humans are doing now, destroying Mother Nature, we too started. Eventually, we angered her and she brought The Great Flood. However, we were highly developed which resulted in us settling down on Mars for a while. Then after a century of immense suffering, our capable scientists made a machine through which we reached this Earthly like planet Florion," he elucidated.

"You know what? You're lying and I am falling into your lies, making myself dizzy," I sighed.

"Look around if you think I'm lying."

I looked around and was utterly perplexed. It was unearthly. The house was transparent, made of glass. It showed the outside world but I was very sure it didn't show the inside of the house. I noticed the shape of a window on some of the walls. It had dark glass and the frame was made up of a silver lining of golden and bright colors. The lighting was soft and ambient. In all four corners, there were potted plants, covered with a see-through cylinder and various buttons on the pots. One of them displayed a small smiling face on the cylinder while the other displayed an angry face. I predicted that I was in a living room. The walls were minimalist highlighting the scenery of a beautiful mountain top covered with snow on one. The furniture,  more precisely the modern form of a couch was placed in the middle of the room, equipped with a set of buttons on its armrest. The couch had a simple safe and was easy to move.

Gary was dressed in a black upper-body suit with beige lower-body pants. His hair was fluffy brown. His dimples, 'not very sharp' jaw with cute chubby cheeks made his appearance cute and appealing. His whole body was covered with clothing, but when I looked out through the transparent walls of the house, I saw a few dressed in half-sleeved body suits too. I couldn't figure out the weather. 

My mouth formed a small 'o' and he laughed. "Shocked, right?" he asked and I nodded. "What are all these?"

"Well. I didn't expect you to be a fool. Aren't you wondering how I can communicate with you?" he asked and I nodded. "You see, this device on my head that I am wearing? It's a highly intelligent translator to translate Earthly languages. Ans we need it because we often visit heart. It's a honeymoon destination."

"What the mother chicken of baked sandwiches?" I gasped.

"I have always wanted to visit Earth, but I don't have enough resources to afford my travel. But luck favored me when this device landed on my rooftop on one fateful evening?" he picked up a small device from his pocket that looked exactly like my Heltchell, the small 1 m camera satellite that was built by my team and was sent to click the picture of Cygnus Prime.

"How did you get this and most importantly why did that portal open in my room?"

"You see, it is complicated to explain, but I'm gonna try my best. This small device is called 'Space Navigator'. It has a camera and a brilliantly equipped instrument to guide you to the nearest black hole," he said.

I held my forehead and let out a dry laugh. "What are you trying to imply? FUCKING MY TEAM MADE IT. IT'S MY HELTCHELL AND I KNOW IT BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE CAN. It even has my initials: EMY," I yelled, catching my breath.

"Are you perhaps Elina Meyer? Is it you? OMFG! That's why you looked so similar to me. People worship you here, ma'am," he bowed, then asked. "I bet you know nothing about space travel?"