32.

It is early evening when Judy wakes in her dorm room bed. Ellie is sitting next to the window.

'How are you feeling?' she asks.

Judy sits up and over to one side of the bed.

'Better, I think.'

'Been a bit of a strange day, right?'

'Yeah, I guess.'

'Hey, I brought you something to eat.'

'Thanks' says Judy opening a sandwich. She is hungry so she doesn't hesitate in tucking into that sandwich. 'Have you talked to Steve?'

'Yeah, I have, half-sister, who knew?

'Well in fairness, he hasn't known all so long.'

'Are you defending Steve now?' asks Ellie with a smile.

Judy smiles too and she needed that, something to smile about. 'Maybe' she says with that smile widening a little.

'Well, I will talk to him some more tomorrow if you would like to join in on that conversation?'

'Yeah, maybe I will.'

Ellie moves towards Judy and the two hug.

'Are you sure you are alright?'

'Yeah' Judy says.

'If you need me, I have my phone.'

'Cool. See you later.'

'Bye.'

Ellie is a bit of a wanderer by nature so Judy does not question as to where she may be going now, both girls care about the other, but they do not have to report everything to one another. If something needs to be told, then they both know they have the other for that. For now, Judy will rest a little more.

33.

Judy is missing memories from that school party she attended or more so, it is one hour that she is missing. Where had she gone during the time Ellie said she was missing? What had really happened if anything had happened at all? For one thing, as this party was happening, something else was happening to Judy somewhere else at the very same time. It is very likely one thing affects the other, it's more than likely, it's fact.

At the party Judy did not have all that much to drink, she was sure of that, she didn't drink much whether that be drinks with a little added oomph or regular plain old orange juice. The thing which is for sure is that Judy definitely did not feel all too well when she woke up the following morning and as many know all so well, is that Judy had not been all so well during that whole day after the party.

What would be obvious if the obvious could be truly ... obvious, what happens in one world affects the other especially if one person so happens to be in two places at the same time. As Judy lives and breathes in this world she has come to be in with Ellie, her body rests unconscious in the world she is from, the world to which she was born, the world she was sure she was completely invisible in. While she attended a party in one world, whether or not she had actually partied at all, her original world resting body had some scheduled testing to partake in.

Her mum accompanies Judy as her comatose body is carted away from her hospital room down to where an MRI scanner awaits her. A nurse assures mum that the very best will be done for her daughter and the porter who pushes the trolley does this so pleasantly that one would almost assume that a holiday was on the horizon. Mother and daughter are going away on holiday and are not dealing with the fact that the daughter has been out cold for three weeks, and a test is scheduled to possibly determine what the future may be like.

'Don't worry' speaks the porter addressing mom 'we'll take good care of her.'

Mum attempts to smile. She knows this porter is only attempting to reassure her, unfortunately there is plenty to worry about. She has no idea as to what is wrong with her daughter and all she can do is hope that the upcoming MRI scan will help get answers of some sort.

Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI is a technique that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed images of the organs and tissues of the patient undergoing any given scan. On average, a scan will generally take approximately fifteen to twenty minutes but for Judy things will go on a little longer.

Upon arrival to the designated area mum is asked to wait in a waiting area and this is the last thing she wants to do though with what is about to happen maybe it is best she is not observing the scan as it happens.

Right outside the room encompassing the MRI machine, there is a row of eight wooden seats and this is where mum initially waits. These seats are usually reserves for those physically capable of waiting for a scan of their own if and when any kind of backlog builds for MRI usage and Judy's mum is informed of this only seconds after she sits.

Maybe this is a good thing for it provides a momentary distraction for as soon as Judy's mom does sit, she finds herself at a loss for what to do with herself while what needs to be done is being done. Being informed that she needs to move down to the waiting room sets herself up to gather herself somewhat and move the twenty-five-foot distance to her left and into that waiting room which is on the same side of the hospital corridor as is the room with the MRI machine.

She makes sure she has all her belongings, her handbag, her phone, and anything else she may have with her in this moment and off she goes somewhat unsteadily to where it is she should wait. This room is a small square room with three rows of eight wooden seats separated into two groupings of three rows of four seats by a very short aisle which is no more what two foot wide.

The doorway to this room is at its right-hand side and its small box size opens to the left. Seven feet straight past the door is a water cooler and four feet beyond that is a small window which at this particular moment is of no particular use as it is so dull outside that if you were to look out that window you would not be able to see very far.

Judy's mum heads straight for that water cooler and pours herself some water into a small plastic cone shaped cup and as she does this, she fails to notice that she is not alone in the room. It's only when she turns properly for the first time within the room that she sees him and when she does, she is started so much so she lets out a gasp.

'Oh, I'm sorry' says this other person in the room, 'I didn't mean to startle you.'

'That's alright' Judy's mum says once she has gathered herself.

This other person in the room is sitting in against the wall in the corner on the same side of the waiting room door and had been completely silent prior to the point when he spoke. This other person in the room is also just a boy possibly, as far as Judy's mum is concerned, about one or two years older than Judy and as well as that, he is someone to whom Judy's mum does not know, for she has no way of knowing, that this boy just so happens to go by the name Abe and this Abe fellow very much so wants to kill Judy.

Thankfully, no matter what world he so happens to choose to be in, he cannot simply move up to Judy and destroy her anyway he feels like doing. There is some sort of unseen force preventing him from doing this, and this same force also prevents him from harming Ellie in any way. As Judy's mum looks at this boy, she can't help but think why it is that he is sitting alone in this waiting room.

He can't be waiting on anyone in the MRI room as Judy is the only patient in there right at this point and there is no other patient currently waiting to go in. Oh, but he is waiting on someone in the MRI room. He is as much waiting for Judy as her mum is though mum has no way of knowing this and soon, she takes a front row seat on the opposite aisle to where he sits.

She feels uncomfortable sitting where she is, she feels watched by this boy and is confused when she considers how he got into this room without her knowing. She is sure he had not been there prior to her arrival. Judy is what is important so for the moment her mum waits right where she is.

Inside the MRI room Judy is lifted onto the bed, her head is steadied and held in place with a prompt on each side. Usually, patients having a scan done are given ear buds to quell the sound of the machine itself, to ease the patient for what is coming. But not to the point where they are unable to hear any instruction which may be given. For its newest current patient this is not necessary.

The bed moves noisily, and Judy's head and upper torso move into the scanner area and everything begins as well and as normally as possible. Everything is in order, and everything is right and the machine begins to work normally, as normally as possible though almost as soon as the intended images begin to come through, the machine itself shuts down completely.

There is no power outage; everything else in close proximity is working fine and hospital generators would kick in if there were any power problems. Control panels are checked out, buttons are pressed, and a problem cannot be discovered. The MRI scanner and only the MRI scanner is not working and a reason for this to be so cannot be found.

Judy being unconscious is under no stress; she is breathing normally and lying just as she was when she went into the machine, so she is left for a moment or two. Unaware of what is happening and still in the waiting room, mum feels an urge to turn around and she does this as inconspicuously as possible and is more than surprised to see that the boy she had seen is gone. She did not see him leave; she did not hear him leave. There is only the one door that works as an entrance and exit for the room so there is nowhere that he could have gone without being seen.

Stress and worry, this must be what it is, at least this what she tells herself but no, there has to be something more to this. She hadn't zoned out and she did not fall asleep, she had remained alert for the short period of time up to now. The longer Judy is in with the MRI, the more mum has to worry. A little under an hour passes from the moment Judy is brought in for her scan until the moment she is brought back to her resting spot.

The machine had come back on, and the scans were taken though it will be a while before mum will be informed of the results by Judy's attending doctor. For this particular moment in time, Judy's mum is advised to go and get some rest so rest she does or rest as well as anyone can in her current predicament, and she also does this in the hopes that things will begin to better themselves from here on in.

She must believe this. She has always been a positive person though as it goes, it is getting more and more difficult to remain positive.