The Overrider

“Tell us where you come from.”

I – I’m trying to remember.

It takes time for memories to calibrate.

“Tell us where – “

The locket…

The heart-shaped locket.

My sister… Isabelle.

She didn’t want me to jump; she took the locket.

She didn’t understand; she was so young. Eleven. Just a baby when it happened, and I did my best to protect her.

I knew she was scared; it was time. I knew that I had to tell her everything... just in case.

Our parents didn’t die. At least not in the traditional sense, not any more than millions of other people. They just vanished with the rest of the universe.

The foster care that we endured… wasn’t our home.

I would have only been five or six when it changed. If nobody else on Earth remembered the shift, I certainly wasn’t going to. Or, if I did, I lost the memory.

Best I understood, it was a research project. The goal was to discover dark matter – matter that exists in a parallel universe but leaves particles of energy within another, like a shadow of itself. A massive machine was constructed to isolate the dark matter and prove its existence.

They were playing with things they didn’t understand.

Still, they succeeded in their goal and changed our world forever. On July 12, 2012, scientists successfully manifested matter from another universe into our own.

Yet, most of the world didn’t even know about the significant discovery. If they had, they read an article about it, discussed it at social events, and lost the memory.

The world-changing moment went relatively unacknowledged until ten years later.

It started as a small movement – a harmless conspiracy theory. As the information began to make more sense, the ideas quickly became a widespread reality. Individuals across the globe started to join “The Awakening”.

We, the awakened, were discovering the truth.

The truth that when they manifested the dark matter from another universe, they brought the rest of the universe with it.

Two universes that existed simultaneously converged into one in a fraction of a millisecond. Elements of both existences became a new reality and the things that were replaced disappeared into the ether.

Including our parents.

The childhood we should have had was stolen from us in a blink of an eye.

As more of us began to remember our old universe, we found these lost memories. It was called the Mandella Effect, where two unique memories exist of the same thing. Part of me remembered my parents happy, healthy; another piece held onto a completely different narrative of their horrific death.

The more of us that remembered our truth, the more it drove people to madness. Having two memories, two lifetimes – there was a lot of people who could not handle it.

Suddenly, these two worlds that only held parts of themselves were now falling apart.

Without being able to decipher what was real or not, people gave up on their values and beliefs. It wasn’t long until society as we knew it had crumbled.

When people of power no longer believe in their lives and give up, it is tough to hold things together.

And those on the streets were even less compliant to a world that wasn’t their own.

Thankfully, we survived by running away. We found a tribe in the mountains and found a simpler life. Those that tried to maintain this fractured society had a much harder time.

Luckily, we found a community of people attempting to find our old world in its proper form.

They believed that the original two universes still existed. If not them exactly, a universe that more closely resembles each of them.

They were called The Overriders.

Using deep meditation techniques and a form of astral projection, they could travel to alternate realities. They could explore another universe and search for their true homes.

Although, travelling, or overriding, was unpredictable.

No one who jumped could navigate which universe they would awaken. Some Overriders returned to our universe with nightmarish memories and fractured minds. Some returned with messages of greener pastures.

Others never returned at all.

Still, I had to try.

I needed Isabelle to understand that, at the very least.

Our parents were still out there. If I could override, I could find them. I could bring them home. Or bring Isabelle to their world. Whatever it looked like, I could bring our family together. Where we lived would no longer be important, as long as we had each other – the way it was meant to be.

It didn’t matter to Isabelle. She did not want me to jump.

She didn’t remember our parents. Even if she could find the memories, she was too little when we last saw them.

I remembered… I remember my parents. And I know that they did not die; they are just lost.

I took the heart-shaped locket from her and broke it into two parts. I gave her the piece with our mother's picture, and I took father.

When they reunited, we would all be together again.

I promised her I would come back.

I understood why she was scared. So many Overriders were disappearing and never returning. But the ones who had returned had given us so many teachings about how to make it back.

I believed in all of myself that I would return. That I would find our parents, and we would be together.

“You never came back.”

Those are my last memories. That wasn’t even a day ago.

I managed to override, and I woke up here.

I was so confused when you woke me. But the longer that I’m here, the more I’m beginning to recognize you. Dozens of you.

But none of you are familiar. Just… fragments of something familiar. Like my parents, who I remember in fractured pieces.

“You never came back.”

I can. I can make it. I can still go back.

“We searched for you.”

For me?

“We wear – “

The locket… with our mother’s picture.

It can’t be you?

…

Isabelle?