who looked so much like me opened his eyes. There was darkness all around, but the glow of his (my?) body made it possible to see the room a few centimeters away from him. I swam after him. For some reason I didn’t need to lift my legs. To move. No-I went to the kitchen and took the salt shaker. Not-I surrounded myself with a circle of salt. No-I smiled… where did I see that smile? That’s her smile! Having examined not-myself more closely, I recognized her features.
– Secret! It’s you! I am so glad to see you! What’s happening? Why is it so cold?
– Sorry.
«I have nothing to forgive you for.» I love you. But I don’t understand what’s happening.
«I almost fell in love with you too, but do I have a choice?»
– What are you talking about?
«I’m sorry…» she whispered. I feel like I’m almost crying.
– Explain to me what the hell is happening here!
– Okay, you deserve it.
Having drawn a circle, she continued to pour salt, pinch by pinch, onto the floor, creating an incomprehensible pattern of symbols and runes.
– In addition to the three dimensions of the material world known to you, there are seven more that belong to the ideal world. Small particles, like an electron, can exist in all ten dimensions, but living beings cannot perceive the shadows of an alien world until death. You know, this very world is not so ideal. The stars shine and warm only the three dimensions you are familiar with, and in the other seven there is cold and darkness. Therefore, one of the afterlife engineers came up with a way to return to the familiar world. The main thing is to create a quantum entanglement of two souls and then break it. In this case, the dead can take the place of the living.
I was once as naive as you. I met HIM: handsome, tall, muscular, black-haired with blue bottomless eyes. I looked for his reflection in everyone I met, but he came to me at night. And when I fell asleep in his arms, I woke up here. I have no choice: in order to live again, I must kill you. When I finish drawing the runes, our connection will be severed, and you will no longer be able to find your body. I will become you.
– And what about me?
«And you can find yourself a naive girl to become you.»
A single tear flowed down my cheek, but immediately froze in the surrounding frost of another world. No-I finished drawing the runic script and put my hand to the floor. A flash of light – and then nothing, empty, dark and lonely.
***
There was no time here. How long did I wander in the dark: a day, a year, or maybe a century? First, endless darkness. I could go up as easily as turning left; there were other, previously unknown directions. but soon I learned to pull out of the darkness the silhouettes of people – those who were still alive. And once I even managed to catch the eye of one girl for a moment. This was enough to connect our souls with an invisible thread. When she fell asleep, I gently stroked her glowing hair. Without waking up, she opened her eyes and looked at me.
– Who are you?
«You can call me Mystery,» I whispered.
She tried to touch my chest, but I took a step back.
– Sorry, not on the first date. I will come to you tomorrow, and then we will stay together forever.
Pain is like a stone thrown into the middle of a lake. It is inflicted on you by those who were hurt, and you, in turn, will try to pass it on to someone else, who will pass it on to someone else. But the circles on the water will fade away one day, but the circle of pain is endless. Or not?
I want to live. I want to touch my three-day stubble again, eat my usual scrambled eggs in the morning, and wash it down with a cup of harmful strong coffee. I want to hear Ilya’s stories during lunch. I want… You know, but for me in the whole world there is nothing left but me. me, and all around was darkness and cold. I know what I want, and I am ready for any meanness for this. Tomorrow the girl I almost seem to love will be gone. The main thing is not to think of her as a person. She’s already a ghost. And I will live again.
No. I will remain in the dark. Someone has to break the vicious circle.
She closed her eyes, harboring the hope of seeing me in her dreams. Tears flowed down my cheek, but now they did not turn into burning pieces of ice. I reached out my hand to stroke her hair and enter her sleep. But instead he hit himself on the cheek.
– No! – I was already shouting into the darkness. – She will live. And I will protect her sleep from scoundrels.
Something has changed. Flash of light: I opened my eyes. I’m lying on my own bed. A familiar scar from surgery, an angel tattoo.
– I’m alive! It’s me! I!
From a distance a quiet whisper was heard:
– This is impossible! This is my body!
Tell me, how could I fall in love with a girl whom I once called Mystery? Disheveled black hair is like snakes on the Gorgon’s head, the face is distorted, hatred lurks in the corners of the eyes.
– No, this is my body. You just borrowed it.
– But how did you come back! I performed the ritual, everything according to the rules. You should have left forever. This is my body!
– But I didn’t perform the ritual. I didn’t kill to live.
She screamed something else, but her voice was muffled, then the room became quiet, and after a while the Mystery dissipated like smoke.
On this day I did not go to work: I have the right to my second birthday. I picked up the phone.
– Marina? – the girl I almost deprived of her body was called exactly that. – My name is Alexander.
«I already thought that I just dreamed about you.»
– I promised you another date. Let’s meet today?
– Let’s.
Quantum of reality no destiny for god?
Three dimensions to the elves, singing under the sky,
Five dimensions to magicians, immortals of Istari,
Seven dimensions to the gnomes and cave peace to them,
Nine to humans, six of whom will be reduced to the size of an atom,
And one dimension for time to unite them and rule them all.
– Oh, many years, many sorrows. But ask, ask, don’t be afraid. What worries you? I know the future, I know the past and the present.
The image of a gypsy woman in a red scarf shone on the information wall. She sat next to a ball in which lightning flashed and the fog shimmered with rainbow colors. Science made progress every day, but something remained unchanged: human curiosity, the desire to know the future and prejudices. After the infosphere was populated by AIs, the need to improve computer technology naturally disappeared. A new generation computer made it possible to simulate the entire visible part of the Universe, down to the position of each star. And within the earth, scientists could find out the position of every atom, down to every quark. But despite the development of technology, they preferred to learn the future from a gypsy.
Alexey finished his aromatic coffee and put the glass on the table. A mechanical arm immediately appeared from the wall and moved it into the disposal unit. If it were not for the robots, an atmosphere of disordered chaos would reign not only in the research center, but also in the computer databases.
– If I set the delta-epsilon parameter within the Planck length and time, will I be able