• So I woke up at 6 am as usual and figured the other half of my bed was still snoring. I kept it that way and slowly got up from the bed and entered the kitchen to prepare some breakfast... I'm not usually into routines of food and its ilk, but this morning I was actually a bit hungry, so I for once poured some cereals into a bowl, and then had some milk in it. Because I'm so paranoid about off food, I smelled the remaining milk in the package.

    It made me see black spots for about a minute, so I threw it all away and opened the kitchen windows to get some fresh air into the house. What else was there to eat? Orange juice? Yeah, that'd do... (opened package and smelled) ... hmm, nothing odd about that smell, I thought. So now I had a glass of orange juice. Good. Mission accomplished. But I still wanted something to eat... to see there was nothing in the shelves that was simple enough to just chew on right away. Or wait... some not too old cake rusk! Perfect! Now that I had to search thorougly in the shelves, I found a hidden treasure. Maybe I should clean the house more often...

    Anywho, it was a not too bad breakfast. I didn't eat all in case the still sleeping woman wanted some. As I was done with eating, I headed to the living room, but sneaked into the bedroom to see if she was awake. She was certainly not. Thanks to my random sense of humor, I screamed out a laugh at the sounds she made, which woke her up. "What's the matter?!" she whined.

    Took me several attempts to finish the word "Nothing" to her, and I told her to keep resting her beautiful eyes. That made her relax a bit and she smiled at me, whereafter she got up and gave me a hug.

    Whoa. Jackpot, I thought.

    Then she got dressed and joined me in the living room. It was by then I noticed it was raining outside. I guess I won't go to my friend today, I said. Rain wasn't much trouble for me, but my friend lived in another town and I had to bike there. We were going to head to a "LAN" for this weekend while my girl was going to her parents to celebrate her dad's birthday.

    And yes, I was an a** for not following her, but she actually supported me not to go, even before I told her I didn't feel like it. And after all, it was her family, not mine. I'm not even married to her, and I don't want to make it look like I was going to, anytime soon at least. I'm in good age for marriage though... but as said, no immediate plans.

    So, I had to stay at home while she left. She was going to be away until tomorrow, and she had to leave by noon, because there was a five hour trip by bus to her parents. Unlike me, she did have a car, and a driver's license, but she didn't use either unless she really had to. She's very careful about our planet, you know.

    Anyway, we spent some snuggling time infront of the tv until she had to go. And to show her I was already missing her, I gave her a really long and tight hug, and a little clap on her butt when she had turned around to walk down the road to the main road at the bus stop. I headed back inside and threw myself down on the couch again. And unbuttoned a level of my jeans. Didn't take too long until I dazed off and fell asleep. Woke up again at evening by the signal of my cellphone. "... oh, she's there already?" I thought before I answered... Yeah, it was her, and she was just telling me she was at her parents place. I told her to say hello to her parents from me, and she told me she already had, when they opened the door to greet her. I facepalmed. So I told her to have a good evening and she said she'd call me tomorrow when she was heading back.

    I wasnt going to fall asleep anytime soon, so I turned some music on and started playing the usual games I had on my computer. Time ran away real fast and it was morning before I knew it. I had to take a rest from the gaming, so I laid down on the couch to take a nap.

    And as I woke up again, I was laying in my bed. Got pretty confused. Did I sleepwalk over here... or did... no.. she's not that strong. And she's probably not here yet. But I did get up from my bed to see if she was. I almost fell out of the bed when I by surprise noticed it was a lot higher than usual. What the?...

    I looked at the bed. It was fit enough for one person. Where was our other bed? The big one? I got even more confused. Then the doorbell rang. I got pretty stressed, but I strapped some random clothes on and opened the door to see if it was her. Didn't think about the fact that she had her own keys to the apartment, I was so confused I couldn't think straight.

    But it wasn't her. It was my mom.

    "Hey mom.. what are you doing here?" I asked. She gave me that well-don't-you-know? kind of gaze. We looked at each other for a while, both wondering what was going on.

    "Hey, have you seen my girlfriend around?" I suddenly asked.

    "Your girlfriend?...I want you to listen to me..." she answered. And she sighed and tilted her head and laid her hand on my cheek

    "what's going on, mom...?" I frowned a little. Then she hugged me and sudden tears streamed down my face. "what...what is happening?" she let go of me and looked into my eyes again.

    "You've been gone for weeks... Your stepdad and I have looked for you in days. We even went here to your apartment but you weren't here. Where have you been all this time?"

    "My... apartment?" I looked back into what I thought was my house. It sure was a lot smaller, and the layout was different. And I was standing in a stairhouse. I didn't know what to say... or do... or feel. So I bumped down on the floor and just... drifted away. I think I fainted.

    When I finally woke up again, there was a bright light infront of me. I had to cover my eyes with the help of my arms, and they were soon taken away by hands of strangers, but the light got a bit weaker so I could see where I was.

    In a hospital... What the hell was going on here? I had to ask it and some doctor said "We're not perfectly sure, but it's something out of the ordinary. I hoped you could tell us what you have experienced the last few... "days"."

    So I told him, and he looked at me for a while. "And you're sure it was real?" he asked. Every second I remember from my past few days were as real as this one, I told him. I can tell dream from reality, and my conscience was in full control all the time.

    "But what happened before these days?" the doctor asked.

    "Before...?" there's never been any kind of "before" that he's talking about... I always knew reality as it was and I had seen no abnormalities in it.

    "So where's this girlfriend of yours? Can you call her and confirm she's in fact your girlfriend?" the doctor asked, and handed me my cellphone. I quickly scrolled down to her phone number... wait... it's not there? How? It's been there for years, before we even met for the first time!

    I told the doctor her number is not there... he smiled and said "welcome back to our reality then"... I sat up on the hospital bed.

    "our reality? do you know something I don't?"

    "I don't want you to faint more times, but yes, I do know something you don't. You've been experiening an "alternate universe" experience... I do not know much of it, but..." he asked the nurses to step outside for a moment. They were as stunned as me because of what he had said. When they had left the room, he continued.

    "So far, you're the only one who has experienced it. And I'm not a normal doctor, in case you wondered why I know so much. I work in a physiological military research center. Since no alternate version of you showed up here, we can draw the conclusion that this is the absolute reality, and alternate realities are just... roughly put, "dreams". And why or how you could do this all, is something I want to find out more about. Your memories from this reality are probably erased, except for the obvious ones, like your early upbringing, and the faces of those in your family, and maybe some of your friends. Your mother told me you fainted after finding out you lived in an apartment. Is that so?"

    I was in real deep thinking while he talked, and as he stopped, I looked up at him and said "Yeah, I've lived in a large house near a coast town. So it was a shock to find out my real home was in an apartment, just like... the one I lived in many years ago..." I got more confused.

    "It says here you're 22 years old... how can you have lived in another apartment for many years ago, unless it was with your parents?"

    "I'm 22? But... I was around 37 years old over there! How could...?" I stopped talking when I saw the doctors reaction. His eyes were bigger than his gaping mouth.

    "This is really interesting! Maybe it's not an alternate universe or reality you've been visiting, it might very well be your future, that's why the effect wasn't mirrored and your alternate personality didn't come here!"

    "Future? Haha... I don't believe in time travelling... it's all messed up. I even can't believe I've been living a life that's not mine."

    "Well well... I shall not disturb you any further. In case you're interested to find out more of this, I'd love to hear from you sometime again. Here's a contact card to my office at the research center. Just take care of yourself now, and give this all lots of thought. Goodbye now." he said and left the room.

    And there I sat, in a hospital bed for what seemed like hours. I looked at that card all the time. What am I going to do? I don't have any memories from this place... this reality... maybe this is what's unreal? Is it a dream? Maybe I'm still sleeping in my couch! I've gotta!...

    And so, I woke up, sweaty, in my couch. Instantly, I started to laugh, and cry at the same time. I checked my cellphone, and looked up my girls number. There it was, as usual! So I called her up and she answers with that mindnumbing sweet "yes?"... I kept laughing, and she lauged with me not knowing why, before she asked what was going on.

    "I've just had a bad dream.. that's all. Glad I woke up."

    She giggled at me. "I was just about to call you, I'm on my way back to you now. I'll be there in a couple of hours... make me something to eat, would you pleeeease? I'm kinda starving, because I didn't want to push my parents for food."

    I still laughed.. "yeah, sure babe... I'll make you anything you want."