If I can start over: A new world

IV. When a door closes. Part 2

Tuesday, February 12, three o'clock in the morning. Building 5. Room 5313, across from the kitchen on the second floor.

The air conditioner came on, breaking the tense silence in the room. The darkness wasn't moving, so I had no idea how long it had been, or how long ago I was standing there talking to the glass and leaving a large carbon dioxide mist on it.

"What do you mean, I can't go back in time?" I said, a little worried. "I did it just now. I come from the past. Can't you see me there sleeping?" I pointed to my bed, where I lay drooling on the pillow.

"What I mean is that you really can't go back in time," she said calmly, without a hint of nerves or a rush to explain what was happening.

"Don't you see me lying there and standing here at the same time?" I moved the arms of my bed to my person to emphasize my words.

"Yes, I do." His calm disturbed me a bit. "But you are a Geist, it is your task in this universe to fix temporary cracks. Anomalies that you create by accident in this or another parallel reality, or that of someone else, someone who should not have your gifts, or who is learning to use theirs."

"My gifts?" I was more confused now than at first.

"You can astrally transfer to any past time, and with proper training, you could even materialize. That's the basics of the course. There are other gifts, much more advanced and dangerous, that you will learn in the process and adapt to your new self."

"So... I can travel back in time, right?"

"No!" Her voice was raised for the first time, but she laughed immediately.

"Well, okay... I understand. According to the theory of the dilation of the universe, it grows towards a single direction, which makes any return impossible."

"At least in the future, yes. The universe is expanding..."

"One way only," I added "forward. And I can't travel backward either because the universe itself can't..."

"Undo what is already created. Exact. You have done your homework. Good boy." I chuckled, but I could still hear her.

"So how could I travel to the past?" I asked, still stunned. "And even what I did had an impact on the future. Some things happened to me and my friends that if they weren't, because I went back in time, they wouldn't have happened.

"You were actually there. As a geist, you belong to a single timeline, and you can manifest yourself in different ways."

"Sorry, but I've heard it twice and I still don't know how to spell or pronounce it. Am I a what?"

"A Geist. You are like a ghost, who comes and goes over the years fixing things, avoiding others. There are not many in the world, much less awake. Most die early or go crazy over time."

"Very encouraging, your job description," I joked. "I'm so lucky..."

"I'm sorry," she apologized, while still laughing.

"So, a Geist. Is it pronounced? >?

"Aha," she replied, not offended. "You go around ..."

"And then, everything that happened... is it real?"

"Aha," she repeated in the same amused tone. "Everything you've seen has only been from another perspective."

"Should I be careful about some things? Is there some kind of rule for this?"

"Yes, obviously ..." she replied. "There is a whole manual on how to be the best geist of the twenty-first century."

"Are you always so bad with sarcasm?"

"You always tell me I should practice more."

"And now I understand why…" I was thinking about the thousand and one questions I wanted to ask her, but I realized that there was one perfect for the occasion. "If I woke up from... well, whatever I've been resting from, there's a rift in time right now, right?"

"Exact. The first for you." I noticed the hint of mockery in his tone of voice.

"How many have you been to?"

"Enough," she sighed. "There is no need to count them when the weather doesn't affect you."

"And how do I fix it?" I sat in one of the red chairs, standing by the window made me uneasy.

"You must go to the beginning of the rift."

"To the past?"

"Not necessarily. The c***k may originate twenty years from now, or a few seconds ago. The difficult thing is in finding them. Once you locate it, you start with the memories that appear in your mind, virgin memories that have never occurred in your life."

"I think I already have one of those..." I fixed my sight to the ground, thinking. "The lobby. I saw something totally different about one-night Ramcés and I stayed in Ale, Clau, and Astrid's room."

"Are there any other strange occurrences, or is it just that?"

"There's one more… we were asked out to a local nightclub once, and we didn't go. But now it's like I have two different versions of the same day. That's what you mean, right? Or what is happening?"

"You are in the middle of the veil," she explained. "Here and there. You must return to those times, materialize, if possible, and try to make things happen as they should. Got it?" She emphasized the latter with a hint of imposition.

"Yes, I understand," I smiled, confused. "Why are you emphasizing it to me?"

"Bad things have happened to reveal the future, and bad things will happen to change the past. Do not recreate events that have not happened, otherwise more versions of you will spread in the universe."

"Ok, it's fine. I'll try to make it all pass... as it should have." I smiled at my redundancy.

It was then that it hit me. I should have done it several minutes ago, as my breath fogged the glass, and my feet began to ache. I felt the heat from the air conditioner turning on again. The breeze that emanated was warm and comforting. Luckily, my whispers hadn't woken anyone up yet.

"By the way… how do I get out of here?" I rushed to ask her, waving my left index finger in the air, pointing around the room in several circular turns.

"Right now it's like one of your vivid dreams. You just have to do what you usually use on them to get out."

"When I have a vivid dream, I simply decide to open my eyes. I don't know if you have noticed... but I already have them wide open."

"Yes, I know," she laughed in a whisper. "I haven't told you to wake up, I've told you to get out of here and go wherever you want."

"How can I be here and there at the same time?" I asked, pointing to the second floor of the cabin to my left.

"You are not here. You're still asleep, remember? Now you are only a representation of yourself, an astral representation of a future you. That one there, the one in the cabin, was you a few days ago. Your soul is divided, and it is reunited, it is shattered and you repair it again. Now that you've woken up, and you know who you are, you cannot go back to sleep.

"Literal?"

"No." And she laughed, heartily now. "I'm kidding you. Obviously, you can sleep, you must. But you can't now, because your Geist is astral and it doesn't get tired, it doesn't perish... it's the safest way to travel to the past. But I'm afraid you'll have to get solid sometimes."

"I don't understand anything, this doesn't make sense... by chance, can you stop time or something? I don't know... can you?"

"For me, yes," she replied, somewhat saddened by what I felt. "You, on the other hand, I don't think so. The veil allows you to move from one date to another without problems, but if you stop, you will probably cease to exist... it is a very difficult technique to learn."

"Where's the rest? Because obviously, it all sounded more organized compared to a simple myth. I mean, given the nature of things, there must be a starting engine, right?"

"There's like a... jury. In time you will meet them." She seemed to understand what I meant. "Focus for now on resolving your memories. If they crowd you, tonight will be even longer." 'Today will be the longest night of your life.' I remembered that message from the stranger who gave me directions in the afternoon.

"There is someone in the present who is helping me," I commented.

"Someone? How is this someone helping you?"

"He texted me, asking me to follow his directions. I still don't quite understand what the point of it all is, but he promised that everything would be fine if I followed them. And he advised me, or so I want to play it, to keep my friends out of... whatever is going to happen."

"So you're not sure he's helping."

"They weren't very difficult orders: basically, just pack a shirt and go to sleep."

"The fact that you went to sleep at that moment caused your geist to wake up. Someone is probably testing you." There was silence for a few minutes. I didn't want to interrupt, in case I was still meditating on what she had confessed. "You should listen to him. Follow their instructions as best you can, as long as you don't risk your life on them," she advised me.

"Okay, I'll try," I sighed. "Well, now tell me how I get out of here."

"Use the door," she chuckled again.

"The door?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes. Just like in your dreams, since for now, astral travel doesn't work for you."

I remembered how to do it. I did it all the time when I slept. I approached the portal of the room, opened the door, and walked through it, thinking fervently of my current time, of my body that was resting, placidly, I hope, in my bed on the fourteenth, and not the twelfth.